Category Archives: Content Writing

10 advantages of hiring a professional content writer for your business

Leave a reply
10 benefits of hiring a professional content writer for your business

10 benefits of hiring a professional content writer for your business

If you’re looking for a way to improve your marketing strategy, then hiring a professional content writer is the perfect solution.

This blog post covers the following 10 advantages of hiring a professional content writer:

  1. You get quality content to publish on regular basis
  2. You engage your visitors on an ongoing basis
  3. Your search engine rankings improve
  4. Your social media engagement increases
  5. You enjoy greater accountability
  6. You save money and time
  7. You don’t have to worry about new content ideas
  8. You can easily scale your content writing requirements
  9. You can establish your thought leadership
  10. You enjoy higher conversion rate

Content writers are experienced writers who understand the needs of a customer base and know how to write copy that resonates with readers.

Their skillset includes writing for both digital and print media, so they can provide your business with a wide range of content options.

Not to mention, they are familiar with SEO best practices, so your articles will be easy to rank in search engines.

This means that your business can reach a wider audience, and generate more leads and sales.

What are the benefits of hiring a professional content writer?

You may also like to read: 20 benefits of hiring professional content writing services

There’s no doubt that content is one of the most important elements of a website or blog.

And if you want to take your business to the next level, hiring a professional content writer is the way to go.

Not only do they have skills in writing, design, and SEO, but they also understand how to craft content that is both compelling and engaging.

This is essential for driving leads through your funnel, generating better traffic volumes, and increasing your site’s visibility on the internet.

10 advantages of hiring a professional content writer

Hiring a content writer for your business can be a great investment.

Not only are they skilled at writing, editing and formatting writing for web use, but they’re also experienced in SEO copywriting and social media marketing.

This means that your business will look more authoritative and trustworthy, with well-written, on-brand content that drives traffic.

Additionally, you can rest assured that the content writing process will be handled by a professional, freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.

1. You get quality content to publish on regular basis

Content writing is an important part of any website’s marketing strategy.

By publishing quality content on a regular basis, you can attract more visitors and build trust with your target audience.

You can be assured that the writer will take care in ensuring all information is accurate and up-to-date.

This way, you won’t have to waste time correcting mistakes or dealing with outdated information that isn’t relevant to your business anymore.

Furthermore, the content will be high quality as it has been written by a professional who understands what businesses want and need.

There are no deadlines – the writer takes his time to produce high-quality articles that will help promote your website effectively.

2. You engage your visitors on an ongoing basis

Adding professional content writing to your marketing mix can be tremendously beneficial for your business.

Not only will you save time and resources, but the quality of content produced by a skilled writer is reliably high-quality and engaging.

This means that visitors are kept engaged on an ongoing basis, providing them with valuable information while also making you look good in the eyes of your target audience.

Aside from writing great content, writers also have years of experience working with businesses across all industries – this makes them well-equipped to cater to your specific needs perfectly.

3. Your search engine rankings improve

Having great content is essential for SEO – it helps your website rank higher in search engine results pages.

This, in turn, leads to more visibility for your business and increased traffic.

In fact, good quality content can even improve the ranking of competing websites that have similar topics or keywords as yours.

Moreover, if you’re looking to attract new customers or increase loyalty among current ones, creating engaging and informative pieces of writing is a great way to go.

Not only will this help boost brand awareness but also result in happier consumers who are more likely to return frequently than those who aren’t satisfied with their experience.

4. Your social media engagement increases

As social media becomes more and more saturated, it’s vital for businesses to make use of professional content writers.

Not only can they inject life into your posts, but also help you stay ahead of the competition.

They can write on a range of topics that is relevant to your brand and audience.

Additionally, content writers are skilled in using different platforms (email marketing, social media, etc.) effectively to reach out to potential customers.

What’s more?

Content writing professionals know how to create engaging copy that will keep people coming back for more – no matter what their interests may be!

5. You enjoy greater accountability

As an editor, it is important that you enjoy great accountability and freedom to produce quality content.

With a professional content writer, all you need is a good idea for a post and he or she will take care of the rest.

This way, you make sure that every post reflects your brand image accurately and is updated regularly so that readers never lose interest.

6. You save money and time

There are many benefits to hiring a professional content writer.

Not only will they produce quality and high-volume content, but you won’t have to worry about any mistakes in the writing process.

