12 Qualities A Content Writer Should Have To Get A Job.

If you want to earn money as a content writer by working in any company, firm, or famous website, this post might help you immensely.

To write this post, I have analyzed various job advertisement and their requirements and gone thru at least 60-70 advertisements from small and big firms that are looking for content writers.

I began my research on LinkedIn, then went to problogger, and weworkremotly. My focus was on the requirements that companies are looking for in hiring a content writer.

These tips may help content writers, bloggers, and copywriters get jobs locally and remotely.

Here are 12 tips that you must develop as a content writer. Some may take time, but practicing is worth it to get a decent job.

Read – When to hire a content writer?

1. Experience.

The first thing that any company will ask you is your experience. Now many of you may be confused about how you will show your experience being a fresher.

Before applying for any job, you must maintain a minimum of 1-1.5 years. In that particular period, you have to find contractual-based jobs. Or you can start your website and write for about one year.

If you will create good content, that’s great now. Create a portfolio page and put the data you have done in the past.

Other than that, you can find local jobs or assist someone for free in return, you can ask them for an experience certificate.

Note: You must build your resume stronger if you want a good job. Don’t hesitate to work for free during the initial days. You will not gain money, but you will get the experience.

2. Good communication skills.

You have to be good at communication skills to get a job. Many people think that a content writer is a person who works behind the table, but you have to communicate with others to work efficiently.

These communication skills will help you clear your interview if you want a job. Here is a list of things you should work on to improve your communication skills.

• Become a good listener.
• Work on your reading and writing skills.
• Give respect to all.
• Confidence.

These are some of the skills that you should work on.

3. A good researcher.

The third quality that a content writer should have is knowledge about researching the topic. This is an essential quality that one should have, and it was repeated in all the advertisements published on the above platforms that many companies have published.

To be a good researcher, you should start practicing these things.

• Know about the current trends.
• Focus and find out what people are buying these days.
• Analyze the competition and find loopholes.
• Read white papers and research papers and take out data from them.
• Find the authoritative sources and link to them.

4. Know how to tell a story.

Content writers should have a sense of writing stories and implement it in every piece of content they write.

Whether writing about any product or sharing information, you should start writing things by telling a story.

As Google tells write for humans, not search engines, your primary focus should be on giving quality information to real people.

Writing information in the form of a story makes your audience engaged, and they tend to keep reading further the given information.

5. Familiar with technology and algorithm updates.

Keep yourself updated with the current tech that can get you the job. To become a content writer, you should know the platforms on which the content is written.

About 40-50% use WordPress as their content management system. You should know how to operate and work in it.

You should know managing plugins, build pages, add categories, and structure the main content.

Other than that, google algorithm updates are the critical factors for a writer to look upon so that they can change or revert things according to these updates.

6. Should know to write quality content.

This is the most significant factor in getting a job, as I have told you about the gap year in which you have to do contractual work or create a blog of your own. From there, you can practice writing quality content only.

In the research part, I have mentioned writing the best quality content. This will help you to rank on the top pages.

To write quality content, you should include these things in your blog posts and articles.

• Do not copy ideas from your competitors.
• Conduct original surveys and talk to experts.
• Use original images and videos.
• Focus on SEO.
• Follow the basic guidelines.

7. Know about SEO.

Now companies hire separate SEO specialists to perform SEO on their content, but as a content writer, you should have the basic information about this.

Having knowledge about SEO help you to communicate with the experts, and your productivity will increase.

Many small companies are also looking for a single person who knows multiple things such as SEO, graphic design, and image editing.

These skills are easy to master within 6-8 months.

Read – Shocking SEO facts that you should know!

8. Should know to proofread.

Proofreading is an essential thing once you are done writing the content. For content writers, it is very necessary for them to write error-free content.

Proofreading includes rectifying minor mistakes while writing the content. This includes grammatical errors, Paragraph adjustments, and content structure adjustments/

You may also give tasks just to proofread others’ content to which you must pay more attention.

9. Basic Coding Skills.

HTML and CSS are essential things that you must learn while you do content writing. This will help you write alt text and embed videos on your articles.

Sometimes you may need to make minor adjustments to the website. In that case, you can show your coding skills.

As a content writer, also, I wouldn’t say I liked coding that much, but knowing basic things about this website helped me a lot. Visit w3schools.com to learn to code for free.

10. Can design graphics.

Images are essential for a website. If good informative images are used on a site, it immensely helps in bringing traffic.

Using stock images on the website is outdated and of no use. It is really simple to create graphics; if you know this, you will add a lot of value to the company in which you do a job.

Now, if you don’t know how to create a blog, these articles might help you.

• Create Inforgrahs for your blogs.
• Types of images to use in your blog.
• How many images to use in a blog post?

11. Deliver content on time.

Submitting content on time can make you a good employee. But don’t be haste while submitting your articles.

Check these things before you submit your content.

• Spellings mistakes.
• Grammar.
• Headlines.
• Internal and external links.
• Images and alt text.

12. Learn from failures.

Even if you have made some mistakes in the past, learn from them. In content writing, no one can become an expert in a short period. You have to work for hours and write hundreds of articles and see which one is working and which is not.

How to get your first content writing job?

To get your first content writing job, follow these tips, and you will have your job in your hand.

• Build a strong resume.
• Pitch small companies for jobs.
• Visit the careers sections of various companies.
• Make a good profile on LinkedIn.
• Create an account in problogger.
• Watch out for remote content writing jobs.

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