Content Writing
To jump in the content writing bandwagon first you shall have to understand a few concepts. You shall have to thoroughly understand how search engines operate. Content is important only because search engines are relying on them more and more as days are passing. Search engines rank websites based on content and hence content has become the king. Though there are other parameters too but relevance of content is one of the most important factors if not the most important. So before you start writing content you shall have to understand why you are writing that content and its purpose. Is it for print media or is it for a website or a blog.
So everyday the need for new content is growing by leaps and bounds. You might ask why 'new' content. The answer again lies in search engines. Search engines give more weightage to sites whose contents are periodically updated. That is the need for new content. So if you want to stay at the top position in the search engine rankings then you have to update your content at regular intervals. This created a never-ending need for content. Now since the need for content is so high so if you can write average English and represent yourself well through words then you can earn a lot of money. You can write product reviews or can do high end technical writing or say about parenting advice. Whatever you are good with can earn you a decent income as a content writer.
What do websites do with the content you write?
Most websites sell something. They market either a service or a product. The point that a website is there for a long time and that it sells a good product is not enough for a search engine to give it a good ranking. It has to have a lot of informative and related content to get a proper and high ranking.
Online businesses need content, such as articles, blog content, reviews, testimonials etc., to achieve the following goals :-
. Draw thousands of highly targeted (pre-sold) traffic (internet surfers) from the world's top search engines like google, yahoo, altavista etc.
. Multiply sales of a product or affiliate program by creating high-end follow-up series for loyal visitors or traffic
. There is a new term in the SEO market, i.e. 'Authority sites'. They are websites that are highly ranked by search engines due to their content and informational value. So every webmaster wants to transform their pages into an authority site by providing users and the search engines with high-quality, relevant, comprehensive and exhaustive content about their product, industry or service.
. Establish themselves as an authority in their fields - so they'll be seen as someone a prospect should go to when they have a question on a particular topic! Wikipaedia is one such big example..
And the best way to build your confidence is to visit some random top ranking sites by doing simple searches on google. When you arrive at those sites and read the contents you shall find that you don't need to be a noble prize winner in literature to produce such articles. Still they are at the top of search engines. That will be the main confidence building thing for you. You will feel that being a freelance content write is not that tough after all!
The tricks that help people earn a full time income on the internet are not very hard to acquire. They are very easy in fact. Any person with an average IQ can master them and earn a handsome living. Then comes the question 'where to find work'? This is easy to answer. There are a plethora of freelancing websites. Each website has its own client base which are sometimes overlapping. But each website has its target base. For example Elance.com caters to corporates and here only high quality writers can make their mark. If you are not able to provide quality work then you shall end up getting a bad rating / feedback. So my suggestion to you would be to start at websites like getafreelancer.com or rentacoder.com. Warm up in these websites and then when you start getting very good feedbacks in these sites and you feel confident then jump to elance or peopleperhour.com where quality of work is important.
Now comes the question how to bid effectively.
First and foremost you shall have to judge your client carefully. That is a very unique and helpful quality in order to do any kind of freelancing work. What is he or she looking for. What kind of content they want. Is it a corporate writeup for a website providing a service or is it for a particular product. Are you writing a sales pitch page or a blog posting. Now the demain for SEO copyrighting and sales letter pitching content is also on the rise. All these things are to be considered. Here I would like to mention that samples and examples of past content writing jobs work wonders. If you have done a previous job of a similar kind then do not hesitate to mention it and show it to them. They will definitely appreciate them. You shall have to convince them that you can write effective and superior quality content fast. If you follow these things while communicating with a prospect then 80% times you shall win the content writing contract and the client will pay well too. The point is that apart from doing a good job you shall also have to learn to sale yourself. If you religiously follow these tips then you shall find that in no time you shall land up in a huge amount of work and also see your magic working on your clients as they will keep coming back to you again and again.
Remember quality counts more than quantity
One thing has to be borne in mind is that its better to write a 2 page quality content than writing a 50 page history which is worthless. Good quality and informative content will make your visitors stick to you and come back to your site again and again. You have to pick up how to research a topic you want to write content for. You have to learn the tricks of google search. But while you can always take ideas for your content from other good content, make it a point NEVER to copy. Search engines hate copied content. Be original else they might even blacklist you for copying content. You loose your credibility if you copy content. Also you have to write about things which you are knowledgeable about. Its better you don't write about things you don't like talking about, because those contents will not be addictive to read. So your visitors will never come back to your site again. Again you might ask that why do I need to know good searching skills if I am knowledgeable about something I am writing about. This is because you need to see from authority websites how to approach a particular topic and write about it. Also another thing you have to keep in mind while writing about something is keyword density. This is to be done properly for search engines to give value to your articles, or in another words you have to use the searched words more often in your content.
How to spot a bad bid request. Some bids are for publicity only.
In some websites which offer free job listing like Rent A Coder, you shall find that there are some bid requests with high job value which is too good to be true. Do not bid for those jobs. Those are traps set by dishonest webmasters to draw traffic to their websites. They lure you with lucrative offers asking you to surf their websites thoroughly to understand the requirements. As you do that you tend to read the content and get motivated into clicking on a google ad or clicking on an affiliate link. So its best to avoid such bids.
Where to find work?
You can find work through freelancing websites. To start with you can register with elance, getacoder, getafreelancer, odesk etc. Everywhere you have to build you credentials so do not bid very high for your initial work. Remember no one trusts a new comer and everyone is skeptic about them. Nobody wants a novice to work on their content since its so important for search engine optimization. So start bidding low for initial projects to get your first break. You can also offer samples of your past work so that the buyer can read it to gain some confidence on you. Once he is convinced that you can do the job, he will give you the job. Then after you deliver an excellent output, this very client will keep coming back to you again and again for work. But if you can't prove your worth then you have to go back to improve your skills because you have to remember that there is massive competition in this field.
Pricing.
This is another immensely important factor for landing on to a content writing job. In the beginning when you are new to the trade then you shall have to offer very competitive pricing to your clients to land up on to your first job. Once you have your first break, your credential is built. Then you can slowly raise your rates and bargain with the client. He wont mind paying you a higher rate.
Knowing where to look"
Conclusion
After knowing all these you still have to prepare yourself as a content writer to make your mark in this arena. Every job today has become highly specialized requiring special skills and so is content writing. You need to be guided by the best industry experts to make REAL money. I found a very good ebook which has helped me build this site and REALLY make some good money in a relatively shorter time. Remember if you push the wall hard for the whole day you will do a lot of work but will achieve nothing since the wall will not move at all. So what is the moral? The moral is that you shall have to work in the right direction to get some fruitful result. The proper direction will come from expert guidance. I found an ebook here which really helped me to master the art of content writing. This ebook really was an eye opener. After reading it I really started to understand the difference between good content and great motivating and captivating content. If you are planning to start a blog or a content related website then I suggest you must go through this ebook. This ebook really explains content writing at its best!
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