My One Year In Content Writing — Part 1: The Four Steps

Sama Samrin
Sep 9, 2018 · 3 min read

Never did I think that making a career out of writing can be so convenient, productive and rewarding. Last year in July, as I was juggling my hours between coding for the thesis project and finding some decent sleep, I was delighted to find a cozy place in the professional content writing field.

Despite being a CSE graduate, I decided to test the water in content writing since almost everyone who read my pieces showed appreciation and admiration for it immediately.

I had the good fortune of starting my writing journey from the comfort of my home. The content marketing agency named OwlWrito selected me and seven others from a huge pool of 250 applicants. Initially, I was terrified if I can put up with the standards since I had no prior experience in writing professional pieces.

After stumbling over some obstacles initially, I managed to get the hang of it and cemented my position as one of the dependable writers there.

Then I switched to the traditional job market this year through attaining the Content Developer position at a PR company. This experience introduced me to many prominent areas of writing including bylines, press releases, feature articles and angle write-ups.

Currently, I am working as the Creative Content Writer at Invariant Telecom where web content and pieces based on technical topics are my responsibility.

In this one-year-long journey, I have made some discoveries of my own regarding the strategies of content writing. For all of you looking forward to pursuing a career in this area, here is a summary of the steps I follow to reach the end product efficiently.

THE STEPS

  1. No Compromise In Research

Doing online research before writing a piece may sound like a cakewalk to many, but this is the first and most indispensable part of the whole procedure. Usually the client himself will let you know about the topic beforehand and also provide some useful reference links to clarify the preferred structure and tonality. Note down all the essential or useful information in a text file on Notepad (since it’s lightweight) or in a doc file on Microsoft Word (if formatting seems crucial to you). No matter which platform you use, try to compartmentalize the information with corresponding headings. This way, you can find the required pieces of information with just one glance.

2. Set Up The Structure

Depending on your new-found piles of information and the instructions provided by the client or boss, set up the preliminary structure of the write-up. This will basically be the skeleton of your article which can help you navigate between its sections.

3. Gripping Introduction

Online readers will decide in a few seconds if they are interested in an article or not. So the introduction is your main opportunity to nail that first impression and inspire them to keep reading the rest of your piece. If this part goes wrong or turns out to have grammatically incorrect components, chances are they will close the tab immediately.

4. One Point At A Time

Go through the points one at a time. Whatever point you are at right now, find it in the reference articles and read those respective sections mindfully. You will stumble upon many views and aspects of the same topic. This will help you cover all possible grounds related to that particular point.

5. Fulfilling Conclusion

It is very important to leave your readers with a breath of satisfaction or something to look forward to. It may summarize the whole piece in 2–3 lines or introduce the next step after reading your piece. Either way, the concluding para needs to be catchy, clear and brief.

5. Source Links

Never forget to put in the source links at the end of each write-up. These links assure the client or boss, as well as the readers, about the reliability level of your piece. The only time you should leave out this part is when the client or boss explicitly tells you to avoid it.

I will continue sharing my insights with you based on my real-life experiences in the second part of this blog series. It will mostly cover the dos and don’ts of professional content writing. Until then, let me know what you thought of this post below!

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