10 Great tips to prepare yourself as a freelance content writer

Be an excellent Content Writer

Preparing yourself as a freelance content writer is not child’s play. It is easier said than done. Demand for good and fresh content is rising by leaps and bounds on the internet. If you are creating a website which is content based then it naturally will be your most coveted and important commodity. So before you start writing content you shall have to learn the tricks of the trade.

Here are some great tips that will help you prepare as a great content writer and jump start it all :-

1. First of all you should know the language you would be writing content in. I would assume that you would be using English as your medium for your writing jobs and I would also assume that you would be freelancing on the internet. So you must have proper grip on the language you will be writing in. If you can not construct a sentence properly in english then you should look for some other avenues which suite you better.

2. Secondly you should have knowledge in the subject you will be writing content about.This is because even if you research a topic on the internet and simply compile your own article it would show up in your article if you do not have proper depth about the subject you are writing in. You will simply not be able to put the article together in proper sequence. Properly written and informative articles are in demand and not just any article.
   So to be a coveted for freelance content writer pick your niche.

3.  You should be able to write original content. Plagiarism is something which is hated by search engines. If googlebot or any other search engine robot crawling your websites finds copied content then it will immediately rank you down. It will push your rank down by many notches compared to your competitors. Search engine optimization is one of the primary goals of an online content writer so if you cant achieve that goal your content is of no use. So by all means keep yourself far away from plagiarism. Plagiarism is also against the reputation of any good freelance content writer.

4. You should master the art of writing captivating and motivating content withgreat headlines. If you are writing a sales landing page then you have to know the art of motivating people. You have to coax your reader into buying a service or a product. You shall have to know how and where to harp on the sentiments of your readers. But refrain from telling a lie. A false claim or a lie does never go a long way in selling a service or a product. Be honest yet be motivating.

5. Remember to maintain proper keyword density while writing content. Remember that people will find you through search engines and search engines will find you through your keywords. Search engines will crawl the content you write and classify your page according to relevance of keywords. So if you do not maintain proper keyword density then by all means search engines will give you general ranks for all the keywords in your page. If you want to be ranked higher for a particular keyword then definitely remember to maintain proper keyword density in your content. So if you are preparing yourself to be a great freelance content writer then you have to keep this in mind too.

6. If you are preparing yourself as a professional freelance content writer then you would also require to plan your time well. You will have to know how much time to devote on research. If you do a lot of research and collect a lot of writing material then you might overwhelm yourself. You will spend all your time reading those material and will not be able to come up with any fruitful content to present to your client. So time management is one of the primary goals that you need to keep in mind while preparing as a content writer.

7. You should know where to look for quality content. As a content writer you will always be in need of good content yourself as food for your thoughts. So you shall have to maintain a list of informative and authentic information sources on your subject or subjects of specialization. Keeping them handy will save a lot of your time while you are researching on a topic. Otherwise you will look for material here and there and will not be able to deliver your work in time.

 

8. Timely delivery is another very important factor for a good freelance content writer.Your clients and their sites will be banking on you for articles which they need to put up regularly on their websites for SEO purposes. If you can not meet the deadline then chances are they will not come back to you with their next assignment. So bottom-line is that a freelance content writer shall have to deliver original, high quality, search engine optimized, motivating content on time.

9. While preparing yourself as a content writer you shall have to keep in mind the break even factors. You shall have to make a calculation of factors like how much time you require to write a standard 500 word content on a particular subject. For writing such an article how much time do you spend researching on the topic. Then comes the question of typing speed. How fast you can type. After all these are calculated you have to make an assumption of how much you can earn a month and then project it over a period of 3 years. You shall have to see if the growth rate is sustainable or not.

10.  Then finally while preparing as a freelance content writer you need to know how to get rid of writer’s block. There will be times when you find that you run out of ideas to write. There will be some days when you can write on whatever topic is thrown at you and yet there will be some days when you will feel that you cant write at all. There are ways to get over this. Firstly you need to spend some time away from your computer. Take a break and go to the park for a walk.  Better still work out for an hour or so. While doing other things do not think about the topic you are intending to write about. Just relax in whatever way you feel like. You might consider watching a movie. Drink plenty of fluid. Then after you have relaxed well take a notebook and jot down your main ideas and I am sure thoughts will start flowing in slowly.

So now you are armed with 10 great tips on how to prepare yourself as a freelance content writer. I wish you success in your endeavor.

Source: http://goo.gl/y6O52J