Category Archives: Content Writing

Essential skills you need as a professional content writer

Essential skills that a professional content writer must have.

Neil Patel rightly says in the video embedded below that there are more than a billion blogs on the Internet and pretty much everything has been rewritten. Content writers these days are mostly regurgitating old stuff.

No, it doesn’t mean you stop publishing content on your blog. I cannot find the link, in an interview Seth Godin says that when implementing a content marketing strategy, don’t worry about being unoriginal. Just be relevant to your audience.

Take for example the title of this blog post. The video above talks about the essential skills that a professional content writer must have. I’m creating a blog with more or less the same title. If you do a search on Google, you will find thousands of blog posts and web pages talking about the same topic with various combinations.

It doesn’t mean I shouldn’t write about this topic.

What’s the difference? The difference is that I’m not simply copy/pasting content written by someone else. I’m not even transcribing what Neil a saying in the video. I’m presenting my own take. This makes my blog post on the same topic unique.

Besides, the audience of my blog is the audience of my blog. You may not be searching for this topic on the Internet actively. Even if you have arrived on this blog after looking for essential skills for a professional content writer, what you’re reading here is completely my own perspective.

Below I’m listing some skills that a content writer needs for professional writing. I may not be covering all the skills, but I’m covering all those skills that I use on daily basis when writing content for my clients.

Have a unique voice

Every writer has his or her unique voice. It is called “writing voice”. This is what makes your content unique even when you’re writing about a topic that many have already been written about.

Your unique voice is your own way of saying things. It is consistent. Almost all my clients these days hire me for my writing style. They go through my blog post, they go through my website, they like the style, and they want the same style for their own websites and blogs.

Recently a client even highlighted a portion of my homepage to explain to me what sort of writing he is looking for.

Constantly improve your writing

The more you improve, the more confident you get, and then the more defined your voice becomes.

Improving your writing means learning new writing techniques, learning to use new words and phrases, and observing what works and what doesn’t.

The side benefit of learning-induced confidence is that you no longer write to impress. You write to communicate. You are done with impressing. Now you mean business. You are not even worried about committing mistakes because you know that those are not mistakes but intentional waywardness to make a point.

Learn to write in a conversational style

This is more important for a content writer. When you are writing content – whether you’re writing business content (that is supposed to be serious) or blog content (where you can let yourself lose a bit) – you are having a conversation with the reader.

Writing in a conversational style isn’t as simple as it seems. Only those writers who have written a lot and who have nothing to prove, write in a conversational style. Novice writers are constantly worried about what type of sentences they are writing and what type of words they are using. Skilled content writers on the other hand, aren’t worried about these things.

What is conversational style?

Use short sentences.
Use simple words.
Express an idea in one sentence.
Don’t have paragraphs with more than two sentences.
Avoid compound or complex sentences as much as you can.
Use the language you would use with someone sitting face-to-face.

Acquaint yourself with SEO nuances

Although as a professional content writer you are not providing SEO services, search engine optimization is a big part of writing content. Many clients hire you because they want to improve your search engine rankings.

Google uses 200+ factors when ranking content, but when it comes to writing and organising text, it is completely in your hand how you do it.

Here are a few things you can achieve as a content writer:

Creatively use the main keywords in the title.
Use the main keywords in the first 100 words of the write-up.
Not always but use the main and the LSI keywords in headings and sub-headings.
Not always but use the main and the LSI keywords when explaining a concept using bulleted points.
Don’t stuff your keywords needlessly; always use them contextually.
Creatively use the synonyms.

Learn to research

Just like SEO, research is a big part of content writing. Most of the clients will simply give you a title and a few pointers just because you force them to give them to you. Otherwise, they won’t even give you a title – they will simply tell you what keywords to focus on and then ask you to come up with a title as well as the outline.

Research helps you. Learn to do the right research. You will be mostly using Google and other search engines. Use advanced search. There are many non-mainstream search engines that can take up lots of good information. You can also look up other sources such as Reddit.

