Learn more and more skills! You need knowledge, understanding and expertise to build authority in any field, and in diverse writing, you need to acquire at least two different skills which you can authoritatively write about.
Why do you need these skills?
Because you can’t write about what you know nothing about.
For example, in business writing… Of course, I don’t need to inform you that I’m into business, do I? 
And I’m someone who started from scratch and figured things out through many trials and errors, so I’d want you to avoid the mistakes I made and directly jump into the right path.
And on the writing aspect, I don’t need to tell you that I’m a writer because I guess you’re currently reading my material, you know…
But instead of calling myself a business expert or anything, I choose to be called a “diverse writer”, because all these other skills help fulfill my writing dynamics, it shows that I can easily blend my writing and adapt to many topics without blabbing, stuttering or delivering total nonsense. But at the end of the day, no matter what I write about, they all come down to writing, and that is what matters to me personally.
So, that is what I mean by “acquiring more skills”. It makes it possible and easy for you to sound like an expert or actually be an expert when embracing many and different writing angles. It adds flavour and colour to your talent as a writer.
You know, as a writer or maybe even a blogger, you may have been told/taught that you need to have ‘unique contents’ and ‘unpopular opinions’, however, no one ever tells you what these mean in reality.
Of course, you’re going to sound like a total idiot if you throw in unfounded materials and information that people simply know is incorrect or does not agree with common sense or even genius.
What having ‘unique contents’ and ‘unpopular opinions’ mean is that you have to be bold enough to tow the path others in your field are afraid of daring. It means you need to research and produce content that people haven’t thought of, yet would be glad to know about. It means you have to expose all the lies that others in your field have been feeding innocent information consumers, you have to become their rescuer and Messiah against all these ridiculous lies or undertold truth.
How can you achieve all these?
Simple!
By learning more skills. By researching and continuing to research. By not being afraid of doing something new and out of the blues. By trying your very best to be as correct and relatable as possible. By being that go-to information zone which your audience will eventually come to respect and trust.
Don’t just release materials because you need to push out content, make sure you set standards and release materials only when they meet those standards. Keep releasing more and more and don’t hold back, very soon, your talent and skills might become so unbelievable that people might start to think that you just can’t be the only brain and hands behind all those wonders.
Writing isn’t as hard as it’s made to look, you just need passion, dedication, consistency, and of course the willingness to keep learning and never stop learning.
Whatever I teach, I teach from either my personal experience or the experience of someone I’ve helped, but bottom line, I have firsthand knowledge of these things and is trying to protect you from making those same mistakes.
I was a writer from a very young age, but in 2020 I decided to go public with my craft (though not the very first attempt). Before I decided totally on what to do, I researched online on existing blogs and read several books hoping to gain more information and experience, but I noticed a pattern, everything was repetitive, there were only alterations here and there, remodeling and slight additions and subtractions. There were even those who shamelessly plagiarize! Either they rebirth materials in public domains or they copy current copyrights. The audacity…
I know many of these people have made millions of dollars from putting little effort, but surely, it did not add to their skills and wisdom, just their bank account. But I want you, my dear reader, to have both. Money is important, and you will have it. But I want you to have the wisdom and the authority to represent your work.
Since after the 1990s when the first set of bloggers put in the work, people no longer care about quality, just their bank account and that’s not good enough. Go on many relationship blogs, YouTube channels, books and other mediums, you’ll mostly see the same information, some simply copy and paste, while the most righteous ones change the wordings and other slight adjustments here and there, but they’re never interested in doing all the work.
So today, I need you to change your orientation. Be unique. Be extra. Get the work done.
Avoid:
- Repeating contents from other blogs, or worse, copy and paste.
- Any sort of plagiarism or any content not coming from your authority.
There is this disturbing advice out there that you can make money remaking other people’s materials either as eBooks, blogs, audio, video, etc., in as much as that might make you some quick money stress-free, but that hurts your reputation and will never make you an expert or authority.
Listen, these people advertising this sort of methods don’t care about you, by buying their tutorials and joining their email lists when they offer freebies, you’re making them some quick dollars and that’s all they’ll ever care about, not how you end up afterwards.
This is quite a controversial topic and a fragile one, but the truth must be said. I wish someone told me this earlier than I learned it myself the most annoying way (not like many people care enough to tell us anyway).
THE REASON YOU MUST AVOID REPEATING CONTENT
It annoys consumers!!!
I can’t emphasize this enough.
