These days when the online population expands exponentially by the day, we also see a constant uptrend in content writing jobs in the digital sphere. Online writing provides a decent income for freelancers and most come without restrictions for age, education or geographical location. Competition is a lot tougher for beginners though, what with the volume of pros they have to compete with.
It is therefore imperative for novice writers to provide exceptional content to capture the interest of readers and potential employers. Exceptional material is generally subjective just as good food is, but both seasoned writers and hungry readers agree these features make good content:
• Relevant, useful information
• Relevant, useful information
One of the primary reasons why readers go online is to retrieve information. Your articles must be useful to readers for you to engage them in the first place. If you were the reader, how would you like articles to read? Put yourself in the shoes of the reader, and give them what they need and want. Awareness of evolving reader needs, desires and background is essential to creating pieces that will provide value.
• Uniqueness
Readers need information that they can not find elsewhere - be it in entertainment, politics, news, relationships or science - otherwise your piece simply becomes a generic one like the others. As a writer, you need to stand out and distinguish yourself among a long list of aspiring writers and pros.
One suggestion is to scan articles on the web and analyze how you can deviate from such and establish your own approach in terms of tone, voice and writing style while still maintaining its relevance and key points. Experiment writing in various genres first and take to mind both uniqueness and relevance.
• Freshness and Originality
While many writers assimilate originality with uniqueness, they can mean two different things in context. In some articles, you may find quoted lines or excerpts that are unique, thus making them technically not entirely original. That is not bad on its own, but if you’re starting out as a writer, you would also want to craft pieces that are wholly yours – not re-written and without excerpts. This allows the content to have its own voice, not something that was originally someone else’s. Only use quotes if they are truly essential to drive a point, no matter how clever-sounding.
Good writing is best achieved when the content is kept original, that is, not recreated or thought of by other authors in such form. Whether you’re culling an excerpt of somebody else’s piece, re-writing another article or creating your own entirely from scratch, always make sure they are unique, original and useful to your readers. Only by doing so can you establish credibility as a writer and catch the eye of prospects.
