How to Become a Content Writer: Career Guide, Courses, After 12th, Entrance Exams, Eligibility, Top Colleges, Skills, Scope, Salary, Jobs 2024

How to Become a Content Writer: Quick Facts

Types of Content Writers

There are various types of content writers each catering to a specific needs and specialising in different domains. Each type of content writer focuses on becoming an expert in their own domain. Sometimes professionals may shift from one type to the other depending on the need and want of the industry.  

Web Content Writer: Web content writers create content for online consumption. Most of the web writers are freelancers, however, a lot of companies offer full-time jobs as well. As a web content writer, your responsibilities include:

• They write information about the company including how the company works, products, services, blogs, articles, information about the team members, customer testimonials, email marketing and so on.
• Create web-optimized content.
• They also conduct keyword research and analyze which keywords will rank on the search engines.

Freelancers: Freelancer Content Writers are the writers hired by the company for specialized work and they are required to complete each and every specific question asked by their employer. Freelancer’s work ranges from social media management to content development to email marketing and collateral development. 

• For social media management, the job requirement is to create and post informative content on various Social Media platforms.
• For content development, the job requirement is to do research, create engaging blogs, and promote and share blogs on platforms like Quora, Medium, etc.
• For Email Marketing, the job requirement is to create and manage various email campaigns.
• For Collateral Development, the job requirement includes creating, marketing collaterals such as Posters, Smart Filers/ Brochures, Videos, White Papers, Customer Case Studies, and Student Testimonials.

Creative Content Writer And Editor: Creative content writers and editors write current news, blogs/articles on trendy topics, reviews, and so on. They can also create write-ups like statements of purpose, letters of recommendation, resumes, application essays, scholarship letters, motivation letters, and so on. The requirement here is to create lenient briefs into creative ideas and put those ideas clearly out in the world with the help of creative writing skills.

Content Writers For Marketing: Writers may have to write and coordinate content for newsletters, email templates, corporate reports, presentations, etc. As a marketer, it is expected from the writer to plan and implement social marketing campaigns for specific marketing goals and stays up-to-date with best practices in writing for the web, social media trends, web usability, web design, SEO, and business/industry trends.

Blogger: Being a blogger is another career opportunity. Blogger includes freelancers or employed blogger for an established company or site and the ones who write regularly on a specified topic of their interest and develop networks. Full-time bloggers are the ones who earn through their blogs and have a good audience base, avid readers who trust their blogs.

Script Writer: The Audio/video scriptwriter is responsible for creating shoot-ready scripts for video, audio, and multimedia training modules. Strong attention to detail is required while working.

Technical Writers: Technical writers communicate information about products or services. They use any medium to communicate information which they collect through extensive research. They produce content mainly for e-learning platforms. They apply their skills to non-technical content, such as writing for consumers who want information. Primary and secondary research is a must for all technical writers.
 

Steps to Become a Content Writer

Some of the crucial steps that can be followed in order to become a Content Writer are listed below for your reference,

1. Skills To Acquire: Although a degree isn’t essential, in many situations, having a bachelor's degree in subjects like English, Journalism, or Mass Communication can be beneficial for both, the writer and the company. The most important skill is the writing skill, which is the basic requirement. Writing skill is tough to master but not impossible. The best way to improve writing skills is through practice. In today’s digital world, the demand for competent writers is increasing. Content Writing isn’t just writing anymore, they need to be proficient in SEO, HTML, and CSS too. These skills could be learned through various online paid as well as free courses. For SEO, a great place to begin is Moz’s Beginner’s Guide. It is completely free and teaches you all tips and tricks which would be needed to start. HTML is required in Web development, which is again an important skill to develop. Deep knowledge of these languages is not required just the basic formatting like headings, lists, and adding hyperlinks. Learning CSS is not necessary for most content writing jobs, but it can be beneficial. However, knowing your way around the websites and tools like WordPress and other content management systems is definitely a necessary skill to acquire.
2. Creating Presence: Creating a presence is an important step. After acquiring the skills, it is important to broadcast those skills to the world. The most effective way for showcasing skills is by making a Portfolio. The portfolio is like a resume. It captures the essence of an individual’s skills and his/her work. For beginners, the first step should be to create some write-ups to showcase their writing skills. The write-ups can be on Blog on a topic of interest, a piece of writing for a community group, club, or campus publication, an essay dissecting a controversial topic, a profile on an interesting person or place etc.
3. Finding Work: The first is to sign up for an online agency like Copify. Writing jobs are offered on a freelance basis with none of the hard work of finding clients. The second is to become an In-house writer with a company. This would be a 9-5 job. The basic responsibility of an In-house writer is that all their online content should be in line with their brand, which could include blogs, e-mail newsletters, and social media posts. The third is to become a freelancer. It can be difficult initially, but once settled in, freelancing can be the highest-paying job. With freelancing, there is a benefit of flexibility.

