How To Start A Content Writing Business
How to Make Money from Content Writing Business
Starting your own content writing business is not going to be a daunting task so far you work to meet the basic requirements of getting things set up properly. By the way, content writing is the process of communicating information, knowledge, entertainment, and data in a particular format to the target audience mind on the social media, website/blog, eBooks, videos, advertisement and product description. You can go into business as soon as you have gone through the process and you will see clients lining up in no time all.
I’m going to share those basic requirements and the process you will have to go through before you launch your content writing business.
This is a step-by-step approach which will teach you what you need to land your first content writing job. Here you are:
Content Writing Business Procedures
- Have a business plan
- The level of skills you need to succeed
- Carry out research
- Decide on the type of content writing you need to master.
- Learn the tools of the trade
- Set up your website or blog
- Marketing your content writing business
- Decide whether to hire helping hands
Have a business plan
Many newbie skip this step in the belief that it is not important, but it will help you if you do it well. It will take a couple of hours to put it together.
A content marketing business plan shouldn’t be complicated but it needs to contain sufficient basic information to serve its purpose. It can even serve as your business outline.
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The following basic information may be included in your business plan.
- Your initial capital outlay– This doesn’t have to be much since it is assumed you have your blog or website. But if you don’t, you need money to set up your website or blog, standard laptop and other communication accessories, smartphone and cash to serve as your working capital.
- Projected income– you need to estimate what your daily/weekly or monthly income will be to set it as a target. It is not about your previous income when you were on full-time employment but what you are going to earn now you are independent and following the services you are going to provide.
To find out from research what clients pay content writers and what other content writers earn for a particular assignment to guide you in deciding on a realistic figure. Your financial goal and profit objective I must say is equally to be taken into account in arriving at a realistic conclusion.
- Projected expenses—Your projected expenses will include what you are going to spend setting up your blog or website, buy compute, pay rent, smartphone and other communication gadgets you need as a pre-requisite before taking off. You will also need to estimate your expenses over time such as paying staff, if you decide to high staff, rent for the office, repairs to computers and even acquiring additional computers.
- What method are you going to receive payment? – Some clients will pay you via PayPal, others will transfer the money directly to your bank account. So decide on the method you are going to be paid so that you don’t run into difficulties when it is time to receive money.
- Competition – This section focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, whether it is a buyer or seller market, how they fix their charge, what method are they paid, and what writing content is most demanded.
The level of skills you need to succeed
Your skills in content writing must meet a certain standard and follow laid down rules, so if your writing skills fall short of the standard you must brush up. You must live up to standard on grammar and the style of the niche you are going to write on.
You must be competent on the use of search engine optimisation and how it categorises and rank online information to write content that is easily discovered on the internet and search engine.
You must also be conversant with how people share information on social media because online content writing clients look forward to the sharing of their blog posts, articles, and other content.
Moreover, you must understand how to write headlines and article titles. This is essential because they are the first things readers see. They must be written in such a way as to attract readers’ attention and elicit from them into clicking a link to go through the article.
Carry out research
Research is crucial in any business including the business of content writing. Research is needed at the setup stage and should also be a going exercise. You need to research the competitors to find out how they do their content writing in terms of looking for clients, how much they charge and earn, how they promote their writing business and what level of income and profit do they expect to earn.
You will also need information on an on-going basis on what to include in your content to make it an attractive reading. Research your chosen audience to know their reading habits and buying behaviour and approach them accordingly.
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Decide on the type of content writing you need to master.
Businesses of all types need content but not the same content for all businesses. Also, you cannot be everything to all people. You must choose your type of content according to your audience your expertise and reading habit. Contents available include some of the following:
- Blog and article writing to tally with the business or website category
- Social media such as ad copy, news or product description
- Video scripts
- Paid advertising pitches
- E-books such as application manuals and eBooks
- Website content such as product description writing
- Newsletter, magazine and journal articles
- E-mail campaign content,Product/Service reviews writing.
- Copywriting and writing that promotes business and sell more products.
- Technical writing about the expertise of the subject matter.
- Poems/stories writing
- Scriptwriting and dialogue for movies and others,
Special requirements for content writers
- Normally you are expected to write between 500 and1,500 words article per day.
- To do extensive research on the topic.
- Write search engine responsive articles.
- You are to produce original content that has to come from your head, research, experience and expertise.
- The use of good English (or any language) with correct grammar and spellings.
- Always ready to submit before deadlines.
- Ready to adapt to the writing style to support the topic/formats and audience preferences.
- To be able to create and/or add images, and other graphics in the content.
- To inform readers/audience about the subject matter, product/services.
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Learn the tools of the trade
- Creative writing – you must have the creative ability that gives you the leeway to ponder/research and ultimately develop unique and engaging content
- Search engine optimization skills or SEO writing skill is essential to develop a written content and products review that is found easily on the search engine.
- Selling/Marketing skills to help you promote your content so that it can convert readers into customers.
- Technical writing or industry expertise to enable written content give sufficient information, understanding on the area under discussion of the audience.
- Good communication skills so that content can build personal and professional attachment between the brand and the target audience.
Heading and subheadings writing skills so that it attracts the audience on the social media and elicit higher click-through rate on the article when using the search engine.
Skills in using website keyword research tools to help in finding topics to write, then find and rank written content when using the search engine.
Skill in the use of Computer, internet, and WordPress
Set up a website or blog
Your website or blog must be up and running for you to start content writing business. You can’t rely on an outside resource to make your business grow, your blog is your front store and that is where you can be found, besides, it is open 24/7.
If you can’t set it up on your own, get a professional to work out the best blog for you depending on your needs and circumstances. Select a good domain name, hosting company and put pen to paper to write a killer content that will drive traffic.
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Marketing your content writing business
Another important aspect of the content writing business that cannot be overlooked is marketing. Marketing should be used to promote and grow your content writing business, if not you will discover your existing clients will ultimately fissile out.
Different marketing options are available and I am going to show you how to use them. Here are the options you have to promote your business and make a success of it.
- Advertising with Google Ads (Adwords)
Google permits you to purchase background ad that shows up in search engine results for a few dollars.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you launch your blog, you can include content to attract free traffic from Google included in other search engines. As long as you diligently apply SEO techniques, you can always hope to get a few clicks or above per day.
Optimizing your website and constantly adding content has many advantages. It does more than drawing traffic to your website; it also exposes them to your writing abilities.
Always add your engaging content to your blog. That is one of the ways to market your skills.
- Try the Direct Approach
Finally, you will have to approach others directly about your writing services by emailing organisations that could want to use fresh content. You can also advertise on social media such as Facebook and hope to see a good number of clicks.
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Decide whether to hire helping hands
Hiring freelancers should not come at startup time unless at startup time you have landed a writing job one person cannot handle. Otherwise, defer recruiting at a later date when the content writing business begins to achieve some level of success and growth. Only then you will plan to recruit staff and decide what is the skill level and compensation rate you that is possible.
Conclusion
The content writing business is not a high paying job even though at the same time it doesn’t require huge capital outlay. However, as the business expands to the extent that you are landing big content writing contracts that you cannot handle alone, then there is a great need to recruit writers. If this happens, there is every reason to make big money since you are not only making money from your writing efforts but others as well.
