Since I started creating content on LinkedIn as a freelance content writer, I got plenty of DMs. Most of them shared a common thread:
“Can you guide me on how to start as a content writer?”
While becoming a content writer is exciting, there’s much more to it than beginners notice. I know I’ve had my share of mistakes that put me off track for a while.
But with the proper steps, you can easily crack the code of becoming a content writer. I started without experience and now earn a steady 6 figure income each month.
That’s why I’m here with a complete practical guide from my experience and my peers in this industry.
So, how can you become a content writer? To answer that, let’s start with what content writing is.
What is Content Writing?
Simply put, content is everything you read online, whether digital or print media.
The job of content is to inform, educate, entertain, guide, or persuade readers. Unlike fiction writing, content writing has a precisely specific goal.
The first misunderstanding beginners have when approaching content writing is the need to be creative. Believe me, you can be the best content writer and still struggle to write a short novella.
It’s because content writing aims to solve a problem for the readers. The problem can differ according to the audience, but your goal is to create strategic content that adds value and makes your readers’ lives easy.
Creating content establishes authority, solves problems, gains your audience’s trust, and establishes you as the go-to person.
And to do so, all you need is an awareness of what your audience needs, not creativity.
Yes, content writing demands some creativity, but that’s not the end goal.
Now that we discussed what content writing entails, let’s see what content writers need to do.
What Does a Content Writer Do?
A content writer’s job is not to impress the audience with fancy words or creatively constructed sentences or make them think twice to deduce the real meaning behind your words.
Again, we aren’t trying to beat J.K. Rowling to write a bestseller. Our goal is to make the audience’s life easy.
Let’s take this blog as an example. You might have searched “How can I become a content writer?” when Google showed you this blog.
You got this blog as a solution to a problem. That’s what a content writer does!
As a content writer, your job is to research your topic in depth, apply your experience and knowledge to make the solution “the best” for your audience, and give them the right resources to take action.
Simply put, to be a content writer, you don’t need Shakespearean English but the ability to dissect your audience’s problem and present it in the easiest way possible.
Types of Content Writing
Whatever you do today, without content, you are not going anywhere. That much is certain. Content creation is essential for entrepreneurs, marketers, creators, and businesses to grow their business.
With so much to cater to, content writing can be divided into several formats depending on the need and approach:
Blog
They’re the heartbeat of online engagement.
Blogs reside on blogging platforms and websites having a blog column. This content is updated regularly at a set frequency on the website.
Blogs aim to inform, entertain, and foster a community. Writers usually use a friendly, casual, or informal yet informative writing tone for blogs. They are a medium for sharing insights, knowledge, opinions, and stories.
A blog should provide valuable, in-depth information, maintain an authentic voice, and craft engaging content.
| Suggested reading:
Copywriting
Content writing is not just informative but also persuasive.
Copywriting handles the persuasive side with writing specially crafted for marketing and advertising purposes. Copywriting depends on understanding psychology to use the right words and influence the audience’s behavior.
It’s what you see on ads, promotional materials, sales pages, etc.
| Suggested reading: Content Writing vs Copywriting: 5 Key Differences
Email writing
In copywriting, emails are regular communications sent to subscribers sharing updates, news, or promotional content.
Remember the emails you receive from Amazon about special sales or new products?
That’s exactly what email marketing is. You can’t help but open the email after reading the subject line.
Scriptwriting
Content writing is not just what you read but also what you listen to. Many podcasts, YouTube channels, reels, videos, etc., have a script they follow.
Like written content, videos need a strong narrative, clarity, conciseness, and good transitions to engross the audience.
What better than a perfectly written script to ensure audience engagement?
Scriptwriters need to deeply understand what works for the intros, how to keep the information engaging and concise, and how to make the conclusions lucrative so the audience comes for more.
Technical writing
It’s what you see on product descriptions, product manuals, software instruction pages, etc. It’s the form of writing used to explain steps or create a guide or manual.
