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Content writing is the juxtaposition of facts in a simple language intended either to give information or provoke a person to buy something. Content writing is easy. All you need to know is how to become a content writer in Pakistan. In this essay, you will learn what are the requirements you have to fulfill before choosing to become a content writer; where to learn content writing; what are some writing based services you can offer; how to build your portfolio and how can you make money out of it.
Here is what you can do as a content writer:
Still not understanding what does this all mean? Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to you one by one.
Content writing is the juxtaposition of facts in a simple language intended either to give information or provoke a person to buy something. Content writing is easy. All you need to know is how to become a content writer in Pakistan. In this essay, you will learn what are the requirements you have to fulfill before choosing to become a content writer; where to learn content writing; what are some writing based services you can offer; how to build your portfolio and how can you make money out of it.
What do You Need in the Beginning to Become a Content Writer?
- Good Self-writing Skills
- Knowledge About the Audience You are Writing for
- An Internet Connection
- Desktop or Laptop Computer
- A Smartphone for Backup
- A Bank Account
- Stubbornness and Determination
Good Self-writing Skills
This is a required necessity. If you have never written anything in your own words, it’s high time for you to start practising self-writing. You have to be good at writing in English, its vocabulary, sentence structure and grammar.Knowledge About the Audience You are Writing for
You can’t write good content without knowing about the audience you are writing for. In order to increase engagement on your content, you’ll have to learn about its intended audience first. You’ll have to set the tone of your content according to your target audience. You can get a clear idea about your audience by searching regarding the things they care about on different social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit etc.An Internet Connection
In Pakistan, we subscribe only to WhatsApp based packages and call it a day. No! In order to become a good freelance writer in Pakistan, you’ll have to subscribe to a full-fledge internet package so that you may remain available to your clients as well as to brush up your skills.Desktop or Laptop Computer
Doing research and writing on a computer is easy and fast. Therefore, make sure to purchase one. But you don’t need a high-end computer for writing. Even a Core 2 Duo with 4 GBs of RAM and 256 GBs of hard drive shall be sufficient enough for your task.A Smartphone for Backup
You can surely use your smartphone for writing content on the fly. But in the end, it is a smartphone with all of its distractions but focus mode is a remedy for curing distractions. Despite the handy remoteness a smartphone provides, you won’t be able to type and conduct research fast.A Bank Account
You’ll need to open a branched bank account in your area to open a Payoneer account to receive money from international clients because it is 2022 and still we don’t have PayPal.Stubbornness and Determination
Earning a livelihood through freelance writing is not an affair of a day. It takes days and even months to receive your first order. Therefore, be stubborn and determined to learn as much as possible and be hopeful to earn according to your skills.Where to Start Learning Content Writing?
You can start learning to write different content by searching for articles on Google and tutorials on YouTube. In this essay, I’ll link a beginner-friendly YouTube video in every heading of the sub-professions I’ll list down below. However, this 4 hours long video can give you a clear idea of content writing in different fields in a beginner-friendly manner.Here is what you can do as a content writer:
- You can proofread other people’s work
- You can write blog posts
- You can write affiliate blog posts
- You can create CVs or resumes
- You can write captions for social media posts
- You can write ads for the posts that appear on Facebook and Instagram
- You can write sales emails
- You can write scripts for YouTube videos
- You can write press releases for brands and websites
- You can write product descriptions
- You can become a blogger
Still not understanding what does this all mean? Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to you one by one.
Clicking on the headings should take you to their corresponding beginner-friendly tutorial on YouTube.
What do you need in proofreading?
What do you need in writing good blog posts?
What do you need in writing convertible affiliate blog posts?
Yes, you can earn money by writing professional CVs for your clients.
If you want to master copywriting, watch every video by Mike Nerdi. He has awesome tutorials on developing a Fiverr profile as well as learning copywriting.
Note: Keep improving your portfolio as your career as a writer depends on it.
If you’re unable to find local clients, just like me, then offering your services on Fiverr should be your first priority. You can publish 7 gigs as a new seller. Just a quick heads up: Do NOT send your offer request to a buyer before completing your portfolio. Here are a few things you need to follow:
When Making a Gig:
Dos
Don’ts
When sending an offer to a buyer request:
I am Asad Imran, a beginner freelance writer. I have written what I learned in the span of two weeks of my personal quest. If some things are missed in this essay, kindly let me know.
Proofreading
This is the easiest job that you can tackle. As is obvious from the name, in this job, you’ll have to remove grammatical errors from others’ writings. If you’re a person who’s bashed for picking grammar mistakes, you can have fun proofreading your client’s work as well as earn a reasonable amount from it.What do you need in proofreading?
- Grammatical knowledge
- Grammarly
Blog Post Writing
You must have come across a number of articles when you’re searching for something on Google. These articles are called blog posts. You can offer your services as a blog post writer but only offer your service in the niche you understand. Don’t act as a jack of all trades.What do you need in writing good blog posts?
- Basic knowledge of On-Page SEO and Structuralization
- Focusing on the ease of user
Affiliate Blog Post Writing
At some point, you may have searched for an earphone under Rs 1500 in Pakistan. In search results, the blog posts containing the exact information you were looking for are called affiliate blog posts. An affiliate blog post contains a curated list of reviewed products under a certain price bracket.What do you need in writing convertible affiliate blog posts?
- Follow a standardized structure of Introduction, Product Reviews, and Buyer’s Guide.
- Write a review like a review, not like an ad.
CV Writing
Yes, you can earn money by writing professional CVs for your clients.
