Nowadays, many people pursue a content writing career. Due to the rapidly growing demand for information needed by businesses operating online, this makes it a perfect opportunity for content writers worldwide. There are different ways to be an effective content writer. The best way to start is by asking the right question.
Instead of asking, “Who will read my content?” you should ask, why will anyone keep reading all of this content? Before publishing, you can think ahead and ask another question, “What can make the audience come back for more?” Here are a few steps you can follow below.
When you’re in the right mindset, you’ll soon understand that writing can be a lucrative profession. If you’re interested in becoming a content writer, the tips mentioned below can be a big help to get you started. (1)
The Right Tools
Now that you have the right outlook on online content writing as a profession, you should first prepare your tools. Having the right tools makes your job easier and faster. It also enables you to follow guidelines that are an absolute necessity in getting your work published.
With that said, you should always pay attention to the number of characters you’re using. Some websites count each character. Failure to abide by their guidelines can deny your bid to publish your content on their sites. Always get a reliable tool that can help you with character count.
Next, you should focus on your grammar. No one likes reading an online article that’s messy and has lots of grammatical errors. An article with numerous errors can sound unprofessional and farfetched.
If you want readers to understand and take your writing by heart, you need to improve the quality of your article. You can use Grammarly and other free tools that will help in spotting and correcting such errors.
Know Your Audience
In content writing, you have to write from your heart. By doing so, you have to be passionate about going through a lot of research for your content. You can speak well to your audience by providing well-researched facts. Also, you can think ahead by outlining what the audience might ask.
One effective way is putting citations that will direct to another link; this can be set as a keyword that will provide another article relevant to your main topic. It can be efficient, both for the writer and its audience. Thinking one step ahead, as a matter of fact, will not just satisfy your readers; they will also look forward to your next content.
Straightforward Creativity
There’s a distinct line between creative writing or essay writing compared to online content writing. In creative writing, you can play with words and take your audience down in your deepest thoughts. Whereas, in content writing, clarity is the key. You can still use your creative content writing juices by making sure that your audience is engaged, entertained, and, more importantly, learning from your content.
In other words, you have to be direct with your main point while avoiding to bore your audience. You can ensure that your audience is entertained by providing easy to follow, easy to apply, and understandable steps.
Avoid Plagiarism
As a new content writer, it is tempting to copy, paraphrase, or use synonyms from readily available content. Worst case scenario, you may not be aware that content is considered a plagiarized work. As a new writer, you have to protect your reputation as losing a client due to plagiarism can badly affect your career. Some are even pushed into a lawsuit. No one wants that to happen.
Aside from the tools mentioned above, you also should have to rely on a plagiarism checker. These checkers allow you to monitor your content for any plagiarism issues. One such effective tool is Copyscape.
SEO Know-How
Originality, word count, proper grammar, and a lot more stuff is needed for your content to get published online. So why do you need to do everything by the book? The answer is SEO. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process that ensures a website or content is properly optimized so it can be seen more easily when users search for a certain keyword in a search engine.
There’s a lot to SEO but getting the basics to show on your articles and online content can help a lot. Google and other search engines take SEO rules to heart and can be the basis to deny or approve content from coming up on their search engines. (2)
In A Nutshell
Now that we’re in a pandemic and many jobs are on the line, a lot of people are looking to the internet for a viable career. Online content writing is certainly one of the professions, if done right, can put you on the top. It can also lead you to rock-bottom if done wrong. With the tips mentioned above, you’ll have no problem starting your career in the world of online content writing.