As a freelance content writer, you’ll have to write in niches you are not well-versed with. In those cases, you must conduct thorough research on the topic.
This writing style is unique as it requires deep research and an understanding of the jargon. Not just that, you need to convey the jargon in simplified form for your readers.
If you can provide accurate information in a simplified language, you have tremendous scope to grow in the technical writing industry.
UX writing
The U and X in UX writing stand for User Experience. In other words, UX writers copy for user interfaces. Their job is to plan and write text that educates and guides users to easily navigate an application or interface. It’s also called microcopy.
The mobile notifications, app CTA buttons, checkout pages or websites, etc., are UX Writing examples.
UX writers organize the words in the app or on websites so they make sense. You can say the writers know their job when you don’t feel friction when using the apps.
Here’s an excellent example of UX writing used to explain the features of ConvertKit.
Articles
Often used interchangeably with blogs, articles fall into a similar category but differ. Articles usually have a formal tone, involve deep research, and are written for magazines or publications.
Article writing can cover many subjects, including news, features, opinion pieces, reviews, how-to guides, and more. Writers vary their writing tone to match that of the publication guidelines.
Ghostwriting
A ghostwriter creates content for individuals or entities without receiving credit for it.
It spans from articles and books to blog posts and speeches.
Another realm of ghostwriting opened when entrepreneurs and brands started investing in social media writing.
Not everyone has the skills or capacity to create content on socials. That’s when the ghostwriters step in to write on their behalf and help them develop a personal brand.
Ghostwriters need to adeptly adapt to the voice and style of the attributed author or brand.
Taking on the perspective of others requires deep research and a firm grasp of the author’s tone and vision while remaining invisible.
What Skills does a Content Writer require?
Though it’s a writing job, content writers need more than just writing skills.
Research skills
Content writing is 20% writing and 80% research.
Research entails delving deeply into multiple sources, obtaining valuable and reliable data, and combining it into a captivating story.
Research skills include more than just Googling; they also include fact-checking, vetting sources, and ensuring the data is current and accurate.
With around 7 million blogs published daily, you can guess how important it is to share authentic content. That can only happen if you do your research right.
| Suggested reading: Create content briefs for maximum results
Problem-solving
Chances are there’s always some existing material available on your topic. How will you make your content stand out?
That’s where the problem-solving skills come into play. It’s the ability to solve problems and craft practical, solution-oriented content.
It includes:
- Identifying and filling in knowledge gaps
- Coming up with creative ways to explain difficult ideas
- Attending to the needs of the audience.
Possessing problem-solving abilities is beneficial when dealing with obstacles such as contradicting or insufficient data on a subject.
Adaptability
Freelance content writers often work on multiple projects at once. If not, they have to shift from one writing type to another depending on the project’s needs.
They must jump between platform-specific needs, tones, styles, and topics effortlessly.
Versatility and being able to switch between tones need adaptability.
Time management
Content writers often juggle multiple projects with varying deadlines.
Time management abilities are necessary to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and maintain the standard of work.
It involves effectively organizing the writing process, carrying out research, drafting, revising, and editing in order to fulfill deadlines for publications and clients.
Consistent productivity without sacrificing content quality is ensured by effective time management.
SEO Understanding
Content writers must possess a fundamental understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) principles.
Understanding keywords isn’t enough. You have to get the user intent right, optimize content structure, and craft engaging material that appeals to the audience.
SEO understanding involves balancing readability for humans and visibility for search engines.
I’ll be talking about SEO writing in detail later in the blog.
AI tools
2023 was the year of AI. And AI is here to stay.
You can use plenty of tools to ease your writing process and save hours on repetitive tasks. AI is also helping create many money-making strategies for everyone.
I’ll discuss using AI for writing and AI vs writers in one of the coming sections.
Communication skills
Content writers can’t do without strong communication skills. This involves effective interaction with clients, editors, and sometimes readers.
It includes:
- Understanding the client’s needs
- Asking the right questions
- Effectively conveying ideas.
