Tag: content writing

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Types of Online Writing Gigs: A Guide for the Aspiring Freelance Writer

writing on the work desk

If you’re an aspiring freelance writer looking to score top-paying online writing gigs, this short but comprehensive guide can help you. No matter what topics are right up your alley, the more types of freelance writing you’re familiar with, the easier it gets to score a good gig and earn some reputation. 

Freelance content writing is just like any other online market these days. It’s saturated with millions of writers trying to find their place under the sun. The best way to beat your potential competitors is to tap into the immense selection of different types of content writing to narrow down your options and choose the one that matches your skills, needs, and professional desires.

Since this guide aims to help you move forward with your professional development, I’ll list some of the top types of freelance writing gigs to make building your writing portfolio as easy as possible.

Content writing

writing in the notebook

Probably the most popular type of freelance online writing, content writing refers to creating various content for the web, ranging from social media posts, feature articles, and guides to essays, blog posts, product descriptions, etc. 

If you’re new to online writing, this type is probably the best place to start your journey. Content writing should be engaging, reader-focused, entertaining, informative, and educational. 

Whether you’re writing a how-to guide to particular software or listing top destinations to visit in Africa, the goal is to write content that resonates with your readers. 

On the other hand, your content should be SEO-friendly so that internet users can find it easily on search engines like Google. 

To write the most effective and engaging content, you need to understand the client’s goals and requirements regarding format and length and the content’s target audience.

Copywriting

While content writing is more educational, copywriting is more promotional. A copywriter is in charge of writing marketing and promotional materials with the primary goal of selling a particular product or service. 

They do so by providing an in-depth description of the essential features of a product or service and the things it can do for a customer. Such content contains call-to-action (CTA) incentives to persuade the reader to complete the desired action.

Copywriting includes the following types of content:

  • Case studies;
  • Website copy;
  • Sales pages;
  • Gift guides;
  • White papers;
  • Product reviews;
  • Category descriptions;
  • Buyer guides;
  • Email sequences;
  • Product descriptions.

For copywriters, it’s mandatory to know their target audience well to provide content with real value that can address their specific needs. An expert in some field isn’t going to appreciate a guide for beginners, and beginners will be confused by content meant for specialists. So, keep that in mind when doing your research.

Technical writing

drinking coffee and writing

Freelancer writers with proper knowledge and expertise in a specialized area such as IT, medicine, web design, or engineering should consider technical writing.

This type of online content writing refers to creating various evaluation reports, SOPs, manuals, and how-to guides that cater to the experienced professionals in the area. 

However, technical writing also extends to training guides, instructional articles, grant proposals, legal briefs, business plans, schedules, etc. If you excel at managing data and workflow and have an eye for specific details and formalities, technical writing might be your best option.

Journalism

Anyone with a phone and internet connection can be a journalist today. However, modern-day readers demand a more thorough approach to particular events and topics.

If your goal is to specialize in writing investigative reports, feature articles, and journals, you should learn to work on a tight deadline. 

When it comes to journalistic writing, it all comes down to checking your facts and identifying trustworthy sources for presenting the information. 

You must support and verify every little thing you write with accurate statistics, facts, figures, and first-person interviews if you want to grab the attention of your target audience. Journalistic writing requires utmost accuracy, reputable sources of information and references, and incredible attention to detail.

Websites

typing on a laptop

With more news, journals, blogs, and magazine outlets becoming present on the internet these days, the need for writing content for websites has never been greater. While they all have their print materials, they also need someone skillful to write top-grade content for their pages. 

On the other hand, the number of online magazines is increasing daily, and each of these websites requires fresh news pieces, features, and articles. This gig is also an excellent place to start your online writing career.

Conclusion

Aside from possessing mad writing skills, a freelance online writer should be able to use words and phrases in a meaningful way that can evoke positive emotions in the target audience. 

If you have no problem doing that and have a way with words, online writing is the right job for you. 

While there are many other types of freelance writing online, those above are among the most well-known types that dominate the web. 

Writing online content is almost like writing digital poetry in the eyes of internet users, so keep that in mind when choosing your freelance writing type.

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The Pros and Cons of Remote Work: Is it Really Easier?

woman working from home

The global pandemic that hit our planet in 2020 was one of the initial reasons for more and more companies and business owners engaging in remote work. It would be comic if it weren’t tragic, but the COVID-19 pandemic made remote working more popular than it ever was. 

Today, both professionals and organizations all over the planet are very seriously committed to this kind of working arrangement.

Of course, it’s not like remote work was unknown to companies before the mess started. People were only used to working from the office and in specific conditions.

However, things have changed, but in a good way. Today, people see remote work as a future with more advantages and better working conditions. 

If you decide to read this article, it is evident that you also consider working remotely. You need some straightforward reasons for whether this type of arrangement is more convenient than in-office work.

Before you try to conclude for yourself, here are the top pros and cons that can help you see if remote work is indeed the future that will make your life easier.

Pros of remote work

Let’s look into some of the positive sides of working from home.

More flexibility

woman working from home while doing laundry

Most companies that offer remote work to their employees have more than flexible working hours.

Do you want the joy of having the ability to scatter your working hours across the day and be the creator of your working schedule? Then the best option is to look for remote work, primarily if you can’t exclusively focus only on your career.

Remote work is excellent for people who have children and all children-related obligations during the day. The flexibility I’m talking about means you can have time to prepare everything that depends on you before you sit and focus on your job. 

Better work-life harmony

Since remote work typically has flexible working hours, you can create the perfect balance in your private and career life. You can spend more time with your partner, family, and friends without thinking about an unfinished job. 

You can create your schedule and organize your job around your private life. Not commuting to work means you can have a lot of free time to achieve a work-life balance, be happier, and be satisfied with your working conditions. 

Enhanced productivity

woman remote work taking notes

When you have more infrequent interruptions during work hours, like having to talk with colleagues or engage in social activities at the office, it’s clear that you can be more productive. The truth is it’s always more fun to joke around with colleagues when you have important work to finish. 

However, when you work from home, you can focus more on the job with fewer distractions from other things around you. It’s easier to get into the zone, arrange your work hours, and complete your assignments on time. 

More importantly, if you show your ambition and productivity to your employers, you will earn their trust and have better career opportunities.

Minimal expenses

Another fantastic thing about remote work is that it is undoubtedly less costly for your employers and your budget. Working from home means you can save a lot of money eating lunch and drinking coffee during your breaks. 

You can also save on transportation costs and fuel, and you don’t have to spend a fortune buying business clothes. You don’t even have to wear uncomfy pants, shirts, and skirts unless you have an important video conference with your business partners. 

Cons of remote work

Sometimes working from home doesn’t work out. Let’s explore just some of the reasons.

Lack of social interaction

Yes, nowadays, it is all about technology, and we can communicate projects with everyone by using the benefits of our little devices.

However, face-to-face interaction is what most people underestimate these days. There’s something special about sharing the conversation with your colleagues during lunch. 

Difficulty in meeting the targets

woman lost in thought

Remote work is brilliant because you can create your schedule and optimize everything according to your needs. However, if nobody’s checking your progress and you lack discipline, you might have difficulties finishing your assignments on time. 

In-office work is suitable for those who need motivation, discipline, and someone to push their limits. If you’re the person who needs to be in a group to be productive and work efficiently, avoid applying for remote jobs. 

Management challenges

While working remotely sounds exciting and more convenient, one thing that most people forget about is that nobody is coming to your rescue if you encounter a problem. When working remotely, almost every little thing depends on you. 

You need to learn to deal with technical problems and how to fix them quickly without calling the rescue team. All the apps and devices you use must be operational and functional 24/7, but more importantly, you need to know how to use them. 

No one will organize your schedule, and no one will jump in and help you finish your assignments.

Bottom line

So, is it genuinely better to work remotely? Well, I’m sure you’ve found your answers by reading this post.

Discipline and responsibility come first when it comes to remote work. If you create perfect harmony and organize your time, none of these disadvantages listed above will be a challenge.

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How to Research a Subject You Have No Familiarity With

How does Michel Houellebecq, the name of fine literature, know so much about haploid gametes? I can imagine him writing by the window, Paris rooftops laid like beautiful women as far as the eye can see. It’s 1997, the end of Western civilization. The rooftops are burning, and Houellebecq is drafting Atomised. 

But that’s completely off-topic.

Speaking of which, the question is pending – how come writers know so much about everything?

Now Houellebecq is smirking: research, research, research. 

In my humble experience as a content writer, I’ve become an expert in hair transplants, HR, bed bugs, data collection, proxies, crypto trading, interior design, credit cards, THC, and legal contracts. That was only this month. Over the years, I’ve written about everything, from soup to nuts – and I loved it. 

How do I research all these specific, often obscure, niche topics?

A writer must read – a lot.

puzzle pieces spelling out 'read more'

And I don’t mean books. Well, I read them, too, and I warmly recommend creating a habit out of it, but more on that later. Whether you’re a hired writer or a wanna-be auteur, you should do a lot of reading. You might have a different topic each day or not; the approach is still the same – before you write, read.

You can research most topics with Google at a glance and in-depth. 

For every 800-word article, I typically spend an hour googling and reading – at least.

When a topic doesn’t ring any bells, like the aforementioned haploid gametes, I keep reading until I know enough to explain the subject matter to my toddler (he’s pretty smart). Of course, the depth of knowledge you should acquire depends on the level of expertise you’ve been requested to deliver. 

In any case, researching a topic means reading about it. 

Finding the best sources

You should know that most articles on the internet are paid. They’ve been written by experts-by-the-hour, writers like you and me. Regrettably, not all of us approach our jobs with the same work ethic. Not all of us care about integrity. Some of us have better things to do. Somewhere else to be.

Be that as it may, you should learn to recognize a lazy writer from the first sentence.

Curated sources are not all bad, far from it, but reading the source material is better. As a rule of thumb, credible sources such as encyclopedias, textbooks, and scholarly journals are the best. Common problems with these sources are their length, inaccessibility, or technical jargon.

For quick research, the best alternatives are:

  • Online magazines that conduct their research;
  • News outlets that write and post first-hand reports;
  • Websites with .edu and .org domains (all reputable).

When researching less academic-oriented topics, such as blogging or beauty, you generally have to rely on your digital and information literacy. You will learn to recognize a (real) expert blog writer in time. You can also tell when that writer is trying to sell something without actually selling it.

That is something you get from experience, so reading is critical. 

Evaluating source credibility 

working desk

There is a systematic way of double-checking information quality, though.

Many writers use the so-called CRAAP test, which California State University developed in 2004 to help students with their research. You can apply it to both academic papers and blog posts. Considering how much misinformation circulates the internet lately, anyone could benefit from using the CRAAP test.

Here’s how it goes:

  • Currency: Is the source up-to-date?
  • Relevance: Is the source relevant to your research?
  • Authority: Where is the source published? Who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field?
  • Accuracy: Is there evidence to support the source? Are the claims cited correctly?
  • Purpose: What was the motive behind publishing this source?

The last one – purpose – is the one I use most frequently. I’ve mentioned this earlier, but it’s too important not to do it twice. A whopping percentage of online content exists for content marketing purposes. Educational, glad-to-be-of-help content is so rare that you can spot it from miles away. 

Active reading as a practice

All the best writers I know take notes. 

Note-taking is so incredibly helpful because it forces you to pay attention and helps you process and acquire information on the go. You can do it the old-fashioned way, using a pen and paper. You can also download a browser extension that lets you highlight in different colors as you read.

