There’s one common question we’re obsessed with. It’s: ‘Where should I be writing online in order to be successful?’
What if an online writing pro and insider were to tell you: ‘The answer is simple. Anywhere. Because it’s the golden era of content creators. There are success stories on every platform.’
I was intrigued by a tweet from Nicolas Cole
As a committed writer eager to build my career online, I’m very interested in news about the online writing world. It’s well known that all social media platforms change like the weather, not just Medium.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a retweet by
Tom Fenske
, editor of ‘The Shortform’ that immediately caught my attention. I was intrigued.
It was a tweet by Nicolas Cole about some insider info:
There are some BIG upgrades happening in the creator economy for writers on:
- Medium
- Quora
- Twitter
I can’t say too much yet (insider info) (…)
$$$$$$$
Here’s the original tweet: Link Link Link
screenshot by Kristina God
Nicolas is an authority in the online writing world
To be honest, I hadn’t known Nicolas until I came across this teaser.
That’s why I did some research in order to find out if he was a trustworthy source of information or maybe some type of fake news. (Sorry, Nicolas ;-))
As you can see from his profile, Nicolas has around 19k followers on Twitter. That’s a lot. So I assumed he was an influencer in digital writing.
Well, he is! He’s huge. He’s an authority.
screenshot by Kristina God
He turned his passionate side hustle into a real business
Nicolas is an inspiring personality and has achieved what many of us only dream about. He turned his passionate side hustle into a real business.
Here are the most interesting parts of his success story:
From his profile page on Twitter, I learned that he published his first book when he was 17.
In 2014, he started answering questions for Quora and became #1 writer.
In 2016, he became one of the Top 10 contributing writers on Inc Magazine. He fulfilled the most-sought after dream of most writers: he quit his 9–5.
In 2017, he opened an agency dedicated to ghostwriting, for instance for NYT bestselling authors.
Since 2017, he has also has republished his Quora content on Medium and became more than 20x Top Writer on Medium in various categories.
In 2021, he became co-creator of the ‘Ship 30 for 30 writing community’ which is dedicated to help writers make their craft a habit.
Therefore, in my view, he really has a voice in the online writing world. When he announces there are major changes on the horizon for content creators, I really do believe him.
How can he have insider info about all platforms?
Despite his impressive portfolio, there’s one interesting question on Twitter:
How can he have insider info on Medium, Twitter, Quora and LinkedIn all at once?
screenshot by Kristina God
As Jessie states, I also thought they were separate and divided.
Nevertheless, for instance, Ev Williams also co-founded Twitter. He still has stakes in the company and I’m sure he just ‘knows’ what’s going on in Silicon Valley.
And as ghostwriter for several founders and executives, Colin has a broad network to Silicon Valley too.
Two parallel updates on Twitter and Medium
There are for instance two new features which were launched in parallel.
- Lists
I noticed that on both platforms they’ve introduced ‘lists’ as a new product feature.
screenshot by Kristina God
Previously, you could already save stories privately under the icon ‘bookmarks’. Now you can compile your favorite stories in regard to a specific topic by tapping the ‘bookmark’ icon and give it a name — for instance ‘Writing on Medium’ (see below), and show it on your profile page.
screenshot by Kristina God
As you can see, I’ve already compiled around 14 stories on this list.
To classify the benefits of this new feature, I found this tweet by one of Medium’s Top Writers,
Tom Kuegler
:
