Become a top writer

This is Why (Basically) Nobody Reads Your Articles

You forgot to ask this question

It happened again, didn’t it?

You spent hours working on your post…

Checked it for grammar, added a fancy photo, and formatted the words carefully.

Even though you’re still a bit unsure, you know you gave it your best, so you hit that button at the top right corner of your dashboard.

“Publish.”

Your post goes live for the world to see.

You decide not to check your stats right away. You know you need to give it a little bit of time for the views on your well-crafted post to pour in.

A couple of hours pass, maybe even a day or two, and you log in to your dashboard to see how many people read your post.

“11 views.”

Or some other number that was way below what you’d hoped.

No matter how many times you refresh the page and check, the numbers barely budge. “46 views” a week later.

Another dud.

All that time and effort wasted.

You just don’t get it.

You’re sharing interesting stories from your life. The post felt like a good idea. Why doesn’t anyone else think so?

At the end of the month, you check your earnings statement from Medium:

“You made $1.68 in July.”

It’s embarrassing.

Why can’t you grow?

Why are you making pennies per article while others are making thousands per month?

The views tab on your account stays flat because failed to ask one crucial question.

Stick with me and I’ll show you how to never write a post that’s destined to fail again…

Get Good at Answering This Question and It’s Impossible to Fail as a Writer

“What’s in it for me?”

That’s the question you must answer for your readers before you write a blog post, create content on social media, write a book, or take on any writing project.

You have to give your reader a compelling reason to take precious time out of their day and spend effort reading your post.

Far too many writers pick random ideas that are only interesting to them.

They write posts that don’t address the fears, frustrations, desires, and aspirations of their readers…

It’s human nature.

You assume what’s interesting to you is interesting to other people.

You think you deserve thousands of views because you worked hard on your post.

You think the readers just don’t ‘get it’ or see your vision.

Until you’re able to step outside of yourself and see your work from the reader’s point of view, you’ll keep wasting time writing posts that fall flat.

You can fix this problem quickly by learning to ask and answer smart questions.

Next time you sit down to write, ask and provide answers to these questions:

Why am I creating this? What’s my objective?
Why should they care?
What’s the clear lesson or message you want them to take away?
What value do you offer them?
What questions might they have?
What advice can you help or provide?
How can you best serve them with a mindset of generosity and giving?

I guarantee if you took the time to answer these questions before you write your posts, the numbers in your views dashboard and bank account will grow like weeds.

After you answer these questions, you can sum them up in one sentence that communicates exactly why someone should read your post.

What’s the one thing you want to get across with this article?

One problem to solve
One outcome to achieve
One statement/argument for an essay-style piece

Examples:

Walking 10,000 steps per day helps you lose fat quickly without doing strenuous workouts
Outlining your blog posts cuts your writing time in half
Ditching toxic dating mindsets will help you have happier, healthier, long-lasting relationships
Mini-vacations to nearby towns on the weekend will spice up your life, give you a sense of adventure, and break up your monotonous routine without breaking the bank or needing to use PTO.
Mindfulness and breathwork will decrease stress, eliminate anxiety, and create more productive and focused time in your day

Notice the bolded words…

When you are thinking of what to write, focus on benefits.

Help your reader:

Save time
Save money
Make more money
Alleviate stress, solve problems, and get rid of pain
Avoid mistakes
Get convenient and easy solutions to their problems
Increase their status
Free them from fear
Give them social approval and a sense of belonging.
Feel Informed
Spark their curiosity
Reach short-term goals
Achieve long-term dreams and transform themselves

Even if you aren’t writing a how-to or advice post, your essays, and personal stories still need to answer these important questions and provide a benefit.

A travel story with unique and little-known details sparks curiosity and makes the reader feel informed because they know these ‘secret spots’ instead of boring tourist traps.

An essay that picks a side of a hot-button argument makes the in-group feel a sense of belonging and increases their status in the tribe.

A personal story about a problem you overcame that your audience also faces will give them the confidence that they can make the transformation, too.

Just make sure it’s a topic they care about or make damn sure they know why they should care.

Most writers write with the mindset of ‘I think this is cool. People are definitely interested in my story because I wrote it.’

And end up with posts like this:

A little bet about a little game (what bet? what game? why should I care?
Tomatoes, again (???)
Are there tiger lilies at the top of Teapot Hill? (Don’t know. Don’t really care)
I Had a Crush on My University Lecturer — And Might Still Have (and?)
The Price of Everything…

These are titles I pulled from Medium posts that have little to no views.

Notice how they all fail the “What’s In it for Me? Test:

You’re not sure whether or not the post is meant for you
There are no clear and obvious benefits to reading the posts
They don’t answer the question “Why should I care?”