Having two screens also helps, or you can split one screen in half. That will enable you to take notes directly in the document where you’ll be writing the article and keep researching the topic on the other half of the screen. I’ve found the highlighter thingy and split-screen combo to be the most effective. 

In addition to notes, there’s another component to active reading: curiosity.

So, let’s talk about that. 

Nurturing an open mind

Although I already knew a trick here and there, I spent some time reading about this topic before researching “researching” became too meta for my taste. Perhaps I’ve become a research expert since most of the best practices were already familiar to me. However, to my surprise, I did learn something new:

People love researching topics they know nothing about. 

Many of us take immense pleasure in finding answers to random questions like “How do bikes work,“ “Why is 70% of Spain empty,“ “Who is Michel Houellebecq,“ or “What’s the purpose of life.“ There’s joy in setting intellectual challenges and pushing the boundaries of knowledge. Researching and learning are at the center of that.

As writers, we should try not to forget that. 

Research every subject matter as thoroughly as you can for the sake of curiosity, which inspires change and breeds creation. Learn something new to potentially teach somebody something important. Study your haploid gametes. Don’t just wing it because your pasta has just arrived (super creamy, by the way). 

Next time you’re researching an unfamiliar topic, open your mind and keep reading. 

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How to Pick the Right Outsourcing Partners for Content Writing

It has become pretty challenging to pick the right content writing agency or freelancer for your project with hundreds of them out there. You want to ensure content quality and that your outsourcing partner goes through all the bullet points in your project brief.

Meanwhile, all content marketing agencies claim they work with the best writers and have profound experience producing content for various industries. The same goes for freelancers. How do you choose the right one then?

Here is a cheat sheet you can use to pick the best outsourcing partners for content writing every time the options overwhelm you.

Review their past work.

Colleagues reviewing work.

Every content writing agency or freelancer has a unique working style.

However, you have your unique business needs and goals. You are trying to maintain a consistent brand image, and not every style will reflect it. 

Your primary goal is to ensure that their writing style aligns with your short- and long-term goals.

The best way to do it is to review their past work. Ask them to share some content they worked on in the past; it will help you see who they are. Going through their previous work will enable you to understand many things. 

Most importantly, you can check the depth of their content, their research process, and whether they are detail-oriented or not. 

If you notice they can produce quality, in-depth content in different styles, tones, and voices, it’s a good sign that they will be able to meet your unique requirements. 

Check their expertise in your particular industry.

While you are at it, make sure to ask to review some content they produced for your competitors or industry in general.

It will help you assess their experience in your niche and whether they understand the industry you are involved in, including your target audience’s pain points, needs, and expectations.

Discover what content writing services they offer.

When someone says content, the first thing that comes to mind is a blog article. However, content marketing is quite a broad field, and it leverages all sorts of content types. Everything from an email copy and social media post status to an eBook and whitepaper is content. 

It’s in your best interest to discover all content writing services your potential outsourcing partner offers.

This practice is beneficial if you are looking for a long-term partner. You will be able to stick with one content writing service provider or freelancer even if your needs change and you decide to use other content formats. 

Look for online reviews.

Five yellow stars on pink and blue background.

Reviews and ratings have become a golden standard when purchasing products and services online and offline. The best of the best freelancers and content writing agencies know that, and asking clients for feedback has become a standard practice for them. 

Combing through the reviews can help you discover what your potential partner does best and where they lack expertise. 

Fortunately, many freelancer platforms such as Upwork have ratings and reviews sections you can access for free. Don’t rely on only one source of information. Feel free to expand your research and look for reviews on Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), social media, and relevant forums. 

Visit their official websites, too. That’s where you can find client testimonials and maybe some case studies. 

Do they have a revision policy?

The more complicated your content writing requirements are, the higher the chances that an agency or freelancer will get it done perfectly on the first try.

It takes time and some back-and-forth communication to get what you want. You might need to request revisions, ranging from minor to more extensive edits.

It’s essential to check whether they have a revision policy. You should read it to discover if there is a limit to the number of free revisions. 

Many agencies are ready to negotiate the terms, especially if you come to them with a long-term project. Feel free to bring up this topic when talking with a representative.  

Can you trust them with SEO projects?

Colleagues shaking hands.

Long gone are the days when companies produced content exclusively to provide value to their readers. While delivering value remains one of the primary goals, SEO slowly becomes imperative. 

Publishing quality content with relevant keywords can help you improve your SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) ranking, drive more organic traffic, generate more leads, boost conversions, and increase sales.

How do you tell if you can trust a potential partner with your SEO projects? The first thing you can do is check whether they specialize in writing SEO-friendly content. It should be right there, listed under their service offer. 

You can even take it one step further and use a free rank checker to see their SEO rankings, which keywords they rank for, and how much traffic their website generates.

Check and compare prices.

Content writing services come with a price tag that reflects professionalism, reliability, punctuality, and expertise. When choosing the outsourcing partner for your content writing projects, it’s vital to consider the price. 

The optimal outcome is to get precisely the content you want without breaking your budget. 

Consider making a spreadsheet when researching potential partners where you can write down essential differences, including the price point of their services. At the end of your research, you will be able to compare potential partners and find the most cost-efficient option without sacrificing the quality of the content. 

If you have any questions about the prices, you can contact your potential partners and ask them to provide a brief explanation of the charges. 

Is there a quality assurance policy?

Quality assurance.

While finding a freelancer with a quality assurance policy is rare, it has become a standard among content writing agencies.

Quality assurance encompasses various practices, including using third-party tools to ensure 100% uniqueness, desired level of readability, and no spelling and grammatical mistakes. 

Most agencies have editors to streamline this process and ensure that the writing style and keyword density meet all the requirements in the project brief.

Check for quality assurance, and if it’s not available online, feel free to ask your potential partners if they have one and how they ensure consistent quality of the content.

