How I Became a Better Writer and Learned to Stop Wasting Money.

I used to outsource my content. The result was usually substandard writing. "Professional" content writers typically spin existing content (that wasn't very good to begin with). They would focus more on word count and keyword stuffing than giving the end user a good experience.

Google will catch on to this in the coming years. This is a long haul business. You aren't here to get a couple of $100 clicks/sales for mesothelioma. You're here to grow a business.

Here's how I became a better writer. Yes this takes time. Yes time is money... but I've seen my Adsense articles get 1000% more traffic than the crappy spun articles that I farmed out to people from developing nations on Fiverr.

1. Write everyday. Seriously. 2000 words plus. Keep a personal blog or even carry a notebook. Write about everything. This will develop any natural talent that you have.
2. GO TO THE LIBRARY. Read. Read about advertising, marketing, consumer psychology. Read about your passions. Read about your niche. It will give you ideas.
3. Keep an idea journal. One mistake I made early was running with any idea that I had, as soon as I had it. This cost me HUNDREDS. Let some ideas breathe. When you come back to it, it may not be so good.
4. When you're ready to write your copy, take a look at what other writers are writing about it. Find areas that they glossed over or skipped entirely. Focus on that area. People who want to buy want to know everything about the product before they buy.
5. Once you have a good article on a subject, read it out loud to yourself. Does something sound weird? Edit it!

Good content sells itself. You won't have to drop money on spammy/scammy traffic tools if you write to the best of your ability and keep improving your abilities. The backlinks will com naturally.

Best of luck.

 

Most writers fail at this point. I was watching on TV a renowned author who said that good writers need to read at least 3 times the amount of content they can write, but many aspiring writers fail to read at least everyday's headlines.

 

Google is wiser than you think when it comes to quality content and spun article is not helpful or only gives you short-term effect with no ROI. I think it is best for a good writer to have a creative mind and always knows what to give to its beneficiaries.

 

They already have. A lot of people are still stuck in the past and think cheaply spun or poorly written content is their way to the top.

Yet, you'll see those people continuing to offer sub-standard rates for poorly written content and probably blaming writers in the process. They'll continue to wonder why their content isn't ranking well on Google and most of them never learn from their mistakes.

I outsourced content too (well tried too). I recommend against outsourcing for cheap but people just get mad when I try to tell them otherwise, so to each their own.

 

The best writing education you can get is from offering a proofreading service on Fiverr. I spent three months doing that up until Christmas, made a little over $1000 and learned a lot! What you presume to be good writing from someone is actually a skilled editor's work combined with the writer's ideas. If you write shorter products like sales letters or articles, the same ideas hold true. Write everything first, concentrating on the idea information you want to impart. Forget about spelling and grammar etc. Then rewrite with the following in mind: but Keep sentences short and to the point unless there is a good reason to make them long. Get the basics of punctuation right. Omit unnecessarily long explanations and use easy to understand vocabulary that everyone is familiar with. Cut out repetition and any information that does not deal directly with the idea at hand. This way you can write good content yourself if you are a ruthless editor.

 

I have found the hardest thing about writing good quality content is getting starting and a lack of momentum. When I get into those slumps (traditionally called writer's block), I try and change the pace, find something else to get my mind off of it long enough to "reset". Then get a fresh start and don't stop... it's like a snowball growing, the more you write the easier it flows from you.

 

I think it's important here to mention that this is by all means not real professional copywriters. I know you were making this pretty clear, but whenever I see this suggested I feel compelled to mention that we absolutely never spin any content. Even if I'm writing a blog post for the same product for two affiliates in the same day, I create each from scratch, for their site, for their audience with their own unique style.

I agree that there are far too many "copywriters" out there who merely pump out the same rubbish over and over again. These are usually the cheapest, usually based in India, and usually steal content from elsewhere and run it through a spinner of one brand or another.

Couldn't agree more.
Google is already catching on to this, and they will refine their algorithms further to weed out those who only provide weak and spun content. You can pretty much guarantee that if there's a spinner on the market out there, someone at Google is looking into how they alter text and finding a way to identify spun content. It's only a matter of time, just as Panda was only a matter of time.

These are all good points.

1. I've personally been writing for decades, and I now write every single day as a career, of course. The amount I write each day changes depending on the client schedules, but with my own sites, novels, ebooks and so on I can easily write anywhere between 10 - 20 thousand words each day. That sounds like a lot, I know, but this is often in a 12 hour day where all I'm doing is sitting at my desk and typing.

2. I also read about all kinds of subjects during my day, checking out the latest on everything from SEO to social media. I pay attention to marketing stories and gather information that I can use to assist clients.