Miscommunication invites project delays or poor content delivery.
Communication skills ensure you’re clear in discussing project requirements, revisions, and feedback. It guarantees accurate delivery of the intended message.
Marketing
Though content writing isn’t only about content that sells, you can’t take away marketing from it.
You have to write content that eventually leads the audience to buy your product/service.
Content writers need marketing acumen to create and align content strategies with marketing objectives, such as increasing brand visibility, driving conversions, or fostering engagement.
Innovation
Thinking creatively is key to content writing innovation. Your content should present novel ideas, viewpoints, or presentation styles to engage readers.
To keep information interesting and dynamic, it entails investigating non-traditional methods, experimenting with various styles, and introducing novel concepts.
To keep their writing current, interesting, and ahead of the curve, creative content creators are always looking for new and creative ways to convey their content.
Editing
If you think your first draft will be the final one the audience reads, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Every writer, even experienced, can never be confident of their first drafts.
Content writers must polish their work to make sure it is devoid of typos, grammatical problems, and consistency issues.
A keen eye for detail ensures the final piece is not just well-written but also refined and error-free.
| Suggested reading: How to create a blog outline?
Qualifications Required by Content Writers
You’d already know the answer if you read the article. 😄
Being a content writer doesn’t require any special qualifications.
Content writing is an art and a science.
You start by already knowing the art. The science you learn with practice.
But it doesn’t harm if you have a degree in English literature or a marketing background. If not, it doesn’t really matter.
As long as you can nail the art and the science of writing, you could be a science, economics, or any other major and still ace content writing.
You can writing skills at any point in your life. If the lack of experience plagues you, you worry for nothing.
How to Become a Content Writer And Start Without Experience?
Go niche or No niche?
Wherever you go, the first suggestion you’ll hear is to “Niche Down.”
What exactly is a niche? And do you really need to niche down from the get-go?
If I had to explain a niche to my niece, I’d tell her: There are many stores in a supermarket. Among them is a toy store. It has a separate section only for Barbies. The stores are like different market niches, and the Barbies section is a sub-niche of a bigger niche.
Why do you need a niche, then?
So you can target a highly specific audience group. The more niched down you are, the higher you can prove your specialization. Like doctors do.
But don’t think of going niche if you haven’t tested the waters yet.
If you don’t know how you like technical writing, you can’t cross it off, right?
In my case, I have a technical educational background and hated it. So I already knew what I didn’t want to do.
Apart from that, I was completely new to the field. I wrote for multiple niches—health, EdTech, lifestyle, design, real estate, and marketing. Had I not tried it out first, I wouldn’t have known I liked EdTech better than healthcare.
If you want to write in the same niche as your previous work or educational background, niche down right down.
But if you’re an explorer like me, give yourself the time to find what you like writing. Your niche will come to you.
Expert Opinion
If you are unsure of which direction you should go, I suggest you try experimenting with multiple categories that interest you.
The process I followed was – I worked with 10 categories ranging from travel to lifestyle to technology, etc. I followed the Method of Elimination to boil down to the top 5 categories I enjoyed writing content for. These are based on months of experimenting because, as a writer, you eventually know what topics interest you. Then I boiled it down to 3 categories, now my niche.
Now, instead of concentrating on only one, I zeroed in on 3 because I know I have an equal understanding and inclination towards them. That’s how you can choose a niche and then further break it down into sub-niches.
Example: Coaches (general) -> Life Coaches (Niche) -> Life coaches for athletes (sub-niche).
Another way to choose a niche is to check the market dynamics around the top profitable niche or categories. You can see if you have written anything under those categories and build your skills around it.
Ankita Ahuja (Founder, The Content Brew)
Understand SEO
To get your blogs ranked on search engines, you need to understand what affects the ranking.
Spend time learning about SEO for writing, keywords, headlines, meta descriptions, image use, etc., and developing SEO strategies.
The best free resources to learn SEO are the Ahrefs blog and YouTube channel.
