Creating content worth publishing
Start with empathy and curiosity to understand your audience:
What do they care about?
How much do they already know?
What influences them?
What topics do they devour online?
What do they want answers to?
What’s holding them back?
What situations are causing them a lot of pain?
What are all the things they struggle to figure out?
When we collapse our thinking into a phrase, meme or name that’s easy to pass on, we give our ideas the best possible chance to spread. The best names feel like inevitable
additions to our collective vocabulary (“1000 True Fans”, “Radical Candor” even “web3”). They spark interest... See more
Tell the internet a story
Before you make a claim or argument, ask, “So, what?”
Your whole audience and your ideal customers are asking, What's In It For Me? Why should I care?
Anticipate and address skepticism or disinterest from readers, and write and edit with the skeptical reader in mind.
How do you get them to listen to you? Why should they?
If you were arguing with them
Jay Acunzo • A Prompt from John Mulaney: How to Come Up with Better Ideas for Content in Less Time
Pressing your curiosity through a premise
Three questions to ask yourself before posting anything ever:
Why am I posting this?
Why do I care?
And why does my audience care?
Ideas become insights when they meet the following criteria:
Novel—is this idea new or is it at least a fresh take on an existing idea
Actionable—can my audience immediately act on the idea?
High-leverage—when my audience acts on the idea, can it meaningfully change their work or their lives?
[Julian Shapiro]