Consumers are disgusted by finding only the same things everywhere, nothing new, nothing different, nothing that works.
Imagine yourself in their shoes buying three books and their lessons are the same, you turn to the internet and nothing different, even the society offers nothing better, how would you feel?
This one mistake has led to some authors being totally boycotted by buyers because they have nothing better or different to offer, they may have one or two, or maybe even five bestsellers (because of how bestsellers are ranked), but after buyers have noticed their lack of originality, they are boycotted for life.
Or, why do you think self-published authors are still less valued among consumers than traditional authors? Because self-published materials are hardly sieved, writers just release whatever they can no matter how low value and that’s because of how easy publishing has become. But you can become that positive change that’ll bring respect and honour to self-publishing! By proving that no matter how you choose to publish, it is simply a matter of choice and not a sign of low quality and inability to reach the standards of traditional publishing.
Don’t remake existing materials to make money, this popular advice out there will ruin your entire career with no mercy. Yes, it works for a while and you may not really get into trouble though, but the money isn’t worth your reputation if you intend to truly have a long-lasting writing career and be eventually known as a writing expert. The consequence is that consumers won’t trust your judgement as a writing expert, and you therefore won’t become one. But if all you care about is the money, then do whatever you want.
The questions to ask yourself is:
What is my goal in the end?
1) Do I want to simply make as much money as possible and walk away,
2) Or, do I want to be known as a money expert, that is, someone who can turn any item into money,
3) Or, do I want to establish a positive reputation as a writing expert?
Look, it’s okay if you want to be a money-making expert, it’s a good deal actually.
But… If you’re interest is in writing… Then, lawful repetition or maybe plagiarism won’t get you there because you’re not being original. People value experts who represent what they know, rather than those who represent only what they read somewhere or what they heard. I mean, you’re simply never an expert in any field at all until your brain starts thinking of new ideas in that field.
Lawful repetition is when you either reproduce items that have lost their original copyright, or when you keep dishing out contents that have been overbeaten without copying from anyone of course.
And plagiarism is when you copy and paste other people’s content, or make adjustments to them without credit or permission.
So, at this point, I believe you have something to meditate on today. Try discovering your real interest and who you want to be known as, that is the only way you’ll be able to make a good career decision.
You know that you have made a great career decision when your choice not only brings you wealth, but also long-term happiness, fulfilment, confidence boost, and most importantly, a lasting good reputation and respect. When you are proud of who you are and genuinely enjoy introducing yourself as that even when you haven’t made any money yet. When you can easily navigate your own path, not because it’s a way to make money, but because it is where you want to be for life from the depths of your heart.
Ask yourself, if money is removed from this career, would I still be here? Would I still enjoy this passionately? Would I be happy volunteering myself and these ideas if money were not involved? Would I be willing to keep learning? Do I see this as a real hobby?
Making a great career choice is beyond all the superficial rewards. Are you really happy and proud being there?
It is true being motivated by money is great, but passion supercedes. It is passion that drives you to go far and beyond for what you love and believe in. It is passion that makes you resilient through tough times and endure all the storms and do what it takes to be successful. When you’re not passionate, you lose heart when things are tough. But when you’re passionate, you go all in because you know it’s either this or nothing!
Take most richest men in history for example. Well, no need to go far back, let’s just stick around our own modern times. Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, Alibaba, etc., founders didn’t become millionaires overnight, let alone billionaires. Yet, they persevered for one reason: they loved what they were doing and they were willing to see it to the end till the expected results are achieved.
Contrast these examples with people who are only ever driven by money and no real passion or interest in the actual craft, just the end result. Although it may work for a while, but it hardly ever lasts, because that desire for instant gratification often leads to unimaginable greed, which eventually leads to self-destruction, and sometimes it makes it impossible to settle on anything if no quick monetary results are seen there. For example, Mr. Ponzi of the 19th/20th century, who couldn’t stick to a particular career because nothing was making quick money. Also, Uber, though not totally destroyed, has lost its beauty and glory at least for now, a good management could still turn things around though, but it’s current fall is because the management wanted to make quick money at all costs and endangered everyone’s lives through excessive work hours with little rewards, and that led to frequent therapy and suicide of some workers, and eventually severe protests from the public to end Uber (the same public who initially loved them). Lastly, the terrible management of Yahoo all stems from the hot pursuit of quick wealth, and that led to ignoring all other values.
The choice is yours.
Thanks for reading. Have a good day! I really adore you♥️
Originally published on dilju.com in 2022
