Content writing, like any business and profession has its superstars. These individuals are the ones who get assignments in a jiffy, every application that they put up are gobbled up immediately, and they basically lead quite a financially enhanced life. If you think that these guys are the ones who were born with a silver spoon, you are sorely mistaken. Yes, they do have some advantages and skills, but they are nothing that you can garner up, or something that you cannot do. Here are the three tips that will make you a content writer superstar.
Make Article Titles
I have never ceased wondering how someone who terms themselves a content writer cannot come up with a title on their own. I can understand when the SEO department comes up with the titles, because they need to stuff some keywords into the titles, but I do not understand how a content writer can say that 'it'd be difficult to make titles'. If a content writer cannot come up with a title, I wonder how they would be able to write 500 word articles on the subject. However, my wonderment aside, making titles from given keywords is not just easy, it is also free. You can always use your 'SEO title making skills' as a leverage at the bargaining stage, and if you are wondering how to make an SEO'd title, fear not, it's not as difficult as it sounds.
Legend (because till date there's not a single University or educational institution that tells you the science behind SEO. They tell you how to SEO, but it never tells you why SEO does what it does) has it that SEO likes titles like 'How to', 'Why', "What is', 'Three Tips, 'Five Tips, 'Ten Tips', etc. And well, this is not SEO, this is common logic and sense. Like how we made up an interesting title for our school and college compositions.
Another tool that you can use to make titles is the free Google Keyword Tracker tool, which provides you with keywords that are relevant to a particular subject. You can have a look at the keyword it throws out, and then come up with a title that is relevant to any of the keywords. If you want to go the full way, you can always try WordTracker, which is supposedly the best keyword tool in the world, and is used by at least one Article Directory.
Use Language as a Tool to Put Forth Your Ideas
I still remember that I could not measure the distance that our eyes rolled up when a content writer in our midst told us that he uses 'high currency' words because they are the mark of a good content writer. Our suggestion would be not to use obsolete words, because they make the article seem verbose, and makes the reader pay undue attention to the language used, and not the concept that the writer wishes to put across.
There are many words that are out of the everyday lexicon, but content writers use them randomly in their articles for no specific reasons. Content writers should understand that some words have been churned off the everyday language because there is nothing that they can be used to describe. Even a simple enough word like 'array' would have become obsolete unless some guy at Java thought of using it in the programming language.
Be SEO Aware
No, a content writer cannot do the SEO of a website, because eighty percent of SEO is off page and involves work that is more or less designed for a data entry operator (link building, anyone?) However, knowing what SEO is and what it does to a website will certainly increase your value in the content market. If you are not interested in SEO, you should at least read up on the subject, and should be able to hold a decent conversation with any project owner who has learnt from the countless webinars that they have read through about how SEO can change the world and how the content guy should be very good friends with SEO.