4 answers
Zeeshan
Student
Gilgit
6
Questions
Asked
4875 views
what are the basic content writing steps?
#writing #author #writer #college
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4 answers
Colin Mahar
Copywriter
6
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
Colin’s Answer
Hi Zeeshan
First, you have to figure out what kind of content you want to write. Content is a very broad term that can refer to anything from social media posts to long-form whitepapers. You don’t have to necessarily focus on one single medium but having a general idea of what forms of content you enjoy writing will help.
Next, you should think about finding a particular niche. While it is possible to be a generalist who writes about a variety of subjects, those with a deeper understanding of a particular field tend to be paid more.
Then you’ll have to decide how you want to find clients in need of your services. To do so you could look for a job as a content writer at a particular company, you could freelance on websites like Upwork or LinkedIn or you could self-publish your own blog and find clients through social media.
To be successful you’ll have to hone your craft, which means writing as much as possible. It may also help to learn a bit about subjects like SEO, digital marketing, UX design, and anything relevant to your niche. Content writing is an exciting field but it can take time to master, especially if you’re looking to do it professionally.
First, you have to figure out what kind of content you want to write. Content is a very broad term that can refer to anything from social media posts to long-form whitepapers. You don’t have to necessarily focus on one single medium but having a general idea of what forms of content you enjoy writing will help.
Next, you should think about finding a particular niche. While it is possible to be a generalist who writes about a variety of subjects, those with a deeper understanding of a particular field tend to be paid more.
Then you’ll have to decide how you want to find clients in need of your services. To do so you could look for a job as a content writer at a particular company, you could freelance on websites like Upwork or LinkedIn or you could self-publish your own blog and find clients through social media.
To be successful you’ll have to hone your craft, which means writing as much as possible. It may also help to learn a bit about subjects like SEO, digital marketing, UX design, and anything relevant to your niche. Content writing is an exciting field but it can take time to master, especially if you’re looking to do it professionally.
Michael Strachan
Business Analyst/Subject Matter Expert
13
Answers
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Updated
Michael’s Answer
Hello Zeeshan,
I'm assuming you are in High School? Maybe a senior? Good writers are needed in many career fields, including IT. However, I see you like writing about social issues. Are you in any journalism clubs or write for you school paper? Even the yearbook committee is a great place to get started if you are in or near your final year at High School.
Obviously, English is a number one priority for you. You should talk with your school counselor to determine if you should pursue English as a major or another field, like journalism.
Here's a few other pointers to consider before you get your articles published on your website etc.
1. Know your style (informative, persuasive...etc.)
2. Study - know the material, know the history. I recommend you always use peer reviewed journals or professional writing to do your research. Google scholar is a good place to start.
3. Don't plagiarize. This can be a career ender. Give credit where credit is due. You will learn how to incorporate your thoughts and critical thinking into your documents as you get practice.
4. Structure: Learn what cadence or structure works best for you. Make sure you hit all the basics...lead in, information, summary or transition statements.
5. Always as a peer or mentor to review your work - be open and thankful for critiques. It's better here than in the comments after publication.
6. Make sure you have a mentor/peer. It may start with an English teacher but as you continue your education and networking, you may get a mentor with actual editing experience.
7. Join clubs/fraternities in college
8. Assume everything you write will be seen by your grandma - would she be proud of what you wrote.
9. Assume 1 million people will read your work. Words matter - don't get canceled before you start by saying something you regret or is fundamentally not acceptable in our culture....maybe even worldwide.
I hope this gets you started. Good Luck! Mike
I'm assuming you are in High School? Maybe a senior? Good writers are needed in many career fields, including IT. However, I see you like writing about social issues. Are you in any journalism clubs or write for you school paper? Even the yearbook committee is a great place to get started if you are in or near your final year at High School.
Obviously, English is a number one priority for you. You should talk with your school counselor to determine if you should pursue English as a major or another field, like journalism.
Here's a few other pointers to consider before you get your articles published on your website etc.
1. Know your style (informative, persuasive...etc.)
2. Study - know the material, know the history. I recommend you always use peer reviewed journals or professional writing to do your research. Google scholar is a good place to start.
3. Don't plagiarize. This can be a career ender. Give credit where credit is due. You will learn how to incorporate your thoughts and critical thinking into your documents as you get practice.
4. Structure: Learn what cadence or structure works best for you. Make sure you hit all the basics...lead in, information, summary or transition statements.
5. Always as a peer or mentor to review your work - be open and thankful for critiques. It's better here than in the comments after publication.
6. Make sure you have a mentor/peer. It may start with an English teacher but as you continue your education and networking, you may get a mentor with actual editing experience.
7. Join clubs/fraternities in college
8. Assume everything you write will be seen by your grandma - would she be proud of what you wrote.
9. Assume 1 million people will read your work. Words matter - don't get canceled before you start by saying something you regret or is fundamentally not acceptable in our culture....maybe even worldwide.
I hope this gets you started. Good Luck! Mike
I will use this advice as I prepare for my career.
Zeeshan
Aaron Escamilla
Mining Technology Developer
62
Answers
Gilbert, Arizona
Updated
Aaron’s Answer
I'll just throw out a couple simple tips on this one since you can take a lot of paths.
For selling:
1) You can self publish on Amazon or other platforms. There's a few out there.
2) You can make a super quick, cheap and easy website through something like squarespace to advertise your book
3) You can use something like upwork or fiverr to pay someone to make a fancy cover for your book to put on your website
4) You can have social media where you post quotes, some commentary on your writing journey and plotholes of things you're writing but maybe don't intend to publish but just want to share.
5) Join writing organizations and meet local writers. You'll be surprised how many people you will find nearby that have published or self published. (For example there's the American Night Writers Association and they're very active)
For getting started on writing:
15 key story “beats,” or “plot points.” - "Save the cat" is a common outline/skeleton people start with to get their outline out so they can get writing on stuff that counts right away.
For selling:
1) You can self publish on Amazon or other platforms. There's a few out there.
2) You can make a super quick, cheap and easy website through something like squarespace to advertise your book
3) You can use something like upwork or fiverr to pay someone to make a fancy cover for your book to put on your website
4) You can have social media where you post quotes, some commentary on your writing journey and plotholes of things you're writing but maybe don't intend to publish but just want to share.
5) Join writing organizations and meet local writers. You'll be surprised how many people you will find nearby that have published or self published. (For example there's the American Night Writers Association and they're very active)
For getting started on writing:
15 key story “beats,” or “plot points.” - "Save the cat" is a common outline/skeleton people start with to get their outline out so they can get writing on stuff that counts right away.
Thank you!
Zeeshan
paula lempart
Director, Provider Engagement and Risk Adjustment Ops
23
Answers
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Updated
paula’s Answer
Initially, you need the traffic to your website or blog to get people to take notice of your writing. If you do not rank on search engines, there is no way your target reader is going to know that your website exists. Therefore choosing a profitable nature with low competition but with a good search volume, is key.
Some of the niches for beginner content writers are as follows:
Fitness And Health
Spirituality And Self-improvement
Small Business Ideas
Pet Care
Relationship Advice
Technology Review
Beauty Products And Accessories
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Using Gadgets
Home Decor Among Others
1.Choose a Profitable Niche
If you are a beginner in the world of content writing, you will have to find a niche that will help you to rank high on search engines. It is essential to choose a specific market to gain visibility. For beginners, you must do extensive research and find keywords that are mostly low in competition.
2.Start Keyword Research
Once you have chosen a specific market you have to look for the keywords that rank on search engines relevant to your niche.
Keywords are phrases or set of words that are most relevant to your focus group on Google. When you incorporate it in your write-up Google identifies the topic of your content. Based on the quality of the post, Google ranks your content on its SERP pages.
3. Search Digital Platforms to assess your target audience
One of the most significant content writing tips for beginners is to scour different digital media platforms. This will give you a fair idea of the target reader you will be catering to.If you write a very high-grade article, but you don’t have any readers then the whole point of creating the content is moot. Digital platforms like Yahoo Answers, Reddit, and social media channels will give you a fair idea of your reader persona.
This means you will be able to derive certain data about your target reader when you go through these posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
4. Invest Time in Formulating Headline
Ask any eminent content writer they will unequivocally emphasize the importance of headlines. The most important utility of headlines is it helps to capture the attention of your target reader. It is through your headlines that you get your leads.
5. Create effective CTA
Content Writing is not solely for target groups to read your content and forget about it. It is about providing value to your readers by helping them make the proper decision regarding a particular product or service.
CTA or call to action are words that help your readers to take the next step in your content marketing process. A call to action generally asks your reader to make a decision based on the content they have just consumed.
It might be signing up for newsletters, getting a free eBook, knowing about new developments. As a beginner in content writing, go through the different CTA by reputed bloggers and businesses. observe how they construct the CTA. Carefully look at the choice of words. Whatever the goals of your business, CTA is paramount to achieve them. They are extremely important to drive conversions and facilitate the marketing aspect.
6.Choose a Topic and Style of Writing
You can choose a topic and turn it into a listicle, life hack, how to among other topics. When you create content take care to position your write-up carefully conforming to the behavioral patterns, and preferences of your target consumers.
A lot of people follow different style guides like the AP style guide, APA style guide, the Chicago manual of style. These are rules that help to define the way you should use abbreviations, punctuations, colors, use of words, grammar tone design, and format of writing.
7.Create Internal Links
Your content should include internal links for Search Engine Optimisation. Internal links invariably help Google to understand the credibility of your web pages and the structure of your content.
It bolsters your efforts at creating a good search engine optimized strategy. Internal links also help your readers to navigate to other pages of your website, thereby providing them with resources to build trust and develop a good camaraderie.
As a beginner in content writing, one of the tips is to create an aesthetic website. And create several articles that you can internally link for your target readers.
8. Dedicate Time to Actually creating the Content
This is the most significant part of your entire journey when you start content writing as a beginner. You do have to keep an SEO strategy in place and take care of other aspects. But, the main point is creating high-quality content that will act as the citadel for your content marketing endeavors. It will also enable you to become a competent content writer from the status of a beginner.
9. Create Long-Form Content
This is one of the top content writing tips for beginners. You have to create long-form content to rank on search engines like Google. Long-form content is considered in-depth, and more detailed without exception.
For Example, a content of 1500 words, as opposed to a 500-word article is more effective. Google is going to identify it as content more in-depth and comprehensive. This will help you to rank much better on search engines.
Some of the niches for beginner content writers are as follows:
Fitness And Health
Spirituality And Self-improvement
Small Business Ideas
Pet Care
Relationship Advice
Technology Review
Beauty Products And Accessories
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Using Gadgets
Home Decor Among Others
1.Choose a Profitable Niche
If you are a beginner in the world of content writing, you will have to find a niche that will help you to rank high on search engines. It is essential to choose a specific market to gain visibility. For beginners, you must do extensive research and find keywords that are mostly low in competition.
2.Start Keyword Research
Once you have chosen a specific market you have to look for the keywords that rank on search engines relevant to your niche.
Keywords are phrases or set of words that are most relevant to your focus group on Google. When you incorporate it in your write-up Google identifies the topic of your content. Based on the quality of the post, Google ranks your content on its SERP pages.
3. Search Digital Platforms to assess your target audience
One of the most significant content writing tips for beginners is to scour different digital media platforms. This will give you a fair idea of the target reader you will be catering to.If you write a very high-grade article, but you don’t have any readers then the whole point of creating the content is moot. Digital platforms like Yahoo Answers, Reddit, and social media channels will give you a fair idea of your reader persona.
This means you will be able to derive certain data about your target reader when you go through these posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
4. Invest Time in Formulating Headline
Ask any eminent content writer they will unequivocally emphasize the importance of headlines. The most important utility of headlines is it helps to capture the attention of your target reader. It is through your headlines that you get your leads.
5. Create effective CTA
Content Writing is not solely for target groups to read your content and forget about it. It is about providing value to your readers by helping them make the proper decision regarding a particular product or service.
CTA or call to action are words that help your readers to take the next step in your content marketing process. A call to action generally asks your reader to make a decision based on the content they have just consumed.
It might be signing up for newsletters, getting a free eBook, knowing about new developments. As a beginner in content writing, go through the different CTA by reputed bloggers and businesses. observe how they construct the CTA. Carefully look at the choice of words. Whatever the goals of your business, CTA is paramount to achieve them. They are extremely important to drive conversions and facilitate the marketing aspect.
6.Choose a Topic and Style of Writing
You can choose a topic and turn it into a listicle, life hack, how to among other topics. When you create content take care to position your write-up carefully conforming to the behavioral patterns, and preferences of your target consumers.
A lot of people follow different style guides like the AP style guide, APA style guide, the Chicago manual of style. These are rules that help to define the way you should use abbreviations, punctuations, colors, use of words, grammar tone design, and format of writing.
7.Create Internal Links
Your content should include internal links for Search Engine Optimisation. Internal links invariably help Google to understand the credibility of your web pages and the structure of your content.
It bolsters your efforts at creating a good search engine optimized strategy. Internal links also help your readers to navigate to other pages of your website, thereby providing them with resources to build trust and develop a good camaraderie.
As a beginner in content writing, one of the tips is to create an aesthetic website. And create several articles that you can internally link for your target readers.
8. Dedicate Time to Actually creating the Content
This is the most significant part of your entire journey when you start content writing as a beginner. You do have to keep an SEO strategy in place and take care of other aspects. But, the main point is creating high-quality content that will act as the citadel for your content marketing endeavors. It will also enable you to become a competent content writer from the status of a beginner.
9. Create Long-Form Content
This is one of the top content writing tips for beginners. You have to create long-form content to rank on search engines like Google. Long-form content is considered in-depth, and more detailed without exception.
For Example, a content of 1500 words, as opposed to a 500-word article is more effective. Google is going to identify it as content more in-depth and comprehensive. This will help you to rank much better on search engines.
I appreciate your support, paula
Zeeshan