Learn Tools
Gone are those days when you could call it a day after writing.
Today, we’re in the world of AI. If you want to stand out, you need more than just writing.
Learn design tools like CanvaPro and Open AI to generate images for your blogs, socials, and other needs.
Using stock images will land you among the average. To rise above, learn to use AI tools.
AI also has editing tools that help you polish your writing. Use them to generate helpful content in less time.
Remember, I’m not telling you to use AI to generate a blog and publish it. But there’s no harm in using it to finetune the first draft.
| Suggested reading: ConvertKit Review
Learn To Research
Research is the backbone of content writing.
Spend time on platforms like Google Scholar, social media, forums, etc., to improve your research skills. Observe the top blogs in your industry and see what they do to make their blogs full of useful research.
This LinkedIn post by Kiran Shahid captures how helpful social media can be for research.
Google itself is a resource complete of research if you use it right. Learn how to do a boolean search to utilize the most of Google.
Create a portfolio
A portfolio is an indispensable tool in your toolbox if you intend to work as a freelancer.
Potential clients would like to review your prior work before working with you. A portfolio gives you more legitimacy. The recommendations from your previous successes reassure potential clients about the caliber of your work.
You can make your own samples if you are a total novice. Search Google for the niches you want to write in and see what material appears on Google’s front page.
That’s the kind of content you should produce. Select any of the articles and consider how you could improve its value and informational content.
Expert Opinion
Portfolio serves as the first point of reference for anyone looking for your services. It is important to build one.
If you don’t have too many articles or bylines on your belt, create mock articles on Medium, Tealfeed, or your own blogging website like Wix, WordPress.org, or Canva. You can use a simple Google doc to store all the links or share your portfolio link with the potential lead.
A diverse portfolio is great. You can position yourself as an equal Jack of all trades but have yet to master One. Divide them or categorize them under Industrial subheadings. Add the links under those headings. If you know your potential lead will not benefit from other categories and is looking for a specific content type, you can create separate docs highlighting the links.
Alternatively, you can use Notion to build your profile as well. Here, you have the option to categorize the pages into sub-pages that you can directly share with your client.
I created my portfolio on two separate platforms. Medium and Google Docs (primarily because I am a Ghostwriter). I showcased my work under separate category headings and divided it into – Tech, Travel, Social Media, and Website Copywriting.
Ankita Ahuja (Founder, The Content Brew)
Create Accounts on Socials
You can’t always go out and search for gigs. After a while, you’d want the ideal gigs to come to you. To make this happen, you’ll need a social media account.
Omnipresent marketing is the way to the future.
Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter (Now X), Instagram, Facebook, and even Medium have hundreds of thousands of creators creating content about their services.
Read this article I published on Medium to understand how you can build a personal brand to attract clients.
Network with Writers
It’s a field where the more you network, the better opportunities you grab.
Once you start on social media, you’ll find creators many steps ahead of you becoming accessible in a single click. Connecting with the top of your field was never easier.
Not just that, joining niche-specific Facebook groups increases your chances of finding gigs and gaining first-hand experience.
Usually, people post work requirements or look for service providers in these groups.
That’s your chance to pitch to them and get the conversation rolling.
I found a few of my initial gigs from Facebook groups.
My current clientele comes from LinkedIn because I took the plunge and started conversing with my ideal creators.
Create a Pitch
When you start looking out for work, pitching becomes your ally.
But beware of pitch-slapping.
I’ve received several sales pitches that made me block the person right away.
When your pitch is your first message to someone, it holds a lot of pressure. Here’s how you can nail a pitch:
- Research about the prospect you’re pitching. Find details about their work and their recent projects. Don’t forget to find the areas where you can help them improve. After all, you need to explain how you can help, right?
- Create a pitch template. Start by complimenting the prospect about a recent success or their work in general. Highlight the area of improvement. State politely how you can help with that. Share your previous work so they know you can be the right person. Ask for a slot to book an introductory call with them.
