Book SummaryThe Art and Business of Online Writing, by Nicolas Cole

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Art and Business of Online Writing

Many people feel their dream of being a professional writer is too abstract to become reality. However, Nicolas Cole argues otherwise and uses his own story as testament—he went from a nobody blogger to a successful career writer in only a few years. According to Cole, anyone can create a successful online writing career—be it in blogging, copywriting, poetry, or any other digitally published format—as long as they do two things: write consistently and understand the world of online writing. In The Art and Business of Online Writing, Cole lays out his guide to establishing an online writing career based on his experience and success.

Cole is a top online writer and entrepreneur. He writes regularly on Quora and...

The Art and Business of Online Writing Summary Part 1: Write Online Consistently

Cole argues that the first step in becoming a successful online writer is consistently writing and publishing your material online. This, he says, requires you to publish something at least once every other week—ideally more. At the beginning of his career, Cole gained popularity quickly by publishing something every day—and he argues that the more frequently you publish, the quicker your career will progress. Writing consistently in this way is important for a few reasons:

1. It indicates whether you have the drive and desire to become a writer. If you struggle to write consistently or dread the process, writing likely isn’t for you.
2. It improves your technical abilities (like organization and word choice) and helps you discover your niche as a writer—your topic, audience, and style.
3. It’s the only way to build an audience. If you're not writing consistently, it’s nearly impossible to gain popularity and credibility because your content will get lost among the thousands of other pieces published every day.

(Shortform note: On Ship 30 for 30, Cole and Dickie Bush explain that writing and publishing every day [does more than just help you become a successful...

The Art and Business of Online Writing Summary Part 2: Choose Your Niche

Once you’ve been writing consistently online for about six months, Cole says you should gather metrics and use those to focus your efforts on a specific niche. To be successful in the world of online writing, you must stand out by doing something unique and being the best at what you do. This requires you to determine where you’re the most successful and dedicate yourself to that area—if you spread yourself too thin by writing about too many different topics or for too many different audiences, you’ll never become the best at anything, just decent at a lot of things.

(Shortform note: While Cole argues that niching down is crucial to become a successful writer, this might not be the case for everyone. Cole’s emphasis on niche writing is to gain popularity—this is great if you want to be a famous or viral writer (like Cole), but having a successful career doesn’t require fame. For example, if your end goal is to be a successful freelance copywriter, being a generalist may benefit you more than being a specialist. Generalists have a broad portfolio that shows potential clients they’re...

The Art and Business of Online Writing Summary Part #3: Establish Your Business

Cole says that once you’ve narrowed down your niche and have an audience, you can begin to turn your writing into a business—that is, to build a name for yourself and start making money from your content. To do this, you’ll need to direct people away from whatever platform they’re reading your content on (for example, Quora or Medium) and toward your personal platform—for example, a website or book. In the following sections, we’ll discuss how to capture readers on your personal platform and how to profit from this.

(Shortform note: While Cole says you must have a presence online and redirect your audience to your own platform to start making money, this isn’t always the case. In On Writing, Stephen King discusses the more traditional method of submitting your work to publications and getting an agent. If you’d prefer to take this traditional route, King recommends reading Writer’s Market—a guide to publishing all types of content from novels to plays. This will direct you toward publications...

Shortform Exercise: Brainstorm Content Ideas

To write a successful piece, Cole says you must have a clear focus. In this exercise, we’ll use his guidelines to brainstorm some clear content ideas so you can start writing.

What are three topics you’d like to start writing about? For example, possible topics include relationships, science, and book reviews.