In addition, their skills with grammar and spelling ensure that your message is delivered accurately and effectively.

You can save time by delegating this task to a Content Writer – instead of having to write everything yourself.

This saves you time and money.

With so much else going on in your business, it’s important not to spend too much time on things that can be handled more efficiently by someone else.

This way you can put your focus into other aspects of running your company which will see bigger dividends down the road

7. You don’t have to worry about new content ideas

You don’t have to worry about coming up with new content ideas – a professional content writer will take care of that for you.

They are experienced and know how to write engaging and informative content that can help your business grow.

In addition, they understand the importance of SEO so your content is found by the right people at the right time – increasing its chances of success.

8. You can easily scale your content writing requirements

Content writing can be a daunting task for any business, but it doesn’t have to be.

Professional content writing services can take care of all the necessary requirements for you – from creating engaging and informative content to ensuring that it is well-optimized for search engines.

This can be achieved through strategic scaling.

You can scale your content writing requirement on need basis.

You will soon see positive results as your website starts getting more traffic and conversions due to great looking and well-written content.

9. You can establish your thought leadership

Content is one of the most important elements of any online presence, and a professional writer can help you achieve this goal.

They are experts in the field, have years of experience writing content that engages readers, and are familiar with various marketing channels.

By hiring a content writer, you can focus on other areas of your business while they take care of producing quality copy that speaks to your target audience.

This will result in better visibility for your brand and increased traffic to your website or blog

10. You enjoy higher conversion rate

If you want to enjoy a higher conversion rate, it’s important to have good content that is well-branded and positioned correctly.

You can do this by improving customer retention and satisfaction rates with quality content, as well as increasing traffic and leads through effective marketing efforts.

By writing your own high-quality content, you can save time and money while still providing excellent quality for your readers!

Conclusion

Hiring a professional content writer is an important step for any business.

Not only does this person have experience writing content for businesses of all sizes, but they also possess the skills and knowledge to produce high-quality content that meets your specific needs.

In addition to these main benefits, here are more reasons why you should hire a professional content writer for your business: –

  • Increased website traffic
  • Improved brand awareness
  • Increased search engine rankings
  • Increased social media followers
  • Increased conversion rates
  • Improved customer retention rates
  • Increased brand loyalty

 

What is the difference between blog writing and content writing?

Leave a reply
Difference between blog writing and content writing

Difference between blog writing and content writing

I’m answering this question because people seem to be asking it on Quora what is the difference between blog writing and content writing, otherwise, there is a very thin line between being a blog writer and a content writer.

Every content writer can be a blog writer but can a writer providing blog writing services also provide content writing?

This is a tricky question.

I don’t mean to undermine any form of writing, but in terms of increasing expertise, I would like to arrange different categories of writing as

  • Blog writing
  • Content writing
  • Copywriting

I will tell you why.

Right now, on an average I am working with 15 content writers.

Some of them are very good at blog writing.

Some do good content writing.

None can do copywriting.

Copywriting services are needed for writing the main website content.

It is different from merely writing content or blog posts.

Not a single writer has been able to satisfy my clients when it comes to writing content for websites.

But for this blog post, I’m solely focusing on blog writing and content writing.

Difference between blog writing and content writing

Blog writing can be a habit.

It can be a passion.

You can write a personal blog sharing your opinions on politics, environment, literature, philosophy, and any other topic that catches your fancy and inspires you to write regularly.

Blog writing is less formal and more conversational.

A blog can be written by a person who is not a trained writer and still make a good impact.

Blog writing is not a profession whereas, content writing is.

It doesn’t mean you can provide content writing services and not blog writing services.

I offer blog writing services to many clients.

Just like content writing, blogging can be professional too.

Almost every business that has a website also has a blog.

Businesses hire content writing services for blog writing on regular basis.

Blogging is good for maintaining buzz around your business.

It improves search engine rankings because Google prefers blogs over conventional websites.

This is because blogs have fresh content, and they are updated regularly.

Most of the content on conventional websites is static.

There is really something fresh to offer to Google from websites.

Whereas when it comes to blogs, since they are constantly being updated, there is always something new to offer.

Therefore, most of the businesses and entrepreneurs try to publish a blog regularly to improve their search engine rankings.

Blogs can be written on different topics.

