The Pen Pivot

Exploring the psychology behind creating content that hooks and grips an audience. More in The Pen Pivot newsletter 👇

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53 years ago, sociologist Murray Davis wrote a paper revealing 12 reasons humans find things “interesting”.

Psychology-driven cheat codes for coming up with guaranteed interesting ideas.

Here are 4 you can use yourself:

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@BuildWithAdam I see what you did there
😉

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Quick ways to increase a blog post's ad RPM:

- Use long images
- Increase font size
- Use short paragraphs
- Target more "expensive" keywords

Last point is crucial

Eg. writing about specific brands is more lucrative than writing about generic items of clothing

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Using stock images in blog posts just doesn't cut it anymore.

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@CamBrandBoost 100%

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The Pratfall Effect:

Be a human in your content

The "About Me" page is the perfect place

Share:

- Small imperfections
- Relatable stories
- Empathy with your audience's struggles

Humanizing details should, in theory, make your content more relatable and likable.

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@CamBrandBoost Numbers generally work a treat in headlines and hooks

Ive generally found that the larger and more precise the numbers, the better

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@dickiebush So true

Yet so difficult to remind myself of this sometimes!

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@ItsElleCheron The most important thing is getting started 🙂

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@RubiksLive Thats a lot of posts!

A great message to share - sometimes keeping it simple is the best way

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@OjediranAyo It's all about the analysis 👏

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@WrittenByJackie Exactly
No such thing as a shortcut, just gotta persist

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@Copyghostt The kind of accident you want

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@dschwertfeger Great analysis, I enjoyed this post!

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@thatguyDOR Nice way to wake up

Congrats !!

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@BuildWithAdam And when your 'work' is fun - productivity naturally increases

Gotta love it

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@audrlo Thanks for sharing these great strategies.

Increasing emails is where the focus is for me right now.

💪

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The Mere Exposure Effect:

Familiarity leads to likeability.

The more people see your content across different platforms, the more familiar it becomes

And the more likeable it becomes

A case for diversifying across different platforms?

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Great headline:

I Cured My Fear Of Public Speaking In 2 Steps And 2 Weeks

Cognitive fluency:

People prefer information that's easy to process

If readers/viewers believe you'll take a complex topic and break it down into simple, actionable steps

They'll click to find out more

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*Note* - Most figures are estimates based on publicly available information

I do deep dives into top creators and the funnels that drive their businesses.

If you enjoyed this, please:

1. Follow @hellomisya for more of these
2. RT the first tweet to share it with others

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Sugar Geek Show will make at least $900,000 this year 🍰

From a small cake decorating YouTube channel into a multi-platform media empire with 4.35 million followers online

Here's a breakdown of Liz Marek's epic content empire:

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TL;DR for content creators:

- Diversify traffic sources
- Prioritize consistency and be reliable
- A "face" behind the brand = deeper connection
- Community, not just audience
- Recurring revenue > *Just* ads
- Boost credibility with social proof
- Adapt to new platforms