How Tim Urban created a viral blog in less than 2 years

Hey friends,

Last week we shared with you a few tips to help you maintain momentum with building your online presence. But just in case you need a jolt of inspiration to keep going, today we’ll share with you the answer to one critical question:

How does a chronic procrastinator become one of the most popular writers on the internet in a little under two years?

With a bestselling book, long-form blog posts that are guaranteed to go viral and a whopping 757K followers on Twitter, Tim Urban needs no introduction.

His stick figure drawings, humorous yet deeply informative breakdowns of highly complex topics, such as AI and cryonics, and graphics that make you contemplate your life choices have been a staple of the internet for years. Hell, he even got to write a series of deep dives on each of Elon Musk’s companies with collaboration from the man himself.

But before all this, he was just another 20-something-year-old, trying to find his way in the world. This is his story.

Tim’s story starts in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After spending the first years of his life in suburban Boston, he headed to Harvard after high school and picked a major only an idealistic youngster with a philosophical bend would: government. By the time his senior year rolled around, however, he realized that this would not be a career he would pursue. Instead, he decided to become a composer and write the music for movie scripts.

So, upon graduation, he did what any wide-eyed recent graduate does: he picked up and moved to LA. However, the film music business was not all it was cracked up to be, and soon, Tim found that he needed a different gig to pay the bills. That’s when he started tutoring students for the SATs. Soon enough, it took off and he found himself running a business with his best friend, Andrew.

After running their tutoring company for a few years, they decided to switch gears. Tim had developed a new-found passion for blogging and found himself relentlessly writing in his off hours. That’s why the duo decided to refocus their efforts and instead pour all their energy into growing Tim’s blog. The year was 2013 and none of them had any experience building or growing a community, blog or social media following. Yet, they decided to give it a go with Tim focusing on writing and Andrew focusing on growth.

Unlike other popular blogs at the time, they decided to focus on long-form content that often focused on philosophical topics, but approached them in a light-hearted way and made them understandable to anyone. Tim had been drawing low-grade comics for a few years, so when he and Andrew started Wait But Why, he decided to incorporate his stick figure drawings in the blog posts. Little did he know that they would soon become iconic…

From the very beginning, the duo behind Wait But Why decided to do something that was quite unusual in 2013: they collected the emails of their readers, and emailed them whenever a new blog post was up. This allowed them to own their audience from Day 1. In addition, readers would usually follow Tim on Twitter to get updates on the blog, which quickly kicked off a somewhat unexpected growth engine: social media.

Within 19 months, Wait But Why was attracting 61,000 readers per month. By then, Tim had developed a new interest in science and technology and started exploring topics such as The Fermi Paradox. With this new-found focus, the blog attracted the attention of influential figures in tech, including Elon Musk.

Musk liked Wait Bu Why so much that he decided to ask Tim for his help in telling the stories of his companies - from Tesla to SpaceX and Neuralink. What followed was a trip to LA, a somewhat awkward lunch with Musk and months of deep research that ultimately culminated into the release of The Elon Musk Series on Wait But Why in 2016.

With the weight of one of the most powerful tech entrepreneurs behind it, Wait But Why was off to the races. The series attracted millions of new readers, rapidly expanding the blog’s subscriber base, allowing Tim to increase his audience tenfold. The rest, as they say, is history.

While Tim’s story certainly involves a stroke of good luck, it does offer valuable lessons and an undeniable dose of inspiration. Never in his wildest dreams had Tim believed that he would one day get a call from Musk’s assistant, asking him to fly out. Yet, it happened. This goes to show that if you follow your curiosity and invest in developing your unique voice, success is likely to follow and - sometimes - the most unexpected things can happen.

With love,

Team Salley

What is Salley?

Salley is building an intelligent career coach to help you stay ready for the future.