- It’s essential to follow up since prospects don’t always read every pitch. But know when to detach from the prospect. I only follow-up twice. Once 24 hours after the first pitch and one 72 hours after the first pitch. If you still don’t reply, know it’s time to move on.
- Nail your subject lines. After all, that determines if your mail lands in the inbox or spam and if the prospect reads it.
- Attach your portfolio as proof of work.
Search for gigs
How to find gigs is the biggest question keeping beginner content writers up at night. You can enjoy a good night’s sleep as multiple job boards are available for freelancers and job seekers.
All Things Freelance Writing: All Things Freelance Writing is a platform founded by Jessica Walrack to help freelance writers find writing gigs and get a steady income. The platform shares freelance opportunities on its job board, interviews, and podcasts from successful freelance writers.
LinkedIn Advanced Search: If you want to find clients through LinkedIn, don’t skip the Advanced Search.
Go to the search bar. Use the Boolean search and enter “Hiring” AND “What you do” Select the Posts filter. LinkedIn will show you all the recent posts startups, HRs, or companies posted to hire freelancers. Send them a pitch.
LinkedIn Jobs: Apart from the Advanced search bar, LinkedIn brings all levels of jobs, freelance opportunities, and internships to you. It’s a good start for a beginner with varied pay scales.
How to start your blog?
With time, it becomes important to create authority. Expertise in the field not only helps you land better clients, but you can also pitch for big-ticket clients or high-salary jobs.
Nothing better than starting your own blog to build authority. Making your blog serves as proof of work and gives you the opportunity to put yourself in the league of the best in the field.
How do you learn SEO writing?
SEO writing is one step up content writing. If you want your audience to discover your blog, you need Search Engine Optimization to bring the blog to them. But search engines don’t just rank any content. You need to ensure your content meets the ranking factors.
But that in any way doesn’t mean you put the search engine before your audience. That’s the deal with SEO writing: you should write helpful content that adds value to your audience and meets the SEO guidelines.
As a content writer, you need to understand what keywords are, how to do keyword research for blogs, how to write content that gets ranked, and much more.
Check out this article on how to learn SEO writing.
Best Free Content Writing Resources
- Coschedule headline Analyzer: To generate SEO-optimized headlines and analyze their SEO score.
- Hemingway Editor: To check the reading level of the content.
- HubSpot blog Ideas generator: To generate blog post ideas for your niche.
- Power Thesaurus: To find synonyms and expand your vocabulary.
- Answer The Public: To find keywords and questions readers search for.
- Google Trends: To find trending topics in your niche.
- Google Scholar: To find unique research and data.
- WordCounter: To count the number of words for blog posts on the SERPs.
- Canva: To create original visuals such as infographics, graphs, mind maps, etc.
Where can I practice content writing?
Writing is as good as your practice. It’s a muscle you build with the reps you put in daily.
While writing on any random topic will lead to no good for writers, you can use specific methods to hone your skills.
Join Medium publications dedicated to your niches and start writing for them. Medium is a massive platform with good domain authority. It also gives you the chance to rank in searches. And as I said earlier, your medium articles are a valid portfolio.
Secondly, join internships. You get to learn more in less time with a team of skilled professionals. And it’s a chance to explore more writing formats simultaneously. Internships bring clarity. My first internship was at a health-tech startup. It gave me the clarity that I’m not meant for medical writing. Now that’s a win.😄
How not to sound like a non-native English writer?
It’s challenging to write in a language that’s not your first. Getting the correct meaning and understanding of idioms and phrases can be difficult.
Believe me, I was there. But you can still make it big being a non-native English writer.
Here’s how I got better at writing in my second language:
- Critical reading: I’m not the first person you’d hear say, “Read more to write better.” But only reading is of no use unless you critically analyze each piece. Get into the author’s mind. Think about why the sentences were framed the way they are and why a particular word is used. Getting a grasp of the text helps you know how to write better.