Every subtopic can have its own unique blog post.

This gives people an opportunity to write and publish lots of content.

Sometimes quality of writing is compromised but still, much benefit can be derived as long as the readers find value in the writing.

To quickly wrap up, a content writer can write a blog post but not every blog writer can write content for websites.

Since I have been writing professional content for the past 17 years, I can quickly wear different hats and provide my services as a blog writer, a content writer, and a copywriter.

Compared to blog writing, content writing is formal.

When you are writing content for the main website, you also need to have copywriting skills because your writing is supposed to generate business for the website owners.

How important are keywords when writing content?

Leave a reply
Are keywords important for content writing

Are keywords important for content writing

Keywords are needed for SEO content writing.

Although there are many SEO experts who have begun to say that keywords no longer matter because Google these days focuses on natural language processing rather than keywords, if you search on Google, you will observe that keywords still matter.

I will give you a small example: suppose you are looking for “SEO content writing” and the keyword does not exist on my website.

Will you be able to find my website?

Suppose I’m constantly writing web pages and blog posts on “SEO writer”, “SEO writing”, or “writing for SEO” – will you still find my website for “SEO content writing”?

You may or you may not.

It depends on how well I have been able to optimize my website and what is the nature of rankings my content enjoys on Google.

If lots of people link to my website, my blog, and individual blog posts and on those websites, they have repeatedly used the keyword “SEO content writing”, then, maybe, Google may infer that my website is about “SEO content writing”, otherwise, it is all guesswork.

On the other hand, if I have multiple blog posts and web pages talking about the topic of “SEO content writing” then there is a great chance that one of these days, you will be able to find my website for this particular search query.

Therefore, you shouldn’t ignore the keywords when writing content.

Keywords have significance other than SEO

Whenever my clients send me content writing specifications, they also send me a list of keywords.

They may want me to optimize a single blog post for 5-10 keywords, or they may want me to focus on just a single, longtail phrase.

I prefer focusing on longtail phrases.

They are easier to optimize.

They don’t dilute your optimization process.

Whenever my clients ask me to optimize a particular piece of content for 5-10 keywords, I refuse to do so.

This is because then I need to write lots of unnecessary content to cover all the keywords unless the blog post or the web page is actually comprehensive enough to be able to accommodate all 5-10 keywords.

Even when the client doesn’t mention SEO, I advise to compile a list of keywords.

Keywords are not just needed for SEO – they also give you an idea of the language people use when they are using Google.

People use conversational language when they’re searching for information.

Again coming back to my own example, I may end up spending lots of time optimizing for “SEO content writing”, whereas, clients might be searching for “need an SEO content writer” or “looking for SEO content writer”.

Maybe only those people look for “SEO content writing” who want to learn about writing SEO content.

Therefore, the language that you are using when writing content may be completely different from the language used by your target customers and clients.

For better conversion rate you must write in the language used by your visitors.

Hence, keywords are needed for two purposes:

  1. Help you write optimized content so that you can organically improve your search engine rankings.
  2. Help you get a sense of the language people use when talking about your business so that you can write your content in the same language.
  3. Help you get content writing ideas – you need to create lots of topics to write on based on the keywords you want to optimize your website or blog for.

How to find the right keywords before writing content?

When writing content, keyword research can either be done by the client, or the content writer writing the content (it depends on whether the client is ready to pay for the time or not).

There are free as well as paid methods to find the right keywords.

There are three elements you must pay attention to when finding the right keywords before writing your content:

Relevance of the keywords

How relevant the keywords you’re planning to use are?

Here I would quickly like to add that when researching for keywords, focus on probable topics of search rather than keywords like “SEO content writing”.

For example, should you optimize for “looking for SEO content writer” or “what are the benefits of hiring an SEO content writer?”

This is where search intent comes into picture.

The intent of the first search query “looking for SEO content writer” is transactional because the person submitting the query wants to hire an SEO content writer.

The intent of the second search query “what are the benefits of hiring an SEO content writer” is that the person may be thinking of hiring an SEO content writer but he or she needs more convincing.

This is commercial intent.

You may like to read Why search intent is most important when writing content for your website

Authority of the keywords

It is the depth of expertise your keywords or topic represents.

You build topical authority by writing lots of content on your chosen topic.

