Key lessons from 100+ viral articles — Michael Thompson only needed one viral article to launch his writing career. And indirectly, pay his mortgage for 23 months. One viral article was all it took. But don’t get it twisted. You could spend long months or years before scoring any viral article. But that one article could change…

Your readers’ lives could be on the line — I pray to warn as many writers as I can with this article and save as many readers’ lives as possible. If you think I’m being overdramatic, perhaps you’re too quick to judge. While reading Dr. …

And how I overcame inconsistency — Inconsistency killed the writer’s dreams. Or, in my case, it almost did. After writing 130,000+ words for my first novel, I jumped into online writing. At first, I committed to writing each morning for at least one hour. I kept at it for a while. But months later, I decreased…

Be careful what ideas you validate in your writing. — This is the 16th edition of The Essence. Words can sometimes be more lethal than bullets and knives. They can actually kill people. And no, I’m not talking about killing your readers with boredom. I’m talking about actually causing someone’s death with nothing but words. The Sorrows of Young Werther…

4 Key lessons from Joe Karbo’s million-dollar ad. — Some sales copy is just so good you can’t ignore it. Some sales copy compels you to take the action it demands, and it’s like you have no choice. Some sales copy is so good that it destroys your defenses, convincing you to buy. It’s like Cristiano Ronaldo when he…

Respect your written words if you want readers to respect them. — This is the 14 edition of The Essence. Every time you publish a hastily-written article, you’re risking it. You are risking losing a potential client who might have hired you if he liked what he was reading. You are risking losing a loyal fan who might have turned to an…

Key lessons from Joe Karbo’s million-dollar ad. — “There are some people who spend their entire career creating hundreds of ads, and then there is Joe Karbo.” According to legendary copywriter Joe Sugarman, Karbo wrote only a few ads. And he wrote this one right off the top of his head, taking him only two hours: “For example…

It’s not about writing: It’s about the story — You can get all the technical aspects of writing your novel right. You can get the plot right, the world, the political climate, and write the characters well. But if you don’t get the story right, all that does not matter much. If your novel’s story isn’t worth telling, you’re…

So simple to understand, so difficult to apply. — What gets you to read something? Whatever; a book, an article, a short story. Usually, the writing is good enough. But how? In a near-perfect writing piece, the first line compels you to read the second line. The second line then compels you to read the third line, the third…