How to Become an Expert Content Writer

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Content  Writing

A process of writing, editing web content in a planned manner for digital marketing purposes is called content writing. It can be a blog or an article, podcast or scripts for videos. Or content for any other specific platforms like Instagram or Twitter. Due to the rise in online activities, content writing came into existence. The charge of content writing is generally paid per word basis, also known as PPW. Only writing skills are not necessary to become a content writer, to become a content writer, a complete marketing tool and skills are required.  Any content writer aims to create quality content that is, informative and interesting to draw the attention of the readers. Content writing is a combination of SEO tactics and solid creative writing skills to pitch a product or tell a story.

How to Become a Content Writer.

In today’s world to become a content writer a specific tool is needed. It includes certifications that will be beneficial for both newbies and experts.

Henry Harvin provides a content writing course with a gold membership. Providing globally recognized CDCW certification. It helps to learn 30+ content types with the skill to translate thoughts into words that attract leaders, technical know-how of launching a website, graphic skills to design newsletters, and PPTs. It also includes the identification of the target audience for your content and knowing how to secure freelance projects from the US and UK.

Scope of a Content Writer

Content writer is a good option for candidates who have the skills to do creative writing ability to express views in writings and have good online research skills and have the skill to target the audience through online content.

Content writing as a career option is having great potential as demand for content is growing day by day. The activity of content writing nowadays is being outsourced to create a separate world for content writers thus reflect the kind of job market created for them.

A digital marketing agency (result-based marketing in the digital world) hires content writers for different types of job roles like email marketing, blog writing, SEO marketing, etc. Thus taking into the deeper and deeper segment and specific content writers are required for each segment.

Content writing has a challenge of its own as the content has to be new, interesting,  informative, and crisp for the writers are in a state to figure out what and how to write the blog and article.

Types of content writing

 

1. Blog Post

Blog posts are a type of website where content is posted in chronological order newer ones first and older ones last. Generally, blogs are written by an individual or small group of people and updated on regular basis, Blogs can be part of a larger website, and more often the business has a blog section where content is published daily to inform and educate customers. In easy language we can say a blog can be part of the website, however, a website cannot be a blog.

Many businesses have traditional websites made of pages and no blogs to create an informational web presence for business organizations or individuals. On the other hand, businesses are having separate blog sections to improve traffic to their website. Blogs are proven to improve search engine optimization( SEO) they have an RSS feed feature that allows users to stay updated with the latest post.

2. White Papers.

A white paper an informative document issued to inform its reader about the complex issue. The white paper is generally used to promote a certain product, service, technology, methodology. white papers are generally of 2500 words and are written in an academic style. It is designed as a document issued before the sale and not as a technical document or user manual.

Cry ptocurrencies have been known to publish white papers to drive investors.

3. E-Books.

As the name suggests Ebooks are the book read on an electronic device in form of text or images are often packaged as PDF. Amazon Kindle is a very good example of an online E book store. Memoirs and biography, self-help, religion and spirituality,  health fitness and diet, etc are some categories in which E-books are sold. And to promote these various channels are used like Instagram, email, youtube, Linkedin, Facebook, etc.

4. Case Study.

It is a very influential way which proves that the product is working. Case study as a part of marketing strategy convinces the customer to try the product and service and its very important for SEO optimization. It works like showing the challenge faced and then presenting the solution as the product or service.

5. Customer Success Stories and Testimonies

Nowadays it is the trend of the business to present the customer success stories as it not only reflects that the product is being bought but also as it is successful. It shows how the company is performing in the real world.

6. FAQs

In today’s world FAQ is an important segment of any content writing, it’s a kind of snapshot of the article. This not only saves the time of the buyer but also the sellers as it reduces the number of routine questions.

7. Newsletter

A serial publication or email directed to consumer advertising. The companies send information directly to potential customers.