Always start with a small test project.

Finally, you should know that going full-partnership right from the start is not obligatory. When shopping for content writing services, you should start outsourcing a small test project. There is no better way to assess a potential partner than to work with them.

You won’t only end up with a content piece and be able to assess its quality. A test project puts you in a position to see how your potential partners work and communicate and how fast they respond to your messages. 

Conclusion

Outsourcing your content writing projects offers many benefits, including more time for your staff and higher flexibility. However, you can find it daunting to pick the right partner for the job. Hopefully, the tips I’ve shared here will help you align with the best possible outsourcing partner for content writing.

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7 Most Common Issues Content Writers Face With Writing Projects

Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” It’s a long and winding road with streams of creativity and occasional obstacles like the notorious writer’s block.

That condition of creative stall aside, content writing is a fantastic way to enrich your knowledge as it requires constant reading and learning. You encounter numerous topics and become an expert in multiple fields over time. After all, being a jack of all trades is in a content writer’s job description.

However, stepping into content writing shoes brings many challenges. Here are the most common you might experience and tips to overcome them.

1. Lack of target audience information

Writing a compelling copy that resonates with readers is impossible if you don’t know your target audience. You must understand their needs, pain points, desires, and opinions to connect with them, engage them with every word, and provide real value.

Whether a client showers you with information on a specific niche market or their target audience is broad, research it to understand its problems and language. That’s the only way to write with purpose, develop top-notch content, and achieve your client’s goal.

2. Poor communication with clients

two businessmen discussing a project in front of laptops

Communication can make or break your writing projects. Spoiler alert: sometimes, it’s not you; it’s them.

Not every client uses clarity when communicating their vision and goals. Some don’t go into details, leaving you with vague or confusing instructions. Others set no expectations upfront, providing only a keyword or a link to include in the piece.

You must ask for the specifics to ensure you’re on the same page and eliminate unnecessary back-and-forth conversations. The more information you have, the easier it will be to hit the bullseye and exceed your client’s expectations.

3. Unfamiliar topics

Your content writing journey will take you to paths you’ve never crossed before. Unfamiliar topics might scare you away, but that’s the exciting part that grips and compels you to push the boundaries of knowledge and discover new possibilities.

Yes, it’s all about research. I don’t mean googling a topic and reading only the first few sources – that’s not nearly enough to understand it inside out.

Lazy writers take that path of least resistance to save time, ignoring the unquestionable fact that in-depth research is crucial to delivering high-quality, informative, relevant, accurate content.

Take at least an hour to study the building blocks of an unfamiliar topic before putting words on paper, virtual or otherwise. That’s the key to creating well-researched content that impresses every client.

4. Limited creative freedom

Many content writers find restrictions on creativity frustrating. How to create a compelling piece if you have to lock your creative muse in a cage?

Unfortunately, this challenge has only one solution – adhering to your client’s instructions. Not respecting their wishes could cost you the project and hinder your future collaboration.

If the topic allows it, you could ask for some degree of artistic expression, ensuring you don’t stray off the path if the client gives the green light.

5. Insufficient SEO knowledge

an image of macbook on a wooden desk

You can’t develop relevant, authoritative pieces that rank high in SERPs (search engine results pages) without SEO (Search Engine Optimization) knowledge.

When I started my career in content writing, I had no idea what SEO  meant. Anchor text, meta description, backlinks, you name it – loads of terms I had never heard of before.

I knew I had to get down to business and learn everything. I acquired new skills that clients valued and expected and have been honing them ever since because search engine algorithms keep changing, making room for further improvement.

Take the time to master SEO, and you’ll consistently create brilliant content.

6. Ensuring readability

Many content writers struggle to communicate ideas, often getting lost in their thoughts and moving away from a project’s primary goal.

They write overly long sentences trying to convey the message, insert unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, and use too much technical jargon that makes the content difficult to understand. Complex diction and uncommon phrases also plague content pieces when a writer wishes to sound more proficient.

That negatively affects readability and the potential for the target audience to read the content and take action.

Write concisely, break your content into short paragraphs, and use numbered or bulleted lists to improve readability.

To enhance your writing’s authority, integrity, and quality, use a readability checker like Hemingway Editor or Grammarly.

7. Never-ending revisions

Revisions are sometimes necessary because, after all, every client should receive a high-quality piece that meets their needs. However, some clients might ask for seemingly endless rewrites that exhaust you mentally and physically.

This problem ties back to communication. Discuss expectations with every client before starting a project and ask for any references that might steer you in the right direction.

Most importantly, limit revisions because you don’t want to waste precious time if you can’t see eye to eye with a client. Drawing a line will prevent incessant micromanaging that stands in the way of your creativity.

Final thoughts

These challenges are only a glimpse of the obstacles you’ll encounter as a content writer, but don’t let them scare you away. You can overcome them quickly and enjoy a fulfilling, rewarding experience.

Don’t forget to improve your time-management and organization skills to keep procrastination and distractions impacting productivity at bay, especially when dealing with tight deadlines.

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6 Eye-Opening Reasons Why Businesses Outsource Content Writing

Content outsource

If you need top-grade content writing skills and don’t have the expertise or time to develop them on your own, outsourcing is the best way to go. You can take care of your content creation needs by outsourcing content writing to professionals. 

It’s an effective, easy, and affordable way to get your hands on high-quality content without effort. According to the latest CMI report, more than 70% of online businesses resort to outsourcing to meet their content marketing needs. 

Hiring someone to handle your content creation and distribution ensures you receive high-class content that will resonate with your target audience and meet the strict SEO practices. Because of that, content writing is a vital part of your business strategy. 

Using whitepapers, magazine articles, social media posts, sales decks, and marketing materials allows you to build relationships with your partners, consumers, and workforce. With that in mind, let’s review some of the best reasons to consider outsourcing content creation to professionals.

