Chasing virality or impressing your dream client?
How to know what goals to pick as a writer.
Hi dear friend
Today’s newsletter is specifically for writers. Even if you aren’t one, it might give you something to think about. Read on.
A common debate among all my writer friends is this-
Should I make my writing accessible to the masses? Or should I write for my ideal client?
Each has its pros and cons. Let’s discuss them in detail, shall we?
Writing for the masses
Writing for the masses means creating content that has the potential to go viral. Some elements you need to include are:
Entertainment
Popular/trending topics.
Easy words + non-flowery language
Shock value to hook and keep attention
When you write for the masses, you increase your chances of being shared, reshared, and become potentially viral on social media.
It seems to be a major win, right? Why would anyone want to write something else, then?
Writing for your dream client
Let’s take a look at what happens when you write for your dream client.
Education/value addition
Topics close to your heart
Professional tone + lots of research
Compelling narrative and thought leadership
When you write for your ideal client, you pick topics not everyone is talking about. You stand a chance to stand out amid the sea of millions of writers fighting over virality.
You set yourself apart as a subject matter expert, and you can land potentially high-paying gigs.
So what’s better - writing for virality, or writing to impress your dream client?
The answer depends on your goals as a writer.
When I was starting my Medium journey, I wrote a mix of articles - some were designed to appeal to the masses, while the others were niche, well-researched deep dives that will be highly impactful to a select few.
In doing so, I had articles that got 200k+ views, and I also had articles with less than 1k views, which got me inbound leads from high-paying freelance clients.
I needed virality to establish myself as a strong contender on Medium. And I needed thought leadership to build myself a brand.
I’m leaving you with a quote from Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Medium, to give you some food for thought.
“If you write to impress someone important, a lot of times it opens doors. If you write for the lowest common denominator, you miss the opportunity to create real opportunities for yourself.”
So, what do you think? Writing for the masses or for that elusive inbound lead? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment or reply to this email.
Hope you liked this week’s message. Note that I create this newsletter for you weekly with lots of love. If you’d like to support me, here’s a link to buy me a book.
If you found this letter useful, don’t forget to forward this to a friend or ask them to sign up for my newsletter. It’s free, and they’ll mostly leave with a smile.
That’s all from my end today. I’ll see you again soon. Till then, stay strong. Keep smiling and be awesome.
With love,
Anangsha.