What is Freelance Content Writing

 When you hear, "what is freelance content writing?". I know "article writing" is the one thing that would come to your mind. But content writing is more than that.

It includes different types of content formats such as:

• post for different social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
• descriptions for YouTube videos
• white papers
• medium stories
• content marketing i.e. writing for the advertisement   
• titles for podcasts and many more things

In short, the basic foundation skill you need to learn is writing, in order to get your work published.

Content writing as marketing :

In 1996 bill gates made this famous claim which was published on the Microsoft website that, "CONTENT IS KING "which is truer now with the advancement of social media. A survey shows that 70% of the marketers hire and invest in content marketing other than T.V advertisement. Quality content that gives to the point, relevant and valuable information is the key to the success of a marketing campaign.

And of course, the marketers don't create content by themselves they hire content writers which means content writers have a high demand in the market and the best way to dive into the world of content writing is, by doing freelance writing.

NOW, LET US KNOW WHAT CONTENT WRITING REALLY IS.

It includes a targeted audience for whom you write in order to communicate a message. In simple words, 

• You look for the  jobs available for content writers on different platforms( Facebook, Upwork etc. )
• Then you start your research by using different search engines 
• You find your stats from different and reliable websites such as Statista 
• You add images that don't have any copyright

This is how you write any blog post, article, web content, scripts for podcasts and videos etc.

So now, you pretty much know about, what content writing is! all you need to start writing is SKILLS.

What Are The SKILLS You Need To Become A Content Writer? 

A good writer has mastered a set of skills and must have the knowledge of the specific niche, client's industry and the environment he is working in. So the skills you need to write are

• Good command of grammar
• Have your own style
• You should know different styles of writing
• Excellent skills in competitive researching
• Ability to write quickly under critical deadlines
• Punctuality 
• Being versatile
• Creative enough to generate unique ideas for your content 

Seems like too much but trust me, with consistent practice you'll be able to master all these skills with time. By learning all of them, the main thing you'll learn is pure writing ability. But this is not the only qualification for becoming a content writer, knowledge, creativity and writing speed also goes hand in hand.

 

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL WRITER  OTHER THAN  WRITING SKILLS:

Some very important factors can either make or break your article and play a crucial role in determining your success.

Through social media, we see that there is a good number of content writers living their dream life. They work according to their schedules, they work how much they want either less or more and they price their content as much as they want. But on contrary,  there is a huge number of writers who are not able to make their living through freelancing. WHY?

 Because you want more than just writing skill to be a successful writer. You need a whole toolkit containing marketing skills to bomb headlines that are super catchy.  

Create an eye-catching start:

 Put 30% of your effort into creating a catchy headline and the first paragraph which would grab your reader right away and leave him until the article ends. To elaborate further, here is an example that you can relate to:

While searching for articles to read on medium.com you come up with an article, titled,

 "how to reduce procrastination?"

 and the other with

 " 5 magical words that will stop you from procrastination".

 You will probably click on the latter. That's how it works!

Keep the content short, relevant and easy to understand:

  The most important thing is to use easy language for the readers without using ultra-fancy big words.

do not write long paragraphs with loads of words dumped in them, trust me they bore the reader. keep the paragraphs short to the point with relevant and quality content in them.

create outlines and explain in a step by step method which makes it easy for your readers to read.

Be original:

You are representative of your content.  know it sounds weird but what you write, has your name attached to it so you have to be careful that it is original. There are thousands of writers who write on the same topic its very much possible that their content matches but every talented writer is able to write in his own unique style and can give that overwritten topic a different colour.

  Plagiarism  free:

Always check your content from plagiarism checker before submitting it to your employer otherwise it will not be good for you, our employer and SEO. 

How do you learn these skills while staying at home?

Nowadays, you can literally learn anything you want from home. Especially during this COVID situation its the best time to learn new skills and for that purpose you have many platforms to learn, for example:

• YouTube ( free of cost)
• Udemy( lowest price and on discounts)
• and other online  institutions ( FWI is one of them)

I hope this article provided you with the information you needed.