1. Saving time and focusing on the core mission

A woman holding an hourglass.

One of the most significant benefits of outsourcing is saving time. Since you don’t have to do your content writing yourself, you’re free to use the time on your hands however you see fit.

The professional content creator you hire to do your writing will take care of all the hard work, including doing research and writing engaging and attention-grabbing content. 

Creating and publishing regular blog posts requires a lot of time, effort, and resources, not to mention managing the entire content marketing campaign and handling tasks like search engine optimization and making regular social media posts.

Since you can’t clone yourself to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, shift your focus on the core activities to harness the full potential of your business mission. Leave the writing to professionals while you go about your vital tasks as a business leader.

Outsourcing is also a cheaper option than hiring an in-house team to produce the precious content you need.

2. Creating a publishing schedule to publish more content

Another excellent reason to consider outsourcing content creation is doing more with less. Content marketing is a full-time job that requires dedication and a lot of investment.

Since you can’t run a business and constantly write top-grade content, you can make it easy on yourself by allowing professionals to put together high-end content for you. 

All it takes to handle your content needs is to communicate your writing needs to a freelancer or an agency and leave the rest in their capable hands. There’s no need to carve time out of your already busy daily schedule to write content and burden yourself with unnecessary obligations. 

Since top-class content requires time to research, gather, put together, and publicize, it’s better to rely on freelancers and agencies to produce engaging content that will be real eye candy for your target audience.

Many brands struggle with publishing more content without sacrificing any of the quality. They all realize that they need more writers at some point.

So, beat your competitors by outsourcing your content writing to professionals and watch as your audience grows bigger.

3. It’s cheaper to outsource than to hire an in-house team

Money saving jar on wood surface.

Depending on where you’re stationed, outsourcing could save you a lot of money you would have to invest in hiring local professionals to handle your content writing for you. Since many freelance writing platforms are on the web, you can compare writer fees and find professionals who match your budget. 

On the other hand, you’ll have more time to monitor your market, keep an eye on your competitors, track new trends, and focus on marketing, ideation, and business strategy. 

The results could be more than satisfying:

  • Higher content marketing ROI;
  • Top-quality content;
  • Fewer worries on your mind regarding employing a full-time writer.

Believe it or not, hiring a full-time writer could cost you thousands of dollars on overheads, training, equipment, and IT costs that come with employing an extra member of your team. Outsourcing allows you to eliminate those unnecessary costs and only pay for the content.

4. Outsourcing gives you more flexibility

Even though hiring a full-time writer offers some benefits, it also comes with certain downsides. For example, having one writer for all your content means you’re stuck with a particular writing style. If your content needs tend to change over time, you’ll find it challenging to adapt.

Outsourcing gives you more flexibility and scalability regarding the quality and quantity of content you receive. It allows you to hire more writers, work on different subjects from various angles and cover a broader range of topics. 

Sometimes, a simple change of tone of voice is enough to broaden your target audience and connect with your readers more meaningfully. Every market and industry changes over time, and you need to cope with those changes to keep your business up and running. 

Since content plays a critical role in achieving that goal, you need to ensure that you can produce as much as possible. If your content marketing starts bearing fruit and you need to scale up, outsourcing can ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.

5. Freelancers bring new ideas

A lightbulb idea.

In an overwhelmingly competitive digital business landscape, businesses are as successful as they’re ready to innovate. Introducing new ideas and talent and exploring new concepts could bring you the attention you deserve. 

Freelancers are usually experienced with these sorts of things, and they can bring the knowledge, skill, and experience to reshape your content needs. 

They can introduce you to your industry’s new trends, help you to gather new ideas, and create unique standpoints for achieving your content marketing needs. Since outsourcing allows you to tap into a massive pool of writers, you’ll always have a string of fresh ideas in the palm of your hands.

6. Outsourcing allows you to cover a range of topics

Every brand is an expert in its area, but a different approach is sometimes necessary to reach broader audiences and expand into new markets. Since your content probably covers an expanding range of topics, outsourcing is an excellent way to cope with the increasing demand.

Freelance writers come with certain expertise, and every writer specializes in a different area. In other words, outsourcing allows you to tap into a range of specialties and experiences to explore every subject more profoundly and present your audience with accurate information.

Conclusion

As you can see, these are excellent reasons to consider outsourcing your content writing needs to professionals worldwide. Getting your hands on top-class content offers many benefits to your business, so many that this post would have to be considerably longer to mention them all.

Aside from harnessing the power of immense talent, you can cover more topics, reach more prospects, and save time and resources. Working with professionals can only be a good thing and bring you closer to achieving your business goals.

So, hire freelancers or collaborate with a content writing agency to get your hands on brilliant content that your readers will love. You will work with people with different backgrounds and acquire new perspectives that allow you to beat your competitors, forecast trends, and better understand what your target audience truly wants. 

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Aspects of SEO That a Content Writer Needs to Be Familiar With

scrabble pieces spelling out SEO

If you’re a content writer, you’re probably aware of the ever-increasing need to improve your SEO content writing skills. SEO is virtually a science, but it’s also a modern-day art form.

As an SEO writer, your job is to keep your mind open, research new trends, and find the best way to please your biggest fans – your readers and search engines like Google. 

However, what works for readers may not work for Google and vice versa. So, the trick is to develop a unique style that can satisfy both your target audience and the most popular search engines in the world.

Just as you need to feel the pulse of your audience to produce the best content that’s a real treat for their needs, you should do the same for search engines. You need to learn some of the essential SEO content principles and practices to do that. 

This short guide will share some facts on the best SEO writing practices, the essential SEO terms you should know, and some valuable tips for writing top SEO content.

