Insider Hacks for AI Writing: This AI Writing Hack Made Him Millions🌟(Full Breakdown)
Insights from Ghost Writer Guru - Nicolas Cole
In the world of content creation, artificial intelligence has emerged as a game-changing tool for writers. Nicolas Cole, a prolific writer and entrepreneur, recently shared his insights on how to effectively write with AI in a podcast titled "This AI Writing Hack Made Him Millions."
Today, we’ll share all the key tips and hacks he shared in this episode and explore how you can leverage AI to supercharge your writing process.
Why not embracing AI as a collaborative tool?
The first and most crucial mindset shift is to view AI not as a replacement for human writers, but as a powerful collaborative tool.
The fear that AI will take all our jobs, especially for writers, misses a bigger picture.
History shows us a different story.
When Photoshop launched in 1990, it didn’t kill design—it multiplied designers.
When Instagram launched in 2010, it didn’t end photography—it empowered photographers.
Now, with AI writing tools in 2025, it won’t replace writers—it will enable everyone a storyteller.
By lowering the barriers to entry, these tools open the door for more voices, ideas, and stories than ever before. Instead of replacing creativity, AI is enabling it to flourish.
The difference between 20 years ago vs. now, is that -
Every single business and every single individual understands, that they should create and share content online.
There will only be more content being written online. So,
“AI becomes the stress test of, do you know how to use this to double, triple, quadruple your output?”
“If yes, you will make even more money than you were making before because you are more valuable. And If you don't know how to use this, you become less valuable.”
However, AI is not a silver bullet.
One misalignment of expectation with using AI is, as Cole puts it:
“People expect AI to automate and do things that they don't understand how to do themselves."
As the creator, you kind of need to have a baseline idea of how to carry out the process of writing after you come up with the seed idea.
Be the Editor-in-Chief of your own writing, and call on AI to do the legwork for you!
The Editor-in-Chief style of writing framework is what Cole suggested to leverage before you start writing. That is,
Put on the hat of “Editor-in-Chief”, and
let AI be your junior columnist.
Why?
Good writing comes with a lot of good thinking.
Good results create repeatable success frameworks you can rely on whenever you tackle new writing in the future.
One interesting point Cole mentioned was about what most people tend to do when writing (and I’m guilty of it too! 😜):
“They have a thing called I don't want to practice and execute the basics and I would rather, no offense, drink a bunch of coffee, close my eyes, and hope that something smart comes out when I hit the keyboard, right? And that's not a very reliable strategy. You're good like 1 out of every 10 times. So that's why these frameworks are so helpful.”
As Editor-in-Chief of your own writing, you’ll need to make high-leverage decisions BEFORE diving into the actual writing process. Cole introduces a hierarchy of decision-making:
Determine the promise of your content (headline)
Identify the main points that deliver on that promise
Fill in the details and supporting content
By focusing on these high-level decisions first, you can ensure that your content is valuable and engaging before you even start writing the body text.
For instance, he started a live writing exercise with the following seed content with Greg Isenberg (Podcast host):
Cole went on to determine the main idea of the article—whether it would stand alone or be part of a larger topic. Additionally, he brainstormed specific goals for writing this piece (see below):
👇
In this exercise, Cole asked AI the following question:
“Can you please generate 20 potential headlines for this sort of piece, and under each headline, list out 3 to 5 main points that would make up the content of that piece.”
Essentially, we're using AI to generate fresh ideas based on the limited context we provide, including the seed idea, goals, and more. Below is the full prompt:
The reason this high-level decision-making process is recommended is:
Most Writers and most people who want to write don't realize is that many of the decisions get made before you start writing
As Cole explains,, “if you come up with an idea and Your first thought is I should open a Google Doc and I should start writing. You've already failed.”
This initial interaction with AI mirrors the dynamic in publishing houses or newspapers between the Editor-in-Chief and junior columnists. AI elevates us to become our own “Editor-in-Chief,” as Cole puts it, where “our primary value is taste,” rather than simply generating high-quality ideas quickly.
