Is writing your passion? Do you want to make a career in writing? If yes, you will be happy to know that content writing has become a very lucrative career these days. With everything getting digitalized world-wide content writers are in incredible demand making content writing an extremely demanding profession.
However, becoming a successful content writer is not easy. You might be able to write on any given topic but that isn’t enough. You need to identify your target audience, know what they would love to read, plan how to create brilliant, engaging content and be able to sell your write-ups through the right channels.
Let us start by understanding what is content
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What is Content?
Content is an information that is reliable, engaging, relevant, interesting to the reader, entertaining or educational. It can be in the form of text, images or video clips. A good content is unique, concise, properly sourced and grammatically correct and is formatted properly. It usually focuses on answering a question that the target audience is looking for. Research intensively on the topic, organize your ideas and thoughts into a rough draft, write copy, and review it to make sure it’s error free.
How to Be a Good Content Writer in India?
You don’t need a degree to be a content writer in India. Many organizations in India and abroad hire freelance content writers as long as you are committed to give them quality content and meet the deadlines. However, doing a content writing course will help you learn the tricks of the trade faster. Most courses are reasonably priced and don’t ask for any academic qualifications. Select a content writing course that is globally recognized and accredited. Ensure that the course covers all fundamental aspects of content writing SEO, graphic skills, blogging, technical writing, language skills, and more.
When it comes to writing – every word matters. Having a good vocabulary will give you more command over the language you are using to write. Not only this but phrases, punctuations, quotation marks, text formatting and grammar used while writing, all play an important part in effective content writing. The crux to becoming a good content writer is to “read, research and practice”. This will build up your knowledge base, develop your innovative and thinking skills and help you easily translate complex ideas into simple language for the readers to understand.
Identify Your Niche
A niche shows prospective readers and customers that you have the experience and expertise necessary to generate great content. Organizations usually hire content writers who know what they’re talking about because it saves them money and time.
Some writing niches, such as medicine, technology and travel, require many years of experience to understand and cultivate expertise. Other writing niches that are easier to write on are lifestyle, product reviews, how-to-articles etc. Having a niche allows you to polish your skills in a particular field, further increasing your awareness and making you a subject matter expertise in that field. Thus, more valued.
Build Your Writing Portfolio
You need to begin building a trust for your work amongst your readers if you want to acquire anything. Many content writers tend to give up at this stage as they do not get to enjoy too many financial benefits. It is important to remember that you need to work on elements that will help your readers to trust what you write. One way to do this is to build your writing portfolio that will exhibit your abilities to write.
Since you just identified your niche industry, think of various content ideas that you can create content with. Write a couple of blog posts, develop an e-book or perhaps try your hand at writing some white papers.
Try using simple and affordable sites like .com to launch your writer’s website. This should be sufficient to host your writer’s portfolio with your contact data for others to view.
Create Social Proof
A good review always grabs everyone’s attention. It works as the best marketing strategy for all products and services. That is why creating a social proof of your work amongst readers becomes all the more important.
Platforms like Quora is a good place to start. These platforms not just allow you to flex your writing abilities but in addition pulls in the important social proof and features how people are reading through your content and engaging in it. Again, focusing on a particular niche will help to position yourself as a subject-matter expert of that particular industry. The more the readers’ view your content, the higher are the chances of your gaining the confidence of your readers.
Start your own Blog or Website
When we talk about a content writer, people automatically imagine a person who owns their own blog or website. Yes, your website definitely is your first portfolio. Having a blog or website is the best way to gain potential clients and also to experiment with your thoughts and ideas. It is also helpful when it comes to building your technical skills along with content writing skills.
Connect with Facebook and WhatsApp communities
Platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and other Content writing groups and discussion forums help to keep you in touch with other content writers. They ensure that your content gets reviewed. A third party perception often helps to spot minor shortcomings in ones’ writing and improve on it.
Many people also post requirements for content in these groups. By following them, you can get to know about more writing opportunities and approach them if interested.
Set up your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is considered the largest professional network. Anyone who is serious about their career and professional development, needs a LinkedIn profile that’s up to date and optimized. Your LinkedIn profile is your opportunity to get your name and face before hundreds of experts in your industry.
LinkedIn is the most trusted search engine, so when firms are looking for candidates with specific skill sets, your profile has to show up. Make sure you put in the right keywords in the title and in your profile description. If you’re searching for a job in the content writing field, setting up your LinkedIn profile is very important.
Join Internship Programs – Paid or Unpaid
Be open to joining internship programs. Many startups and companies in India are offering paid and unpaid content writing internship programs. This is a brilliant opportunity to learn, get exposure and experiment with one’s writing skills. Most internships will expose their interns to try different types of writing like blogs, reviews, manuals etc. This can help you grow exponentially.
Start as a Freelance Content Writer
Freedom, flexibility and ease of working come along with “Freelancing”. There are many freelancing jobs available these days in India. You can register yourself on sites like Upwork, Freelancer, Flexjobs and any more. You’ll find a lot of options to choose from. The biggest advantage of being a freelance writer is that your job brings to you a wide range of opportunities covering diverse personalities, professions and even cultures. It helps you to gain experience to write different types of content, inculcate interpersonal skills and also the ability to handle various situations with proficiency.
Applying for full-time job opportunities
Though content writers are much in demand, there are very few full-time content writing jobs available in India. Most companies look to work with freelancers. The only road to manage a full-time content writing job is to start a website and write relevant content to attract companies.
It’s a good idea to approach companies dealing with content directly and offer your services. Reach out to such companies and pitch in a way that they might want to consider taking your services as a freelance content writer until they find a full-time content writer. You can mail them your recent work. If they like your work, there is a chance that you might become their “full-time content writer”.
Also try to regularly check the job portals for other firms that are looking for full-time content writers. At this stage, try spending 80% of your time to market your writing skills and services.
Conclusion
Regardless of which organization you decide to write content for, there are some important things you need to remember. It’s essential to stay in contact with your customers while you are working at your task and later too. This involves accepting a new task, giving status updates etc. Ensure that you provide, relevant, plagiarism free original content and meet all deadlines.
Like everything else in life, even you will have to climb the curve to become a successful content writer and it will take some time. Just follow the simple formula “Read more and you’ll learn more. Write more and your content flow will improve everyday”
Volunteer to help when they need assistance. For example, if your client comes to you with a very late- minute task that desperately needs to be completed, it very well may be worthwhile to take up the task. It might be a step towards getting more work.