Types of Writing Styles

1. Narrative. The narrative style is traditionally intended to tell a story based on the writer’s real-life experiences. It follows a storyline where the writer uses flashbacks or foreshadowing in writing.
2. Descriptive. Descriptive essays essentially paint a picture of something. It uses metaphor and smileys in writing, the focus is to make the reader feel like they are experiencing the events for themselves.
3. Expository. To inform the reader. As the name suggests the writing is based on detail explanation. Generally, the main idea is stated first and then the rest part proves and explains what is in the introduction then concluding in the last part.
4. Persuasive. Use to convince or influence the reader it combines research and logical reasoning with emotional connection

Compare and contrast, reflective and personal are also the types of writing styles however broadly there are 4 styles.

Types of Writing Jobs

1. SEO content writer:– For search engine optimization in digital marketing apart from writing the content the writer has responsibility for writing error-free blogs, articles, descriptions, etc. they have to be creative and follow the pattern to help in SEO. They have the responsibility of optimizing the search engine.
2. Medical Writer. Medical writers give a proper structure and create a standard document for medical professionals as All new drugs go through clinical trials and regulatory procedures leading to the market.
3. Technical Writer. Prepares instruction manual, creates diagrams to show the working methodology of the product. Prepare journals another supporting documents for technical information and complex issue.
4. Proposal Writer or Grant Writer.  Are the ones who put all the information in a concise and persuasive manner and helps to get what is required. The problem can be anything like a process improvement. The proposal writer pitches the idea and requirements and the implications of that change. A well-written proposal is often taken seriously and discussed at every point.
5. Report Writer. The one who writes the report after the data analysis and produces it for various industries. They develop customized reports from the database and extract the data as per the client’s needs.
6. Copywriter. Are writing for promotion or advertising or other forms of marketing. The content aims to increase the brand presence and persuade the person to take the action. Copywriting can take various forms
7. Freelance Writer. Writing for money while not being employed by any company or organization. They work on their own so the work has to be good enough to attract the clients for their single work.
8. Ghostwriter. Are hired to create text, speeches, or journalist work that is officially named to another person. There is a confidentiality clause between the ghostwriter and the credited writer that obligates him to be anonymous. Ghostwriting or ghosting also occurs in other creative fields.
9. Press release writer. Written communication is Generally issued by a business or organization or government and provided to media. It contains brief information about events, circumstances, or other happening.

 

Content Writing Tips

• Write a Head-Turning Headline. Be specific. The headline attracts the audience and decides whether audiences will read the rest of your work.  A catchy headline brings the reader to view the article. It should be such that it catches the eye and draws the reader towards your article. Stay away from being descriptive.
• Know your audience– To do content writing having an idea as to who is going to read it is very important. Realizing this helps to write what they know about the subject and what they think about the subject. In short, It helps to determine what is expected by the readers and at the same time, it also determines what is going to attract the readers.
• The starting sets the stage– The opening line that creates the interest of the reader and he wants to read on, the first line has to stand out in a good way. A unique voice that jars them out of reality. A Hook That Grabs Their Attention.
• Do Your Research– It’s not rushing to complete the article rather evaluating sources and locating material outlining. Research can be done anywhere based on the article like internet libraries newspaper documentaries museums government offices etc. It includes Reading about  What we are going to write.

• Focus on a Single Purpose-Having focus in writing makes the purpose clear and allows readers to know what the article is taking them through. Generally, writing has involved informing, explaining, narration and persuading. The readers often have a thought in mind “What’s in for me ” so with this thought the writer has also to write.
• Write in a Unique Voice-Here comes the plagiarism part don’t copy the article from different articles, as every article runs through a plagiarism checker. Write quickly and edit slowly. Use a mix of short sentences alongside long sentences.
• Optimize Content– It is a process in which content is written in a way that reaches the largest possible target audience. The content is associated with proper keywords, meta is added title tags and relevant links and backlinks are added to the article, several hashtags to improve visibility.
• Edit Your Work-It is a stage in which the draft is completed and the writer corrects the error and makes words and sentences more clear, precise, and effective. As we all know A pen is mightier than a sword.

