Writing has evolved from one of the oldest professions when authors created short stories, poems, plays, print media firms and fiction/non-fiction novel writers into a newer profession of content writing on the Internet. Content written on the Internet consists of personal blogs, commercial content sites and social media influencing blogs. Content demand is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide fueled by the endless traffic growth on the Internet and search engines that want fresh high quality content including video, text and images.
Content writing on web is of many types, like a blog or opinion piece, a product review, travel info, etc. Each is different from other and a professional content writer must constantly evolve to produce relevant content as needed without compromising on the quality of the work he is doing.
To be a good content writer one must know some of the following:
1. Who makes up the targeted demographic for my content ?
2. How would readers benefit from my content ?
3. What is the demand for such topics ?
4. How many words and what keywords would help readers find my content ?
5. Am I knowledgeable on this subject matter ?
The first step to write a good content in my opinion is to actually visualize the result you are seeking, is your content in response to a query or are you trying to update a bit of information for the visitors, or are you introducing a product, put yourself in the mind set of a person who is accessing the page, it gives you broad pointer about the information you want to cover. The content must be current, relevant and beneficial for the readers.
Do proper research on the topic at because hand content writing requires a lot of extensive research that is time consuming and most necessary. The professionals in the field are of the opinion that this job is 90% research work and only 10% writing.
Use concise manner to convey the information in clear and precise terms, try using headlines for dividing you content piece into sections that allows user to even skip to the area they wish to go through. Focus on the type of audience you are writing for. Content writing is different from literature, your exotic vernacular may actually put off people who then would skip to your competitors.
Do not deviate from the topic at hand, do not try to add irrelevant data or tit-bits of info no one is interested in to make the content bulky and to increase the keywords in the article. Relevancy is very critical for your content piece so ensure that content you wrote is current, relevant and properly presented.
Punctuate and proof read your content before putting it online, preferably by someone else, a second set of eyes would help you look at the content from a different angle and their opinion will improve the quality. As a writer it is unavoidable to put a personal slant into our words, and the way they are presented asking for help will help you correct any thing you missed.