8 Professional Writing Secrets You Don't Know

As Featured in Quora with intro added

What do the truly creative content writers know that you don't know?

How does an amateur SEO content writer become an amazing professional writer?

Do you know how to hire a freelance content writer that is truly outstanding?

We all start somewhere. We all have the opportunity to learn and grow. You must first learn the 8 secrets that expert content writers know.

MXLLS​​​

What it really means to do the research - Research is more than just researching the niche or topic. You must research the audience, keywords to

target, competitors, what’s been successful for others, related industries, complimenting industries.

This is really missed in a lot of content writing today. We are so focused on getting more content up at the lowest cost, that we don’t put the time in, or pay someone to put the time in, to actually do what needs to be done to create that unicorn (outstanding and elusive) content.

You can’t create quality content without research. And research does not just mean researching the topic.

The importance of objective/goal -setting - You must know what you want to achieve. What does “success” look like? How do you know you’re going in the right direction? When do you make adjustments? You need clear, attainable objectives, including micro-conversion objectives that keep you on

track toward meeting goals.

The importance of analytics - Despite the research, every piece

of content will not be outstanding. Often there are variables outside your control. But what you do is use data to identify which are your standout pieces and how you can get the most out of those pieces to promote your brand and perhaps breathe life into content pieces that didn’t take off like they should have the first time around.

The importance of customer experience - Every piece of content is an experience. Every piece tells a story. Collections of content share a story. Your

title may be something “boring” like 8 things you didn’t know about health insurance, but your content must create an experience. Not just any writer can do this, wants to do this or tries to do this. You can be a great writer and still not understand the customer experience element of content creation.

What SEO really is - SEO got a bad name over the past several years because of people trying to play the system to skyrocket to the top of search

engines. But everyone was in for a rude awakening, when a small algorithm change by Google flushed all of their efforts down the drain.

Maybe you are one of them. You were just following the crowd and doing what you thought you had to do. But SEO is still incredibly important. SEO has always been about creating the right user experience to drive traffic to your site. Expert content creators understand what SEO really is and how to leverage it to their /your advantage.

How to get the right return on investment - You could throw away money on books and books of content or you could strategically develop a

content strategy and set up a system by which the content pays for itself over time several fold. This is your ultimate goal in content. And not just any content does this.

Content can either be an expense or an investment in the long term success of your brand.

Where creativity comes from - First of all, expert content creators don't buy into the the cliche "It's all been done before." They understand that creativity is

endless and overflowing if you understand how to tap into it. They don't feel the need to copy the ideas of others, play it safe, or wallow in negativity. Instead they spend their time creating new things and highly shareable content for their audience.

They understand that creativity comes from

1) combining what is with what is not

2) Bringing outside ideas into your industry

3) Dispelling myths with facts and reason

4) Listening to your audience

5) Healthy body, spirit and mind

6) Confidence in your craft

7) Listening to your sub-conscious.

The importance of working with ONE outstanding SEO content creator - This is a must if you want to apply a consistent strategy. Many companies outsource to multiple content creators because they aren’t looking at the bigger picture. They think that just because they share their style guide, voice, target audience and the topic to be written any creator can do the job.

This is one of 5 common silly mistakes people make that can negatively impact their ROI.

But the creator must understand the brand, niche and audience on a much deeper level if you want truly outstanding content. This requires finding that perfect writer, who understands your goals, objectives and how to meet them.

You’ll also spend a crazy amount of money paying for high quality writers if you outsource to lots of writers. When working with one content creator, you can also get bulk rates because it takes less time to create several pieces of content for 1 niche. These savings get split between creator and the one hiring them.

If you're a content creator, know that you can create outstanding content. Follow my blog to learn more about how to grow as a content writer.

If you need to hire an SEO content creator, know that we are not unicorns. We do exist. Check out our transparent content marketing pricing packages or If you'd like to talk Contact me and we'll talk.