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"I have a family business that has a business model that depends on communities flourishing as it's open source software," the founder says. Therefore, he wished to create a private Discord community that had access to the content of WordPress and that's the platform where his very first project in media, virtualization.info was hosted, it would let him "recycle twenty years of knowledge".

He decided to utilize WordPress in the first place, not only because of his knowledge, but because of the flexibility of the platform. "There are a number of reasons 43% of the websites around the globe are using WordPress," he adds. The maturity of the plugin community means that what you can achieve using WordPress is impressive and can be done only a fraction of the time with other solutions."

Don't compromise branding is essential.

Alessandro goes on to say: "Many newsletter and blogging platforms offer little freedom in the creation of a brand. They unite the appearance and feel and everyone has the exact same look and feel. You can customize the theme by a bit, and you can add your logo, but those are just minor tweaks.

"Every blog or newsletter appears identical. This isn't working for me. As I often mention on social media, do not give up on the method which is the best for you. Don't compromise getting the most effective work you could do to check a box. Doing something you don't want to do is one of the things that sets you back over and over."

A screengrab from the original virtualization.info site

"I created a brand that users remember from 20 years ago. They still talk to me on. I must have absolute freedom and flexibility to create and shape every single pixel of this website in a way that reinforces my brand. I'd like to develop my own brand, not any other publishing brand."

Becoming valuable: niche and voice

"Two factors are crucial when creating an online magazine," Alessandro continues. "The foremost is to find your niche. This is easy for you to think of, but hard to do!" he laughs.

The author explains that there's no value in having yet another person who covers the same subjects as other people who are covering the same topics from the same angle. "You could cover similar topics, and that could be cooking or politics or crochet, squash, or anything else you want to, but you have to be able to see things from a different angle. That is the essence of your niche and the way in which your approach to things will be distinct."

He explains the concept of Synthetic Work is looking at AI from a non-technical perspective as well as how it affects jobs, industries, economy and the society. "If you are looking at cooking, for example, you might be in a niche where your perspective is on the science behind it. This is something rarely discussed perhaps about how, on the very deep chemical level it is why food tastes great.

The second step is to find your own voice. "Human is a creature that learns by imitating our surroundings. We say, "Wow I love the way the person's writing style' then you attempt to imitate that, which is great and is the best way to master your craft as quickly as you can. But then you need to reach a stage where you create your own voice, which is scary!"

It's a bit daunting to imagine that people may not enjoy the way you view at the world, or the way you express yourself in writing about it, but this is the only way you can distinguish yourself from others. "If you've got identical voice, or identical approach as everyone who else, you'll soon be forgotten."

The author continues: "People don't read for information. This may sound counterintuitive, but people are drawn to reading because they trust them: they're interested in you as a person, and that interest percolates onto what you share." He advises readers to ensure their personal style comes out in the voice they employ when speaking about their niche.

Alessandro present on stage at OpenStack community event in Silicon Valley

Alessandro notes that he's regularly seen this phenomenon for 20 years and still sees it on a daily basis. For example, I was reading an instructional guide for those who want to pursue a PhD which was composed by one of the co-founders of OpenAI. The guide has nothing to do with artificial intelligence. It is something that he wrote years ago. In this article, he advises going to conferences. He suggests that you look more at the program and more at the speakers. Try to go for speakers you know and admire or who you've heard have good taste, regardless of the fact that what they're presenting is not aligned with what you've researched."

Alessandro explains that this is a perfect example of his point to get people excited about what you do and the way you say things. In the end, your words can become secondary. "Even if they don't agree with you, they will be interested in your thoughts however, because they've grown to admire you and believe they play a significant contribution to their lives."

More information on Synthetic Work

Learn more details Alessandro Perilli and his Synthetic Work newsletter here: synthetic.work.