Tag: Website Copywriting

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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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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!

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The Cosmetics of Content: Design Elements, Fonts, and Multimedia

Content writing has come across many changes in the past few years. The act of creating content has a lot of dimensions when it comes to visual design. It can be very challenging to work on the visual presentation of your content, especially if you’re a rookie.

Therefore, you should learn as much as you can about design elements, fonts, and multimedia files and how you can use them to bring out the best in your content. However, it’s almost impossible to know the best way to design the visual presentation of your content.

Fortunately, I am here to help you on your journey! This article will help you understand the importance of visual elements and teach you how you can use them to enhance the quality of your content.

Fonts

Various different fonts on white background.

The linguistic aspect of your content is one thing; the typographic element is another story.

As much as you pay attention to delivering the best possible textual content, you should also be aware of the importance of typography and the proper way to use it.

Make sure you use appropriate fonts for your content. For example, Comic Sans may not be the best choice for your business-related content. Also, avoid using fonts that are difficult to read, as they can draw attention from the actual content you’ve worked so hard on.

It’s best to follow your instinct and experiment with as many fonts as possible. We’re fortunate enough to have the opportunity of using thousands of fonts online. Explore them and choose the right font to make your content pop out in the best possible way.

Images

A man taking a picture of a building.

Images can boost your content on many different levels. Although you may think that they are often unnecessary, remember that people like to visualize everything and will most likely read your article if it has alluring visual elements.

I advise you to use images that will present your content in the best possible way. Although searching for the right pictures may be tiring, they can help you gain a higher reach within your target audience.

However, you shouldn’t just search for your desired photos on Google. Find royalty-free images you can legally use and keep an eye out for intellectual property rules to avoid paying hefty fees for copyright infringement.

Videos

Adding videos to your content can also bring out the best in your ideas. Videos can visually present your content and explain it to your audience way easier. They can boost your reach and visually satisfy your audience.

You can use videos in many different ways. You can create step-by-step guides that can explain your content more thoroughly. You can also use various videos to enhance your headings and boost your visual presentation.

However, make sure you don’t overdo it. Don’t forget that not every textual content needs a video, and sometimes a well-written text can be enough to inform your audience about a specific topic you’ve tackled.  

Visual marketing

Bright visual sign in the store.

Marketing is one of the best traits in many industry branches nowadays. If you manage your marketing the right way, you won’t have any trouble finding the best visual presentation and call for action in the future.

Visual marketing consists of creating images, videos, and other multimedia elements for your content. Try to make a visual identity for the content you share in a way where your audience can recognize it as 100% original and high-quality.

You should know many visual marketing tricks before creating and managing your visuals. Try to blend your colors the right way, use the right fonts, and assemble all elements in the best possible way.

Design tools

You can use many available design tools to bring out the best visual presentation of your content. Design tools can help you achieve the best visualization for your content in the easiest way possible.

You can use different design tools related to graphic design, templates, collages, quote graphics, animation, font design, presentations, renders, charts, screenshots, slides, gifs, photos, videos, and even memes!

Different design tools offer various helpful features to enhance your visual presentation and let you avoid additional creative work. Remember, sometimes it’s better to work smarter than to work harder! 

Infographics

A few different infographic designs.

Infographics are there to visually present your data and make it easier to understand your content. You can use them to summarize your text and make content reading a more fun experience for your audience.

The most necessary thing in infographics is the overall design. Try to approach it in a fun way without losing your essential points. I advise you to use infographics when sharing various types of statistics and numerical data.

Try to understand that people will more likely access your content if you offer a visual presentation of your text. Let’s face it – not everyone likes to read a thousand-word article about any topic and would better understand it in a more visual and fun way.

Overall design

Wooden puzzle on a blue background.

After you write your content, it’s time to choose the right font, images, videos, infographics, and other visual elements. You have to piece them together like a puzzle and create a meaningful visual experience for your readers.

The overall design of your page will make your audience stay and interact with your content. So, try your best to create a brilliant style and make it uniquely represent you.

If you ever hit a wall when designing the visual presentation of your content, don’t forget to search for inspiration online, as you can find many creative ideas and templates that can ease your design journey.

Conclusion

Content creation can often be stressful. Not everyone can do it, as it requires an eye for detail and a sense of style. Nevertheless, managing the visual presentation of your content can turn out to be pretty fun!

So, make sure you browse through infinite possibilities before choosing the correct elements for your design layout. There are many options to choose from, so try to stay patient and unleash your creativity.

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The Subtle Differences Between Copywriters and Content Writers

Lemons and limes

When a company or business needs a writer to create marketing content, they typically look for either a content writer or a copywriter. However, people often confuse these two, and many think they are the same. Is there any difference at all between these two professions? 

