The Secret To Writing High-Performing Content: Double-Down On Your Winning Content
Writing online is a game.
The game goes like this:
- Write 10 things
- See which 1–2 perform the best
- Take the structure/tone/topic from those 1–2 and write 10 more new things (variations)
- See which 1–2 perform the best
- Repeat forever
If you study any writer or creator online who has grown quickly over a short period of time, this is what they did. They created a bunch of stuff. They studied which pieces of content performed the best. Then they cut their losers and doubled-down on their winners, over and over again.
For example: The 101 Structure
Let’s say you wrote an essay, an article, a Social Blog post, or a Twitter thread titled: “Freelance Writing 101.” And out of everything you’ve written over the past 30, 60, 90+ days, that piece outperformed everything else by a factor of ten.
Newer digital writers and creators will look at a breakout hit like this in their library and think, “Wow, that’s cool.” And then that’s it. They’ll stare at their dashboard, they’ll feel proud for a few days, and then they’ll move on and think nothing of it.
This is wrong.
When you see something in your library catching fire, you should stop everything you’re doing and think deeply about why this specific piece is performing so well. What’s it saying? What structure did you use? What’s the tone? Why do you think it’s resonating with so many people?
Most importantly: how can you do it again?
When you find a structure that works, exploit it.
After some reflecting, you might come to the conclusion, “I think a lot of people enjoyed this piece because it was a 101 introduction and very easy to understand.”
OK, great.
What other topics can you do 101 introductions on?
- Sales Copywriting 101
- Editing 101
- Formatting 101
- Word Choice 101
- Book Marketing 101
When you find something that works, do it again. And again. And again. And again.
Exploit it to the point where you feel like you’ve exhausted every possible option, every alternative, every variation. Because clearly readers enjoyed something about the first piece. So why not give them more of what they want, just a little bit different?
Writing online is all about increasing your batting average.
And the best way to do that is by doubling-down on your winners.
