Reader Q: What To Do With Your Skills?

Reader Q: What To Do With Your Skills?

It’s funny. I hit publish on yesterday’s article and thought, “I need to do something new. I’m repeating the same material too much.”

I woke up this morning to a comment from reader Anon1 who thought the article was very helpful.

It just goes to show that whether you think you should hit publish or not, you probably should. Who knows what positive effects it might bring?

Let’s get into the topic. Anon1 left a comment about yesterday’s thoughts, and asked a few questions. I think that Anon1 has a lot of issues in common certainly with me before I went down the writing route, and probably a lot of readers.

Here’s his comment in full:

This is the article I needed to read. Thanks so much Jamie.

I was going to ask about politics but you answered that already within the article itself lol.

I have a question, so most of my experience writing essays, explaining topics, displaying and dispelling arguments (answering objections) and so on is around film and politics.

Obviously as you rightly said politics is a dangerous game so how can I transfer some of these writing techniques and skills towards selling something?

I know you talk about sales letters and you’ve also talked about the fear of being outed as a fraud if you try to talk authentically about a product you don’t own or use (rather painting a picture of benefits from imagination around features rather than anecdotal experience) but I can’t see myself selling something I don’t believe in.

So how would I be able to write sales letters for others or for affiliates?

I was never all that clear on that.

Any advice you could give would be gratefully received and inform the way I plan my work schedule and online goals

for the rest of the year.

Thanks!

In this article, I’ll do my best to answer some of these questions. Here’s what I plan to address:

• A quick recap of the politics thing
• Where most people’s experience with writing comes from
• How to apply your knowledge to writing
• Writing about “what you believe in”
• How to apply this all to a workable plan

Get yourself a cup of tea and get ready.

Talking About Politics

For those of you who haven’t read the article yesterday (or haven’t seen previous mini-rants I’ve had on the topic) here’s the short version.

I recommend avoiding political talk in whatever you choose to publish. I also recommend avoiding religious talk, “cultural issues” and other divisive topics.

Now, is this a blanket ban? No. By all means, if you write in the health niche and your local politician wants to ban vegetables, then that’s a relevant topic for your audience and you’ve probably got a decent reason for doing so. Similarly, if you’re copywriting for the local church fundraiser, then mentioning Jesus is probably ok.

That said, these are exceptions to the rule, and not the rule itself. The reasons for this rule are practical more than ethical (I’m firmly in the “I don’t really mind nor care what other peoples’ opinions are” camp.) Practical reasons:

• There’s no need to split your potential readership down imaginary lines

This was a massive mistake made over the past couple of tumultuous political years. You had fitness companies coming out and supporting political candidates, celebrities calling regular folks subhuman and all sorts of craziness. And to what end goal? Nothing other than losing money and upsetting people.

• Controversy doesn’t sell

Every time I see some idiot write a stupid article like, “All girls should kill themselves” and then bask in the glory of “getting millions of views,” I inwardly cringe.  Increased traffic isn’t worth anything and if that’s your idea of “building a brand” then you’ve got a terrible brand and business. You shouldn’t want any traffic or attention unless it’s your target market and they’re interested in what you’re selling.

The list goes on and it’s a real irritation to me, so let’s wrap it up with: If it’s not crucial to the subject, then leave the contentious issues at the door.

What If My Skills Are Political Though?

Anon1, reader and commenter said that his writing experience was in film and politics. This brings me to thinking about a predicament a lot of young people face.

We’ve all been trained to write in a certain way about certain topics.

When you’re in school –  or worse, University – you rarely write at length the sort of material or about the sort of subjects that sell. You’re given over to writing essays, assignments and other think-pieces. A lot of those are based on cultural issues surrounding the subject or the meta-events of the issues of the day.

For instance, if you do English or a writing course at University, you’re probably going to learn a lot about how to decipher hidden meanings from texts, most of which are – surprisingly – going to relate to whatever social ill is considered most important in the present day.

• Was Aristotle a feminist?
• Should white people be allowed to rap?
• Can Jamaicans really have their own culture or are they forever going to be shackled to colonial memes?
• How will Trump’s presidency affect funding for EU TV projects?

So on and so forth.  The subjects might range from the interesting to the painful, but one thing is for sure: That sort of material is not what clients pay you to write in the real world.

A lot of people get really good at learning about political and cultural issues and some are very good at arguing the point with rhetoric and logical devices. But what do you do with that skill if you can’t use it in the real world?

How To Apply Your Knowledge and Skills To Writing In The Real World

Firstly, if you can craft a great argument, then that’s a fantastic skill.

As a funny aside – have you ever seen a STEM student try and argue on the internet? There’s a particular breed of “I’m studying to be an engineer” guy who’ll spend tens of paragraphs rambling about how anything other than STEM is useless but his stupid flatmates won’t listen.

One can assume that you aren’t taught rhetoric in engineering degrees, which is a shame because rhetoric is useful.

If you can craft an argument, then you can do the following:

• Identify an audience
• Ascertain what that audience wants
• Woo them through the written word
• Interweave facts in a way that’s useful to the argument
• Conclude with a call to action

If you read this blog, you don’t need me to tell you about the natural conclusion of those skills. Add another one to them: cultural information is useful if you include it in a natural and seamless way.

For instance, if you’re talking to nerds, then explaining something in terms of how a device works is good. If you’re talking to eighteen year old girls, you’ll use a different example for “attractive woman” than you would when talking to fifty year old men.

