To Stand Out, Say The Opposite Of What Popular Writers Say
To Stand Out, Say The Opposite Of What Popular Writers Say
Blogging lesson 9 of 150
“Porn sucks”
-Every personal development writer ever
Because grand statements like these are rewarded more than writing WITH nuance, crap like this spreads like wildfire.
“Porn sucks.”
“Netflix sucks.”
“Stop being a slob on your parent’s couch.”
Wow, do you have, like, a camera in my house, dear personal development writer?
Any sane person with a shred of confidence can see through the bullshit of statements like these.
So I wrote a counter article (pictured below).
And guess what?
By saying the opposite of what popular writers say, I immediately stood out from the crowd.
Let’s talk about why this works and how you can implement this strategy.
The Best Writers Talk About Polarizing Subjects
Quick writing lesson.
Personal development writers say Netflix is the devil.
Do you watch Netflix?
I do. I love it.
Maybe you don’t, though.
There’s lots of people who don’t.
And there’s lots of people who do.
So when you write something like “Netflix is the devil and needs to die,” you get hate from those who disagree with you and admiration from those who agree with you.
You’ll get comments from the naysayers and likes from the supporters.
Polarizing topics win because you’re leveraging both sides — the haters and the admirers.
The algorithm loves comments no matter who it comes from.
Top writers know this.
I’ll talk about this another day (subscribe to see that day).
How Can You Implement This Strategy?
Easy.
Go follow a bunch of top writers in the niche you want to publish in.
Then wait for them to stay stuff you disagree with.
Top writers are good at “shredding cheese on their broccoli.”
Meaning, they’re good at grandstanding.
They purposefully don’t see nuance.
All men are bad.
Netflix sucks.
You must quit porn.
But any person with half a brain knows that 1 hour of Netflix per week isn’t going to kill you.
This ‘no-nuance” is the strength of these top writers, but it’s also their mistake.
You can give us the nuance.
You can give us the truth.
A breath of fresh air.
And people will love you for it.
And as you give us the nuance, the top writers who everybody raves about will start to look more and more like the clowns that they are.
Writing tip #9: Write the opposite thing.
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