Anybody who has worked in content creation before will tell you that the job is a lot harder than it might appear on the surface. It may seem great to be able to sit at a keyboard and get paid for being a little bit creative – and that is certainly a positive aspect of the job – but many don’t realise that the job actually involves a lot more than just sitting down and writing whenever the mood strikes you.
In truth, you are going to face a lot of challenges, some of which you may not have expected, if you are going to embark on a career on content writing so you must be capable of facing them. Here we will talk about some of the things you are going to need in order to find success.
A Modicum of Talent
Your skills as a writer can be developed over time, but if you don’t have the ability to string sentences together, have a poor grasp of elementary grammar or just struggle to come up with sizable chunks of content that make sense and flow together you are going to struggle.
There is an immense amount of competition out there, so you need to offer something a little better than the average to get yourself noticed and attract some decent clients. If you think that typing any old thing down is going to be good enough then you’re probably never going to get beyond contracts that offer a pittance for the content you create, and even then there are plenty of people willing to match the lowest price to get a foothold in the industry.
Initiative
Anybody who goes freelance, regardless of the industry, is going to run into the problem of attracting new clients. Thankfully, there are plenty of platforms out there for writers to make money, such as Steemit. There are also a ton of freelancing platforms out there, like Upwork and Freelancer.com, where you can meet new clients and apply for work.
However, if you don’t have the initiative and drive to hunt down and take advantage of the opportunities that you hear about, your business is never going to develop. Initiative is especially crucial when you are first starting out, as it is unlikely that you will have a consistent group of clients at this point. Do your research, try new things and don’t be afraid to ask for advice. There’s plenty of work out there, but sometimes you need to look for it.
The Ability to Grind
So what does the working day of a content writer include? The old nine-to-five as it were? If you think you’re just going to be writing about the things you are passionate about you better have talent that extends far beyond the people that are already doing an amazing job in those areas.
The truth is that most content writers will need to grind for a long time before those opportunities become available. You are going to have to be able to get into a good routine that allows you to bang out thousands of words a day, often on subjects that you know little about before starting the assignment. The key takeaway is that it is not all about writing what you love. That can come, but you need to accept that there probably aren’t many people around who are willing to pay money for your written explanation of why the Care Bears have the power to enslave the world, so you have to write about whatever subjects you need to cover to make money.
Furthermore, you need to accept that your work won’t wait for you to become inspired. Tight deadlines are a feature of the content writing industry and you are going to have to meet them, even if you don’t feel at your best. It becomes a true slog when you’re making mistakes every other word and are struggling to come up with copy that is even mildly interesting. You have to push past this as hard as you can, otherwise you’re going to end up losing clients.
Efficient Research
In my own experience, it is most efficient to work to word counts when charging clients. It’s pretty cut and dry and everybody can understand that you will charge x amount for however many words of content.
What that doesn’t take into account is the amount of research that you are going to have to do. Clients are generally not going to be too impressed if you tell them you want to add a little extra money onto the price for the time you spend researching, so you need to get efficient so that you can get your research done as quickly as possible.
You need to become a wizard with Google, knowing what to type in to find the best stats or the most useful information from industry experts. You also need to dedicate some time to actually reading what you find, as articles will come off sloppy if all you try to do is rewrite without understanding. The upshot is that this gets easier as you progress and you will find that a lot of clients cover similar topic areas, so your research allows you to develop expertise that can be applied later.
Accept Criticism
Nobody likes to be criticised, but it’s something that you are going to have to get used to as a writer. In many ways, writing creative copy for even the most basic subjects is still a fairly subjective exercise. While you can look at the spelling, grammar and overall layout of the piece objectively, if it doesn’t strike the right chord with the reader when it comes to tone and delivery you are going to come in for some criticism. As such, you need to be able to write in different “voices,” allowing you to create professional content when it is needed, but also having the ability to be more conversational when the time comes.
This can be especially discouraging when you first start out, as people in general are more likely to make their voices heard about something they don’t like, rather than things that they do. Accept that criticism is going to come, regardless of how good you think a piece might be. Learn from it and develop an understanding of what your clients want, as this is the most important thing at the end of the day.
Get Technical
As long as you have a word processor and a keyboard you can make a start with content writing. However, you are soon going to find that some clients will want you to upload pieces for them, or that some of the platforms you use require you make use of a content management system (CMS). These can be intimidating at first, but you need to master them so that you can provide a more comprehensive service.
For me, becoming proficient in the use of WordPress is the best idea. You can set up a blog for free using the WordPress CMS, so there is no excuse not to get cracking. This will give you a basic idea of the concepts behind content management systems and you should find it fairly easy to transfer those skills to others. It may also be worth learning a bit of HTML for formatting purposes, so get reading and start developing a little bit of technical knowledge.
The Patience To Proofread
It can be hard to muster up the energy you need to go back over a huge piece of content to make sure it is as free of errors as possible, but you have to do it if you want to deliver consistent quality.
Now, contrary to what you might think, not every piece that you deliver needs to be completely devoid of errors. That is what you should aim for, but even the best writers occasionally miss things when redrafting their work. After all, we have probably all read books that contained spelling errors, and these will have been checked by writers and professional copy editors.
However, that is no excuse to not proofread at all. It’s amazing how many silly mistakes can get made without you even noticing them when you’re writing. Just going over this piece I have seen myself use “you’re” when I meant to write “your,” for example. They may not be obvious when you are creating the content, but you can bet they will be the things that stand out most to your clients when they read it.
The Final Word
So we’ve covered a few of the things you need to be able to create content of a high enough standard to allow yourself to make a living in the industry. I think the key is that you should always learn more. Nobody can hold themselves up as the “perfect” writer and the job is as much about the ability to write when you don’t feel like it as it is the ability to create great content when you are inspired.
Every job you take on is an opportunity to develop your skills and enhance your reputation, which can lead to more work and, hopefully, the chance to write about the things that you are truly passionate about. You are just going to have to grind a little to get there.