• Write every day– The best writing tip is to write every day. There is nothing more important than writing daily. And as this habit is developed it becomes part of you and what you do. It is an exercise to think aloud. And if three pages a day can be written per day it will clear the mind and ideas will come flowing. It’s like it sets the rhythm for the music.
• Create an Outline–  Determine what your message is. Any article needs a proper structure. The outline is the outer edge of something in content writing drafting an outline means knowing what all topic is going to be covered in the article. It’s like deciding what is going to be discussed in the article. Then connecting all the dots so it doesn’t sound vague.
• Choose simplicity-For writing an article choose Simple Words and Avoid Filler Words, which can be understood by anyone and conveys the message. Repetitive Phrases should be avoided that don’t add anything new or conveys anything.

• Invest in an Editing Tool–To improve the quality of writing and to be a more successful content writer knowing and investing in writing tools is very important. It improves the writing, increases readability, creates exceptional visuals, fresh content ideas, and helps to get organized. One of the best examples of mistake-free writing is Grammarly. It checks the spelling, grammar,  punctuations. A kind of proofreading for yourself.
• And Also Appropriate use of photo and videos

 

SEO and Content Optimisation

Content optimization is the process of making the content ie website more attractive to the search engine. SEO is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on the website’s presence in search results on search engines like google. And after understanding how SEO works, different tactics are used to create visibility of the site.

SEO can be categorized as ON page SEO and OFF page SEO. As strategies happen on the website and strategies happen off the website. In today’s world search engine uses more than 200 different factors to generate search results. And this means that a lot of elements influence the placement in search results. Now the question arises why do search engines care about SEO. The content writer is not paying them but someone else is, they are making money through advertising.

The page that is delivered after enquiring a search query is called a search engine result page. The page contains organic results as well as pay-per-click ads. The organic ones are influenced by SEO while pay per ad is paid for.

Nowadays everyone looking for information or services products etc go online. Whatever is searched, the odds of clicking on the first few results are high. Chances of Scrolling down the result page is till you find what you are looking for. And if the site is not properly optimized it will never find a place in the search engine however how good your article or services or product is.

Meta description:- It appears below the meta title. It’s a short description of the article written. It is approx a 150 character summary that describes the article or blog which is written. By Reading this the reader decides how relevant is this to him or her. However, meta is not used in search engine criteria but it’s important as the headline of the topic because it’s a snippet of information summarising the content of the page.

Backlinks:- Links of one website from the web page. And getting a backlink to the webpage is important to SEO because it is directly related to how much traffic your website receives. In day to day language, we can say it’s a kind of reference wherein the person is directed to the webpage whose backlink is given.

Hashtags#:- The symbol # are used in relevant keywords or phrases in the tweet, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. The hashtag is used not to increase the number of visibility rather it’s used to be seen by the right people.

The writer creates the picture with words. The more detailed painting is the more detailed the words are,  for every expression the word is associated. When a writer describes a happy face our imagination brings a smiling face to our mind. The things we read creates the same picture in our minds. So the writing job involves being clear about what is to be written and how is to be written.

Many courses are there about content writing, Henry Harvin is one of the best courses. It covers all the major topics with proper assignments. Later it also provides internships where the upcoming writer can polish their skills.

 

Q.1 What to do to write good content?

A.1 A good content is written for a purpose with information. It engages the reader and should be credible and original. Plagiarism can not only harm the writer but also the company for which its is written.

Q.2 How to integrate SEO in content writing.?

A.2  To integrate SEO the keyword density should be high, Meta tags describe the pages’ content they are not part of the text but play an important role. Heading tags as H1 H2 H3 H4 to determine the importance of Headline. Backlinks and other links to improve the quality of content.

Q.3 How do we know the content is correct and genuine?

A.3 Answer to this is do your homework properly meaning research is the key to this.

Q.4 I am not able to decide what to write?

A.4 Choose any topic create an outline and do the research properly. Start writing daily you will see the difference.

Q.5 How to manage the negative feedback for an article?

A.5 Be confident about the writing but don’t be stubborn. Take any criticism positively and be flexible and willing to make changes and modifications. At the same time review where the criticism is coming from.

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