SEO writing and types of SEO content

types of content on laptop

Any content that aims to achieve as high a ranking as possible in the search engine results pages (SERPs) is defined as SEO content. Writing such content requires high-quality writing skills and analytics proficiency.

You need to make your content SEO-friendly if you wish to see it rank high in SERPs. However, optimization isn’t enough to achieve your goal of writing perfectly optimized content for search engines. 

The texts you write must achieve two primary goals:

  • Conveying your message and emotion to resonate with the reader’s sentiment;
  • Providing all the necessary facts to explain the target keywords and phrases.

To achieve these goals, you should synonymously optimize your content for both your audience and keywords.

Google is designed to address the needs of internet users. If your content can please the needs of your readers, they’ll spend more time reading it, which will improve your traffic and click-through rates. 

The result will be an astonishingly high ranking for your content and more than a satisfying bounce rate. For your information, bounce and click-through rates are two vital ranking factors.

Now that you have some basic information about SEO writing, let’s list some of the best content types for top SEO ranking:

  • Lists – top 10 most popular tools, web design ideas, Google searches in 2022, etc.;
  • Guides – guides are articles that provide in-depth explanations on a particular topic, including tips, definitions, strategies, etc.;
  • Articles – news, features, interviews, etc.;
  • Videos – ranging from long-form videos to bite-size clips, video content is the most popular and engaging on the internet; 
  • Blog posts – a blog is the best way to connect with your target audience, answer their questions, and improve your SEO ranking by targeting specific queries and keywords;
  • Infographics – the best visual presentations to provide in-depth explanations for internet users looking for quick answers and capture quality organic traffic;
  • Product pages – serving as landing pages for PPC campaigns, product pages provide product descriptions to help readers understand how specific items work and what they can do;
  • How-to guides – articles that provide step-by-step instructions on how to use a particular product, tool, program, application, etc.;
  • Slideshows and images – presentations, graphics, charts, etc.

Now, let’s move on with the essential SEO terms every modern-day content writer should put their finger on.

Essential SEO terms for your content-writing vocabulary

SEO terms on sticky notes around laptop

Here’s a comprehensive list of the critical SEO terms to keep in mind.

Long-tail keywords

Containing 3-6 words, these are sets of specific keywords, terms, or phrases.

SERPs

As mentioned earlier, SERPs are search results pages on a search engine. When an internet user performs a query, they will see the results that they can further explore.

It’s vital to mention the position of SERPs or the accurate ranking in Google Analytics. The best listings are those that appear on the first page of Google.

Anchor text

Anchor text can be a word or a phrase that contains a hyperlink that leads to the desired web page, blog post, etc. It’s an excellent way to direct your readers to another blog post to keep them longer on your website.

Meta description

Since internet users have a short attention span, you need an engaging and attention-grabbing summary of your page that can compel them to click on a result in their SERPs. Keep it short, concise, and between 155-160 characters.

Click-through and conversion rates

A click-through rate is a percentage of clicks for a particular result in SERPs that shows how many times users have searched for that result. A conversion rate tells you how many users have clicked on your website, blog, or a specific page to take the desired action.

Organic traffic

Organic traffic is the number of users who deliberately landed on your website via a search engine.

How to write SEO-friendly content

Content marketing

Here are the top tips on writing SEO-friendly content.

  1. Avoid keyword stuffing and add keywords naturally to keep your audience engaged.
  2. Provide content that answers the essential questions of your target audience.
  3. Create your SEO strategy by adding keywords throughout the content, including the introduction, last paragraph, and headings.
  4. Make sure your content is clear, error-free, and readable by using bullet points, short paragraphs, coherent sentences, and subheadings.
  5. Add keywords to meta descriptions to encourage readers to engage with your content.
  6. Add images and short descriptions to make your content more accessible and searchable.
  7. Add videos and other visuals to increase engagement and ranking.
  8. Add backlinks to direct your readers to high-quality content on authoritative websites. 
  9. Make sure your articles are reader-friendly, relevant, informative, accurate, and unique.
  10. Know the language of your readers and cater to it.
  11. Add internal links to help search engines understand your site structure and index and rank your website.
  12. Use long-tail keywords to create engaging headings.
  13. Make sure your content contains LSI-related keywords.

There, now you’re free to knock yourself out by writing the most SEO-friendly content of your life.

Conclusion

We sincerely hope this short guide helps you rank your content much higher than before. SEO is an ever-evolving science that will never stay the same. It constantly grows, changes, and transforms from one shape to another. Keep in mind that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for writing top-grade SEO content. 

It all comes down to how much time, effort, and resources you’re ready to invest in discovering the endless SEO possibilities. Always put your readers first and revisit your content from time to time to make sure it follows the latest SEO practices.

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The Elusive Goal of Creating Content That Is “Good Enough”

Light shining on open book

Writing excellent content is the key to content marketing, blogging, and SEO. It’s an essential part of your website, yet many companies often overlook it. Text is a universal medium you can use to communicate with clients properly and provide valuable information. 

People will always want content, but their opinions and needs change. It can sometimes be challenging to keep up with those evolving needs and deliver adequate materials. However, there are some general rules you can always follow. 

For example, readers don’t want to get bombarded with messages, brands, products, and irrelevant services. Content creators need to stay on top of the current “climate” and understand consumer behavior and interests. 

Research is paramount.

A vortex of books.

Research is crucial, especially for blog posts, no matter what kind of content you work on in your niche. Even when writing on a topic you’ve covered before, it’s essential to get updated with the latest trends, events, and statistics. 

However, it’s not only about researching once you’ve figured out your topic. As a blogger, you need to be interested in the issues you cover and stay ahead of the curve. That means reading and learning constantly. 

Proper research will help you deliver valuable information in your posts. You will also be able to brainstorm unique posts nobody has covered before. If you want people to read your blogs, you will have to offer something more than just recycled posts. 

