Have you ever heard of someone being a content writer? Or are you even aware of what a content writer is? In any case, I am going to talk about how you can become a better content writer, and what I have learned from doing content writing myself for the past few years.
I’m hoping that someone reading this has at least the faintest interest in content writing because I am going to be giving away some juicy tips.
Let’s begin.
"The truth of the matter is that content writing has been around for thousands of years"
Debunking Content Writing
If someone calls themselves a content writer then it can seem such a vague description and can cause some confusion on what a content writer is or does.
A content writer is someone who writes relevant content for websites or other publications with the aim of providing value to the reader. What I am doing right now on this blog is content writing. Even someone who writes children’s storybooks is a content writer to a certain degree. Albeit they might not be equipped with SEO skills (we’ll get into that later) but they still write valuable content that is being consumed by a specific demographic.
The truth of the matter is that content writing has been around for thousands of years. The Book of Kells is said to be around 1200 years old, which just blows my mind to be honest. Imagine those Celtic monks had access to the internet and started a blog? They could have leveraged their large audience and started a clothing brand and all sorts.
I can just picture it now.
‘Celtic Clothing’.
Shit. Did I just come up with the next big trend? Religious clothing.
I’ve digressed slightly, lets get back on topic here.
My point is that we humans have been writing for quite some time now and it is still an important skill to this day. That is why writing jobs are so ubiquitous. Every brand needs a content writer to some degree, whether they need high-quality blog posts or extremely relevant website copy.
Your North star
It can be challenging at times when you actually sit down to write a piece of content and the words just don’t seem to be coming out of you. If you want to become a better content writer then you need to realise that these moments of ‘brain fog’ or ‘writer’s block’ are not only normal but inevitable.
You may feel that you lack clear direction in your writing and you don’t actually know where you want to go with what you have already written. There is a tactic that I use with every single piece of content that I write. It is something I like to call ‘Your North Star’.
Your North Star is a single over-arching objective that you intend to stick to when deciding to write something. I write it out before every blog post that I do, so I know not to deviate too far from this objective. If I end up going on a tangent (which I end up doing) then I know where to steer my writing back towards.
I’ll give you an example so you can have a better understanding of what I mean.
For this particular article, I am writing now, my north star will state something along the lines of ‘Making sure I give good solid advice on how existing and beginner content writers can improve and become better content writers’.
So now when I feel a little lost on what to talk about I just ask myself the question ‘What advice can I give existing and beginner content writers that will be useful to them?’.
Keep it short, simple and to the point.
Get your head around SEO
‘Conor, what the f*ck is SEO?’.
I never knew what it was either a few years ago but it honestly didn’t take me long to understand the basics and use it to my advantage.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. How is this useful to you as a content writer?
Well when you write a piece of content like a blog or published article and post it on your website, that content can technically be accessed by millions of people. This is great for your content because you can get eyeballs on your website and attract new readers and customers.
Attention is like currency in today’s online world, it’s what all the big social media platforms are built on. They are all vying for your attention so they can get ads in front of your faces, which then generates them massive amounts of revenue.
Remember, ‘Where attention goes, the money flows’.
I genuinely don’t know if I just made that up or heard it from somewhere, but its true all the same.
SEO allows you to make sure that your written content has the best possible chance to be seen by the right people by using ‘keywords’. People type queries and questions into google every single day and they usually find the answers. You can become the answer to one of their questions if you have utilised SEO for your writing.
Imagine you are writing an article on owning a dog. More specifically, the article was a detailed guide on how you can keep your dog clean with as little mess as possible. Your key words could be something along the lines of ‘hassle free dog cleaning’. Now you just have to include these exact key words throughout the post you will be putting online, as well as a few other actions.
Doing this will massively increase the chances of the right people seeing your writing. I actually ranked on the first page of google with this blog post using simple SEO techniques.
I use a plugin for my website called Yoast SEO, which gives me an easy to follow checklist of what should be included in my blog post for it to be optimised.
Have a look at the checklist below.
Become a master of research
A content writer can actually come across as quite a vague profession to a lot of people. They might ask questions like;
‘What content do you write about?’
‘Do content writers know how to write about everything?’
These are valid questions and the answer to them can be different for each writer. A content writer can specialise in a specific niche and solely write content for that particular industry. Others prefer to be a little more diversified in their writing. Whichever category you fall under, you will still need to have top-notch research skills.
Unless you are a complete master at that particular subject then you probably won’t need to do much research, but even then you will still more than likely be doing some sort of research.
Don’t underestimate the power of researching. I have written content for a variety of clients who are all based in many different industries.
Did I know each industry well?
No chance.
But with a bit of patience and some research, I was able to get myself up to speed on their chosen topic and produce a great piece of content for them.
These 6 tips on how to improve your research skills were a great tool for me to use.
Final Thoughts
So they are my top tips on how you can become a better content writer.
I understand that content writing may not be for everyone and to be honest I can see why people may have their reservations about it. There is a lot of misinformation out there on the subject.
I have been writing content on my blog for the past few years and it’s something I like to do for free. So when I actually get to work with clients who pay me to do it then it’s a bonus. If content writing is something you think you want to pursue then I would suggest putting out your own writing first, just like I did with my blog.
I never intended to get into paid writing, I just enjoyed doing it and was able to get paying clients off the back of it. If you’re interested in knowing how to get paid writing jobs then don’t worry I’ll be releasing a blog post on this in the coming weeks. Join my email list and you can be notified when it is live on my website!
And lastly.
When it comes to content writing having an inquisitive mind really helps. You may not be intensely interested in every subject you write about (especially with paid jobs) but if you keep an open mind and just try to see it as a learning exercise also, then it can actually be a lot easier to write about.
This was so interesting to read!
Здорово!.
Спасибо