- Watch American movies and shoes: American English is the standard of writing. Watching their films and shows enriches your vocabulary with the latest idioms, phrases, words, and speaking methods. Digital writing reflects the speaking language. You need to write as you speak. What better way to learn how to talk like a native?
- Never write without knowing the real meaning: Many writers use words or idioms without knowing the real meaning. That’s the best way to sound a non-native or lose the project.
- Use tools: It makes your writing error-free during the final proof-edit. It’s better to have the tools check what you missed.
Hemingway Editor – Simplicity of writing
Scalenut – Passive to Active voice converter
Grammarly – Grammar errors
Note: Grammarly is great, no doubt. But AI can’t grasp the intricacies of grammar like humans.
What’s the best way to improve grammar? Learn Grammar from books. Never believe Grammarly to make the final edits. Believe in your knowledge.
Will AI replace Content writers?
Short answer—No.
Long answer: People couldn’t stop talking about AI in 2023. Some relatives even sent me articles on “AI replacing content writers.” They were worried about my future.
But the truth couldn’t be further. AI is powerful, and we can’t predict what it will become in the future. But it will only remain an aid to human writing. It can never replace writers.
Why?
- It can’t capture emotions like humans: Marketing and writing are driven by human emotions. You can’t be a good content writer if you don’t understand buyer psychology. That’s what AI can never understand. If you try ChatGPT and Bard, the top AI tools today, you can’t use their output without hours of editing and prompting. AI has a long way to go to understand human psychology and emotions like humans do.
- Generic rules in AI’s world: AI can give you definitions and what’s already available on the web. It can’t create its own content. AI content doesn’t have a unique perspective, doesn’t answer fundamental questions, lacks experience, and can never give expert opinion.
AI can speed up your writing and research. It can save you time editing. It can enhance content. But it can never bring real helpful content people want.
To understand how AI can help with content writing, read this article on enhancing content creation with ChatGPT.
Challenges of freelance content writing
Although freelance article writing gives independence and adaptability, there are drawbacks. The irregular income flow is one of the main problems. Workload and payment changes are common for freelancers. Also, acquiring and keeping clients might be difficult, requiring ongoing marketing and networking initiatives. It can be quite demanding to juggle several projects, deadlines, and differing customer requirements. Administrative duties like filing taxes and creating invoices fall need attention besides the actual work.
Content writing job vs Freelance content writing
| Content Writing Job | Freelance Content Writing |
| Stable income and benefits | Variable income and no benefits |
| Fixed working hours and structure | Flexibility in work schedule |
| Limited creative freedom | Full creative control |
| Less administrative tasks | Requires self-managed admin tasks |
| Job security | Uncertain income flow |
| Growth opportunities within the company | Diverse client experiences and networking opportunities |
A content writing job typically involves working as an in-house writer for a company or publication, offering stability, benefits, and a fixed salary. In contrast, freelance content writing provides freedom and flexibility but requires self-discipline, managing multiple clients, and handling administrative tasks. While a job offers security, freelancing allows for creative control, varied work experiences, and potentially higher earnings. The choice depends on personal preferences regarding work structure, stability, and the willingness to handle administrative tasks and market oneself.
Average salary of content writers
Content writers in the US have a base pay range of $47K to $74K per year. The average salary per year in the US is $62,308, according to Glassdoor. Content writers also get an additional cash compensation of an average of $3,392 per year.
For freelance writers, the numbers vary. According to Indeed, the average rate per hour is $22.81. The rates range from $9.19 to $56.63 per hour.
Freelancers can also charge higher depending on their experience, results, and the scope of the project.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How much can a beginner Content Writer earn?
A beginner content writer can earn around $47K per year at a job. A freelance content writer can earn around $9.19 per hour. The freelance rates vary according to the projects and the writer’s skills.
2. Can I become a content writer after doing MPhil in English?
Yes. You don’t require a certain qualification for becoming a content writer. But having an MPhil degree is indeed helpful.
3. How to make money with content writing?
You can get a content writing job or freelance. Both job and freelacing have their perks. Choose the one that suits your needs.