A precautionary note, though: researching doesn’t mean plagiarizing. Research to obtain information and then use your own writing to convey that information.

Learn not to get swayed by advice

This is very important. Since on the Internet it is very easy to give advice, there is an abundance of it. People can create videos. People can publish blog posts (wink wink). There are social media updates. There are podcasts. There are Pinterest pins. There are Instagram carousals. Lots of advice.

Advice is not bad. But too much of it is bad. Therefore, as I have written above, it is very important for a professional content writer to keep learning, learn to use your own discretion what you want to learn and what you want to ignore.

Learn to take and manage notes

The notes that you gather are going to be the repositories of knowledge that will come handy for years.

During client assignments, during random reading, during posting on social media and on your blog, lots of ideas and useful information pass your eyes. Don’t let such opportunities go waste. Learn to save useful information.

I take lots of notes when reading books on Kindle and other book readers. Then once I have completed the book, I go through the notes and save them either in OneNote or Google Keep. Shorter notes go to Google Keep and bigger notes go to OneNote.

Learn to manage information when working on long pieces

As a content writer you may need to work on an e-book or a white paper or a case study. A white paper or a case study may not be very long, but normally, an e-book is.

Recently I worked on an e-book that was more than 70 pages. The client had sent me lots of information. I needed to compile that information in a narrative, in a story form.

It helps if you know how to organize big chunks of information in a manner that you cannot only retrieve the information when needed, you can also grasp it to be able to use it for your writing.

Learn to listen carefully

When you listen properly, you understand, and when you understand, you write well. If you’re not in a habit of listening to what your client is saying, you may go on a tangent, and this will cause needless acrimony. It has happened with me. I was not a good listener.

The problem with not listening is that even when you have written an exceptional piece, since it is not as per your client’s expectations or the brief that he or she gave you, your entire effort goes waste.

These are some essential skills that can help you grow as a professional content writer. There may be more. You don’t have to apply all. But these will help you stand out even when people tell you that almost everything has been written and there is nothing you need to say. That’s not the case. As long as you write using your own voice, you’re always going to write something unique.

How to attract clients to your agency with content writing?

Leave a reply

Attracting clients to your agency with content writing.

I was just reading this Smashing Magazine article on how to attract clients to your agency and thought of giving it a content writing twist.

In the beginning the writer says that many web design agencies (he mostly addresses web design agencies but the advice that he gives can be used by any agency) depend on word-of-mouth recommendations, which he says, is not a long-term strategy. I partly agree.

I have been writing professional content for a little over 15 years now, and I have accumulated a decent list of satisfied clients who don’t hesitate from recommending my content writing and copywriting services to their colleagues, business partners, or relatives. This is a steady stream of work that I don’t mind. It doesn’t mean that I put all my eggs in a single basket of word-of-mouth recommendations, but a big chunk of my money comes from such recommendations these days.

One thing I agree with, though, if you want to work with a diverse range of clients, then too many word-of-mouth recommendations can turn your work stale. For example, if you get a recommendation from an Internet marketing coach, most of the clients will want you to write according to the teachings of the marketing coach even if you don’t completely agree with those teachings.

Similarly, if a real estate client recommends you to his other real-estate friends, they are going to expect you to write just the way you have written for that particular client.

Well, this is what the Smashing Magazine author says, and though, to an extent I agree with this chain of thought, I don’t agree completely.

Anyway, I started writing this blog post to explore the ideas of using content writing to attract new and more clients to your agency.

The difference between an agency and a normal client in terms of content writing

When an agency contacts me for writing content it is for two reasons:

It needs content for its own promotional campaigns to attract more clients.
It needs content for the clients.

An agency works with “accounts”. It can be a web design agency, an interior design agency, and architects’ firm, or an employment agency.

The term is often mixed. If you look up the definition of agency, it works for the benefit of its “account” and on behalf of the “account”, interacts with other parties. For example, an employment agency interacts with prospective employees on behalf of an employer.

Anyway, that’s beside the point.

