You
could be a good writer but does that make you a good content writer? A certain
set of skills and disciple is required in excel in this field. Content writing
aspirants out there, read the article and find out the areas where you need to
brush up your skills and to succeed.
1. Successful content
writers must master different writing styles.
You should have different
writing styles in your kitty to be successful in writing. The reason is that
each form of writing has its own style and charm; for instance news
is delivered in inverted pyramid style, a type of writing where informational
paragraphs with the meat of the story at the top. Blogging is personable,
friendly and often opinionated. Ad copy is short, engaging and persuasive.
The style in writing can be defined as the way a writer
writes and the technique he implements to organize the flow of words. The
writing style will be different among writers, and it is important to develop
an interesting and unique style of one’s own to stay fresh and relevant.
2. Successful content
writers don't pick random subjects.
"Ideation" is an
industry buzzword that describes the creative process of conceiving a subject,
title and an angle to write about. A good content begins as an idea and
expands and develops from there. Ideation is the primary and crucial step in
writing therefore involves a lot of research.
Familiarizing with the ‘buyer
persona’ is another important stage that follows ideation; it involves
understanding the audience and their interest.
If you know who your readers and their interests are, you can write what
they want to read. You write for your audience, not for yourself, or your
company, or your brand.
It is integral to perform a
keyword research, if the topic or keyword of your writing is not search engine
friendly the writing could go unnoticed. Always check out your competition; to
see what successful content is being shared by others in your industry sharing?
3. Successful content
writers are original.
Whenever you publish, be
genuine because your reputation is hanging on the originality of your content. Every
post with your name on it should be original. That is not as hard as it sounds;
with all the tens of thousands of people writing about the same subjects. Every
talented writer can bring a unique voice, different perspective or new
light to an over published subject.
Plagiarized content is bad
for SEO, bad for your employers and even worse for you. Before you submit
your work, use an online program to check plagiarism. With all the content out
there on the web, it's likely that you accidentally duplicate some other
writing.
4. Successful content
writers know the technicalities of it
For a content writer to be
successful he cannot be totally oblivious to technicality. Some basic
techniques like SEO, keyword integration has to be mastered to excel. Apart
from creative skills; to develop a good content the writer should also possess
good marketing skills to sell the content. Writing for web themes have varying
levels of automatic functions, and sometimes the only way to make your text look
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 and effort
to learn the basics.
Up to date SEO knowledge is also critical; search
engine algorithms change regularly, and writers have to keep up. The one thing
remains constant is the demand for high quality. If you can write in-depth
content from a unique perspective, you'll be in demand.
5. Successful content
writers are social media specialists.
To
be a successful content writer and a social media specialist one needs to be
in-sync with the brisk changes in social media trends. Successful content writers
are active, interactive and friendly. The more active you are on social media,
the more likely your content to be recommended by your followers. A good
content writer not only impresses the readers but also the search engines and
internet browsers. Content writers are marketing experts, SEO specialists,
on-page coders and social media butterflies.
So, if you possess all the
aforementioned writing skills, a successful career in content writing awaits
you.
