As the world evolves, opportunities to earn online is increasing rapidly. One of such options is becoming a freelance content writer.
Content writing is the kind of writing linked to web marketing which means that the content you write is designed to sell and promote a product. Since every employer has a different demand, they provide you with requirements for each task. As a beginner, all you need is an operational laptop, an exceptional vocabulary and good communication skills. If you have all of these resources, what are you waiting for?
Starting your career as a content writer is as easy as continuing it due to several tools like plagiarism checker. However, ease does not automatically mean that you will be an influential writer from the start. If you are looking to improve your skill and effectively write to satisfy your employer, here is a guideline of how you can do that.
Research is the key
Research plays a significant role in making your content enjoyable, and to keep your mind filled with creative ideas, you need to keep researching. Do not limit your research to strategic planning, do it on an ongoing basis.
For a more exact direction in research, note all the points down and collect reference material as you browse through. After this make a file, preferably on Evernote, and save all of the information mentioned above.
Another critical aspect of research is keyword research
Keywords are a mean of making your content search-friendly and valuable. Keyword research can help you optimize your content (discussed later in the article). It will help you shed light on competitors’ content strategy and identify your own strengths and weaknesses. Hence, you can evaluate your content structure and make improvements in it.
However, avoid keyword stuffing as it has precisely an opposite impact on your content. Keyword stuffing will make your content ineffective.
By following all of the points stated above, you can improve the quality of your work substantially.
Write a captivating headline
A headline is the top heading of an article that gives the reader an idea of what is written. A catchy headline will engage the reader and increase their interest in reading the article.
On the contrary, a dull headline will not help you achieve the results you desire.
There are several ways of making your headline attractive: write digits at the start of the heading, make an overly-ambitious promise or teach people something useful.
Example#1
“Ways of writing good content.”
Example#2
“10 ways of writing effectual content.”
As seen above, example#1 sounds dull and un-appealing while example#2 is comparatively more alluring. Therefore, a simple play of words can drastically improve the quality of your content.
Create a strong hook
After an exciting headline, a good structure and compelling paragraphs are pertinent in making your content effective.
If you have monotony in paragraphs, the reader will get discouraged and discouraged reader will not engage on the website you are writing for. As a result, he may never visit back. There are some examples given below to improve your understanding.
Example#1-weak hook
A healthy diet is really important. Here are 10 tips that can help you stay healthy.
Example#2-strong hook
Over the years, the unhealthy diet has become comparatively cheaper than healthy diet due to different factors. While you may not realize, unhealthy diet primarily impacts your digestive system, metabolism and mental processes. Researches have shown…
As you can see, example#1 has little progress and almost zero synchronization among sentences while example#2 has an improvement, a well-built structure, some facts and figures and it engages the audiences provoking them to ponder.
Ignite emotions in the reader
An influential content writer should have the skill to stir emotions in the reader and make them feel something while reading the article. According to Hubspot’s interviews to find out why content goes viral, it was proven that popular content has the power to evoke emotions into the reader.
According to Basit Ali, who’s Digital marketing executive at Cognizantt, said: “Your content should fulfill user intent.” it means your content should answer all possible questions of the user.
To make your content compelling, you can use call-to-actions or unique words that cause an impact on the reader’s mind. Besides this, you can use descriptive analysis to paint a picture that is relatable to the readers, and emotional appeal can engage the audience well.
However, you should maintain a balance to make sure that your content is not too emotionally intense. An intense content might trigger the readers leading to their dissatisfaction.
Create the main idea and stick to it
The main idea can be described as the key message you are trying to deliver through your content.
Before writing a particular content, always identify the main idea and build your content structure around it. A content with various key points and messages might distort the primary purpose of writing the content, making it ineffective.
Therefore, it is essential to focus on a single purpose to make your content persuasive.
Optimize your work
To optimize your work, create short paragraphs with short lines and bullet points. Aside from this, SEO best practices and latest SEO strategies can make your content more effective. These strategies include: updating your links, conducting keyword research, investing in suitable SEO suites etc.
Moreover, there are specific tools that help you optimize your work. YOAST is one of them. It offers you a keyword analysis, plagiarism checker, option to create meta description and much more.
Add value to your content
Adding value is a standard business term that refers to creating a unique selling point of a product.
Your content should always add up to your reader’s knowledge and provide them with insightful ideas in terms of content writing. If you want to repeatedly engage your reader, offer them an adieu gift. This can be a worksheet that reinforces their learning or maybe a webinar link.
In this way, your content will be useful in casting a change in readers’ lives.
Avoid self-editing your work
If you have a person who can help you with editing, you’re in luck. Self-editing your work, specifically right after you have written it, may cause you to overlook inevitable mistakes. The content is fresh in your brain, so it will automatically fill the sub gaps present in the content.
However, not having a person to edit your work is not a stroke of bad luck either. Once you are done with the rough draft, take a break to help you relax. After you are in a fresh mind, start polishing the rough patches left in your work. You can use an editing tool like Grammarly and plagiarism checker X to detect errors. A well-edited content will be refined enough to be effective and engaging for the audience.
Though there are no defined rules of making content useful or a set criterion for effective content, these tips will help you improve your work quality, which will eventually make your content effective and valuable. Consequently, effective content will not only help in turning first-time visitors into loyal customers but will also help in achieving high ranks on search engine results. Besides this, if your content becomes effective, it will help you gain more popularity as a content writer and not mention the satisfaction you would get from being successful.