For example, if I have multiple web pages and blog posts talking about “SEO content writing” and if the content is relevant and many people link to it, Google will think that it is an authority keyword for my website.

Keyword authority is more about choosing a key phrase or a longtail keyword and then building authoritative content around it.

Keyword search volume

For this you may need to use a keyword tool like Google Keyword Planner.

The Google Keyword planner is less for SEO and more for bidding on Google AdWords advertisements, but if you enter your keywords, it gives you such volume.

Search volume tells you whether the keyword you want to use is popular or not.

You may rank on the first spot for your chosen keyword but if people are not searching for it, there is no use of it.

You must choose keywords for which there are a decent number of search queries being done.

Also, highly competitive keywords may be difficult to optimize.

Hence, you should use keywords that are relevant to your business, but they are not extremely highly competitive (thousands of people searching for them per day.

In conclusion, finding the right keywords are important for your content writing process both in terms of improving search engine rankings as well as helping you write in the language your target audience uses.

James Patterson’s storytelling advice to hook readers

Leave a reply
Storytelling advice from James Patterson

Storytelling advice from James Patterson

James Patterson, according to this Forbes article, has sold more than 400 copies of his books.

Consequently, he knows a thing or two about storytelling.

Storytelling isn’t just important in books and stories, even marketing and advertising copiously use storytelling to hook the audience.

What is storytelling in content writing and copywriting?

Storytelling in content writing and copywriting means using a narrative to communicate a message instead of simply explaining the features and advantages of your products and services.

Storytelling helps your consumers understand why they should care about your proposition.

It is the story of customers and clients who have used your product and benefited from it.

It is a case study, but more conversational and interactive.

Something like,

Peter was quite frustrated with his current accounting software.

The situation was so bad that he was thinking of shutting down the business itself.

He was in a financial crunch.

Then he came across our cloud-based accounting software.

The benefit of storytelling is that people can immediately relate.

Reading stories is always more engaging than reading simple product descriptions and sales pitches.

How to hook your readers with storytelling

James Patterson, just like many other copywriters and storytellers, stresses on the importance of the first sentence.

The first sentence of your narrative is very important.

When you tell your story, it is your first sentence that hooks your reader.

He claims in one of the interviews that once he wrote his first sentence more than 40 times before finalizing on a sentence.

According to Stephen King,

An opening line (first sentence) should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.

Even in the context of copywriting, the job of your headline is to encourage people to read your first sentence, and the job of the first sentence is to encourage people to read your second sentence

This goes on.

Hence, you can say that every sentence is important because every sentence prompts your reader to read the next sentence.

Don’t start your article or blog post with a long narrative.

In the first sentence itself, hook the reader.

A good approach is, immediately begin the story.

Make something happen.

Something like,

As Peter logged into our dashboard for the first time, a plethora of opportunities suddenly opened to him.

What were those opportunities?

What dashboard are we talking about?

Readers will be intrigued, and they will want to read further.

This isn’t meant to be a long post.

I just came across an interesting insight from James Patterson and felt like sharing it with my readers.

How to write an effective content writing brief for your content writer

Leave a reply
Writing an effective content brief

Writing an effective content brief

For more than two weeks I have been interacting with a client trying to understand what he really requires for his accounting website.

If you are wondering why I talk so much about accounting websites these days it is because, due to my improved rankings for phrases like, “content writer for accounting websites” I’m getting more work from accountants.

But I digress.

So, it has been more than two weeks.

Now, the client has begun to complain that the work hasn’t yet started.

The problem on my side is that I’m not getting a proper brief from the client.

What is a content writing brief?

A content writing brief can be a dedicated document, or it can be simply sent by email.

As long as there is a brief, I don’t even mind clients describing it to me on WhatsApp.

Some clients, especially agencies, sent content writing briefs even for individual blog posts and articles.

Many agencies use tools like SEMRush and with these tools, minute details about individual blog posts can be extracted based on keywords, competitor blog posts, and the number of words required vis-à-vis the competition.

Some agencies use a standardized template that asks you to follow a format something like

  • SEO title
  • One-line description
  • Target audience
  • Primary keywords
  • Secondary keywords
  • Meta description
  • Word count
  • Internal links, if any
  • Some competitor articles
  • CTA
  • Additional notes

Why is content writing brief important?

There are two types of content briefs.

