Content writing can be recognized as an enticing career choice for countless reasons. Aspiring content writers compound a variety of essential ideas and messages while exploring and extending their creativity. Theories and notions come to life and retake the perfect shape.
Content writing can be a tricky profession today. On the one hand, everyone is potentially a writer in the age of the internet, which can make it hard to stand out. On the other hand, with the number of brands that rely on content marketing today (newsflash, it’s almost everyone), there is no dearth of opportunities.
It’s important to remember that being an effective content writer is very different from writing for magazines, newspapers, and journals. It also isn’t the same as typing out a few posts on your different social media channels. At just words, we have built a successful business over the last decade because we truly empower our writers, investing in them, so that they get the skills they need to succeed.
Here are some of the basic things you need to keep in mind while embarking on a journey as a content writer:
1. Successful content writers must master different writing styles:
The reason is that each from of writing has its own style. News is delivered in short, informational paragraphs with the meat of the story at the top. Blogging is personable, friendly and often opinionated. Ad copy is short and persuasive. White papers are long; they describe a problem and provide the solution.
2. Successful content writers don’t pick random subjects:
“Ideation” is a marketing industry buzzword that describes the creative process of finding a subject, title and angle to write about; and ideation begins with analytics. Most ideation is done in a team setting, but freelance writers are usually on the own. Successful content writers need to:
- Understand their audience. Marketers call it creating a “buyer persona.” If you know who your readers are, you can write what they want to read. You write for your audience. Not for yourself, not for your company, not for your brand.
- Perform keyword research. Buzzsumo.com showed that “content writing” is a better keyword than “content writing,” which is what led to a title change. The site also revealed that writing how-to posts are popular.
- A competitive content audit gives you a ton of information. Not just about what your competitors are sharing, but who is linking to their content, blogging about it, twitter it out and post it elsewhere.
- Construct a snappy title. After you have keyword, competitor and reader knowledge, take your time, choose your on subject and construct a title that will interest readers. The title compels people to read… or not. The most important words on your post are the title and the Meta description.
3. Successful content writers are original:
It’s your reputation. Every post with your name on it should be original. That probably sounds crazy, with all the tens of thousands of people writing about the same subjects, but it’s easier than it seems. Every talented writer can bring a unique voice, different perspective or new light to an overworked subject.
4. Successful content writers know SEO, HTML, CSS and Word press:
Don’t panic. You only need a few basics. WordPress themes have varying levels of automatic functions, and sometimes the only way to make your text appear the way you want it to is to dig into the text/HTML tab and manipulate the code to make a title tag or fix a spacing issue. It’s worth your time to learn the basics. Updated SEO knowledge is also critical.
5. Successful content writers are social media specialists:
Name recognition is important. Social media puts everything you need within your grasp. Build your audience, meet publishers and talk to industry experts. When your writing is published, the fun has only just begun. The more active you are on social media, the more likely your followers will be to recommend your content. Successful content writers are active, public and friendly.
So, think again about writing “success.” It stops being about words on paper as soon as “content” is added to “writer.” Content writers are marketing experts, SEO specialists, on-page coders and social media butterflies. With the right skill set, you’ll succeed and find that yours is the best job in the world.