Every agency needs to attract clients. If you are a web design agency, you’re looking for clients who are interested in getting their websites developed and designed. If you are an app development agency, you are interested in companies and people who want mobile apps developed. And so on.

A good thing about content writing is that you can attract different categories of clients to your agency by publishing targeted content.

I can call myself a content writing and copywriting agency.

Although a big chunk of my clients come from the IT and the Internet marketing industry, I also get lots of work from other categories such as interior design, real estate, real estate financing, accounting and bookkeeping, and the hotel industry. For the past couple of months, I have been writing lots of content for a lab that provides various tests such as lipid profile, thyroid, diabetes, cholesterol, blood count, and so on.

Hence, you can say that I have cast a wide net. Conventionally, this isn’t recommended. You would say that if I am comfortable writing about information technology, then I should just focus on information technology and develop my expertise further so that I can charge more for my specialty.

That’s a different issue.

Let’s explore some ways you can attract clients for your agency through content writing.

Tell your success stories through regular content writing

Every client loves reading your success stories, especially when that client is about to hire you or needs to make a decision. Success stories are reassuring. They tell your clients how you solve problems for other people you work with. Hence, if you can solve their problems, you can also solve the problems of this client.

Why stories? Why not simply explain?

Stories are conversational. They are relatable. They’re not hypothetical scenarios. They talk about real-world problems faced by real-world people and real-world solutions provided by real-world people.

A story has a narrative. It has a context. It has a logical sequence. It binds people.

If I simply tell you that my content writing services can help you improve your search engine rankings, you may or may not believe.

But if I tell you about this Prakash Chaturvedi who runs a data analytics company and who’s search engine rankings were not improving no matter how much content he published on his company’s blog, and then how I helped him recognize the problem with his current content strategy and rewrote his existing content and brought many blog posts to Google’s first page, you are immediately going to get interested.

Even if you don’t run a data analytics company yourself, you will be able to relate to his dilemma.

This is just one instance. I can write similar stories for real estate business, hotel business, catering business, blockchain development company, and so on.

I can write about different success stories.

The stories will reassure my clients and they will be more eager to work with me.

Improve your search engine rankings with relevant content writing

As an agency, if you depend on Google and other search engines to get new clients, you definitely need to pay close attention to your search engine rankings. How do you plan to improve them?

Relevant and quality content writing can help you.

To improve your search engine rankings, you need to publish content regularly. You need to follow a content publishing schedule. Once you have created a schedule or a content publishing calendar, make sure that you stick to it.

Although covering your primary and longtail keywords shouldn’t be the sole focus of your content writing, keywords are important.

Make a long list of them. If possible, use various research tools and research methodologies to find the keywords and search queries used by your clients when they are trying to find your agency or the work that your agency does.

Then start regularly publishing content on those topics.

Focus on quality. Quality must always come first. Don’t cover your keywords at the cost of quality and relevance. Publish content that satisfies search intent – provide exactly what people are looking for.

Cover all the bases. As I have written above, you can write success stories. You can publish blog posts that explain various aspects of the work that you do.

I constantly publish blog posts on content writing and copywriting – what I’m learning, what I’m observing, and what I think can help my clients. I share everything. This tells my clients that I know what I’m doing.

Build your brand authority

Being an authority means people trust you. They believe that you have enough knowledge to deliver a quality service.

How can you build your brand authority as an agency?

There are many ways.

Satisfy the knowledge thirst: People are looking for answers. They want to learn. They want to enrich their minds. They want to understand. When you provide information that satisfies people, you become an authority.
Publish unique research and new findings: Agencies that come up with new research and new findings are always considered authoritative in their field. For example, if I come up with a new finding that 70% agencies can improve their authority with strategic content writing, and I have the figures and sources to prove it, you may consider me as an authority figure.
Bring the latest to your audience: Being an authority, you’re always at the forefront of the cutting-edge. What’s the latest happening in the field of content writing and copywriting? What achievements have been made? What new web design trends are emerging? As an authority, you expect me to know the latest.
Take a stand: You can take a stand only when you are in command over your field. To be able to take a stand, you need to know. Hence, when you take a stand, people automatically assume that you know what you’re doing. It may mean antagonizing some people, but that’s the risk that you need to take.
Remain visible: You need to write and publish content regularly. No matter how authoritative your writing is, if you don’t regularly remain in front of your audience, you cease to matter.