  • Gather information from reliable sources. 
  • Focus on top Google results. 
  • Use tools to discover trending topics with relevant keywords. 
  • Always use the opportunity to learn something new. 

If you want to write well, you’ll have to read.

Girl reading a book.

As mentioned earlier, one of the bloggers’ essential qualities is staying updated with the relevant narrative. Most people focus on their writing and don’t read anything unless they’re doing research, but that is a lazy approach. 

Being interested in your niche and constantly acquiring more information to stay relevant is the key to success. The best blog posts are unique, and creating something new is often easier said than done. Sure, you could do something nobody has done before but is it precious for your target audience? 

To create both original and valuable content, you need to have a lot of knowledge at your disposal and connect the dots nobody else has. For example, if you want to compare three different products and give your readers the real “scoop,” you will have to learn about, test, and see what others think about them. 

  • Take the time to read whole posts. 
  • Look for opposing views. 
  • Reading helps you improve your writing skills as well. 

Share your input and opinions.

Blogs aren’t technical writing, and you have a lot of room to be creative. After all, this type of content is equally about entertaining people as much as educating them. So, there’s room to be subjective and share your experiences. 

When you are publishing in a particular blog niche for a long time, you get a better perspective and can offer something new. It’s generally a good idea to be bold. State your opinions to engage readers and make them want to criticize your work or agree with you. 

However, do that only when you have the knowledge and experience necessary to make conclusions. Otherwise, sharing unfounded claims will backfire and make you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about, driving readers away from your blog. 

  • Nurture your creative side. 
  • Don’t be afraid to share controversial opinions. 
  • Think outside the box. 
  • Share facts and statistics backing up your claims. 

Think of your blogs as long answers to specific questions.

Questions and answer sign.

Relevance is vital, and every niche has its fair share of unanswered questions.

Most people are reading and searching for blogs that will concisely answer their questions. Before you start writing a post, check if someone else has already given answers to the same questions. 

If there are no answers available, make sure to give them. Even if there are specific answers but don’t provide all the relevant information or have a different approach, it’s also a good idea to write on that topic. 

With this kind of approach, you will be able to tackle more relevant issues and quickly come up with unique topics. Of course, it might require some time and effort to see if someone has covered that topic online, but it’s worth it. 

  • What questions are bothering you? 
  • See what questions are repeated online. 
  • Start with a simple question and branch out. 

Before you go 

Creating “perfect” content is a never-ending challenge, and you have to treat it that way. Readers, stories, and you change, meaning that a good blog post today might be irrelevant in a couple of years. As a writer, you have to be prepared to keep on learning and hone your skills.

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Improving the Accessibility of Your Content for Better Results

Results sign at sunset

When it comes to web content, hardly anyone talks about accessibility or knows anything about it. However, it’s essential to make the most of all options in this hyper-competitive business environment. That is where content accessibility comes into play. 

On top of that, working on this aspect of your website will help you create a stronger brand with great values. Providing a fantastic user experience with your content was a thing of improvisation in the past, but today we have the best practices and data available. 

You only have to be willing to use them to your advantage. Just because you’re producing content doesn’t mean that you’re too cool to follow specific guidelines that ultimately bring you results. 

What are the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines? 

Puzzle pieces spelling out the word 'what'.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international standard set by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). This standard defines making your web content accessible to people with special needs, neurological disabilities, learning issues, language problems, cognitive or speech impairments, visual disabilities, etc. 

With these guidelines, you can make your content more usable and accessible to older people and regular users.

The W3C released the first WCAG in 1999, and the current standards are WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1. These two are pretty similar, but the 2.1 version includes additional requirements for mobile accessibility. 

Crucial principles of the WCAG 

These guidelines include four essential design principles that outline how content becomes accessible. Accessibility is a vast topic that can focus on coding approaches to legal regulations. However, you can apply the four WCAG principles to any aspect of accessibility. Here are short descriptions of each.

  1. Perceivable 

The first primary thing content should allow users is to process information quickly. Avoid using formats for your content that are difficult to process. That also means giving textual content for people who can’t hear and audio content for those with sight problems. 

It’s vital to add various assistive technologies to help users consume content differently. Just think about it: are there pieces of content color-blind people, people with low vision, or people with hearing loss can’t perceive on your site? 

  1. Operable 

Operability is another essential principle. After all, people need to be able to operate and use your content with different tools. For example, many people can’t use a mouse, so it’s a good idea to include keyboard operation. 

Usage should be more forgiving as people with disabilities are more likely to make mistakes. Include confirming options, cancellations, warnings, and instructions for completing actions.                                

  1. Understandable 

Just because your content can be usable and appropriately perceived, it doesn’t mean people can easily understand it. All of your content should have concise and clear language that is easy to understand. When someone acts, they should expect logical outcomes. 

Implement consistency across your content and include forms with clear labels and logical flow. Even though your content should be different, it should have a familiar structure. 

  1. Robust 

People use various technologies, and you should optimize your content to perform seamlessly across different browsers, devices, and platforms. However, that doesn’t mean that you should optimize for old web browsers or Windows smartphones. Offer flexibility but within the “regular” limits. 

How content accessibility helps 

A helping hand at sunset.

Content accessibility guidelines aren’t just about meeting standards. You can get real benefits that will help your business and your customers. Here are some advantages you should know. 

Better user experience 

At its core, content accessibility is about user experience focusing on easy content navigation, responsiveness, readability, and the ability to view and interact with it in various ways, depending on users’ needs. Content is all about user experience, especially since Google’s SEO guidelines emphasize that. 

More people will see your content.

People looking at laptop.

The more accessible your content is, the more people will click on it. All people with disabilities will respect that you’ve made things easier for them and made your content easy to access.

However, it’s not only about people with disabilities, as typical users will also check out what you have to offer. 

More people are likely to consume your content.

