I am begging you to start writing online

I am begging you to start writing online.

Especially if any of these sound familiar:

1. You feel your ability to think getting duller. AI has made you work faster, but your brain feels a step slower every time you work without it.

2. You know being known for your ideas is the best career moat. But AI lets anyone publish 1,000 words in 10 seconds, so you’re not sure how to stand out.

3. You’ve tried writing with AI, but you hated what came out. It sounds just like what everyone is publishing, and you’d rather publish nothing than put out slop.

If any of those sound familiar, keep reading, because this post might change your life.

Now, writing online has changed a ton since I published my newsletter back on January 5th, 2020.

Back then, I was 24 years old working full-time as a hedge fund trader on Wall Street.

This position was my dream job. Or at least, I thought it was for the 5 years leading into it. But 12 months in, I realized this was not the life I wanted to live forever. I looked around at the people older than me and could not see myself living their lives in my 40s. There wasn’t anything “wrong” with the path they chose, I just knew it wasn’t for me.

This was a tough position for me to be in, since I was making $170,000 per year ($85,000 salary, $85,000 annual bonus). This was an absurd amount of money to me at the time, so there was no way I was just going to quit immediately. But I knew that over the long term, I did not want my time or my income to be dependent on someone else.

So instead of quitting, I needed to find a way to expose myself to opportunities. But I was not about to go waste my time at “networking events” with people I didn’t like. So after reflecting on the people I looked up to and admired, I realized they all had one thing in common:

They wrote on the internet.

So rather than overthink it, I made a simple commitment: I was going to write and publish a weekly newsletter for 52 weeks. I gave myself permission to stop if it wasn’t working, but only after a year. Worst case, I ended up with a better understanding of the ideas I wrote about. And best case, I ended up on a completely new life trajectory.

And now, 6 years since I started on that journey, I can point every single good thing that has happened in my life back to that simple decision to hit publish on that first newsletter.

• Writing helped me better understand my views on the world

• Writing led me to make my first $1 online selling podcast summaries

• Writing helped me meet my business partner Nicolas Cole through a mutual connection that followed me on Twitter

• Writing helped me build a following of over 700,000 people across platforms, many of whom have become my friends

• Writing helped me meet my girlfriend, who I met at a cafe while writing my weekly newsletter

• Writing helped me build a business that eventually allowed me to leave my comfortable Wall Street job to run my own business

• And most importantly, my writing journey has played a role in helping 10,000+ other writers hit publish on their first post inside Ship 30 for 30

No matter your goal, writing on the internet can help you get there faster.

However, the world of writing online looks quite different than when I started 6 years ago.

• There are more people publishing than ever before as people woke up to the value of having a following

• There is more “slop” on the internet than ever before, as AI allows anyone to publish 1,000+ words without thinking much about it (and quite frankly, without knowing what they’re talking about)

• There are better tools for getting leverage out of your ideas than ever before, which allow you to turn 1 post into hundreds of pieces of content without any drop in quality (as long as you write the original piece)

As a result of these changes, you need to take a different approach than the one I took back in January 2020. And to be honest, you need to take a different approach than just about anyone has taken over the last 5+ years, including some of the things I’ve personally recommended during that time.

• You need to go all-in on writing things from your own experience, rather than the experience of others. Curation content (where you collect others’ ideas) and commodity content (where you say things that anyone can say) are completely dead.

• You need to publish those ideas on multiple platforms, as technology allows you to be everywhere without additional effort. Focusing on just one platform made sense when it took a ton of time and effort to cross-post. But now, you need to be distributing your ideas in multiple places, since your ideal readers hang out everywhere.

• And you need to invest in building your Digital Brain: a living library of your own stories, opinions, and lessons. This creates a library that AI can pull from, rather than hallucinating or making up its own stories. AI should not produce any words you haven’t personally written yourself, which requires YOU to give it enough material to work with.

The writers who adapt their approach are the ones who will capture all of the upside over the next 5-10 years.

Now, this isn’t going to be some massive overhaul, because not everything about your approach needs to change.

• You still need to start writing somewhere (which is the hardest part for most people)

• You still need to start writing consistently (which means publishing every day)

• And you still need to improve your writing over time (which means talking to your readers & learning what’s working and what’s not working)

Those are timeless principles that will always hold true, no matter how the competition changes or the tools at your disposal improve.

And this updated approach is exactly what we’re teaching inside our upcoming Ship 30 for 30 cohort.

Back in 2020, Ship 30 for 30 started as a daily writing challenge to help beginners publish their first piece of writing.

嵌入推文（联网查看）

Since then, we’ve run 23 cohorts and helped 10,000+ writers begin their journey.

And during that time, we’ve kept the same proven structure that helps writers at every stage get started, be more consistent, and grow faster:

• Writing and publishing every day for 30 days

• Writing alongside a community for accountability

• Learning LIVE with direct mentorship from me and Nicolas Cole

And while the core structure has stayed the same, we’ve continued to keep the curriculum on the cutting edge. And our newest iteration is the best one yet, focusing on the 3 core changes I mentioned earlier:

• Writing Personality Content from your own experience

• Publishing those ideas on multiple platforms without additional work

• Investing in building your Digital Brain so you can write something once, then reference it forever

We’re excited to show our new students these upgraded techniques inside the proven container of writing every day for 30 days.

Now, chances are if you’re reading this, you understand the value of writing on the internet.

You didn’t just “stumble” into this article accidentally.

• Maybe you’ve always wanted to write online, and you’re finally getting around to it

• Maybe you’ve written a few posts here and there, but never consistently

• Or maybe you’ve been pretty consistent, but you’re not quite seeing the growth you deserve

No matter where you are on your journey, I’d love to formally invite you to join me and 1,000+ other writers for our upcoming Ship 30 for 30 cohort, which sets sail in under 24 hours!

Here’s exactly how it works:

For 30 days, you will write and publish alongside me, Nicolas Cole, and 1,000+ other writers.

• We start on Monday, October 5th

• Live Sessions with me and Cole every Monday and Thursday, 12 PM ET until November 9th

• All Live Sessions recorded + replays distributed

• You work through a 30-day curriculum to build your Digital Brain with proven Personality Content

And the best part?

Ship 30 for 30 cohorts are now free for AI Writing Skool members.

And joining AI Writing Skool is just $99 per month. Join today, participate in the cohort as long as you remain active, then decide later if you want to stay a part of the community to keep writing together, or cancel anytime if you want to go at it on your own.

Enrollment closes Sunday, October 4th at 11:59 PM ET. And our next cohort won’t be until January 2027.

Click here to join the October cohort.

Tons of writers are already introducing themselves and making friends on X, Substack, and LinkedIn.

So if you’d like to join them and write alongside me for the next 30 days, click here to secure your spot.

Writing on the internet completely changed my life trajectory, and it might just change yours as well.

-Dickie

PS: We set sail on Monday, October 5th. Which means the cart closes Sunday, October 4th at 11:59 PM ET. So don’t wait! If you know you want to get started writing online, secure your spot here.

PPS: If you want a sneak peek at some of the things we’re going to cover, we published one of our “pre-work” sessions to YouTube that will help you generate 100+ ideas to write about in under 30 minutes. Give it a watch if you’re on the fence and want proof we know what we’re talking about.