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Today's issue is special. It marks the first installment of The Profiting Publisher being sent from my new website!

My man Mike told me to let the list know when I made the migration.

(You know who you are).

So here's the official announcement! Thanks for the comment and support. And thanks to those of you viewing this live!

Let's get started...

In the world of digital writing, there are plenty of ways to monetize.

So many in fact, that you could even build a newsletter on that topic alone.

Hmm, what a fantastic idea... ;)

It brings me to this question. What makes more money? Short-form content or long-form? I may be biased, given that I met monetization initially with long-form.

But in retrospect, I've generated more reach with my short form.

To be honest, I never would've earned a single dollar from my products if it weren't for that short-form content. But on the flip side, I also never would've learned how to write AND received the motivation to keep going, without my beloved base of long-form.

But enough about me. This is about you. And what will make us more money.

🩳 Short Form

For the sake of simplicity, we're going to define "short-form" as content that's restricted by a character limit.

For example, when you type on Twitter and the limit stops you at 280.

It surely has its pros and cons. One is the fact that you might not manage to say everything you'd like, but on the other hand, you might be able to reach a larger audience.

Think about it.

Do your Tweets get more views or your Medium stories? There may be some exceptions, but for the most part, a Tweet can travel farther. It makes sense considering the volume of users and viral potential from the algorithm.

We also need to consider time as a factor.

It's incredibly quick to craft a Tweet. But an article? That could take you at least an hour in writing time and it might not even see the audience that day.

These are all important factors.

And as you know, our Tweets don't directly make money or any short-form piece of content for that matter. You could post "short-form" content on Medium, but we all know it doesn't do nearly as well.

But here's the deal.

You heard me say it before. I never would've been able to monetize my first paid product if I didn't take advantage of publishing short-form content on platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.

And that's the trick. The short-form content doesn't directly get you paid, but it does act as a catalyst for getting people towards your long-form, like an eBook or Medium story (where we get paid).

So for short-form, we'll say this. It's a great funnel for eyeballs. The ones that'll get you paid eventually.

📝 Long Form

Again for simplicity, we'll start by defining.

I see long-form as content restricted via word count. Or technically, not restricted at all. It can be as long as we want and as informative as we please.

It might be my favorite type of writing (although I have a soft spot for Tweets).

You can probably tell by the way I'm turning this post into a run-on-rant. I'm sorry, I'm just passionate. Passionate about making you some money!

With long-form content like blog posts and articles, you have an awesome opportunity to build a relationship with the reader. Kind of like we do weekly. It lets you into the mind of the author. You can feel their emotion.

Even a sales page counts.

Typically, it's the long-form content that puts the dollars in your wallet. Whether that be read-time on Medium, the sale of an eBook, the purchase from a sales page, or anything else you think of.

💡 The Verdict

I pretty much let the cat out of the bag already.

But I'm throwing you for a loop. The verdict is both! On a technical level, the answer is long-form. But the real results come when you combine the two.

Here's a decent strategy.

Use the short form to send them to your long form.

If I had to pick a favorite, I couldn't do it. They're both an essential part of my own publishing system and they play an important role in the grand scheme of writing.

For all of us!

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