Tim Urban, the co-founder of the famous blog Wait But Why talked about being not shitty on the internet at INBOUND16. And by the time he finished his session, he had inspired a lot of people to write good stuff in an engaging manner.
@waitbutwhy got me excited to go write. Haven’t felt that in a while #INBOUND16
— Jon Saxton (@jonsaxton) 10 November 2016
So, what did he talk about that left people so inspired? He basically talked about blogging. But, not the kind of blogging we see or do very often. He talked about writing stuff which engages the reader on an emotional level.
Bloggers need to produce strong positive emotions to make conversions. @waitbutwhy #INBOUND16
— ✨Danielle Sabrina✨ (@DanielleScorp) 10 November 2016
If you’re wondering what metrics will ensure that you are engaging with the reader on an emotional level, here’s your answer:
“Key blogger metric: how much people like you when you’re in their brain”- Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) pic.twitter.com/CA2sa2nICB
— Signet Interactive (@signet_int) 10 November 2016
And, what can you expect as returns?
How reader feelings about your content translate into returns in 2016. @waitbutwhy#INBOUND16pic.twitter.com/mLdJGoYb5z
— INBOUND (@INBOUND) 10 November 2016
Now, you know the objective, the metric, and the returns. Let’s move on to the doing part. How you can create blog posts that take your email list from 300 to 27,000 subscribers (Lucy did it for Wait But Why).
How about thinking first?
“It’s amazing how much there is to write about everything if you just think about it first.” @waitbutwhy#INBOUND16#facts
— ✨Danielle Sabrina✨ (@DanielleScorp) 10 November 2016
Tim also shared three buckets full of topics to write about:
Three buckets of topics: everything going on in our heads, whats going on with people, what’s going on in humanity @waitbutwhy#INBOUND16
— Natively (@gonatively) 10 November 2016
Bloggers often worry about the decreasing attention span of adults. Tim said, how about writing for babies?
“I’m a curious baby…I want the meat of it, but I’m going to get bored…I want to have FUN”@waitbutwhy@INBOUND#INBOUND16#INBOUNDsolo
— Christine Gritmon (@cgritmon) 10 November 2016
He said that if you structure your posts like a fiction, people will read it irrespective of the length.
A good content experience should tell a fiction-like story: cliff hangers, foreshadowing & build to climax. @waitbutwhy#INBOUND16
— Jenna Vassallo (@jenna_vassallo) 10 November 2016
Tim also advised making content memorable.
How to make your content memorable? Come up with symbols and terms that will stick. @waitbutwhy #INBOUND16 pic.twitter.com/oUzodwQqRt
— Liane Ng (@angmohlian) 10 November 2016
.@waitbutwhy “I introduced Lucy and had I known this was going to go viral I would have worked harder on the stick figure.” #INBOUND16pic.twitter.com/FMn31Xs8sD
— Alex Plaxen (@APlaxen) 10 November 2016
And this one’s to all those who write blog posts (including myself):
A blog post is an experience… @waitbutwhy#INBOUND16pic.twitter.com/yAxaJylNLz
— INBOUND (@INBOUND) 10 November 2016
Hubspot shared a section of Tim’s spotlight session which you can watch right here!
So, that was the recap of Tim Urban’s spotlight session at INBOUND16. If you’re looking for recaps of other inspiring sessions that happened at INBOUND16, check out our coverage page.