Nicolas Cole

Self-promotion on the internet follows the rule of opposites.

The more you promote yourself, the less people listen.
The less you promote yourself, the more people listen.

Here are a few writing rules I encourage you to live by:

Write for the everyday person. If you are hell-bent on writing at an academic level, realize you are writing for a considerably smaller audience—which means, by definition, your material will almost never be read by the masses. If what you want is broad exposure, then it’s important for you to use non-complicated language. For example, don’t use semicolons (very few people understand how they work anyway). If there’s a simpler synonym for a word less than 10% of society knows the definition to, use it. (Why? Because most people don’t use words like, “prodigious” or “confounding” when they speak. They just say, “Wow that was amazing.”)
Write how you speak. Record yourself talking about a topic and then transcribe the recording. Pay close attention to the rhythm of your natural sentences, versus the rhythms you try to use when writing to “sound” more professional in your writing. As a rule of thumb, anyone who tries to sound professional ends up sounding inauthentic, and those who lean into their authentic voice end up being perceived as the most relatable.
Avoid long sentences. Unless you’re using one long sentence stylistically, like to counterbalance a paragraph of many short sentences, you should err on the side of brevity. The more winding your thoughts, the more confusing your writing will be for the reader to follow. Remember, you are writing for someone whose eyes are flying across the page at lightspeed.
Alternate sentence length. If you read your article and find most of your sentences and paragraphs are all the same length, you have a rhythm problem. Short sentences should be followed by longer sentences. Longer sentences should be followed by short sentences. Short paragraphs should be followed by long paragraphs, and really long paragraphs should be followed by really short paragraphs. As Mozart said, “Music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”
Write confidently and declaratively. A lot of people hesitate to “make a point” or “take a stance” when writing online because they don’t want to get criticized in the comments. As a result, their writing stands for nothing, and resonates with no one. It’s safe. It’s self-conscious. And worst of all, it’s vague. The more declarative you can be with your language, the more you will force readers to make a decision. Either they will say, “I strongly agree,” or they will say, “I strongly disagree.” Either of these responses is far better than, “Meh.”

People, especially consumers, only care about their own interests and desires.

Whenever you are talking about yourself, it should be done in a way that gives necessary context to the reader.

If you’re writing about how to learn a skill, you should also tell the reader how you learned that skill.
If you’re writing about what it feels like to fall out of love, you should also tell the reader about a time you fell out of love.
If you’re writing about the future of technology, you should also tell the reader about the history of technology and what you’ve experienced in the past.
If you’re writing about politics, you should also tell the reader how you got involved in politics.

The Golden Intersection puts the reader first.

This piece is about their questions.
This piece is about their wants and needs.
This piece is about their desires.

Always bring things back to the reader’s wants, needs, and desires.

Only mention information that is truly relevant to the topic at hand.

Make the thing you want to draw attention to part of a larger point.

Use casual language.

Make whatever it is you’re promoting “the setting” for the story.