Why Nobody Reads Your Articles - and How to Fix That Sh*t!
Stop writing into the void. Write to yourself 5 years ago to find your audience and finally strike oil
You’ve got great ideas. You’re writing consistently. You’re hitting "Publish."
But no one is reading.
This one small thing can change everything.
Just write for yourself 5 years ago!
It’s not that hard.
I’ve been there.
I know how to write - I built a business, China Admissions, on the back of SEO and article writing.
But when I started my personal blog, I hit a wall. I wrote daily for a year, but the readership was slow, steady, and limited.
I was learning, sure.
But I was missing one small thing.
I actually got this idea from Ana Calin How We Grow reflection on turning 44: The power of writing to your past self.
The Two Questions That Changed My Writing
Why am I writing?
Who is the target reader?
Previously, my answer to the first was: "Because I enjoy it and want to learn."
That’s a great hobby, but it’s not going to grow.
My answer to the second was: Me. I was writing for me.
The Problem with Writing for Yourself or for Fun
When you write for yourself, you write in a way that doesn’t resonate. You write like you think, you skip context, and you focus on your own curiosity rather than the reader’s transformation.
You don’t really care about others when you’re writing.
And it shows.
But it also doesn’t resonate.
If you must write for yourself, do it for yourself first, then rewrite it with the reader in mind.
Finding an audience is like digging for oil. There are pockets of readers everywhere. Once you strike a “vein” - once you resonate with a specific group - you can keep drilling.
But how do you find that first vein?
In my business, China Admissions, writing was easy. I spoke to customers every day; I knew their fears, their visa headaches, and their dreams. But on my personal blog, I hit a wall. For a year, I wrote into a void. Why? Because in business, I was writing to solve problems. On my blog, I was just writing to learn.
But when you start fresh it’s hard because you don’t know who you’re writing for.
The “5-Year-Ago” Framework
If you don’t know who your reader is yet, don’t guess. Don’t build a fake “persona” of someone you’ve never met.
Write for yourself 5 years ago
This is the ultimate shortcut for three reasons:
Abundance: You know exactly what challenges that person faced 5 years ago. You have a 5-year head start on the solutions.
Empathy: You don’t have to imagine their pain; you lived it.
Scalability: There are thousands (or more) of people right now who are exactly where you were 5 years ago
From Diary to Roadmap
When I wrote for “current me,” I didn’t really care if people read it. Writing it was enough. That kept my impact limited.
When you switch to writing for someone else - for the “past you,” your writing transforms.
You’ll start re-writing it.
You’ll make it much better.
And it shows.
Because you care.
The next time you sit down to write, ask:
What is one thing I know now that would have saved me 100 hours 5 years ago?
What was I most afraid of back then?
How can I explain this concept without the jargon I’ve learned since?
OR - If I could send one article back to myself 5 years ago, what would that be?
And you also need to take some risk
Some of my best writing has been a bit scary. It was real, it was raw, and it needed a bit of aggression to overcome it.
Sometimes it can be because polarising writing is powerful.
You are not afraid to upset some people, to reach the one you really care about.
Because you are prepared to stand for something.
Rather than just writing as the average of all the books you’ve read before.
Average writing is chatgpt writing. It blends in. It’s not remarkable.
So stop writing for the world.
Start writing for the person you used to be.
The rest will follow.
That’s alignment.
So who was I, 5 years ago? and Who are you?
I was extremely interested in personal development, willing to do anything, working hard building a business, with incredible potential, in a great relationship, not yet married, sometimes a bit too cautious, a bit of a perfectionist, read all the books, tried many things, and ready to achieve everything.
If that’s you.
Welcome!
So I’ll do my best to share what I’ve learnt.
Back then I didn’t understand:
The power of leverage
How markets work
The value of time (it’s something you appreciate more as you get older) and how not to waste it
How relationships work
Greater psychological truths
Now I believe that:
You can grow, and should be growing exponentially. If not there is something wrong, something is misaligned.
That it’s possible to teach everything you know to someone who is 18. We can compress a decade of lessons into a day of learning. We should be able to teach everything we know to an 18-year-old so they don't have to start from zero.
You don’t need to learn lessons personally to learn them. You can learn them by being in the right environment, with great content, and by staying away from average content.
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So if that resonates, if that’s you, if you’re hungry to grow.
If you’d like to upgrade and become your best self, subscribe for my upcoming articles and leave me a comment to introduce yourself and what you’re writing about.
Another great book about writing is On Writing by Stephen King, that I read about 5 years ago.
Very cool take 🤗