Content Writer Guideline 101

On average, about 8.28 Million blog posts are published per day, according to Internet Live Stats 2022. And the surprising part is that 90.63% of content never gets traffic from Google.

If you implement the strategies used by the thousands of other common writers, unfortunately, your content will also be a part of the larger chunk.

And the most important part is that if the content you write does not add any value to your client, there are high chances of your replacements.

So after reading hundreds of blog posts and dealing with 30+ writers, I’m going to share with you some tips that will help you to write an engaging piece of content.

I assure you that after going through this blog post, you’ll have a clear idea of:

• Things you must consider before writing your next blog post.
• How to write an intro paragraph?
• Things you must know from SEO perspective.
• How to research for content for valuable insights?
• How to write headlines?
• How to make your content more engaging?
• How can you help your clients, so they will love working with you?

So let’s begin.

Things you must consider before writing your next blog post:

Once upon a time, there was a lazy stone breaker. He never missed an opportunity to escape from his work. 

Observing his behavior, his master was confused about what to do with this lazy worker as there was not even a spark of motivation and excitement in his worker. 

To get the solution to his problem, the master meets his Guru and explains his problem. 

The next day, the Guru comes to the site, looks at the lazy worker, and talks to him.

Surprisingly the lazy worker started doing his best in the stone-breaking task.

Looking this tremendous change, the master was surprised, and out of curiosity, he asked his Guru what he said to the lazy worker who had turned into a hardworking man.

Then the Guru explains to him: 

“The lazy worker didn’t know how important his task was? I just cleared him that every stone that he breaks, is used to make beautiful God sculptures and idols. After giving some shapes to the stones that he breaks, sculptures will be placed in the temples, and people will worship the same stone that he is breaking now”.

Knowing this fact, the lazy worker started working more joyously. 

The story ends here. 

So being a content writer, if you know the intent behind the writing, it will make your clients’ tasks very easy and also save your lots of time (as it will reduce the number of revisions, and editing).

So what can be actionable steps? 

You just need to ask these questions yourself: 

1. Why are you writing, whatever you’re writing?
2. Who is your target audience?
3. What are their pain, pleasure, and desires?
4. How will this content solve their problems and help them achieve their goals?
5. How will your client (end client) achieve their goal? (focus on the ultimate goal or conversion)

If you’ve answered these questions, congrats; you’re ready to write the intro paragraph.

Introduction Paragraph: Hook, Assurance, and Establish Expertise

“First Impression is the Last Impression” I am sure you have heard it many times but have you implemented this line in your content writing journey?

Let me know in the comment section what you do to make a wonderful impression on your readers.

So let’s discuss the hero paragraph of any text content. Have you ever thought what the purpose of the first paragraph is?

I’ll say, “the motive of the first paragraph is to make the readers read the 2nd paragraph.”

What will be the value of the rest of the content if your readers leave the page just after reading the first paragraph?

So by the Hero paragraph or introductory paragraph, you need to:

1. Hook readers attention
2. Establish your expertise
3. Make them believe that you have solutions to their problems
4. Force them to read the rest of the article by giving some valuable insights of the article

Let’s discuss each point one by one here.

Have you ever tracked yourself; Whatever you do, why do you do?

If you go deeper with this question, the result will come in these two words: 

1. Either you have a Darr (Fear/Problem) or
2. You have a Desire

Yes. I can bet that whatever you do, you do because of fear and desire. These are two powerful drivers. 

So any person who lands on your page or your article has either a fear or a desire.

Here is an easy task to capture visitors’ attention by talking about their fear or desire in the very first line and establishing a connection between you and the visitors. 

For example: 

I have a task to write a blog post on “Natural cold pressed coconut oil in India.” The target audience searching this term online wants to get 100% natural cold pressed coconut oil. The problem is, “there are lots of cold pressed coconut oil brands in the Indian market, and visitors are confused which one is the authentic and pure cold pressed coconut oil?” 

So first, you need to discover visitors’ fear/problems or desires. Then you should start writing the blog post.

Here is an example of how I’ll write the first paragraph for the title as mentioned earlier:

“With the 5 recently launched (in July 2022) brands, there is a total of 18 cold pressed oil brands in the Indian market right now, and 11 out of them selling you nothing but a bottle full of mineral oil in the name of Pure Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil.”

These lines show the visitors that I’ve researched very well on the topic (because I know how many coconut oil brands are in the Indian market and how many brands are not authentic).

“Investing my 39 hours of research, using 7 different coconut oil brands, considering online reviews and my personal experience, I’ve finalized 5 Best Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil Brands in India on which you can trust blindly. 

So in this article, I’m going to share with you:

1. How can you pick 100% natural cold pressed coconut oil?
2. Top 5 Natural Cold-Pressed Coconut oil brands with pros and cons
3. Precautions you should keep in mind while using cold-pressed coconut oil.

Let’s begin.

This is my way of writing the first paragraph. If you liked it, comment below, “yes, I liked it,” or if you want to suggest some changes, then you can comment with your valuable suggestions. (I’m waiting…)

You can also add fear factors in the hero paragraph like this: 

“One of my friends was using cold-pressed coconut oil for a long time. Her bad luck, she was using mineral oil camouflaged with cold-pressed coconut oil. Resulting in a face full of acne and pimples. This is why you must keep your eye on the ingredients list while choosing coconut oil.”

Here is the complete introduction for the blog post titled “Best Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil Brands in India.” 

“With the 5 recently launched (in July 2022) brands, there is a total of 18 cold pressed oil brands in the Indian market right now, and 11 out of them selling you nothing but a bottle full of mineral oil in the name of Pure Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil.

