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Waddup Part-Time Creators!
Welcome to the newsletter where I talk about writing, marketing, psychology & creating on the internet if you work a full-time job. Today we're talking about top-funnel content & simplifying building on the internet.
In today's email:
Read time: 4 minute
Rethinking Content
Most people think you need to sit in a dark room to come up with marvellous ideas.
To sit. In complete silence. And just... think.
You donât. I mean you can.
But there are other ways to get there.
Design thinking agencies have come up with a shedload of ways to think about ideation (that actually work):
Frameworks to focus your mind to come up with ideas. And sure, you'll still come up with ideas in the shower but you can also come up with incredible ideas through step-by-step thinking.
Because great ideas are the result of great thinking. Great thinking comes from the ability to churn things in your mind.
To flip them.
Switch them.
Pull at them.
To blend new ideas with old ones. Thatâs the magic.
You must outline.
So you have your idea but if you sit down and write you might accidentally spill all the good stuff in the first line. Then youâll have missed the opportunity to build suspense.
Instead, you must structure your thinking.
Dump it all down first in whatever order, it doesnât matter, a draft is meant to be ripped apart.
Come back the next day and tweak.
Most wonât do this. Itâs high effort, and it takes attention to detail and planning but itâs worth it.
When outlining remember:
But then you must think about the story:
Selling is psychology. So is reading.
After all, you are selling your writing to your reader.
First up, âauthority biasâ.
People listen to those that have credibility. If you have expertise or authority in an area, show it. Give people a reason to listen to you.
You donât need to list every accolade (nobody likes a name-dropper) but you do need to tell people why they should listen.
Ask yourself, what have you done and why does that matter? Itâs enough to get people through the door.
Present bias is a real thing.
What is it? People will choose now vs. later, even if later means they get more. Itâs the opposite of delayed gratification.
Knowing this as a writer means you can reverse-engineer your content.
Phrases like âin 2 minutesâ help readers commit because they know theyâre not giving up too much.
Loss aversion moves people.
What is it? It is the tendency for people to feel like giving up something is worse than getting something new. Losing $5 feels worst than gaining $5.
With that in mind, show people what they are missing out on if they donât read your work. Wrap that into your outline.
'Not knowing this costs me 12 months progress' that one line changes things. All of a sudden readers are thinking... I don't want to lose time.
Itâs how I start all my articles.
Simple. Easy. And itâll get you pumping out articles that hit rather than just are published into the void.
And it's hard. It's a high standard. You will do all this and get crickets. That's the game. But this level of content is what it takes to stand out on the internet.
And you won't stand out by doing this once. You have to do this over and over for years. That's what it takes.
But when you write like this, you write stuff that you are proud of.
So letâs say your target reader has just read youâre the latest article. What are the three words you never want to hear somebody say⌠âit was okayâ.
Remember, the content is the product.
Put the work in, you'll thank yourself in 5 years.
Pumped for the week ahead
Creator Longevity
Creating part-time and working a day job is hard.
You have 1â2 hours a day to get stuff done. Iâve been creating part-time for the last 3 years, here are the best time management tips I have.
Iâm not talking about the big stuff, yes you should think carefully about who you spend your life with, if you want a dog and what you want to do with your life. Iâm talking about:
Donât choose perfect, just pick. Realise that an incredible amount of time is spent deciding and the choice isnât that deep. Sure it matters what you write about but if youâre spending 5 hours deciding, itâs taking too long.
Look yes life is unfair. Yes, people have it better than you and yes you might be living bigger if youâre parents were millionaires. Cool.
The truth is though, complaining doesnât change that.
My best rule for this: allocate complaining time, say 30 minutes on a Sunday and then throughout the week, if you come across something you want to get mad it, put it in the box for 3pm on Sunday.
There are some decisions that happen every day.
Make them simple and easy. Choose what to watch before sitting down, have the same breakfast most days (mix it up on a Sunday if you're feeling wild), take the dog for a walk at the same time each day and make a food timetable for the week.
Sounds overkill but it saves soooooo much time.
Having a to-do list is all well and good but if you donât know how to tackle the things on that list, youâll find yourself procrastinating.
Instead of writing a âto-do listâ that feels overwhelming, write a âhow-toâ list. It describes how you will achieve a task (itâs especially important if the task is complex).
Iâve started having a shake for lunch. Oats, almond milk, berries and vanilla protein powder. Iâve gone from feeling tired after a lunchtime sandwich (carb overload) to feeling ready to go in the afternoon.
Iâm sure it has everything to do with this recent upgrade.
Doing a task for an extended period of time can get boring quick. If you have the entire day to just âwriteâ itâs likely that youâll get fatigued within 30 minutes and youâll feel lost pretty quickly.
Instead, use time blocked.
Write for 60 minutes, and go for a walk. Edit for 60 minutes, go do the washing. The variety and break-in between tasks make for a more enjoyable experience.
When things get serious I set a timer. Iâll only allow myself to write for that time block. It encourages me to stay in the seat because I've only got 40 minutes.
It means I skip the coffee break, donât procrastinate (as much) and get to work. I know I wonât have the time in 40 minutes to write, this is the only time Iâve got, I better make it count.
Sometimes itâs not knowing what to do, how to do it or when to do it that holds you back. But sometimes it has nothing to do with any of that. In fact, it has everything to do with something else entirely.
Your thoughts.
Instead of tapping away at the computer, you find yourself dancing inside your mind. Youâre worried about what you said last week, that dream you had, where youâre going.
Those are the thoughts that engulf you and you canât be productive, youâve got a million and one things going on inside your mind. For that, you need to write them out.
Write out exactly what youâre thinking, and get it out on a page. Youâll feel better.
The biggest killer of productivity is expectations.
Most people starting out cannot fathom how hard it is to do something consistently without getting any traction whatsoever. Imagine turning up each day, every day, for years to 5 people every time.
Itâs soul-destroying.
Except itâs not. Itâs exactly how it should be. Itâs the rules of the game. For first 2 years are indescribably hard. Youâll have days where you feel like giving up like itâll never work, like you chose the wrong path.
But if you expect that to happen you can carry on anyway.
Needless to say, all of these things are wildly difficult to deal with.
Nobody wants to write when they feel like a sack of potatoes. Nobody wants to show up on the internet when their self-esteem is on the floor. But hereâs the biggie.
You can.
You can feel all these feelings and still show up. They can be a blocker, to many they would be, but you can feel like rubbish rustling in the wind and show up anyway. The best creators on the planet cultivate exactly that mindset.
We're all just trying to figure it out.
Happy creating,
Much love, Eve.
The go-to newsletter for ambitious individuals creating alongside their day job. Each week you'll get a deep-dive on topics ranging from growth, decision-making, monetisation & business.
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