Captions for Social Media Posts
This is also a great place to start as writing captions for Facebook and Instagram posts does not require much toil as other writing-based jobs need. You’ll get orders for this in bulk.Product Description Writing
Every product listing on Amazon, Ali Express or any other reputable online store needs a product description that helps in making buyers aware of the features and functions of the said product. Writing product descriptions is easy. All you need to know is about the product itself and some basic SEO.Writing Ads That Appear on Facebook and Instagram
This is rather tricky but not difficult. Instead of writing informative captions, you write persuasive copy (ad) to sell the product(s) of your clients. Writing social ad copy is an initiative way to kick start your journey as a copywriter. Use swiped.co to dissect ads that are already converting successfully.Email Copy Writing
After mastering social media copywriting, your next step is to dip your toes into writing e-mail copy. Then, you can attempt in writing landing pages. But learning this kind of copy requires patience and practice. Again, you can use swiped.co to get inspiration.If you want to master copywriting, watch every video by Mike Nerdi. He has awesome tutorials on developing a Fiverr profile as well as learning copywriting.
Script Writing
Another popular writing based job is to write scripts for YouTube content creators. But you’re not limited to YouTube. If you hold a degree in English Literature and you like reading plays, you can write scripts for different screen-plays.Press Release Writing
Brands need media to get coverage for their new product line-up. They achieve this by writing press releases through experienced freelance writers. Once you acquire the experience of 2 to 3 years as a content writer, you are eligible to become a good press release writer.Blogging
You yourself can become a blogger in every field. But I’ll suggest you to go into Affiliate Marketing based blogs as you will earn a hefty amount if Google begins to love you. In order for Google to fall in love with your website, you’ll have to let others try first and you should write for them. Once you get a clearer picture of all the necessary things related to affiliate blogging, establish your own.How can You Build a Portfolio?
A portfolio is a[n online] collection of your samples that help you in assuring your customers that you’re fit for the job they require from you. You should begin building up your portfolio when you start learning. You can use Medium to showcase your portfolio of blog posts. However, for copywriting, scriptwriting and proofreading based jobs, you can construct their portfolio as PDF files. When someone asks for your sample of blog posts, you should share a link to your Medium post so that your samples are not stolen. As far as sending PDF samples are concerned, make sure to watermark them in your name if you plan to publish them online.Note: Keep improving your portfolio as your career as a writer depends on it.
How to Make Money as a Content Writer?
You can turn your gift of writing into a skill that brings money quite easily. You can earn a living through two kinds of clients:- Local Clients
- International Clients
Local Clients
When you’re starting your career as a content writer, it is considered a good practice to work with local clients to get a better idea of the field of writing in general. Local clients won’t pay you much but in return, you will get a foundation for a sound income. You can find local clients by meeting them face to face or through different social media groups like this one. But you must know that finding local clients is not easy.International Clients
You can offer your services to international buyers via international platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.Fiverr
If you’re unable to find local clients, just like me, then offering your services on Fiverr should be your first priority. You can publish 7 gigs as a new seller. Just a quick heads up: Do NOT send your offer request to a buyer before completing your portfolio. Here are a few things you need to follow:
When Making a Gig:
Dos
- Search for the particular service you want to offer and note how other people are offering those services. When searching, make a list of suggested keywords and the number of services corresponding to each keyword.
- Add your face to the primary image of your gig to increase the click-through rate of your gig.
- Price your gig at 5 $ in the beginning.
Don’ts
- Do not copy-paste other sellers’ descriptions.
- Do not reupload other sellers’ images.
- Do not price your gigs at a higher price during the beginning.
When sending an offer to a buyer request:
- Read and understand the job first before applying. If it contains an image or a link, open and understand them too.
- Do not send a templated offer.
- Curate your offer in your own words that should be centred around the conditions of the job, posted by the seller.
- Do not apply before completing your basic portfolios.
Upwork
Upwork is the second platform where you can make a buck by selling your skills. Do not construct your profile before completing orders at Fiverr for almost 6 months. I am currently not qualified enough to offer my services at Upwork. Therefore, I cannot assist you more in this regard. I’ll update this paragraph once I am capable enough to work on Upwork.Tools to Help You Write Error-free Content
No one writes perfectly. Especially we Pakistanis who learn English as a third language besides Urdu. But there is no need to be worried about it as there are some online tools that can help you in writing error-free and precise content.Grammarly
If you want to become a content writer then this extension must be installed in your browser. Grammarly purges your writing of spelling and grammatical mistakes. It also helps you replace an overly repeated word with its synonym by just double checking on it. I have been using Grammarly since 2016 and it is not perfect, but it gets the job done.Hemingway Writer
Although Hemingway Writer is not as featured-pack as Grammarly, but it can help in tuning your content to a specific grade of simplicity. Besides, it can work offline if you manage to get its Desktop app.Things You Should Avoid When Writing Content
Don’t Stick to a Particular YouTuber
In Pakistan, a lot of people will suggest you to stick to Hasham Server to learn content writing. No doubt, his videos are good for beginners but you should search per topic on YouTube on your own. YouTube alone is filled up with talented and skilled content and copywriters who are explaining each and every bit in writing engaging content.Do not Spin and Reproduce an Already Written Content
Some of the newbies will suggest you to use websites like Spinbot to reproduce already written content. Content Spinning is a grave sin and Google can penalize the website of your client for producing spammy content.Do not Cherry-pick the Top Two or Three Articles
Another common mistake new freelance writers make is to rely on surface research. In simple terms, they reproduce the gist of the top three articles in a search term and that is not a good practice. You need to put your head into jotting down important information regarding certain topics after an extensive research of, at least, one to two hours.Conclusion
Your primary objective should be to provide valuable content to your clients instead of grabbing money from them. Stay dutiful to what they owe you. And never stop learning.I am Asad Imran, a beginner freelance writer. I have written what I learned in the span of two weeks of my personal quest. If some things are missed in this essay, kindly let me know.
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