Build your mailing list

I know, this has got nothing to do with content writing, but since you need to write content for your newsletter, somehow this is relevant. As an agency, building a mailing list is a must.

A mailing list is a list of people who share their email ID with you so that you can keep in touch with them through a newsletter or routine email updates.

Many clients approach me to write email marketing campaigns for them while they have spent no effort on building relationships with their mailing list. This is a wrong approach.

A mailing list should be used for building relationships rather than constantly trying to sell stuff.

Remember that as an agency you’re not selling items. You are selling a presence. When you send messages to your mailing list, you just want to keep them aware of the fact that you exist, and you are delivering your services non-stop.

Remain active on social media

Social media may seem trite, especially the platforms where people are posting silly images and videos, they have a reach. They have a visibility.

Even if your prospective client isn’t looking for agencies like yours on Instagram, there is a great possibility that he or she has an account over there and goes through the timeline once or twice a day.

When he or she comes across your update it’s a pleasant surprise, especially when you add value to the timeline.

This is how you increase your agency’s brand visibility. Remain visible. Be clear about your messaging. Be consistent with your messaging.

Again, this was a small blog post that I began to write after reading that Smashing Magazine article, but then I felt like covering all the points that came to my mind.

Content writing can be a potent tool in your toolbox of digital marketing if you want to attract clients as an agency. It helps you tell your story. It helps you share your expertise. It helps you add value to the lives of your current and prospective clients. It keeps your agency’s name in front of them with a positive association.

Should you publish evergreen content or trendy content?

Leave a reply

Evergreen content or trendy content?

For lasting search engine rankings, it is often recommended that you publish evergreen content.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content is the content that is relevant for a long time – even multiple years. This type of content doesn’t go out of date. You can call it practically an ageless wisdom.

Take for example, if right now I write a list of tips on how to write SEO content (assuming that the search engine algorithms by now have matured a lot), I’m pretty sure that provided I stick to the fundamental Google SEO guidelines, it will be an evergreen content.

People will find this blog post useful and relevant for at least 2-3 years and consequently, it should enjoy higher search engine rankings accordingly.

Here are some examples of evergreen content titles:

How to cook a healthy vegetarian meal in 10 minutes?
How to write content with sincerity and focus?
What are the ageless tenets of copywriting no matter what the medium?
What differentiates a great content writer from an average content writer?

What is trendy content?

Trendy content or non-evergreen content is topical and relevant to something that is going on right now.

Let’s hope we don’t have to write evergreen content on Covid, but right now, if I write something about content writing related to Covid, it is a trendy topic.

Take for example this blog post that I wrote recently: Am I getting more content writing assignments post-Covid?

As you can see, since Covid is a temporary situation (hopefully) this is a trendy topic. It is based on an ongoing trend.

When Covid is over, except for journalists, academicians, scientists and doctors, there will be few people searching for it.

Striking a balance between evergreen content and trendy content

Trendy content gets you instant traffic. Evergreen content gets you ongoing traffic.

Both types of content are important. When you publish trendy topics, for a few days you increase your visibility. More people can find your website or blog.

They may link to you. They may share your content on social media. They may also stumble upon evergreen content.

Since Google may be constantly looking for updated content to present to its users searching on a trending topic, it will quickly crawl and index your trendy content.

A problem with trendy content might be that since thousands of bloggers and web publishers may be writing on the trending topic, the competition might be too high.

In such cases, you should give the trending topic your own twist. Write about something that is about the trending topic, but an aspect that very few people are covering.

What about highly competitive content for evergreen topics? The same advice. Even for evergreen content, the competition might be quite high. Give your own twist. Create a unique title that very few people might be covering.