A bit of cultural knowledge never hurts.

Really then, what we’ve established now is that you don’t want to commit to writing about the subjects you’ve learned, but you do want to harness the useful skills you’ve learned.

(Obviously, you’ll need adaptations for language – but that’s an audience based thing. Also, general grammar skills are about what you need: short sentences. No passive voice. Etc.)

Writing What You Believe In (Or, What To Write)

Back with Anon1’s comment: He has skills in writing about film and politics and wants to put those skills to use. He’s concerned about writing about products he doesn’t own but a) understands that selling is the name of the game and b) understands that you can write ethically about products you don’t own.

It’s a good start, but he wants to “write about things he believes in,” and believes there’s a sticking point there.

I don’t think there is. However, a lot of writers and people in general seem to have this sticking point; ethics are a big concern to a lot of people at this time. That’s across generations, nations and whatnot. The ethical issues change but the focus on ethics is a thing of our current climate.

Fair enough… topic for some other time.

So people currently want to fight for what they believe in and don’t want to work at something they’re ethically opposed to. I won’t argue with those morals although it’s a bit tough starting out as a freelancer with this stance because you’re better off taking whatever work comes your way.

But let’s assume you have a particular set of morals and you want to work in accordance with those morals. At the same time, you know you’re probably going to want to sell products or do something that has commercial viability at its core.

How do you reconcile these two ideas?

Firstly – assuming you’re going the self-employed route and are writing based (for ease of example.) You pick what you want to concentrate on.

So pick a niche that’s involved in something you believe in. It doesn’t have to be political. It shouldn’t be political. You, as a human being, believe in and value hundreds of things. You don’t even realise it.

Sure, you might have voted for Trump, Hillary, Bernie or whoever. You might believe in God, Allah or Krishna. Those are all encompassing things.

But you probably also believe you have a right to eat uncontaminated food, not be killed when you’re walking down the street and you probably believe that being healthy is a good idea.

You have dozens of interests, and even if they seem political in nature, they can be boiled down to more practical things. Let’s take Anon1’s example – I don’t know his politics, and I won’t really guess. He’s into film though.

Being interested in film is a niche where people make money by writing entirely non-controversial things. The quick example is building a site reviewing video equipment. (Don’t do this – everyone does it and it’s saturated.) But you could also build info products around helping people make documentaries, shoot underwater video or hundreds of other different applications.

Hell, you could start a business about helping non-profit companies achieve their social and political goals and still have it be non-political in nature.

How To Channel Ethics Into A Business

Political interests at a small level aren’t political. I learned this from working in the Survival Market.

The Survival market is heavily involved in politics, and nearly every company working in that sector believes fully in what they’re doing. Yet the majority of those companies aren’t political when it comes to their product or their actual business. They channel the politics away:

• Do you value home security? Buy a gun and some heavy duty door hinges.
• Value your privacy? Get this encryption software
• Don’t trust the banks with your money? Go offshore or buy gold!
• Care about your family’s future in these turbulent times? Stockpile food

These people all believe in what they’re doing and are for the most part politically motivated, but that doesn’t stop them from following the basic rules of Build Something Value>Market It To People Who Need It.

There’s a saying, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat today. Teach him to fish and he’ll eat every day.”

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking, “I care about this starving man, therefore I should tell everyone and campaign for more fish to be distributed for the starving of the world.”

Whatever your ethical ambitions, you should concentrate on either giving someone a fish or teaching them to fish. That’s what people pay for and it’s the best way to build a business. Also, you get to avoid the political unpleasantness and actually change the world for the better.

Jamie… You Promised Something Workable. Where Is It?

This is one long article. Luckily though, I’ve done all the framing and now I’m going to give you the plan.

Let’s say you’re fresh out of university and you’ve got a degree in politics and history or something. You’ve done well, your writing skills are reasonable and you want to start a business that solves people’s problems.

What don’t you do? Start a blog whining about the problems people face.

What do you do? Pick a subject you’re interested in. Break down why you’re interested in it, what you really enjoy about the subject and most importantly: What do people in this area need in order to live a better life?

Like I wrote on Saturday, with any business you’re solving problems first and foremost.

Here’s the crazy thing about ethics and morals and all that: If you’re solving problems, then you’re doing the right thing. If you believe in making people’s lives better and you solve their problems, it’s mission accomplished.

Find your target audience in the subject you’re interested in and solve their problem. Like I’ve said, this doesn’t have to be some world-changing crusade.

Your passion for wildlife conservation could mean you sell bat boxes to people with massive gardens.

Your desire to help people who suffer from domestic abuse could have you become a copywriter for charities.

If you really care about people’s right to self-determination, then you could start a business teaching people about how to turn their garden into a self-sufficient food generator.

All of those things are similar: they push around an ethical point yet their application is entirely commercial.

Final Thoughts

I really hope I’ve answered the questions posed by Anon1.  Even if I haven’t, this article is basically a guide to applying your morals to your commercial work.

If you want to make a positive change and have a seamless business with a positive brand, then the last thing you should do is start going on a moral crusade. Instead, notice a problem, solve the problem and get the solution in front of the people who need it.

It’s essentially the same system as any other business advice, just taking into account your own personal desires. At its heart its simple advice, but its good advice seeing as the alternative involves you annoying everyone on your Facebook feed, making no money and then developing a psychological complex about how the world is out to get you.

With that, I’m out. Anon1 – If I’ve completely misinterpreted you, let me know!