One is the general brief that a client sends about the entire website.

This includes page titles, target audience, keywords and reference websites.

The other is the individual brief for blog posts, web pages and articles.

A content brief makes it easier for the content writer to focus on your core need.

It also prevents rewrites and reduces the number of revisions needed.

The content writer doesn’t miss critical bits of information because you have mentioned everything in the content brief.

Remember that when the content writer’s time is being wasted, your time too is wasted because the delivery of your content is delayed.

Before starting a project, here is the information I need from a typical client:

Clearly defined titles of the web pages

This is the site map.

Over the years I have learned that if the client and I are not on the same page about the exact titles of the web pages, it becomes difficult to write content.

Most of the client send me a bulleted list of web page titles they want me to work on.

We first mutually agree on the bulleted list and then I start working on the content writing process.

But this particular client has just told me the basic nature of his business – accounting outsourcing – and that’s it.

He keeps on saying that I should visit other websites and see how they have structured their content.

It doesn’t work that way.

Every website is unique

They have their own service descriptions.

Even if the basic nature of a business is the same – accounting outsourcing or engineering parts – people provide different sets of services and products.

No two websites are the same.

Why I need to be specific?

The clients are not paying an hourly rate.

They either pay per page or per word.

Hence, I need to be very specific about what pages I’m working on, otherwise, I end up wasting lots of time making changes because suddenly the client thinks that that was not the page he or she was looking for.

Whether I spend one hour or three hours on a document, they are going to pay the fixed rate, and hence, I need to have as much specific information as possible from them.

A list of reference websites

Most of the clients send me a list of reference websites whose content they prefer and the writing style they want me to emulate.

Of course, due to the problems of plagiarism nobody wants me to directly copy the content.

It’s just that when we have a list of reference websites, we have a clear idea of how the content flow must be and how various ideas must be expressed.

It also reduces my workload.

Finding my own reference websites is like throwing darts in darkness.

I can do that – find reference websites on my own – but then, as I have mentioned above, it rarely happens that a client pays an hourly rate.

When you are doing research, you never know how much time it is going to take.

Since the client is managing his or her business, I assume he or she has a better idea of which websites precisely represent their business.

A list of keywords

Although I provide SEO content writing and blogging services, I’m not an SEO agency.

Since most of the clients are paying for content and not for SEO research, I don’t subscribe to expensive SEO tools that are normally used for keyword research.

I’m not saying every business requires SEO tools.

If you have a good understanding of your customers, it is easier to create a basic list of keywords to target for.

As a content writer, I see keywords as a guideline for formulating language.

People use Google and other search engines in their own language.

They type the queries in the language they use in their day-to-day interactions.

The same language must be used when writing content so that it is easier for people to find it on search engines.

This is why a basic list of keywords is important.

Some writing-related guidelines

These are not absolutely necessary but there are some clients who have very specific requirements.

I have been writing content for more than 17 years now and I pretty well understand how content must be written for the web.

I know how it should be formatted for better SEO.

I know how to write content that is easier on the eye.

Nonetheless, sometimes there are certain words and terms the client wants in the content that I may not be aware of because I’m not from that profession.

For example, there must be some legal terms for a law attorney that must be used on the website.

Architects use different jargon – although I discourage the use of jargon, sometimes they are important to express certain concepts.

Then there are some words that need to be avoided.

I have another client who doesn’t want certain words to appear in his content and in the beginning, he hadn’t informed me of that.

After having worked on 15 documents suddenly he realized that the words he didn’t want on his website were appearing in the content.

He wanted those portions to be either deleted or revised.

Wasted lots of time.

A content writing brief saves lots of time

On the client side, it hardly takes 30-60 minutes to write a good content writing brief.

The problem is that some clients cannot understand that a content writer works on a tight schedule simply because the clients are not ready to pay an hourly rate.

On the other hand, they expect a content writer to work as a hired hand, which is not possible.

Two hours wasted in revisions and to and fro communication means two hours of lost revenue for the content writer.

When I had just started working as a content writer I must have wasted hundreds of hours simply because the clients didn’t give me the right content writing brief.

Now I am savvier in that regard.

Take for example the above-mentioned client whose work has been delayed by almost 2 weeks.

I’m not going to spend a few hours finding information that he should have found and delivered to me.

That’s his or her job.