When producing content, you should know that persuading people to click on your content is equally challenging as making them stay and consume it.

Modern consumers have short attention spans and are used to having a perfect experience. If they don’t get it, they will leave, which you can’t allow. 

Conclusion 

To sum things up, there are four crucial areas of your content you should check when assessing the level of accessibility. Make your text large enough and structured adequately with short paragraphs, sentences, and lists. 

Create a consistent content hierarchy with a logical flow to make things easier to understand. It’s not just working on your content but also making it readily available to everyone.

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What to Do With Old and Irrelevant Content on Your Website

recycle old content

One isn’t born a great content writer. One becomes a great content writer.

Read that again.

Like any other skill, content writing requires time, practice, and patience. It isn’t something you can master overnight. It also isn’t something you can entirely master because there’s always room for improvement.

Undoubtedly, there’s some outdated content on your website that you can’t even read, let alone share with your current audience.

So, what does one do with old and irrelevant content? Delete it? Edit it? Just leave it be?

As it happens, I have all the answers you’re looking for, so keep reading.

A few things about old and irrelevant content

Old scripts written on papyrus

You might feel all types of ways about the old content on your website. However, before you start erasing all the traces of your previous writing efforts, it might be a good idea to look at different features of your old content.

Quality

One of the main things you should consider when thinking about what to do with your old content is its quality. Just because your content is old doesn’t mean it’s terrible. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good either

Still, let’s look at it positively – it doesn’t mean it’s poor-quality content.

Relevance

Another feature you should consider is relevance. How relevant is the content piece, and does it relate to your brand or business?

Since there’s plenty of evergreen content out there, there’s a good chance your old content is still relevant today.

If it is, removing it would be pretty unfortunate since you can benefit a lot from it. Nevertheless, that’s not the case if you’re working with irrelevant content no one would read today.

Optimization

With the growing importance of SEO, published content is worth very little if it’s not properly optimized. Optimization essentially dictates how well your content piece will rank in SERPs, which directly determines the number of content readers and website visitors.

What to do with old content

wooden puzzle highlighting the word 'what'

Now that you know more about the aspects from which you should examine your old content, you’re surely curious about which content is worthy enough to be repurposed and which you should delete from the internet once and for all.

Low quality

Even if the newer content is probably better than the old one from a quality standpoint, several tweaks and changes are often enough to give old content a new look.

However, if you find the old content significantly worse and it would be pointless trying to make it work, deleting it might save you time and resources.

Irrelevant

You can easily edit or repurpose evergreen content. However, no one is interested in reading irrelevant content.

Try to archive the irrelevant pieces or refresh them by comparing them to a relevant topic that closely connects to your previously published content piece.

Poorly optimized

If you’re working with old content, the chances are your posts are poorly optimized. The primary reason lies in the ever-changing ranking algorithms that call for regular upgrades of SEO efforts.

Luckily, optimization is something you can quickly improve. Just search for the relevant keywords to implement in your content, insert a couple of authoritative backlinks, and you should be good to go!

How to repurpose old content

repurposing tires on bay

If editing or deleting isn’t an option, you can always repurpose your old content. Keep in mind this process will take some time and effort, but it will be worth it!

I highly recommend content repurposing if you have some quality content you wish to present in a more readable and shareable format.

  1. Guides

If you have old blog posts about some interesting topics you could repurpose, try creating an insightful guide using the information from those existing posts.

Guides have become an increasingly popular format because they’re simple, straightforward, and equip readers with mountains of helpful information. If you haven’t started publishing guides yet, it is time to do it ASAP.

  1. Case studies

Having internal data isn’t helpful today if people don’t know what to do with the published information. So, think about how you can transform the internal data posts into detailed case studies.

For instance, if you did an experiment and used the acquired data for internal purposes, sharing your findings with your readership will help you establish a strong connection with the audience.

  1. Blog posts

Each company or brand has a list of FAQs somewhere on the site. You can use those questions to write in-depth articles as they will address your target audience’s pain points and needs.

Generally speaking, questions are an outstanding source for content inspiration, so you can always refer to some of the questions your clients have been asking and come up with blog posts dealing with a wide range of topics and categories.

  1. Infographics

Do you have an old article filled with valuable data, but you haven’t presented that information most interestingly and engagingly? You might consider turning that article into an infographic.

Namely, infographics are visual representations of data. They include pictures, illustrations, sketches, drawings, graphs, charts, or any other form of visual data that can help the readers comprehend and memorize the information.

You can say goodbye to boring statistics and facts and replace them with colorful and unique picture editorials.

  1. Pinterest boards

You might have poorly written your old blog posts, so you can’t repurpose them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the pictures in those posts have to go to waste.

If you have some particularly image-heavy posts you don’t want to lose, transforming them into Pinterest boards is an excellent way to find a new place for quality visual content.

Additionally, broadening your social media presence can drive more organic traffic to your blog.

  1. Twitter posts

Want to turn posts filled with statistics into more engaging content but don’t have enough material for infographics?

Don’t worry; that is where Twitter posts come into play. You can quickly turn the available stats into tweetable content that’s easy to read and share.

Again, you’ll benefit from increasing your digital presence across multiple social media platforms.

  1. Podcasts

Finally, podcasts are the newest way of transforming online content into a more user-friendly format.

Today, people have less and less time to dedicate to reading. So, instead of constantly publishing written content, you can switch it up from time to time and reuse the old content to create a topic for a podcast.

Here, you can discuss, debate, or talk about any topic. The best thing about podcasts is that listeners can tune in from anywhere – while commuting, grocery shopping, or waiting in a bank queue.

Bottom line

You don’t have to throw away your old content only because new writing trends keep popping up. The best thing about written content is that you can always revisit and reuse it. If you’re still not sure what you can do with your old and irrelevant content, our team of expert writers can always give you a helping hand, so don’t hesitate to contact us today!