My Secret To Writing Viral Articles

Writing good stuff is a bitch.

The best way to start making money, selling products & getting clients online is by creating cool content.

Which, for most of us, means writing (and even if it doesn’t, this advice will work).

In short, start writing online, and you’ll have a business.

There is a catch, of course. You have to write good stuff. And writing good stuff is a bitch. 

It’s a bitch for all of us. 

Do you think some are just talented? No. They have the grit to keep writing, so with time, they master the 2 key factors for writing good stuff. 

#1: What to write (the ideas) 

#2: How to write it (the execution) 

I’ve already spoken a bit about how to decide what to write about, but if you’ve missed it, you can always download the free 100 Irresistible Article Ideas PDF here.  

Now, let’s get down to #2. I promised you something in the subject of this e-mail, and I’m about to deliver.

Because maybe you already have a gazillion ideas, but how do you write them so that people read them & love them?? 

Here’s my secret. 

I write an article the same way I’d build an argument. 

In debate teams, they teach participants to build their arguments using three pillars: claim, warrant, and impact. 

Claim 

The claim is the gist of what you want to say. Your one-sentence message.

When I approach an article idea, the first thing I ask myself is, “What do I want to say with this story?” 

It sounds simple, but it could be difficult. Sometimes I write 10 ideas for claims before I start writing the article.

Basically, the claim answers the question, “Why am I even writing this?”

One of my most successful articles, with over 80K views, made a simple claim that people loved: giving up is not a problem; it’s a skill. You just have to learn to give up the right things at the right time. 

If you find it difficult to come up with good, non-obvious claims, this means you need to consume more content on the topic. Read more, follow people in the industry, listen to podcasts.

When you’re in the conversation happening online, it’s easy to have opinions.

Warrant 

The warrant is where you bring evidence to support your claim.

Viral stories relly heavily on personal experience to support their claims, but it’s always good to include research that helps bring credibility to what you’re saying. 

This article made an ambitious claim: I can predict how any relationship will go. The warrant was primarily personal experience, but without mentioning the way psychologists define romantic attraction, it would’ve sounded too far-fetched. 

Impact 

In the impact, you need to explain why your warrant supports your claim. 

This one is a little tricky. If you’ve built your argument correctly, you'd expect that it’s already clear why the warrant supports the claim—but repetition helps people understand & remember things. 

Think of the impact as another section where you get to reinforce your idea. Use it to repeat what you’ve already been saying from a slightly different angle. Use it to input a quote of someone popular who’s made a claim similar to yours—hence giving you extra credibility. 

In this story that got picked up by a Medium-owned publication, I talk about the unexpected pitfalls (and some unexpected advantages) of quitting your job to start a business. I end with a link to a story from Tin Denning where he talks about the positive effects of “falling on your face” from time to time.

So, even if you quit and it’s going horribly, there’s still something positive.

See what I mean?

Final Words.

There are many structures out there for writing articles, but I’ve always done things my way. To me, writing online is about making arguments.

It works for me, and it’s easier than most alternatives, so I hope you find it useful too.

Happy writing,

Maya