What should be the balance between evergreen content and trendy content?

My personal experience says that go with the flow. Regularity is more important than strategizing in this regard, as long as you maintain a balance.

Participate in ongoing conversations. At the same time, publish content that people are going to look up for, for a long time.

You get more back links for evergreen content because publishers who are linking to your content know that it is going to be relevant for a long time to come.

Yes, they also link to trending topics but only when they themselves are writing about those trending topics and they want to add value or add another perspective.

What differentiates a great content writer from an average content writer?

Leave a reply

Difference between a great and an average content writer.

Someone asked this question on Quora but since I have already answered 2 questions (my daily target nowadays) I thought I’d provide the answer on my own blog.

What are the attributes of a great content writer?

I will use a politically correct pronoun “she”.

When someone talks about “great content writer” I assume what she means is, a content writer who does her job well. She may or may not be experienced, but she delivers.

She delivers on the front of quality and relevance. She expresses well through her writing. She can write forcefully without intimidating the reader.

Below I’m listing some attributes of a great content writer.

Takes initiative

A great content writer takes initiative. What do I mean by initiative?

She goes beyond the brief provided by the client. She uses her own brain to figure what may work and what may not work for her client.

She does research independently. She finds data from credible sources. She uses her judgement instead of completely depending on her client’s input.

Takes a stand

She should be able to take a stand.

I will give you my example. Sometimes I disagree with my client.

My client knows her subject. For example, if my client is a lawyer, she knows more about law than I do. But I know more about content writing than she does. She has hired me not to write how she wants me to write, she has hired me because I can write the way she cannot, but she needs to.

Therefore, once she has given me the brief, I don’t want her to dictate every sentence I write. A great content writer knows when to take a stand or put her foot down.

She is not simply a stenographer. Above all, before a content writer, she is a writer.

Has a passionate writing voice

If you don’t feel excited, nor will your readers.

Whenever new writers approach me for work, this is the first trait I look for: the sample that they have sent me, have they written like a writer or like a content writer desperate to impress?

A great content writer gets emotionally invested in the project. You are passionate when you are emotionally invested.

I won’t go to the extent of calling myself a great content writer (I leave that conclusion to my clients), but when I’m writing, I’m writing with the good of my client in my heart. This makes me passionate. And this passion quite often resonates through my writing. I am not saying that it happens always, but most of the time, it does.

Knows why the client has hired her

Why does a client hire me?

The macro reason is that she wants to grow her business. This is the ultimate goal of every entrepreneur. By the end of the day, you need more buyers, you need more subscribers, you need more paid users.

The micro reasons might be that she wants to improve her search engine rankings, boost engagement on your social media profile, increase conversion rate on her website and improve user experience.

She may also want to improve the click-through-ratio on the web pages where she wants the visitors to download her e-book or subscribe to her newsletter updates.

My every sentence must contribute towards that. I don’t want to impress. I don’t want to prove what a great a writer I am. She is not paying me for that. She is paying me to write content that helps grow her business in whichever applicable manner.

Does it mean I don’t seek praises? I definitely do; I like it when a client says that I have done a great job. But every client knows that this “great job” doesn’t mean that I have written like Haruki Murakami or Tolstoy. It means I have written in a manner that contributes to her business.

Hence, a great content writer walks the extra mile and makes sure that she is writing content that serves the purpose.

Isn’t obsessed with money

I know money matters, but a great content writer, once she starts the work, isn’t bothered much about whether she is being paid for 200 words or 500 words. She is not insecure in that sense. She is more worried about writing what needs to be written.

This is something I have observed in many writers I have worked with. They are constantly worrying about how much they are writing and how much they are being paid.

I’m not saying that they should leave themselves open to exploitation, but it isn’t going to harm them if instead of 500 words (which they are being paid for) they’re writing 700 words and they are not being paid for the extra 200 words.

Just yesterday a client paid me supposedly for 800 words (I’m still in the process of moving from per word to value deliverability) but I wrote 1200 words because the subject demanded that, without expecting to be paid extra.

