Being an aspiring (read struggling) content writer, I often come across situations where I wonder whether I should keep my skirmish of making it to the top aisles of content writing circles or should I try my luck in a less congested, less competed and higher rewarding market? I even left the conquest of becoming a freelance writer multiple times and got regular “full-time” jobs. However, there is just something that always brings me back to this cursed (for me) obsession of becoming a freelance writer.
But this time, I am back with a force!
I dedicated full 3 months in researching and finding the actual reasons why I failed and what I can do to prevent the failure from happening again. If you are like me who has constantly been failing and is about to give up on the quest of becoming a “well off” freelance content creator, I want you to give the text below a read and maybe give yourself “one last try”. I have broken down my research outcomes in 5 main points for the sake of reading simplicity and utmost clarity.
Content marketing is one of the biggest trends in the online environment. Among the most important advantages, it offers is the fact that it has a great influence on the search position, especially if it is posted regularly and is of high quality. I have found that in order to reach this result, it is important to select quality keywords so that they have a positive impact on the ranking of the work on google search. Depending on your business domain, the content may include the most searched keywords or those that belong to a niche.
Does this mean that we should write texts considering only content optimization for indexing? No, not at all. The following conditions must also be considered.
First, when writing content, think about the reader
Content marketing builds a link between readers (customers) and the company. Customers are looking for solutions to specific problems that can be solved with the help of the company. Thus, the following challenges may arise:
Targeting an appropriate target audience
Display your content to reach your target audience
Receiving feedback
After reading the stories of multiple successful content writers, I believe, customer insights should be a basis for creating a content marketing strategy and will help adjust the content to suit readers' requirements.
This research will help you answer questions such as:
What is the customer looking for?
What's the matter? How can you help him?
Where did the customer find out about your services?
How can you convince him that the services offered by your company are the best solution to his problems?
It is worth mentioning that it is not easy to answer these questions. You can see this in the example of the newspaper market.
Different types of content are addressed to young mothers, businesswomen and adolescents and each of these groups can figure out what kind of content is targeted at them and which is the impersonal one. To complicate matters, even more, creating content becomes even more difficult when trying to target a small group: a niche, subculture, etc.
Your content can reach a target group if:
The language used is one specific to the target group
The content is credible
Only after you make sure that these conditions are met, you can continue your work.
Second, the title - between being SEO optimized and engaging
In most cases, the title is the first (or last) thing a visitor reads. To encourage him to continue reading, it should be interesting and intriguing. On the other hand, you might be tempted to use misleading words that attract clicks, as do low-quality sites. This type of title most often catches the attention of the reader, appealing to his emotions or not offering information about the content of the article. Another challenge is to use a keyword in the headline for the article to appear on Google's first-page search. A title should highlight what that content can offer to a reader. If possible, include a number in it (eg: 7 best practices, 5 tips on...).
Third, the content must be organized
It takes more clicks to get to another web page on the same topic, and the struggle to get readers' attention is real and takes place between bloggers, influencers and other sites like this. This is why you need to create content with a design that will help the reader pay attention to the information. To achieve this, you can use:
Expressive subtitles
Numbered lists
Quotes, sentences written in bold or italic quotes
Multimedia.
Considering the multitude of materials available online, users want to know what the article is about after a first glance. When content is disorganized, readers drop out and look for answers elsewhere.
Fourth, storytelling or inverted pyramid
Today, two different concepts are used to create content:
inverted pyramid
storytelling site
The first concept has its origins in journalism and focuses on exposing the most important information at the beginning of the article so that it can resume and develop. Whereas, storytelling uses the technique of storytelling in a dynamic way, revealing and encouraging the reader to continue reading to explore all the information. The writing style depends on the target group, the topic of the article, but also the abilities of the writer.
Fifth. fairness is essential
Regardless of the style addressed, an online text should be, above all, correct. Even if the target audience uses slang as language, writing content in this way can complicate the understanding of the text. Common words, slang or other special words should be used with moderation and caution.
Equally important is that readers do not have to go through a text with spelling or punctuation errors because this does not show the relaxed attitude of the author, but a lack of respect for the readers.
Conclusion
Obviously, writing quality content can be a challenge. Your goal should be to create better content than your competitors, not just another high-quality article.
I may have been a lousy content writer or blogger but that does not mean I have to stay that way. The time investment I have poured into knowing my mistakes will help me and I hope this writing will you help you too. What do you say? Do you think you can build a site with quality content?
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