Counterintuitive Winning Habits of Top Online Writers [Read: Earners]… Exposed

Learn from the best and then reinvent

Honestly, I am a practical guy.

Do I write for ideals?

Yes, I do.

But.

I write for the money, too. I’ve got bills to pay. And that additional 4-digits a month is [really] helpful.

But… I get tired from writing, too.

Henceforth, my online writing brain is constantly oscillating between earning more and writing less. And these 2 questions plagued my tiny brain.

Daily.

Here they are.

Do I write more to earn more?

Do I always have to produce and create new stuff to earn more?

I don’t have an answer. So, I do what Aldric always does.

I hunt for clues by observing top writers.

There are 5. And they’re counterintuitive.

Counterintuitive Habit # 1 — Steal from the Past [Those Who Left the Platform]

These days, I learned to steal more than write more.

This platform has gone through multiple changes. Sometimes, engagement wins. Other times, blessed topics come out tops. And then, there are surprises we don’t appreciate.

When sea change happens, disgruntled top writers pack their bags and leave.

Except.

Not many of them [actually] packed their bags. They left their things here.

What are these things? That’s right. Their articles.

And as much as I hate to say this, I find top writers from the initial years of this platform to be much, much better writers than many I read [from] today.

Then — writers had brilliant content. High-quality stuff. They focused on the headline to get your attention. You are delighted with what you read when you click.

They write well. Really, really, well.

Don’t believe me?

Check out Jessica Lynn, Jessica Wildfire, and Shannon Ashley.

God! Their writings are so, darn, b!00dy sassy.

Today? Such writers are hard to come by.

So yes. Read from the past.

These ladies write well. Many of us will continue to read their work even when they are gone [they left, actually].

You will [definitely] learn something from them when it comes to writing, per se. I know I do.

That brings me to my next point.

Counterintuitive Habit # 2 — Write Less, Observe, Then Ditch the Pack.

Write less.

Experiment more.

And then observe.

Here’s why.

Britni Pepper showed me that Generative AI platforms can kick our sorry asses with emotive writing. Are there many writers on this platform leveraging these tools? Well. Your guess is as good as mine.

That is why the top writers we see today are in an experimental mode.

They have the same story, and they consistently,

• Tweak the headlines [with the same story],
• Rewrite the introduction [with the same story],
• Change the format from story to listicle and vice versa [with the same story],
• Experiment with the conclusion or leave it out [with the same story],
• Remove, inject, and substitute power words [with the same story].

Yes, if you suspect they have been reciting their pieces like a broken recorder — You are not far from the truth.

I am not judging, of course. Who am I to? I am just someone who is trying to earn more.

But this method helps when,

• You need to produce,
• You [desperately] need free time to improve,
• And you believe you have a winning article that requires a couple of tweaks to do the trick.

So, yeah.

Go ahead.

Play along.

Find what you can do and AI cannot. You [still] have a fighting chance.

Counterintuitive Habit # 3 — Dust the Dirt off Old Cash Cows. Re-Milk Them. Again.

These are extreme cases.

Top writers rewrite old articles they have, kept 80% of the content intact, and republished it in other publications. Of course, they are pretty darn smart about it. They used articles published eons ago for this purpose.

I am sure your eagle eyes must have spotted this.

Or.

They [simply] republished old, viral pieces into a publication they now control.

Yup.

Counterintuitive Habit # 4 — First, Dump It. Next, Forget It.

Okay, this one is [rather] controversial.

As much as engagement metrics do [well, sort of] bring in [some] money from your work — You need not engage all day.

Now… I am not qualified to write this because my engagement metric is pathetic. And so, I borrow words from other people’s mouths.

Denis Gorbunov, my writing mate on this platform, engages with every single comment on his stories. He does this out of appreciation. It is akin to saying thanks when a server passes you your coffee.

I endorse what Denis does wholeheartedly.

And then, I wonder.

What price he is paying?

Easy answer.

He writes today and replies to comments on his stories tomorrow. This is his momentum.

Write, reply, write, reply, girlfriend, girlfriend, write, reply, write, reply, girlfriend, girlfriend, ad infinitum.

Denis also comments on other people’s articles.

To me, this is unbelievable.

But he enjoys it. He does it like clockwork.

I can’t.

And so, I go the complete opposite. I eat my cold turkey.

Now, that does not mean I ignore the comments. Big difference. I read them.

I am curious to know what readers think.

• Did I miss an angle?
• Am I too one-sided?
• Do they find it unbelievable?
• Are there traces of polarizing comments [it’s good for earnings… by the way],
• Or… why are there no comments at all?

These observations point to an area of improvement.

There is another reason I engage less or don’t [depending on the schedule for that day].

It encourages trading engagement for engagement.

And when that happens — I get less genuine feedback.

Strange, but true.

Counterintuitive Habit # 5 — Just for Laughs!

I have one simple, straightforward, workable, highly successful piece of advice for you if you want to write less, earn more, and have your engagement metrics experience a moonshot.

Work for Medium and write Product News.

Hahaha!

I guarantee your earnings, engagement, and impressions will skyrocket.

Of course, this is my utter and complete bias.

But I will go to my grave with this answer.

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