Nicolas Cole

Yeah. I appreciate you having me. Thank you.

Nicolas Cole

Yeah.

Just a very quick background, my whole story is based on Quora.

Nicolas Cole

For those that don’t know, I explain Quora as a question and answer site. It’s what Yahoo answers very well should have been. But Quora has done a fantastic job at preserving and growing a community of people that just want to share what they know. That’s their value. You can start learning how to get noticed as a writer and a person who answers questions here.

If you have a question, the example I always use is, “What’s it like to be an entrepreneur?” Who better to learn from than someone who is an actual entrepreneur? That’s the value that Quora stands on.

I’ve been a top writer on Quora for the past three years since I have known ways how to get noticed as a writer. And all of the people on that platform that have an audience have done a great job of attracting attention. They play in this perfect intersection of answering people’s questions, providing knowledge, but also weaving in their personal story.

Nicolas Cole

What I’ve watched happened and what I learned early on is what makes some individuals “influencers” is the fact that not just they provide people value or answer questions. It’s the fact that people recognize them and feel like they know them as people.

That opened my eyes to this whole idea of how many people try and start a business online? Or how many people want to launch their course?

Whatever field you’re playing in, the discussion is very tactical. People talk about SEO, sales funnels, and having a great copy. They talk about providing value, but I’ve learned not very many people understand what providing value means and don’t know how to get noticed as a writer.

Nicolas Cole

And so, going to what you had alluded too is the fact that through Quora, I learned that you have to play in this intersection of answering people’s questions and adding in your personal story.

It’s not about “Oh! I’m stacking keywords,” or, “Oh! I have great SEO,” or “I got PR because I got featured in this one publication.”

Learning how to get noticed as a writer is, has an entirely different equation and it comes down to whose attention do you have on a regular basis? Who wakes up in the morning and goes, “I want to hear what that person has to say again and again?”

The way on how to get noticed as a writer is you have to answer “people’s questions” and to tell a personal story that relates to them on an emotional level.

Nicolas Cole

I use Quora as an example just because that’s where I found my stride, but you’re right. It applies anywhere.

Whether you’re a blogger, or you’re on Medium, or an Instagram influencer, it doesn’t matter when you want to learn how to get noticed as a writer.

Nicolas Cole

The idea is that when you sit down to create content, a lot of people sit down in this mode of creating thinking it’s a good step on how to get noticed as a writer. They’re like, “I’m going to say this” or “I’m going to deliver this piece of information,” without first asking themselves “What question is my target audience asking and what am I answering with?”

The reason why I point to Quora so much is what better place to get ideas for the very people you want to talk to than those that are asking questions about things that they’re struggling? It’s because some industries work better on some platform than others.

Even if I’m not instructing someone to use Quora, I encourage them just to go and poke around there because the people they want to target are probably asking questions there.

Nicolas Cole

That’s one of the best ways on how to get noticed as a writer.

Nicolas Cole

100%.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s value in all of the different tactics. You can do your keyword research, and you can be aware of what’s happening or what people are searching for.

Nicolas Cole

There’s a deeper intention with answering a question when you know not only what is someone asking, but why are they asking it.

That’s why even if you’re not using Quora, do your research. Look for places or forums even. Look at things that are going to show you what questions your target audience have and how is your content going to answer that question better than everybody else’s content so you can start learning how to get noticed as a writer.

Nicolas Cole

Let’s work backward.

First, 100% agree, but it was the last thing you said that I think is like the most poignant piece.

I always say I’m an artist first. I’m a writer. My whole dream was I just wanted to write books and learn how to get noticed as a writer. In the process, I’ve become a digital marketer because I had to find out how to do that.

The thing I constantly run into is everybody wants the most for the least. That is the essence of marketing and growth hacking.

Nicolas Cole

Unfortunately, most people see social media and influence including knowing how to get noticed as a writer through that same lens. They go, “I want everyone to know who I am.”

Nicolas Cole

Yeah, “And I want the least amount of work for it.”

Let’s work backward, and I want to reinforce why I’ve completely disagreed with that mentality, and you end up going nowhere fast.

Nicolas Cole

I know.

Nicolas Cole

You know what’s funny? You explain it to people, and then in their mind, they see it as a longer road. However, it’s a shorter and more efficient way because you’re doing something that is working and providing value instead of spending years being like, “I’m going to try 8 million different growth hacks,” that never moved the needle.

I’m a competitive person. The story that I’m also best known for is that when I was 17, I was one of highest ranked World of Warcraft players in North America. I’m a gamer at heart.

Nicolas Cole

When I started writing on Quora three years ago, I said, “No matter what, I’m going to write an answer every single day.” When I got into it, I realized early on that pieces could get picked up from Quora and republished in the leading publications because Quora has relationships with them.

So what I did is I went around, researched every single major pub, and read column after column on every single one, and I looked for the similarities, the formatting, the way the articles were written, and the voice. I wanted to know what content they were looking for and why they would want to republish it from Quora.

