Most online writing is boring as F.

Here’s how to add life to your writing so your readers become addicted to you

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If it doesn’t grab you from the start to the end, that writing is lost potential.

To stand out in the slurry of online writing, you can’t be dull.

Here’s a quick reference I use for making my writing pop:

You must put effort into your hook.

Your hook is your main title (if your piece has a title) and opening line or two.

A hook must interrupt expectations, every time.

Unusual or counterintuitive ideas work well here. Strong statements or shocking statistics too. Questions are great here.

Accentuating a problem or pain points or throwing readers into some action is also great.

You must hold them through the middle.

Just because you’ve grabbed them with your hook doesn’t mean you can slack and fill your article with loathsome tripe.

Guide the reader like you’re talking to a close friend looking for solutions. Every sentence should meaningfully lead to the following sentence.

You’re a guide, not an information dispenser.

Use more white space.

The eye has to machete its way through the thick vines of impenetrable walls of text.

Don’t make it harder to hack through.

I know you want to write like Dickens, but that time is gone. Break up your text with more white space, bullets, headers, images and quotes.

Make it a feast for the eye, where you provide new branches to swing to at every turn.

Use spicier language.

Not necessarily swear words, though these can be satisfying for many readers.

Notice how I use the word addiction in the subtitle? That’s a spicy word — charged with emotion. Other examples:

• Obsessed

• Devastated

• Electrified

• Appalling

• Shameless

• Extreme

No need to overdo them, but use them to add colour and emotion to your words.

Play with metaphors.

Metaphors and analogies will take your writing to new levels.

They are powerful because they paint more vivid pictures in the minds of the reader. You are not a writer, you are an image-maker.

You’ll see metaphors throughout my writing, including in this article.

Be simple.

Simple doesn’t mean stupid.

In fact, it’s the opposite. Dumb writers try to sound clever and alienate their readers. Every line must be instantly understandable.

This means cutting out repetitive fluff and anything that doesn’t stay loyal to the one single main freaking point of your article.

Show your reactions to things.

There’s a reason reaction videos are doing so well now on YouTube.

People love to see how you respond to the world around you. Most of your writing is you showing the world WHO you are.

This builds familiarity and resonance. No one cares about your descriptions. They care about what you think.

Be willing to assert your opinions shamelessly.

Be willing to lose people.

I’m certain there is a direct correlation between how far you’re willing to lose readers and the addictiveness of your writing.

This is not for the light-hearted.

But the light-hearted will never make it big in writing. Say what you know is true, but that is likely to lose people who disagree. Good.

This means stickier, more die-hard fans.

Don’t write to impress. Write to stir people into action.

Most people miss the primary purpose of great online writing.

That’s to move people.

It is not to sound cool, interesting, or clever. You’re here to inspire people to act.

Tell them to act if you need to make it obvious. Encourage replies. Show people how they can make easy, next, doable steps.

When you have a readership who do things, you’ll have the influence that makes all this worth it.

Here’s what I’d like you to do today:

Take one point from this article and apply it to your next post, tweet or writing.

And if you’d like further support, where I show you the 16 secrets I learned over 15 years of online writing to take your writing to even higher levels, you’ll want my Online Writing Alchemy course.

The course shows you everything you need to know to write powerfully and simply so you grow an online tribe of fans and buyers.

Learn more about that here.

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