Make Your Content Stand Out Like The Popular Kid In School

Jonathan’s Newsletter - 5 min read
Dec 30, 2023

Okay, maybe I wasn’t popular, but I did stand out.

If you’re reading this online, yes, that’s me on the drum kit.

So, you started writing, or creating content, but how are you different?

In an age where more and more people are shifting from trading their time to developing ways to become their own boss or solopreneur, how do you stand out in the sea of people creating content and writing?

I started writing 4 weeks ago and have been consistently posting one blog per week.

I write on Medium and on my own Blog.

My Medium “For You” page is filled with writing tips and advice, and I’m seeing a lot of stories like:

• “How to grow on medium”

• “I’ve been on medium x months and earned this much”

• “Get followers fast on medium”

Basically Medium is growing and alot of people want to become writers.

But, how do you stand out?

What makes you different to the other writers?

How does your story pop amongst others?

I want to provide some alternative advice to what a lot of the Medium and Blogger Guru’s are saying, in an effort to encourage creativity and help you stand out, point 5 being my favourite.

Firstly, show us you!

We are curious creatures, we read your words and start to imagine what you look like.

So show us!

Matching a face to written words helps complete a puzzle in our mind.

If you’d prefer to keep your face off the internet, then show us your creativity, snap a photo of your environemt, or take a photo of something that relates to your story.

I don’t care that Unsplash is natively integrated to Medium. Everyone has a camera, add some flair to your story.

Unsplash makes it easy to embed some imagery, but the problem is alot of stories use the same images, they get boring and repetitive after a while.

Bonus tip; if you have access to an AI image generator, show us your imagination! Examples further down.

Turn off Gramarly suggestions

Grammarly is great for pointing our gramatical errors and making sure you’re using the correct punctuation.

But don’t let it re-word your sentences or suggest alnernative words, why?

Because it’s taking more of YOU out of the writing.

If Gramarly suggests different words or re-writes, first understand what words it is suggesting to remove, then instead google alternative words and see which YOU most resonate with.

The same goes for ChatGPT assistance, if you’re asking it to re-write sentences or paragraphs, then it’s removing your voice part of the story.

Use Gramarly and ChatGPT for feedback, don’t let it do the work for you.

You won’t learn and you won’t sound like you.

Immerse yourself in fiction

Read, play, watch fiction.

This can be reading a novel like The Lord of The Rights, Harry Potter, The Witcher.

Watching films or series like, well, alot of the above or Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, Breaking Bad.

Playing games like, The Legend of Zelda, Red Dead Redemption or Skyrim.

Fiction is full of stories, the stories are full of posibilities, there are no boundries because, it’s fiction!

Consuming fiction content you enjoy helps you to understand character development, hero’s journey, themes and creativity.

It gives you food for your imagination which empowers ideas and you learn how to use analogies.

Maybe you don’t enjoy fiction, that’s ok — consume content YOU truely enjoy that influences your voice.

Maybe that’s reality series or true stories. These types of content are also story driven, watch and try to capture the main concepts of the story.

Use your own perspective.

A lot of us are writing about things that already exist, or things we already know about.

Writing is about giving your own perspective or “hot take” on a situation.

Just because a topic has been written about before, doesn’t mean you can’t write about it again. Everyone has a unique perspective.

How does a topic make you feel?

What is sensical or non-sensical about it?

If you feel a tingling in your gut, or a topic is burning in your mind, it’s annoying you and it’s leaving you frustrated then chances are your perspective has something to say about it.

These are usually the best types of content for YOU because you’re passionate about it, let it out and let us hear your perspective.

Slang or coloquial language

What is your native language? where are you from on this planet?

Then you have slang, you have coloquial language and unique words.

Use them!

Be mindful that your content should be readable by a general audience, but don’t be afraid to sneak some slang or coloqiual language in there mate.

If you’re worried that no one will understand it, then link the word to a website that describes the definition.

It’s nice to learn about the person you’re reading from. It gives us insight into your background and culture and it’s part of what makes you, YOU!

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