One of my friends was using cold-pressed coconut oil for a long time. Her bad luck, she was using mineral oil camouflaged with cold-pressed coconut oil. Resulting in a face full of acne and pimples. This is why you must keep your eye on the ingredients list while choosing coconut oil.

“Investing my 39 hours of research, using 7 different coconut oil brands, considering online reviews and my personal experience, I’ve finalized 5 Best Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil Brands in India on which you can trust blindly. 

So in this article, I’m going to share with you:

• How can you pick 100% natural cold pressed coconut oil?
• Top 5 Natural Cold-Pressed Coconut oil brands with pros and cons
• Precautions you should keep in mind while using cold-pressed coconut oil.

Let’s begin.”

I know this hero paragraph is a bit lengthy (because I’ve added some lines for the fear factor), but you need to keep the introductory paragraph short and crisp. 

In a nutshell, your hero paragraphs should contain:

1. A Hook (Discuss the visitor’s intent; find out what they want or talk about problem or desire)
2. Expertise (Providing valuable data, recently published research, or showing your experience/efforts, etc.)
3. Fear factors (By exaggerating adverse effects at peak)
4. Engaging lines (By providing valuable insights of the article or what values they’ll get after reading this article)

Body of the content: 

1. Write unique and original content, and go above and beyond what you find online.

Have you heard of the 80/20 principle? 

It applies in most cases, even to content writers. How?

80% of content writers do nothing but search their topic on google and read 4-5 top ranking articles, gain some ideas, and rephrase or rewrite in their language.

Observing yourself, ask yourself, In which category do you fall, 80% or 20%? 

Hardly 20% of content writers deep dive into their topic and find amazing facts and data that top-ranking pages lack. 

They go the extra mile to research their topics by implementing google advance search, acquiring more information from various platforms like YouTube, Quora, LinkedIn, top research publishers’ websites in that particular niche, expert interviews, podcasts, and reviews.  

Here is a video by which you can learn how to do an advanced search on google:

Advance Ways to research for your Article/Blog Post:

How To Write Amazing Articles For Websites| 5 Best Content Research Tips Every Writer Needs In Hindi

Bonus: 

You can use a search query like quora.com:*your topic, for example: quora.com:content marketing; ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:acne

2. Provide value in every sentence:

“If it’s not adding value to the readers, delete it.” Try to write content in such a way that each line has a significant value, information, data, emotion, or fact. Don’t try to fill your blog post with random lines for the sake of meeting word count criteria. 

3. Skimmable content with Simple Sentences

No matter how valuable your content is, most readers will not read line to line. They just read the heading; if they find some value, then read the paragraph. So instead of writing a long text of wall, make your text content crisper, each paragraph not containing more than 3-4 lines. 

4. Write Your Content in Conversational Tone (Active voice):

“You and I,

In this beautiful world,

Green grass, blue skies,

In this beautiful world

You and I,

winding lanes as streams go by,”

Have you heard these lines of Vodafone a song? And also ‘Katy Perry – You and I’ (for bonus).

What is common in these two songs?

Both songs are talking to their prospect. 

You should do the same with your content writing skills. For B2C (Business to Consumer) content, your content should talk to your target audience; for that, you can use words like You, I, and Your. 

5. Explain your point of view with examples:

Connect with your target audience with the help of examples. You can make your own story by considering your prospect as the leading role. 

6. Efficient use of adjectives:

A good selection of adjectives can add “4 चाँद” to your article. 

For example: 

Normal Line: This week, Rachel is going to deliver a podcast in which she will discuss the ways to increase motivation. 

It can be written as: “This week … Rachel is delivering her best secrets for creating a firestorm of motivation inside a season where even a spark feels hard to find.” 

Did you see the difference?

How suitable adjectives can make your sentence more powerful. So try to use power adjectives, idioms, and phrases. 

7. Incorporate Visuals Content: 

When I was in the 1st year of my graduation, I found an opportunity to go on a trip to Manali with my friends. Even after 6 years, I have the clear sights of locations like Hidimba Devi Temple, Solang Valley, Rohtang Pass, Nicholas Roerich Art gallery and Museum etc., but I don’t remember what I was talking about with my friends at that time. 

The point is (also, many studies support this) that People tend to remember charts with strong visual images than its plain counterparts.

So my request is only this incorporates your thaali (plate of food) with Starter, Aachar, Salad, and Dessert. 

Mean you should use images, data, tables, charts, and infographics to make your piece of content more powerful. 

Conclusion

Strong start, strong ending! Your closing paragraph should provide a brief overview of the entire piece and sums it all up. 

You can also pitch our end goal here (conversion goal).

No Plagiarism:

With the help of your content, your client wants to get a higher position in the search results; for that, the written content must be free from plagiarism issues. If you are copy-pasting the content from other competitors, you’re not doing your job properly, and eventually, your client will look for your alternative.

For Product Review Types of Content: 

Show, don’t tell: 

Instead of forcing visitors to buy your product, you should focus more on the product features and values.

Consider these two descriptions:

This is the best dog toy money can buy. 

Or 

We made the “Rough Rover” dog toy from durable, 100 percent natural rubber, designed to resist punctures and tears from even the most dedicated of chewers.

You must watch this video for “Product Review Writing”:

How to Write Product Review Article Hindi Wen U Don’t Own The Product |Amazon Affiliate Content

Tools for Content Writing: 

For Grammatical Mistakes: Grammarly.

For Readability: Hemingway Editor

Articles you must read as a content writer:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/professional-content-mistakes

https://www.jimdo.com/blog/11-golden-rules-of-writing-website-content/

Checklist for My Content Writers