Initial Steps that you need to follow to be a Successful Content Writer

Content writing is the work of writing content for the online audience. It includes blog writing, copywriting, description writing, social media post, and the list goes. There are currently more than 200 million active websites on the internet. Now you can see, content writing is a big industry with tremendous potential.

Opting career in this profession is definitely a good choice. But are you wondering whether content writing is really meant for me? What are the initial fundamental steps that need to be taken? Or what skills I need to acquire?

Now, I will try to answer these questions assuming content writing as a freelancer, as it often bothers the beginners.

Why content writing

The very first question you asked yourself before stepping into the content writing world, “Why content writing? “. There are plenty of job opportunities even in freelancing in this world; why choose content writing. Introspect, the real motivation behind the decision; whether you want to express your view through writing, or one of your friends to the same, so you also.

All through, it doesn’t matter from where you are inspired, but you have to know the bright and dark side before jumping into it. You must be ready to accept challenges and competitions in future.

Remember, content writing or any other freelancing industry is full of competition. Since there is no geographical, age or degree barrier, you will face good competition from all over the world. More and more people are joining the industry and COVID-19 boost it further.

Read and Write

You have firmly decided to be a content writer and has analysed your current skill position. Now it’s time to understand writing technique in a professional manner and sharpen it. For this to be done, visit different blogger’s pages and articles, read them thoroughly and try to grasp their writing style. Notice how the article is structured, sentence formation, researchers etc.

To practice what you have learned, write down some articles and post. It’s better to start with your favourite topic or subjects you know well. This will ease your job and keeps the early motivation alive. After finishing, try to compare your article with articles on the same topic written by professionals.

Believe me that will be eye-opening for you. You will get a glimpse of the path that has to be covered to become a top-notch writer.

Upgrade Your Skills

Content writing is not just about writing; it is a lot more than that. Having excellent writing skills is good but definitely not sufficient. You need some additional skills to excel in this field.

Following are the skills you need to –

1. Research- We all doesn’t know everything, and we don’t need it. Sometimes, you might get a topic from your client which you have heard for the first time. Now you need good research skills to accomplish the task. The more your deep research is, the more your final product looks professionally. Also include statistics (from Statistica), expert opinion and current trends in the research portion.
2. Tools- there are many free and paid tools available online meant to polish your write up. For example, Grammarly.com or Hemigway.com makes the content free from grammatical errors. To check plagiarism, Grammarly premium and copysrap.com are popular.
3. Time management- Managing time is a very crucial aspect of a freelancer. It ensures that you meet your deadline without compromising quality and quantity. You must know the average time you spend on research, writing, editing and bringing the final product. Analyse it and do your best to increase the efficiency. Also, learn to prioritise your workload according to importance, deadline and size.

SEO and Keyword Research

Since it involves Google (search engines), your write up should be Google friendly. The client who gonna use your work on the website, blogs or social media will also expect that along with impressing the reader, it also ranks on search pages.

Now, here comes search engine optimisation (SEO) and keyword research. In simple words, SEO is a guideline/recommendation which helps your content to rank up in the list that search engines will show when someone browses.

Keyword research also does a similar kind of job. It also helps you know what trending words or topics users are searching on the internet, so that you can increase the reach on your work.

There are plenty of free and paid online courses you can enroll in if you wish to learn more about them.

Create Portfolio

Ask yourself, will you hire a newcomer or an experienced content writer for your website. Obviously, you will go with an experienced one. Similarly, any company or client will prefer who has a repository of this work to show their experience and expertise.

A portfolio displays your work, style and skill to the world. It ensures the client that they can invest their money and time in you with confidence. Not just clients, but you also feel confident when you have something good to showcase your ability.

There are many ways to create a portfolio. First, have personal collect in pc and when someone asks for a sample just show them. Second, there are many platforms where you write content like medium.com, vocal media, journoportfolio.com. Here you have mainly two advantages; people can read your write-ups online, this creates your brand in the writing world and increases your potential customers. Also, you can earn some dollars there. The third is having your own website. Apart from having second option advantages you have leverage of making any kind of change or modification on the website and its content which you might not get there.

Another very note is that you should update the portfolio regularly. Client primarily judges your work on your latest updates since, for them, it only matters how you write today, not yesterday or not tomorrow. Also, make changes to old ones if required, don’t give a single chance of doubt or disappointment to the customers.

Conclusion

Content writing is a non-conventional field but undoubtedly has a very promising future. It provides leverage of working on your own terms and conditions. But all these benefits come with a cost. The cost is you will be solely responsible for all the success and failure.

freelancing is an open platform. You have to constantly innovate and improve to sustain yourself in the market.

Also, there is no health insurance, pension scheme or paid leaves. So, if any unfortunate event happen with you, it will be a financial disaster. Although you can avoid this with your financial management skills.

at last, if you LOVE TO EXPRESS YOURSELF THROUGH WRITING and you are confident to have the trait of KEEP LEARNING and INNOVATING, then definitely content writing is for you.