So you have decided to make the great leap into the glamorous world of content writing, have you? Great idea! Whether it’s for your own business or writing on another company’s behalf, well-written content is the most important part of any online presence.
Even professional writers need a little help to check their work and sharpen their skills from time to time. With that in mind, here are three things every content writer needs for success.
Remember the Thesaurus?
Have you found yourself writing the same words over and over and over again? If you have noticed this quirk yourself, your readers probably picked it out a long time ago. You, my friend, need to start making good use of a thesaurus.
Bonus: It’s even better for enhancing your vocabulary than a “Word of the Day” calendar.
Another thing to consider is the choice of language used, in particular for the more academically inclined among us. I’m guilty of this one too – using unnecessarily complicated language to illustrate a point. What can I say? I read a lot. Be sure to check the readability scores of your piece in Word or online, and use simpler language whenever possible.
Good Writing Conditions
When I first started working at home, I used a tiny 11” laptop at the coffee table in the living room. That’s fine for a hobby blogger and Facebook enthusiast, but when you’re producing content for professional purposes, you need a real workspace with a proper desk chair and good lighting conditions. And, if you’re working with kids in the home as I do, a good pair of headphones is a must to minimize, um, environmental distractions.
You don’t need to go out and buy a complete home office set-up at once, but if writing content for your business becomes a miserable, uncomfortable experience, you’ll put it off way too often. That’s not a terribly productive idea, now is it?
Learn to Love Grammarly
Ideally, every single piece would be professionally edited by a second pair of well-trained eyes. That’s great advice, in theory, but it’s not possible for budgets of all sizes. When you can’t have another pair of eyes review your work, Grammarly is a Word plug-in that can serve the next best thing.
No, it’s not flawless. You can’t just accept every single change because sometimes the suggestions won’t be contextually appropriate. However, it does an excellent job on punctuation and recommended vocabulary changes. Even if you don’t sign up for a subscription, following Grammarly on social media can give you great tips to improve your writing skills every day.
Have you decided that writing content for your small business just isn’t for you? Would you rather spend your time on sales than coming up with something clever to say on Facebook every day? Have trouble mastering the art of Twitter? I can help! Fill out this contact form to get started!
Even professional writers need a little help to check their work and sharpen their skills from time to time. With that in mind, here are three things every content writer needs for success.
Remember the Thesaurus?
Have you found yourself writing the same words over and over and over again? If you have noticed this quirk yourself, your readers probably picked it out a long time ago. You, my friend, need to start making good use of a thesaurus.
Bonus: It’s even better for enhancing your vocabulary than a “Word of the Day” calendar.
Another thing to consider is the choice of language used, in particular for the more academically inclined among us. I’m guilty of this one too – using unnecessarily complicated language to illustrate a point. What can I say? I read a lot. Be sure to check the readability scores of your piece in Word or online, and use simpler language whenever possible.
Good Writing Conditions
When I first started working at home, I used a tiny 11” laptop at the coffee table in the living room. That’s fine for a hobby blogger and Facebook enthusiast, but when you’re producing content for professional purposes, you need a real workspace with a proper desk chair and good lighting conditions. And, if you’re working with kids in the home as I do, a good pair of headphones is a must to minimize, um, environmental distractions.
You don’t need to go out and buy a complete home office set-up at once, but if writing content for your business becomes a miserable, uncomfortable experience, you’ll put it off way too often. That’s not a terribly productive idea, now is it?
Learn to Love Grammarly
Ideally, every single piece would be professionally edited by a second pair of well-trained eyes. That’s great advice, in theory, but it’s not possible for budgets of all sizes. When you can’t have another pair of eyes review your work, Grammarly is a Word plug-in that can serve the next best thing.
No, it’s not flawless. You can’t just accept every single change because sometimes the suggestions won’t be contextually appropriate. However, it does an excellent job on punctuation and recommended vocabulary changes. Even if you don’t sign up for a subscription, following Grammarly on social media can give you great tips to improve your writing skills every day.
Have you decided that writing content for your small business just isn’t for you? Would you rather spend your time on sales than coming up with something clever to say on Facebook every day? Have trouble mastering the art of Twitter? I can help! Fill out this contact form to get started!
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