Now take a look at these headlines:

Walking My Father Home Taught Me What Matters And How To Live (You’re going to learn a life lesson from this personal story)
The New “Open Casting” Dating Trend Promises To Save Modern Love (“Open casting” sparks curiosity and the post promises to fix your love life)
A Shocking Tragedy: The Cold-Blooded Murder Of My Favorite Boss (A memoir post, but with an interesting and unique scenario)
How Meditation Can Benefit Older Adults — My Experience at 78 (A benefit for a clearly defined target audience)
How the ‘Passport Bros’ Movement Reveals the Ugly Truth About Western Men (Clear in-group and outgroup. “Passport bro” label sparks curiosity. Helps you identify which men to avoid)

I chose essays and personal stories here to prove a point.

A lot of writers assume you have to write gimmicky posts, listicles, and self-improvement or money-making tips to get readers.

Nope.

You just have to answer ‘What’s it in for them?’ before you write your posts and bake that answer into every important part of your posts.

Headlines: These Few Words Make or Break Your Articles

Use this advice from copywriter John Caples:

“There are four qualities that a good headline may possess.

1. Self-interest

2. News

3. Curiosity

4. Quick, Easy way.”

If your headline doesn’t have at least one of these elements, re-write it until it does.

This is why I suggest writing 10 headlines per day.

Until you get good at headlines, you are leaving tens of thousands of views and thousands of dollars on the table.

Whiff the headline and you may as well have not written the post.

Write a good one and your foot in the door, but the job is nowhere near finished.

Introductions: Hook Attention or Lose Your Reader Forever

Make it clear and obvious why the reader should keep reading immediately.

Stop writing intros that look like this:

“In this article, I will…”

“When I was a kid I really enjoyed banana bread…”

“Last month my mother and I took a trip to Kansas.”

These intros are vague, waste valuable time, or provide unnecessary background information.

Instead, write an intro that hooks people and connects their minds to the benefit or reason to read your post fast:

“If I had to rank manosphere subcultures from bad to the absolute worst, I’d definitely put incels at rock bottom. But not that high above them, I’d put ‘passport bros.”

(How could there be worse human beings than incels? I have to read on to find out why they’re so bad.)

“During the roughly 20-year period stretching from 1997–98 to 2015–16, the number of American kids diagnosed with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder increased by nearly 70%.”

(This is a startling stat that draws awareness to a growing problem.)

Submarines have accidentally torpedoed whales after mistaking them for enemy subs.

(Strange fact coupled with visual imagery that helps you picture just how big whales are).

Tips for answering WIIFM with your intro:

Place your reader in a common situation they face
Cite a weird statistic
Make a provocative statement that picks a side of an argument or goes against conventional wisdom
Ask a question that makes your reader curious
Address a deep pain point or frustration right away

Main Points: Give Them What They Want (And Nothing More)

You make readers groin with disappointment and click away from an article they were once excited to read when your main points don’t support the main goal of your article.

When editing, ask yourself:

What doesn’t support your main point or further your argument?
What’s a distraction?
Where are you overdoing it, adding too much, trying too hard?
Does every paragraph contain an idea that the one before or after it doesn’t? Or is it just re-phrasing a previous paragraph?
Do sentences in each paragraph build on the previous one or do they feel like random cobbled together sentences?

Your main points, and the sentence and paragraphs they contain, should all support the compelling reason you gave for writing the article.

Avoid:

Random and meaningless stories/anecdotes
Repeating the same points over and over
Points that deviate from the core premise of the article
Irrelevant details of your life or the people you’re writing about
Any sentence that wouldn’t affect the article if you cut it

Conclusions: Tie It Up in a Bow

If your conclusion misses the mark, you’ll miss the opportunity to turn a casual fan into a loyal reader.

Humans remember the end of certain experiences.

Studies show that the last day of your vacation will determine how you feel about the vacation as a whole.

Ever feel like you wasted tons of time watching a T.V. show because they screwed up the ending?

Too many writers end their posts abruptly: “Well that’s it! Hope you enjoy.”

They miss the keys to writing a conclusion that makes the reader eager to read the next post they write:

Sum up the key benefits, and remind them what they learned, which shows them how smart your post made them
Paint the picture of the transformation they’ll experience
Give a ‘rallying cry’ to motivate them to implement your tips
Give them a key takeaway to remember that impacts their lives
Close any open loops or resolve conflicts you made in the story

Life After Learning the WIIFM Principle: Views, Money, & Readers Who Adore You

Think about how much better your posts would perform, if, at every step of the way, you forced yourself to answer “What’s in it for me?” before you hit publish.

Imagine readers gushing over your work in the comments section:

“Oh my gosh. It’s like you’re reading my mind.”
“This is the best article I’ve ever read on Medium.”
“Your story touched me deeply. Thanks for giving me hope.”

You can transform your writing and make readers who used to ignore you become your biggest fan once you embrace the WIIFM principle.

Here are some practical step-by-step tips you can use to make sure your articles create deep emotional connections with your readers.

The Four-Factor Analysis

Write down 15 answers to these questions:

What are your readers afraid of?
What frustrates them?
What are their short-term hopes?
What are their long-term aspirations?

Create a list of 60 answers and stick to only writing posts based on the answers on that list for a few months, and you’ll double, triple, or quadruple your views and earnings.

When you have a catalog of posts on related ideas, you build a unique voice and style that readers will come to expect.

