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Content is essential for a brand.
Irrespective of the size or the category of a business. Their content assets have a huge emphasis on their promotion strategies.
Among the various types of content. Written blog content on the company’s website is the most popular form.
That is one of the reasons why content writer job profiles are in demand.
Though not all content writers are equal in creating the content.
A writer at the beginning of their career may not match the quality as that of a professional. Moreover, their industry expertise also plays a major role in the effective outcome.
If you are new to content writing. Then, the process of churning out content on a consistent schedule may overwhelm you.
You can make use of a number of advanced content writing techniques to elevate your content. But if your content does not comply with the basics of content writing. Then, no amount of promotions can help you achieve engagement.
If the process of content writing gives you jitters. Then, you can read further to gain tips to put method to the madness.
How to Get the Basics of Content Writing in a Simple Way
1. Be Clear on Purpose
This is the basic reason for a certain blog post to exist.
If you do not know why you have written the post. Then, even your readers will never get to know the reason either.
It is difficult to write a post without a specific goal in mind. The absence of clarity in the writer’s thoughts seems evident through their writing.
That is why it is important to list out the goals before you begin to write.
Listing goals gets the train of thoughts out from your mind onto your writing medium. Thereby helping you to fight the blank space syndrome.
When you know what is it that you are after. Then, it is much easier to chalk out a plan to achieve it.
For instance, I want my readers to write their first 500-word blog post after reading this article. Therefore, this article lists every piece of information to achieve that goal.
2. Form a Linear Path to Your Purpose
Once you get a clarity on your post’s purpose. Then, the next step is to form a logical sequence to getting close to your goal.
That means you outline the steps that help you reach the end goal.
Listing out the steps in a chronological order guides your readers with an action plan. So, they know what steps to take first and which ones are subsequent.
Consider this process as drawing a single line diagram or a flowchart that ends with your goal.
If you have clarity on the step #1. Then, creating the linear path towards the achievement of your goals is an easy task.
You can concentrate on your article’s chosen keyword and the end goal. This way you can come up with all the essential key steps to connect the two.
3. Frame Complete Sentences
Coffee?
Writer?
Friend?
Single?
Free?
These are the examples of one-word communication that I often receive in my inbox.
They confuse me because I do not know what do they intend.
One word Coffee could mean any of the following possibilities:
Do you know that coffee exists?
Do you like coffee?
Will you treat me to coffee?
May I treat you to coffee?
As you can see. A mere one-word sentence creates ambiguity. It may denote a thought that the writer has. But that word fails to transport the writer’s thoughts into the minds of the readers.
Hence, it is essential to deliver a thought process through a complete sentence. A simple complete sentence is worth more than the one full of grandiose vocabulary.
A complete sentence has the noun, verb, and adjectives in place. So, the intention of writing that sentence comes out clear.
Formation of simple complete sentences makes your writing clear and bold. It also helps increase the word count.
4. Legible Formatting
After framing simple sentences to achieve the goal of the post. Then, comes the next step to format your writing.
Writing clear, simple and crisp sentences must follow legible formatting. Else, your readers will find it difficult to read through your post.
Cohesive sentences crammed in a long paragraph are repulsive to read.
They strain the eyes and inhibit the readers to scroll further.
Therefore, your paragraphs should not contain more than 3-4 sentences.
Moreover, even your sentences must not contain more than 10 words. Blank white space between paragraphs declutters the chaos by minimizing distraction. Thus, it helps to enhance the reading experience.
Small paragraphs are the reason for the popularity of list-based posts.
5. No Plagiarized Content
This one is obvious. But still many writers at the beginning of their careers copy others.
Not only it is wrong to steal someone else’s work. But doing so can lead to a ban on your site from Google.
Google search algorithm knows who posts plagiarized content. It bans such sites from their search engine on noticing copy-paste instances.
Therefore, instead, of copying from others. The newbie writers must invest in learning to form their original ideas.
Authentic content builds a deep connection with readers. This further transforms into better engagement rates and ROI.
No matter how limited is your knowledge on a particular subject. You can always add to it by referring to books and magazines in that domain.
6. Make your Headline Interesting
Until you have a large following of your blog. You cannot expect your posts to have good engagement rates.
To have a large following you must have a lot of engaging content.
This is a Catch-22 situation for writers in the initial stages of their career.
Catchy headlines work like a charm to fight this situation. An attention-grabbing title pulls the eyes of the reader towards the content of the blog.
Good headlines increase click-through-rates, thereby increasing page views.
The simple formula to come up with a headline is to show readers a solution to a problem. For instance, the headline of this post lures on delivering the basics of content writing.
Considering the importance of Headlines. I offer my Headlines generating service on Fiverr. It is best suited for people who struggle to create catchy headlines. A good headline can pump life to a content by bringing in more readers for it.
7. Include an Image
Much as the headline, an image tempts the readers to engage with your content.
Hence, adding an image is essential to your post. But ensure that you use royalty free images. Else, your post will come under the plagiarism radar.
The use of images increases the likelihood of social media shares. They also boost the search engine friendliness when paired with alt+text features.
In Conclusion
As someone with a considerable experience with generating content on varied topics. I know how difficult it is to start content writing.
That is why I share my content writing tips for beginners in this article.
All the tips are simple to understand and easy to implement. Even if you make use of them in 5 of your subsequent posts. You will see more engagement and traction with your blog.
Do let me know if they were helpful to you. You can share this article with someone who struggles to know how to start content writing.
Header Image Courtesy: Pixabay