3. The Idea Journal is an absolute must for me. Even when I'm drifting off to sleep my brain takes a while to slow down, and I have found some of my best ideas at that time. I guess this is a meditative state where ideas come more easily, so I have a pen and pad beside the bed ready to jot it all down. I know for a fact that no matter how determined I am that I'll remember the amazing idea in the morning, that never happens.

4. As all of our work is specific to each client, we already have set ideas about how it should be presented. For example, for one client we might look for the less obvious facts about a tech product to make it more extreme and ridiculous, while another will want to focus on the appearance of the gadget or the technical aspects. Either way, there are certain things that every good copywriter should include when presenting a product or service.

5. Another good point made. I think we've all been guilty of hurriedly publishing or delivering something which we would later look at and want to change, and we all make little errors here and there no matter how much attention is paid to the process. Words which look perfectly fine together at one moment may look different just five minutes later. No copywriter can be expected to be accurate 100% of the time, but double-checking is a must and willingness to correct errors later at client request is an absolute necessity. Don't let pride and arrogance get in the way of providing an excellent service to your clients.
I would like to add to your suggestions by including the following -

Learn when to stop. When I started it was an entirely new career for me, and it soon became my sole income. I was taking on everything, working 15 hours, not eating when I should, drinking far too much coffee... it was a scary time because my income now depended on my clients rather than just turning up for work and being paid regardless. When I began to slow down I really started to enjoy my job a lot more.

I was talking to someone else about this just this morning.
They were looking for traffic for a new blog while there was little on the blog to begin with. It was all shallow content without any personality. I advised them that people only share content that is interesting, funny or emotionally relevant to them. The best way to gain traffic, followers and links is to give your readers content that they will actually respond to. So, seeking out the next little boost in traffic for a site that doesn't have anything compelling to offer readers when they arrive is pretty much pointless. You want to get to a position where you don't need to be sharing your content yourself, because your readers will be doing that for you.

Create content that is compelling and interesting to the reader, and they will become your marketing tool.

Thanks for the good thread, very interesting and useful for many.

 

wow - 10 - 20k words a day wouldn't leave me with much time to read at all!

 

It changes from day to day, but I do find the time. It only takes me a few minutes to read through an article by Matthew Woodward or watch the latest video from Matt Cutts, and that can be done throughout the day while I'm taking a "break" here and there

I know it seems like a lot of writing, but when you've been writing for over twenty years and you have no real distractions around you, it's amazing how much you can get done.

I'm sure there are plenty of other writers who can get more done in a day than I can.

 

Now I say something silly, so apologize me. But I belive the best way is the old good fashioned reading books from childhood Some skills cant be learn in few weeks

 

You are right on point on how to become a better writer. However, I would readily disagree about your take on writers from 'developing countries.' I do not know why the categorization, but from experience, and being from a developing commonwealth country(English as official language), I know of several great writers in these countries churning great articles. Maybe you were just 'unlucky' to pick the wrong copywriters.

 

I think the quality of content writer gives usually matches what the client is willing to pay. It's tough to write a high-quality article in less than an hour. I think each article should take at least 60 minutes -- a minimum of 30 minutes for the first draft and/or the research and then the rest of the time for the final before submission.

 

For those interested in improving their copywriting skills, many swear by the Gary Halbert's 30 day approach to becoming a world class copywriter. It involves analysing re-writing and numerous sales letters by hand, thereby picking up on and incorporating the best techniques in your own writing.

 

I believe the AWAI Copywriting guide advocates the same technique. I find it works on a subliminal level, but it's just like anything else you learn.. the physical act of writing something out helps it stick in your brain.

 

To the great points already mentioned, I would add the following:

1) Detach thinking from writing is much as possible. Write an article template in advance for all the main points you wish to make. Intro, body, conclusion sections should be outlined by topical focus. Also make sure to add any "star elements" that you've been thinking of putting into one of your next writing pieces, like an excellent joke or story.

2) I've personally found that if I try to go more than an hour continuously, I can do it, but the quality of the writing goes down. Now I don't fight my exhausted mental state anymore. I take a break every hour to allow my mind to re-energize and refocus.

 

Some good advice here. I hate to buy articles. It never turns out the way I want it to. I would like to learn writing my content but I don't know where to start. Can someone recommend me a place where I can get some guidance on writing.

 

Get an account on grammarly. It may cost you a little, but that's the best way you can learn about your mistakes.

 

The problem with writing your own content is that you cannot scale up your business. There's always a cap in the number of articles you can write per day. It's hard -- quite impossible I'd say -- to operate a large blog network if you don't outsource.

 

Thanks. I will check it out.

 

For many of us, it may be the writers fault but in my view, it is due to money they get for writing articles. Low paid writers don't want to put extra effort as they are not getting much and it becomes tiresome job for them.