Of course, there is. Well, it’s not exactly the difference between pears and lemons, more like lemons and lime, but close enough. This subtle difference is significant, especially for young writers looking for new jobs and wanting to specialize in particular domains to pursue a writing career. 

These two professions represent different challenges and skills that one must have to call themselves a content writer or a copywriter.

This post will help you understand the contrast between these two types of skills and closely explain their role in building a successful brand. 

Here are some subtle but significant differences between content writers and copywriters. 

Goals 

Image of a football goal.

Before writers create a fresh piece of content, they need to consider its purpose. That’s the first and probably the most notable difference between these two types of writing. Content writing and copywriting have different goals. 

Copywriting promotes a persuasive voice and draws people to buy something, while content writing includes entertaining, educative, and subtler content. For example, most businesses online use text ads to compel their visitors to buy or try their products. 

That’s why organic websites typically opt for content writing. Their goal is to have non-promotional content that will educate, inform, and entertain readers in noncommercial methods.

To catch people’s attention, content writers today must track the readers’ interests and provide them with entertaining content that they will want to read.

Copy forms

Initially, copywriting had a pretty limited level of content coverage. However, the internet changed the course for this writing type.

On the other hand, content writing is a more profound branch where people have an opportunity to gain expertise in different types of content. So, here is the list of copy forms that copywriters and content writers cover. 

Copywriters can write:

  • Commercials;
  • Offline and online ads;
  • SMS ads;
  • Sales emails;
  • PPC landing pages;
  • Product pages;
  • Radio or commercial television scripts;
  • Sales letters;
  • Newspapers and video scripts;
  • Jingle lyrics;
  • Social media scripts.

Content writers create texts for:

  • Blog posts;
  • Newsletters;
  • Books;
  • Social media posts;
  • Whitepapers;
  • Case studies;
  • News articles;
  • E-books;
  • Film;
  • Television;
  • Newspaper magazines.

Writing skills

Image showcasing writing skills.

Copywriters and content writers don’t have the same writing skills. Yes, it’s a thin line, but there is still a difference in the skills these two types of writers must have and the challenges they face.

Copywriters are experts in writing content for different industries.

Copywriters serve a wide range of clients across industries, and they need to investigate and learn about them thoroughly. They must be willing to cover different sectors and have knowledge of various relevant topics.

Although their scope of work does not differ much from that of a content writer, a copywriter must specialize in creating content for specific fields, such as technology, or healthcare.

Content writers sell brands discreetly.

Unlike copywriters, content writers don’t use a promotional or seller voice in their content.

Instead, they are experts in creating perfectly balanced content that’s educational and interesting but still contains keywords and includes other essential SEO optimizations that will boost website ranking.  

Copywriters must adapt to teamwork.

Copywriters typically work for industries with large marketing teams. If you want to specialize in copywriting but don’t know how to work in a team and communicate project specifics with project managers, your chances of success in copywriting are close to zero. 

Content writing requires research skills.

To be a good content writer, you need to have advanced research skills. Content writing is all about facts and claims, and you need to master your research skills to back up all the points in your content.

In other words, to create valuable content, you must do profound research on the topic you’re trying to represent to readers. 

Content length

Yellow measuring tape on white background.

Because content writing primarily focuses on informing and educating the readers, the length of content that copywriters and content writers use is entirely incomparable.

Copywriters typically need space only to compel and convince people to visit the website or buy a specific product, and they usually pack it all in a few sentences. 

On the other hand, content writing requires in-depth motivation followed by informative and educational content. Depending on the topic, content writers typically need to write about 500 to 3,000 words to offer valuable content to the readers. 

They typically use a non-promotional voice and need space to introduce the reader to the topic, provide helpful information, discreetly incorporate call-to-action phrases, and summarize why a brand or company deserves their trust.

Bottom line

Even though there are a few differences between these two types of skills, both are vital parts of digital marketing. However, if you want to try content writing or copywriting, you need to know your job description and understand your obligations and goals.

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A Complete Guide to Website Copywriting in 2022 (Part 1)

Laptop showing the homepage of a shop

Becoming a copywriter is not as easy as it sounds. You will encounter many challenges, and some topics might utterly confuse you. Luckily, I’m here to walk you through some of the essentials for website copywriting. I’ve been where you are and picked up many tricks throughout my writing journey.

You may have the necessary motivation to become a copywriter, but your imagination is the most vital tool you will need. As long as you are creative enough, the act of writing will be the most enjoyable task. 

Before jumping into the matter itself, let’s see what website copywriting is. This notion might be perplexing, but I will explain everything you need to know about this job. 