If a content writer constantly obsesses about money it becomes a vicious loop. Nobody pays you just for the heck of paying — people want value delivery and you cannot deliver value if your need to get paid for every word dominates your power of expression.

Am I saying that you should allow your clients to fleece you? No. When you focus more on value delivery, your clients can’t afford not to pay you.

Writes a lot, in fact, constantly

A great content writer, being a writer first, has this great desire to write continuously. She doesn’t just write when she is being paid for writing. She writes on different topics. She participates in discussions on social networking websites. She blogs regularly. She works at building her network not just for business purposes but also to expand her understanding.

Writing for her is not a chore, it’s an existential craving.

Learns constantly

Learning never stops for a great content writer. I have been writing professional content for 20 years and still I learn something new every day.

I learn new words. I practise using new expressions that I have never used before or have rarely used, or have forgotten.

I make a note of everything I come across. I do all my reading on Kindle reader and Google Play Books so that I can highlight the portions that I may like to use for my own writing.

Whenever I come across a word I don’t know, I make sure I do, and I don’t proceed without that.

I have a huge Word file where I save words, phrases, and sentence formations that I would like to use when writing. I have been updating this file since 1998. I have saved more than 200 phrases in one of my Google keep notes.

A great content writer is constantly learning and never believes that she has learned enough.

Has confidence

A constant desire to learn doesn’t mean that a content writer is low on confidence. Don’t take confidence with a negative connotation. That’s overconfidence.

In fact, just the fact that she knows that she constantly needs to learn more, shows that she is confident.

The more you learn, the more you practice, more confident you get.

Among average content writers I have observed that they are constantly scared of something. They hold themselves back. For them, writing is just a means to make money and if money is not there, writing is not there for them. It is just another occupation.

The problem with writing is that unless you have a passion for it, it doesn’t pay you much. Your lack of interest shows through every word you use, through every sentence you form. If you don’t want to write without getting paid, you are not going to be paid for writing.

This is true for every field except for manual work. In manual work, even if you’re not interested, somehow you can make a living. But when people pay you for your skill & expertise rather than your manual work, you need to have your soul into it.

To sum up, here’s how you can become a great content writer:

See beyond the client’s brief.
Be passionate about your client’s interests.
Learn to research.
Always know why you’re writing a particular piece.
Polish search engine friendly writing.
Learn constantly. On your own. From other writers.
Set your insecurities aside.
Don’t just write for money.
Deliver value more than the number of words.
Be passionate about what you are writing.

My personal favorites are, have a strong desire to write, and take pride in the fact that you are constantly improving yourself.

Am I getting more content writing assignments post-Covid?

Leave a reply

By “post-Covid” I’m not saying that Covid is over. In fact, here in India, we are expecting the third wave to hit somewhere in August-September, 2021.

But, during the past year, we have learned a lot. The situation is not as scary as it was a few months ago. Hence, the expression “post-Covid”.

Many have gotten vaccinated.

So, has my business increased?

My business HAS increased, but I’m not sure whether it is due to Covid or due to my own effort.

When the Covid started in the US – my major amount of money was coming from there – two of my main clients drastically cut down their operations.

They didn’t let go of me, but the amount of money they paid me was now less than one-third of what they were paying me before the pandemic.

Previously when I could manage without promoting my work, now, no longer was the case. I needed to make up by generating more work.

I don’t want to sound opportunistic, but I took it as a blessing in disguise. This gave me some time to concentrate on growing my business rather than continuously working for them.

I started updating my blog almost every day. This improved my search engine rankings.

I became active on LinkedIn – queries began to come from there.

So, my business increased because my promotion increased. In the past year, I’ve more than doubled my search engine traffic.

Has the Covid outbreak had no effect on my business?

I wouldn’t say that. I’m getting more work from India, which is a big change.

Clients from India are, even if reluctantly, agreeing to pay more.

Many sound more knowledgeable about the need to publish quality content.

In that sense, yes, business has improved.