Warren Buffett Rules for Better Writing
Investment principles to improve and monetize writing.
Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in America, with a net worth of ~$81 billion, as of 2019. His approach to stocks and famous investing quotes can be applied to life, productivity and of course writing. In this post, I cite how some of his most popular investment rules directly translate to better writing, and consequently to higher views/shares/profits.
1] Rule #1
“Rule #1: Never lose money.
Rule #2: Never forget rule #1”
As a writer, it is critical to balance risk and reward. Not getting a traditional publisher? Self-publish! $10 minus real money is better than the mythical $10,000 royalty check that you might never receive.
Are your ads losing more money than they bring in? Stop the ads.
Clients who want you to write a zillion word post for $10? Reject them.
I am not against experimenting, or even writing for free when you start your writing career. However, have some controls in place so you don’t lose the farm! Being broke never made anyone a bestselling writer!
2] Price vs Value.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
So many writers and authors undercut themselves by asking ridiculously low rates. It is fine to ask for low rates when you are starting out or garnering reviews and establishing your authority. However, at some point you must raise your rates. Promote your content for the value it provides and the problems it can solve for your customer. This will help you move from $0.01 per word to profitable rates tied to project deliverable, irrespective of the hours you put in.
Only entry level writers work for word counts and hourly rates. Professional writers get paid for the value they deliver.
Promote benefits and the value of your content — not the rate per word!
3] Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.
It is extremely easy to cave into the temptation that success in one area you know well allows you to easily analyze everything else! Similarly, some writers try to dabble in 100 different topics and churn out dozens of posts, promote fanatically and then wonder why nothing works and they are still broke!
Sometimes articles work out of sheer luck — but hope is not a good strategy for money-making!
Write about what you know. Quality shows! Expertise shows.
Quality shows!
You want to write to market, but do not have enough expertise? Read, attend classes, learn from proven sources. Then start to write.
There are some articles that I wrote simply because I kept repeating the same advice again and again. Or readers kept asking the same Q, or a problem took me hours to troubleshoot because there was nothing on Google to help! Those articles went on to become some of my highest paid pieces and most viewed post, no fancy SEO settings or headline analysis needed.
4] Make Long-Term Investments Over Short Term Ones
According to Warren Buffett, do not buy a stock unless you plan to hold it for at least 20 years. His favorite holding period is “forever”!
On the same vein, think about whether your content is “evergreen”. Will it be relevant in 6 months? What about 2 years? Evergreen content makes money slowly but continues to return profits months and years after you hit publish. Those pieces are also excellent fodder for summary posts and updates. Best of all, you can happily continue to promote those pieces for years.
Yes, there will be moments when you are writing articles to capture a sudden trend or passing fad. I have done it too, but this should never be your primary strategy.
My self-published eBook “Data Science Jobs” (published an year ago!) makes money every month because it answers Qs I get all the time: how to break into the field of Machine learning, how to land a job, what to add to your project portfolio, how to meet hiring managers, etc. Now that companies have gone into hiring freeze mode and jobs are scarce, the demand for the book has doubled, not receded. On a side note, the book is currently priced at $0.99 (from $4.99) for the ENTIRE month of May to help all new grads affected by the pandemic.
5] People Make Investing Seem More Difficult Than it Should.
If you notice, the term is “bestselling” authors, not “best-writing” authors. How many Oxford English professors do you see on Medium’s Top Writer lists for any category? So, if you want to monetize your writing, keep things simple. If a 16-year old cannot understand your writing, then it is time to dumb down. If your grandmother starts to lose interest in your article within 30 seconds, you need to make it more entertaining.
This is not an excuse to publish content riddled with typos, formatting errors or ignoring basic rules of writing. Those items are mandatory, but they should not be your sole focus.
6] Actions Vs. Results
If I could give one advice to any rookie writer, it would be to start somewhere. Anywhere. So many people have amazing ideas and brilliant writing skills, but they are all waiting to perfect moment, over-analyzing all the worst-case scenarios.
Some writer friends have book manuscripts gathering dust for decades because they think “self-publishing” is a public acknowledgement that their book idea was never accepted by a real publisher, or worse they can’t find time to format their book to Amazon’s stringent guidelines. At least 2 authors have not posted their books for 18+ months because they do not want to share “future” 50% royalties with publishing platforms and are “researching” the best way to create an e-commerce site from scratch. One friend has not progressed beyond 100 words of the summary plot of his fantasy fiction, fearing that his employer would fire him. Never mind that he works in banking so there is zero chance of a conflict of interest! Not to mention, he would have to bring in 8-figure incomes through his book before his company even deemed it worthy of notice!
So, just do it! Take action Now! The real-time feedback from clients and customers is more valuable than speculating on unknown assumptions and negative outcomes.
7] Usually Best to Just Say “No”
Really successful people say no to almost everything. We all have a finite amount of time and willpower. Every minute you spend on mindless social media browsing, watching TV or partying is time away from activities that bring in money. It is important to schedule some leisure time and stimulating activities that boost your creativity and generate ideas. However, you should reject everything else. Instead use that time to write new articles, chase new clients, promote older content on social media and build your audience.
8] History Doesn’t Dictate the Future
According to Buffett, if history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.
By the same token, what worked for you in the past may not guarantee income in the future. Amazon/Facebook could change their ad policies, your biggest client could go bankrupt or a family emergency could halve your writing time. So, make sure to keep experimenting with new platforms, create an emergency fund, diversify your income stream and please build out your email list.
8] The most important investment you can make is in yourself.
If you want to write better and get paid more, then invest in yourself. Take writing classes, pay for subscriptions to high-quality sites like Medium or Wall Street journal or Forbes magazine. Buy and read more books. Learn the success techniques of bestselling authors and your writing quality will automatically improve. This will write better, more efficiently, expand your audience base, and ultimately charge more as a writer.
Conclusion
You would not disregard red flags in your investment portfolio or gamble with your life savings. In a similar fashion, be disciplined and careful with your writing efforts and make sure you get maximum returns for the time and effort you put in!