When you just write whatever comes to mind, you’re making it harder for readers to trust the quality and consistency of your work.

Content Modeling

If you did this exercise every single day for 90 days, you’re guaranteed to write a ‘boosted’ article that goes viral or semi-viral.

Select one popular post in your topic and write down three ways the post satisfies the WIIFM principle.

Here’s the trick…

You have to learn how to step outside yourself and answer the question based on the readers who read the post, not your personal opinions.

Too many writers suffer from ‘false consensus bias’ and judge posts only based on the way they feel, assuming everyone else feels the same way.

If you don’t like a post but thousands of other people do, your perspective might be off. Not theirs.

“Think to Ink.”

If you struggle to write posts fast enough or if the ideas come out jumbled when you finish your drafts, you’re not spending enough time ‘assembling’ your article.

Instead of trying to write posts from start to finish with no guidelines, assemble the ideas and concepts in your post with an outline.

After that, you just fill in the building blocks of your posts with words.

Take one of the 60 answers from your four-factor analysis:

I’m afraid I’ll never find lasting love.

Come up with the key takeaway that answers “What’s in it for me?”

You’ll find lasting love when you let it come to you instead of chasing it.

Run it through more questions:

Why should I care? If you don’t change your mindset, you’ll be alone forever.
What’s the clear lesson or message you want them to take away? Being desperate for a relationship makes you needy, which drives away the exact outcome you want.
Why does it matter to the people you are trying to reach? Romantic relationships are one of the most important areas of your life.
What value do you offer them? You overcome this problem yourself and found love using these strategies, which means you can help them to the same.
What questions might they have? How can I learn to ‘let go and stop being needy? What if I stop looking for love and no one finds me?

The more you pick apart the idea upfront, the better your piece will perform.

Once you have the key takeaway nailed down, make sure each part of your outline achieves the goal of helping them find love by letting it come to them.

Each main point supports the premise:

Why Your Relationships Always Crash and Burn (explain how neediness is affecting their relationship).
Attract, Don’t Chase (explain how working on yourself and letting people come to you increases your odds of relationship success)
Learn to Love Yourself (explain the benefits of learning to love your life when you’re alone and why it will help you find a partner)

With each sentence and paragraph, make sure it supports the main points, which support the main takeaway:

Tell a quick and relevant story about your failed attempts at chasing love
Provide practical tips like finding hobbies you enjoy, which helps you run into like-minded people instead of swiping random people on Tinder
Support your points with data: 53% of millennials say they have little to no hope they’ll find a life partner

The TL;DR

Come up with the core premise
Run it through the WIIFM questions
Build your outline.
Fill it in with relevant concepts, stories, and tips.
Double-check to make sure it answers WIIFM
Write the post with WIIFM in mind
Use WIIFM when deciding what to cut and add to your posts

Use this Checklist Next Time You’re About to Hit Publish

Your writing career will change forever if you make frequent checks to answer WIIFM.

Before you hit publish, make sure your post answers yes to these questions:

Does your article cover a topic people care about? Is it a novel idea? Does it speak to their deepest desires and fears? Do you know who it’s for? Is the reason you wrote the post clear and compelling”
Does your headline spark curiosity, explain the benefits of reading the post, talk about relevant news, or speak to the self-interest of your reader?
Does your intro hook attention fast and make it clear why your reader should read the next sentence?
Does each main point address why the reader should care?
Does your conclusion sum up key takeaways, provide positive emotions, or help them take the next step in their journey?

The Tiny Handful of Writers Who Do This Will Reap Almost All of the Rewards

Stack these tips on top of each other and you’ll escape the cycle of writing posts nobody wants to read.

You’ll stop feeling frustrated and stuck, wondering why your posts get new views.

It will no longer be a mystery why the top writers make so much money and get so many views because you’ll be one of those writers.

You’ll wake up excited to check your notifications.

“Your post has just been boosted!”

“Your post has 100 fans.”

“Your Medium Partner Program Summary: $4,237.”

Your name will start to pop up when people make Twitter posts of their top 10 favorite writers and it’ll include big names you look up to.

You’ll get the occasional email:

“Hey there, loved your posts. Our company is actually looking for writers right now and I’m reaching out because I love your work. Does $500 an article sound good?”

Implement these tips and give yourself time to let the universe catch up.

Next thing you know, you’ll hit numbers you never thought possible.

There Are Two Types of Writers…

There are writers who will throw up their hands, decide this process takes too much work, and continue to struggle.

Ironically, their fear of wasting time…wastes time because they don’t understand the power of ‘slowing down to speed up,’ and continue to write posts that had no chance to succeed.

Then there are writers who become obsessed with their readers, focuses on their needs, and use these proven strategies.

If you’re reading all the way to the end of this post, you’re probably the second writer, the one who will win.

This is the blueprint.

I just gave you a step-by-step process to transform your writing forever.

Use it…

Then come back to me in a few months and tell me your crazy success story.

I’ll be here waiting.

This comes from the latest edition of my weekly newsletter, How to Not Suck at Writing. It comes out every Friday. Join here before the next edition.