Can’t see the forest from the trees, anymore
You have the topic to write about and the time to do it, you can even think of an engaging story and an amusing twist for your readers, so you get down to business. But where to begin? What to look for? What to read? And when will you finish researching in order to actually be a content writer?!
Suddenly your mood seems to shift from comfort zone to the deeply upsetting. All that flow of information took you long tiresome hours to scan. It seems you didn’t allow yourself enough time to write something, after all. It seems you’ve got lost. You can’t even remember what you were looking for in the very beginning. You can’t see the forest from the trees, anymore.
A proficient content writer, however, will tell you this never happens. If you improve your search skills on the internet, you too can become one. Soon, you’ll find yourself back in the comfort zone and completely capable of doing what you love: write.
3-ingredient research recipe for becoming an efficient content writer
If you want to cook something to perfection, you should follow a recipe. Don’t lose sight on any ingredients, you’ll spoil the taste.
If you want to write content like a pro, you should also pay careful attention to research. Here’s how to do it:
1. Plan ahead. Before putting pen to paper, you should actually take your time and plan ahead. If you organize your ideas on a given topic you will be able do to faster and efficient research and your writing will stay cohesive, concise and focused. Moreover, if you encounter problems in your progress, having made a good plan will help you tackle them more easily. You can:
- make a sketch of your ideas
- try to prioritize your ideas: find out what’s essential and relevant, and find out what you should leave out
- you can underline a few key-words, so that they’ll stand out when you search
- write possible headlines and jot down a few ideas about them
2. Find core and secondary keywords. In order to write a good-post and to boost your Google-ranking, you need to find keywords and to decide upon a hierarchy. You should limit your blog post to one primary keyword, as well as two or three variations of that keyword. You also need to do keyword research and optimization, for finding out what’s in trend and what’s popular, so that when people search for something online, they’ll be driven to your page. There are specialized keyword tools you can use for this:
3. Know what you’re looking for. Research can be very time-consuming. Now, if you thought being a content writer meant you’ll be doing a lot of writing and a bit of research, I’m sorry to let you down, but you’ll be faced with a LOT of research. So, what you have to do is to know what you’re actually looking for. There are blogs, forums, articles, websites, videos, images, info-graphics, all offered to you. You have one powerful weapon: your keywords and your ideas. Begin by reading topics that mention them. If you end up on a landing page, skim it but don’t waste your time on it if it’s not appropriate for your subject. Most of all, stick to your plan. Nothing that is only roughly close to what you’re writing about should concern you. Do a favor to yourself and leave it out!
Next time when you do research try and follow these easy and fast steps and let me know if your performance as a content writer has improved. I’m looking forward to your feed-back in the comment-section below.
