How to Start Your Career as a Content Writer?

Are you feeling overwhelmed with online posts that tell you to write in your free time for companies and live the best life? But wait! It’s not that easy. The most drastic mistake that the majority of people make is to get influenced by such posts and make decisions in a hurry. Being a content writer isn’t an easy feat! It has the same challenges as any other job would have, the only thing is you should be passionate enough to handle those challenges with an open mind and give all you can.

If you are someone planning to switch your career to writing or someone who wants to dive deep into the sea of writing for the rest of your life, then you have come to the right place. Here, we’ll be talking about how you should start your career as a content writer, what all things it holds, and whether you should switch to it from another career.

Content Writing: In a nutshell

Content writing isn’t just typing some words and sending them to your clients. It’s more of getting a hang of the client’s requirements, putting hours into research, understanding the topics in-depth, and then curating content out of it. Content writing isn’t limited to just articles or blogs that you see on search engines. It’s widely spread into multiple categories that require you to understand the significance of each marketing channel.

As a content writer, you must be able to write different types of content such as newsletters, web page content, copies, product descriptions, landing page content, and many more. You have to hone your skills time and again to understand the target audience, the brand for whom you’d be writing, the tone of writing, SEO tactics, and several other things.

What’s the difference between a blogger and a content writer?

Well, a blogger is someone who writes his personal experiences and shares his knowledge with people on websites through topics that he is well-versed with. For instance, a travel blogger is someone who talks specifically about traveling. But a content writer is someone who not just puts articles or blogs derived from their personal experience, but rather someone who works on the B2B (business-to-business), B2C (business-to-customer), or D2C (direct-to-consumer) content.

How to get started with content writing?

Start Writing For Yourself -

You won’t understand a thing until you start scribbling whatever comes to your mind. Take a journal or open your notes app and start writing about your interests, hobbies, the way you feel, the way you think, and everything present in your mind. Make it a habit to write for yourself or on topics that interest you the most. Make a goal to write at least 100 words in the beginning and gradually increase the word count to see if you are delved into the process of writing.

Sometimes, writing can take you places you wouldn’t have thought will cross your path. That’s the power of imagination every writer gets as a gift in this career path. But this doesn’t come easily. You have to write what drives you every minute and put your thoughts into words describing how you feel about certain things. This can be just like journaling your thoughts, musings, or scribbling anything that comes to your mind. Once you get into the habit of writing for yourself after every situation that’s scary, funny, loving, inspiring, life-changing, happy, or any other thing, you will start understanding yourself better.

Test Your Writing Skills -

When I say test your writing skills, it doesn’t mean that you have to be all criticizing and demotivating. This step is just to find room for improvement so you can start working on them in your next pieces of content. If you think you aren’t able to contemplate your work, ask someone else to do it who can offer genuine feedback and help you go on the right track.

Evaluate Your Interests -

Once you get a hang of the writing process, start creating content in different niches. If you wish to master a niche, it’s fine to write on related topics in the same niche. But if you wish to expand your skill set by writing different types of content, then try it. For example, if you are already good at writing lifestyle content, then next time see if you can write technical content or something that’s out of your knowledge’s scope.

By writing content focused on different niches, you will be able to understand what truly interests you. This way, you can decide whether to stick to the same niche or dive into different ones. Well, both of these have their benefits and we will talk about them in another article.

Put Up Your Portfolio -

After you have tried and tested your writing skills, it’s time to put them up on the internet. There are several ways to put up your writing portfolio and each one depends on your choice. Whatever way you choose, make sure you keep refining it now and then. The main reason behind creating your writing portfolio is that you get to share your writing with countless creatures on this earth and connect with them. If creating a portfolio sounds like too much of a job, you can create Word documents in Google Drive and share your drive link with people with whom you would want to read your pieces.

Plan Your Content Writing Career Path -

While writing may seem like a single career, it has countless branches spread into the never-ending digital marketing world. This isn’t something that you need to worry about at the moment, but at least make a clear goal of how you would want to walk this writing career path. Do you want to indulge fully in writing, take up some reviewing/editing work, work on creative ends, strategize content, or take a taste of all of them? The decision will solely be based on your interests so take your time to research the depths of the writing field and find your way towards growing as a content writer.

Full-time/Part-time/Freelancing: The Choice Is Yours

Every content writing mode has its pros and cons but whatever you choose, ensure you enjoy your job. It doesn’t have to be a reckless thing because writing is all about getting into the flow and playing with your creative juices. If it isn’t this way, you will be writing shit pieces of content that no client would appreciate. So, evaluate your career goals and choose the one that best fits your needs.

Walk Into The Professional Market

Ah, finally! It’s time to make something out of your writing skills. This is the moment where you will be overwhelmed with the thought of starting your career as a content writer, but take a deep breath and walk into the industry with all the confidence that you have gained with your writing skills.

If you are taking up writing as a full-time or part-time job, then apply on popular job boards, reach out to your dream companies, and present your samples. Give as many interviews as you can as this will help you understand the market demand and eventually fill gaps that you lack. Understand that writers aren’t paid that well in many companies so it’s fine to start small.

What matters most at the starting stage is to gain experience and learn as much as you can. Once you think you are capable enough of more than you are paid, then you are free to switch to take the right decision. Writing internships have become a popular thing these days, so you can try interning and gradually build your writing portfolio.

If you decide to work as a freelance writer, then register yourself with popular freelancing sites, drive conversions through your portfolio, or reach out to clients via online marketing channels. Understand that you have to be smart in your pitch as sealing a deal with clients on your own isn’t an easy feat but neither is it impossible. So, good luck!

Keep Upskilling -

As a content writer, there will always be something new on your way. It could be trying different formats of business writing, working with your writing style, fixing your content flow, and so on. It’s best to keep exploring these things and master them as much as you can.

Bottomline -

Content writing can be overwhelming as it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s best to take your time, find your voice, and see if you are really enjoying what you are doing in the content writing field.