You should leverage the "10 Magical Ways" Framework from Nicholas Cole - like what I’m doing now…
Cole also introduces a powerful framework called the "10 Magical Ways," which can be used to reverse-engineer almost any piece of nonfiction writing. This framework helps writers overcome writer's block and provides a clear structure for content creation. These "ways" include:
Tips
Stats
Steps
Lessons
Benefits
Reasons
Mistakes
Examples
Questions
Personal Stories
Essentially, every detailed section of your content, either fully or partially, can align with one of these “ways.” By identifying which of these “ways” you want to use, you can quickly generate ideas and structure your piece effectively with the help of AI.
90% of your content will be evaluated based on your title, and headlines, so make them add value at 1st glance.
Now let’s put these frameworks into action. First let’s start with sub-headlines in your content.
90% of your piece will be evaluated based on your title, and the main headlines in the article.
When crafting your main headlines, Cole suggests:
I think that you should always try yourself first, and then weigh it against what AI comes up with, and then improve the quality together.
That is why I don't defer the writing to AI, I write with AI.
Here’s an example of bad sub-headlines that add no value. You wouldn’t feel compelled to keep reading after seeing these, right? 🙂↔️ 🙂↔️
Cole’s pro-tips on writing sub-heads:
A lot of times when people come up with subheads, They think the same way that AI does, so they think in terms of quippy main titles. Main titles typically lean more clever, not as clear.
I've always found that the best main points and subheads are actually more like sentences, where you're literally just saying to the reader, you clicked on this title, I'm going to give you all the value in 3 sentences, bolded as subheads.
And whenever you do that, it's so much more likely that the person then gives each section their attention, versus if you give them something like more vague, you know, “stay agile even when growing”, they don't really know what they're going to get out of that section, which means they don't give it their attention.
Now you’re ready to continue your research with AI to fill in the blanks. Each subsection can utilize the “magic ways” framework when prompting AI.
For instance, the first section in the example below could follow a “steps” framework, as it focuses on “running a banned words experiment.”
Section 2 could benefit from using multiple examples to demonstrate why and how “convenience can be a product differentiator.”
Section 3 could delve into the “whys” behind the statement: “Businesses built around guilt empower the customer, not alienate them.”
This is how you can increasing productivity and efficiency
By incorporating AI into your writing process, you can dramatically increase your productivity and efficiency, in the ways we just showed you👆. In summary, Cole suggests using AI for tasks like:
Generating multiple versions of headlines or hooks
Expanding on main points with supporting details
Brainstorming examples or case studies
Fact-checking and research assistance
The key is to use AI for the "lower leverage" tasks (ie., the legwork - you don’t want to do it anyway!🥳) while focusing your human creativity and judgment on the high-level decisions and final polishing.
The Future of Content Creation
As AI tools continue to evolve, the landscape of content creation is changing rapidly. However, Cole's insights remind us that the fundamental skills of a good writer – creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to connect with an audience – remain crucial. The writers who will thrive in this new era are those who can effectively collaborate with AI, using it to enhance their natural abilities rather than replace them.
Again, at the end of today’s post, I’d like to shout out for Oscr:
Oscr is at your service!
Over the past few weeks, we’ve received incredible feedback from our user community. While we know we’re not perfect yet, we’re committed to solving your pain points, saving you time, and adding value to your workflow.
We’d love to hear more from you! Based on your feedback, we’ve already added the following features:
Webhook
Blog Stylist
Search History
In appreciation of your input, we’d like to gift you an additional 1,000 credits for testing. Let’s connect! You can schedule a quick call with me and Mehdi here:
We look forward to meeting with you!
Happy Creating! 🎉
Full interview with Nicholas Cole is here. All black images are sourced from this podcast as part of a live AI writing session.