What is website copywriting?

A laptop with an open notebook in front of it

Website copywriting means researching and writing content for a particular website. This type of writing differs from those you may be used to because the content must be engaging enough to compel readers to take specific actions, such as purchasing a product or hiring a service.

When it comes to website copywriting, you need to create and organize your content in a coherent and meaningful way to get as many readers as possible. 

Whether you write content for your brand or a client, you want to make it stand out from the competition’s websites. You need to be creative and write content the way you would like to read it. 

Sometimes, you will need to step out of your comfort zone and look at some things from different perspectives. That way, your content will be objective and satisfy the readers. 

Still, many more elements affect the quality of website copywriting, and I’ll get to that in a moment. 

Start from the top

It is essential to put your mind into creating an engaging headline for your text. Would you want to read something that seems simple, boring, and cliche at first glance? If the answer is no, you are probably aware of the powerful effect of catchy headlines.

When creating a headline, you want to think outside the box. Ask yourself whether the title you came up with is something that people will be interested in and something that will get their attention. 

A good headline is half the work – if you come up with a creative one, you will have the motivation to write inspiring, informative, and engaging content. Invest your time into this part because it will work wonders. 

Understand the subject matter of the website copywriting

Before you start writing a text on a specific topic, you need to ask yourself how much you know about it. If you can talk about it for more than five minutes, you will need little to no further research. 

On the other hand, if you get confused just by looking at the topic or the title, you will probably need to get more information about it. Various sources can help you learn something new about anything; you only need the motivation to learn. 

That is crucial for writing high-quality content because you cannot educate others when you know nothing about a particular matter. Be confident in what you know, and remember that research is paramount.

Write content with purpose

When writing website content, ask yourself these questions:

  • Is this text helpful?
  • Is it coherent?
  • Will the readers be able to focus on and understand the message?
  • Is the writing clear and concise?
  • Does the content serve the primary purpose?

Most copywriters go through an interview with themselves when writing content. There will always be a lot of questioning, but the more you question yourself, the better your text will turn out. 

There are probably many articles, guides, or studies about the topic you are working on, so explore them to get ideas and gather facts.

Be innovative to get more readers. Create something that doesn’t seem ordinary, something catchy that will attract your readers’ attention.

However, don’t overexplain everything. Keep your sentences short, concise, and precise. Your readers won’t get lost in your text and will get all the information they were looking for without getting bored. 

Another thing I would like to mention is that you need to keep track of your content during writing. You should always connect every part of the text coherently, tie ideas together, and ensure each sentence and paragraph flows naturally from one to the next.

Otherwise, you will get a messy, unrelated, and confusing bunch of words that make no sense to anyone. Details matter a lot in copywriting, so pay attention to them to tell a gripping story that entices people to keep reading and take action.

Focus on grammar

As a website copywriter, you must focus as much care on your grammar as on the actual content. People don’t want to read or learn from someone who doesn’t seem to understand the essential grammar rules.

Like with any other means of transferring information, copywriters must use impeccable grammar. It might seem like you are uneducated if your grammar isn’t correct. 

Many available tools on the internet, such as Grammarly, can help you write grammatically correct content. You can use these tools when you feel stuck – they will surely help you. It is not embarrassing to use them; most copywriters nowadays consider them their best friends.

Additionally, don’t make any spelling mistakes when you write your content. Readers would think you quickly ran through your text, wrote it lazily, and are not that interested in the topic. Remember, you are not texting; you are transferring knowledge to other people.

Correct grammar and spelling can do wonders for your texts, so pay attention to them. Reread your text multiple times to avoid grammatical and spelling mistakes and make an excellent impression. 

Do your research

I cannot stress the importance of research enough. Yes, we all know that researching something can get a bit too stressful, but trust me, it is all worth it. Extensive research is one of the most critical factors that affect the quality of your work. 

Sometimes, you will sit at your computer or with a particular book in your hands for hours until you find all the details you need to start creating your content. Other times, you will have all of the information you need right in front of you. 

Whichever the case, you will need to spend some time researching. You must be able to give your readers accurate information at all times. You cannot just go and make up information – it must come from a reliable source. 

Moreover, you need to ensure that all the information you mention is up-to-date. You wouldn’t want to put statistics from the previous century into your content because everything changes over time. 

Instead, use data that has been published over the previous several years. 

The researching part may be the most challenging leg of the copywriting journey. However, once you master it, you will start enjoying doing your research. 

Look at it as a good thing; while conducting your research, you will acquire information unconsciously, which will help you learn continually. You will probably become one of the wisest people in the room.

While you’re here, check out the second part of this guide to website copywriting to discover other essentials for enhancing your writing.