The first principles of selling online: 1. Increase the nu…

In January 2020, I started writing online.

What followed was 9 months of lonely, frustrating, and painfully slow growth.

So if you're a beginner, let me save you hundreds of hours and plenty of headache.

If I was starting over again, here's the exact playbook I would follow:

Here's the playbook breakdown:

• Where you should be writing
• How often you should be writing
• 1 thing you shouldn't waste time on
• The single most important thing you should do during your first 9 months (that I completely ignored)

Let's get into it:

First, where you should be writing.

When just starting out, I followed the conventional playbook.

I spent (wasted) hours creating a fancy website to host my fancy new blog.

And that's where I published.

I had to own my platform, right?

Except, there was 1 big problem:

No one knew my blog existed!

I was publishing into the void, spending hours every Sunday morning slaving over a hot keyboard & nitpicking every word.

Then, I would hit publish, waiting for the rush of attention.

Except... crickets.

The internet's crickets of indifference.

And because no one knew my blog existed, there was no feedback loop.

I had *no clue* whether what I was writing was interesting, helpful, or valuable to the reader.

Instead, I was *assuming* I was on the right track.

Newsflash: I wasn't.

$Dickie Bush \U0001f4ca$

Dickie Bush 📊
@dickiebush

Building an audience, simplified.

• Share a ton of ideas.
• Find the ones that resonate.
• Find a way to repeat those in 100 different ways.

$Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2$

Dickie Bush 🚢
@dickiebush

The world's most valuable skill:

Writing effectively.

But colleges charge you 120k and still do a terrible job teaching it.

Instead, here are 9 writing frameworks that cost you nothing and will save you hundreds of hours:

1. Start with building your writing habit by leveraging @jamesclear's Four Laws of Behavior

Atomic Habits from @jamesclear changed my life.

In Atomic Habits, James lays out the Four Laws of Behavior Change.

1. Make it obvious
2. Make it attractive
3. Make it easy
4. Make it satisfying

Here's how to leverage them to build a daily writing habit (\U0001f9f5\u270d\U0001f3fc):
— Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2 (@dickiebush) March 10, 2021

2. With your writing habit down, study these 10 tips from the world's most legendary marketer: David Ogilvy.

One of the most legendary marketers of all time: David Ogilvy

In 1982, David wrote an internal memo to the employees of his advertising agency titled "How to write."

And in just 10 bullets he put together a masterclass in effective writing.

Here's a breakdown of each one: pic.twitter.com/MxRYuQRLyA
— Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2 (@dickiebush) June 2, 2021

3. Then, immerse yourself in the takeaways from the bible on business

Business writing is a superpower.

But schools and employers do a horrible job teaching people to write.

In 1981, two advertising executives wrote a timeless guide for how to write in the business world.

And here are 12 of their tips you should staple to your desktop: pic.twitter.com/w0hh0qBOG4
— Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2 (@dickiebush) June 8, 2021

4. Like to learn on the go?

Dive into the creative process of the world's best writers in these 10 episodes of the @timferriss show.

I've listened to every episode of the @tferriss show.

And some of my favorites are when Tim interviews prolific writers, diving into their creative process to improve his own.

If you are looking to build a writing habit, these 10 episodes are a must-listen:

\u270d\U0001f3fc\U0001f3a7\U0001f447\U0001f3fc
— Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2 (@dickiebush) March 3, 2021

$Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2$

Dickie Bush 🚢
@dickiebush

Community-driven businesses are the future.

This was one of many takeaways from yesterday's Builders Build with @gregisenberg.

Here are 7 can't-miss lessons on audiences, communities, courses, and the future of business:

People confuse audiences with communities.

An audience is simply a group of people who:

• Follow you
• Listen to you

Building an audience is much easier than building a *community*with that audience.

And to do that, you can use the community test 👇🏼

There are five elements of every strong community:

• Togetherness
• Rituals
• Identity
• Belonging
• Engagement

When building a community, think TRIBE.

And to start, focus on creating rituals and fostering engagement.

There are two types of community products:

• Community-focused products
• Community-enhanced products

Community-focused products are when the product *itself* is the community.

If the community disappears, the product disappears.

This is how most people think of community.

But community-enhanced products are the real gamechanger.

This is when purchasing a product automatically gives you a sense of identity and belonging.

The most successful products will be community-enhanced.

Community-focused: @Clubhouse

Community-enhanced: @lululemon

$Dickie Bush \U0001f6a2$

Dickie Bush 🚢
@dickiebush

If you use it right, Twitter is the most powerful platform in the world.

But Twitter does a horrible job of showing you its advanced features.

Here are 10 of them you probably know nothing about:

The most underutilized Twitter feature: advanced search.

It blows my mind how few people know this.

Want to find someone's best tweets?

In the search bar, type:

from:dickiebush min_faves:500

Replace the handle and the number of likes as you see fit.

Another good advanced search tip:

Want to see everyone's tweets on a particular topic?

In the search bar, type:

from:dickiebush "consistency"

Again, replace the handle and keyword as you see fit.

You can filter by popularity too:

from:dickiebush "consistency" min_faves:100

We all have those people we don't want following us, but don't want to block.

Here's a good hack:

Block them, then unblock them.

This will unfollow you, but they'll never know.

Get mentioned in a tweet that is receiving way too many replies, turning your notifications into a disaster?

I've been there.

Click to expand the details of the tweet, then click the three dots on the top right-hand corner.

Then, click "mute this conversation."

The first principles of selling online:

1. Increase the number of people who see your product.

2. Increase the percentage of people who see your product that buy it.

3. Increase the percentage of people who buy your product that rave about it.

Writing increases all three.

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The first principles of selling online:1. Increase the number of people who see your product.2. Increase the percentage of people who see your product that buy it. 3. Increase the percentage of people who buy your product that rave about it. Writing increases all three.

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The first principles of selling online:

1. Increase the number of people who see your product.

2. Increase the percentage of people who see your product that buy it.

3. Increase the percentage of people who buy your product that rave about it.

Writing increases all three.