Nicolas Cole

Then, every single day, instead of writing an answer on Quora, I wrote an article. I realized that’s another way of how to get noticed as a writer.

I wasn’t just answering someone’s question. I was answering the question and weaving in personal examples like my story, and I was formatting it so that a major publication would look at that and go, “You know what? That’s an excellent piece of content. We want to republish that.”

I did the work up front on how to get noticed as a writer and made sure that what I was doing was going to provide people value instead of just, “Well, how can I growth hack this so that I can get the most of the use in a short amount of time?”

Three months later, my first viral hit went from a page of Reddit, over a million views on that Quora answer.

The next month, I started getting pieces picked up in the main publications. There was a six-month period where I had a piece republished in the main publications every single week, and that is more PR than any PR agency could guarantee for a client. But more than that, it wasn’t just PR. It was the fact that I was the author.

Nicolas Cole

What then that showed me is when you’re the one who’s writing the content that other people are pointing to, they go, “Hey. This is an excellent example of what leadership is,” or “This is a great article on self-development.”

It’s not just about views in content. It’s about the fact that people see you as a thought leader and that is the real value.

For someone who’s like “Well, is Quora going to get me what I want in the shortest amount of time?” I don’t know. If that’s your mentality, throw a thousand dollars at ads and see what happens.

Nicolas Cole

The whole point of social media and whether it’s Quora or any platform is to devote the time to understand what you’re going to bring to the table that someone’s going to look at every single day and go, “Yeah, you’re the only best resource for that. Why would I go anywhere else?”

It’s like when you watch the news or your favorite TV show. You watch that because that is the best. You wouldn’t watch something else, and influencers should think about it the same way.

I just launched a whole agency called Digital Press, and this is what we do for entrepreneurs, executives, and people who are knowledgeable. They’ve been in their industry for 5 to 30 years. They have a ton of insight. They just don’t have the time, and they don’t have the writing skills to do what I’ve been able to do. And so, we ghostwrite for them.

I think it’s an incredible resource. It’s just again, how many people want to sit down and do things the right way? It’s not very many.

It’s not just about views in content. It’s about the fact that people see you as a thought leader and that is the real value. – Nicolas Cole

For someone who’s like “Well, is Quora going to get me what I want in the shortest amount of time?” I don’t know. If that’s your mentality, throw a thousand dollars at ads and see what happens.

The whole point of social media and whether it’s Quora or any platform is to devote the time to understand what you’re going to bring to the table that someone’s going to look at every single day and go, “Yeah, you’re the only best resource for that. Why would I go anywhere else?”

It’s like when you watch the news or your favorite TV show. You watch that because that is the best. You wouldn’t watch something else, and influencers should think about it the same way.

12:17 – 13:02

Nicolas Cole

Completely.

How many Twitter profiles do you see where someone calls himself a social media expert?

Just because you use social media, it doesn’t mean you’re an expert.

Nicolas Cole

Here’s another example. On Instagram, I’ve built a following for myself too because I treat it like a microblog. About four years ago, when I first started doing that, every insight you would read online is trendy. It’s all about short, witty captions. That’s what everybody was saying if you read any of the articles.

And so, every “social media expert” goes and read those articles and it’s like, “Yeah. That’s fact.” But they’re not trying it, getting in the trenches, and finding their answers. I’ve always believed in that.

I took the complete opposite approach on how to get noticed as a writer. Every day, I would post a picture. Then, I would write a long caption. I was like, “I’m a writer. If I’m going to use Instagram, then I’m going to write.”

That ended up being the reason why people looked at my content every day because they were like, “Yeah. The pictures are cool, but I follow it because of your writing.” It’s just another medium and another way to share that.

As you said, it doesn’t matter if it’s Quora or Twitter or Instagram or Facebook. Knowing how to get noticed as a writer is about figuring out what is working for you, who you’re talking to, and what it is that they’re going to wake up in the morning and go “Yeah. I want to see your next piece of content.” because you’re the best at what you do.

Nicolas Cole

Oh, yeah.

Another side of that is being aware of your time.

Nicolas Cole

A lot of people make the mistake of trying to be everywhere at once. Whether they’ve been doing an idea for a while or they’re just starting, they go, “All right. I got to be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Medium, LinkedIn.”

Nicolas Cole

When you focus on one platform trying to know how to get noticed as writer, people will be like, “Yeah. If you’re in this niche, you go to that person because they’re exceptional at what they do.” Instead, you see a lot of people that are like, “Well, I’m going to take the same content, I’m going to repost it on all 18 platforms.”

There’s no value there unless you’re just grinding, and you’re making each thing different. It’s hard. Not very many people can do that.

Nicolas Cole

I’m a writer, I’ve chosen Quora. What a great platform for me to share my talent, and at the same time, build an audience. I didn’t waste time being like, “I’m going to go invest a ton into Twitter.” I could, but I’m not going to get the same return as if I’d just go all in on what I’m good at.