How to Become a Content Writer in India

Content writing is a skill-based career. A specialized degree or course in the field is not required. Recommended degree for this profession is Bachelors's in Journalism, English or Mass Communication. The basic steps that can be followed in order to become a Content Writer are,

• School Level Preparation: Aspiring candidates must clear their Class 12^th board exams, preferably with English as major with a minimum score of 60% aggregate marks or equivalent CGPA from a recognised board.

How to Become a Content Writer After 12^th 

Post clearing class 12^th the key steps that must be followed in order to become a Content Writer are as follows,

• Graduation Level: Aspiring candidates must complete their graduation preferably with English as a major subject or any relevant subject with a minimum score of 50% aggregate marks from a recognised University.
• Postgraduate Level: After clearing class 12^th boards, students must opt for Postgraduate courses in English or relevant subjects such as Journalism or Mass Communication from a recognised University with a minimum score of 55% aggregate marks or equivalent CGPA. 

Content Writing Courses

For someone who is really interested in becoming a content writer, the following are some of the courses best known for content writing:

Related Courses

Students after studying any course can become a Content Writer given the fact that they are good with editing, grammar. sentence construction and research. But certain Degree Courses enable the students to become good content writers. Students after completing BA English Literature, MA English Literature, Bachelor of Jurnalism become good Content writers. 

BA English Literature

Bachelor of Arts English Literature is a 3-year undergraduate course that teaches students about various avenues of English and Indian literature including novels, plays, poetry, prose etc. Students are taught about the basics and advanced techniques of writing in this course too.

BA Journalism

BA Journalism is an undergraduate level bachelor degree course in Arts The course duration is 3 years for the regular BA Journalism courses. For part-time and dual integrated courses, it may be up to 5 years.

BA Mass Communication

BA in Mass Communication is a 3-year undergraduate course which has been designed to teach the students about mass communication. It is designed to help students learn about each constituent of mass media in detail, for e.g. newspaper, radio, etc.

How to become a Content Writer Abroad

The procedure to follow is the same as mentioned above. To get the job as a content writer in firms out of India, a candidate can apply in the firms through websites like Glassdoor, Linked In, Indeed.

There are different profiles in which a candidate can apply:

• Freelancing
• In-house content writer
• Content Marketer

You can do the above-mentioned courses for getting a job abroad. 

UK

The United Kingdom is the second generally sought after country in the world. Digital advertising in the UK is a mainstream course offered at a portion of the top colleges in the UK. By seeking after individuals digital marketing in the UK people can get encounters and job positions at top firms in the world. Master's in Marketing in the UK is an acclaimed course since the structure and information given to students is exceptionally solid.

US

Content Writing is a diverse field and anyone with any background can try their hand at content writing. Although it is preferred that a student with English from any other language background is an ideal candidate for the work of content writing, to be honest you need a good grasp on language in any field. Some of the top colleges that provides Arts courses are mentioned below;

Australia

Applying to Australian Universities is quite easy. However, international students require stringent planning for it. Application forms for international students are available at the official website of the university. To apply for universities in Australia, ensure the following requirements are fulfilled:

• Academic Requirements
• Visa Requirements
• Proof of Funds
• Program Specific Requirements
• Health Cover

Applications for higher education are accepted at the university website for international students. Students from outside Australia can apply twice a year. Deadline for February semester is December 15, applications for semester beginning in July closes in May for international students.

Canada

Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Canada is a 3 to 4-year full-time course offered by over 125 universities. It is mainly for students interested in liberal arts, humanities and social sciences field. Over 1,266 courses are available as Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Canadian universities out of 3,000 available bachelor's degrees. Some of the popular specializations among them are game design, visual design, journalism, creative writing, etc. The language requirements for studying abroad are mentioned below:

• Minimum 6.5 in IELTS
• Minimum 90 in TOEFL
• Minimum 61 in PTE

 

Challenges of Being a Content Writer

Some of the major challenges that a Content Writer usually faces are listed below for your reference,

• Content writers need to research, write and write with good language skills which can be easily communicable. All this within a short span of time. 
• Meeting deadlines can be a challenge when the topic is hard to grasp or research.
• Although content writers work from home it is equally challenging to ignore the temptation not to work. 
• Differentiating work from personal life can be a challenge.

Benefits of Becoming a Content Writer

Content Writing as a profession is in demand in today’s digital world. Every company is making their way on the internet and they need marketing teams to promote their work to the world. Marketers need writers to put their thoughts, ideas, company work, and products into the world. It can be said that content writers are the medium through which companies and industries reach out to people and share their concerns.

Along with being a medium, the following is the list of benefits of being a Content Writer:

1. Due to increasing, demand content writers earn a lot of money.
2. Learning skills to become a content writer is not very tough.
3. Content writers can be freelancers, so they can work from anywhere.
4. Niches have a great range. Writers get to work on different products with different teams from different fields.
5. Content writers can save money on a lot of work expenses.
6. Writers get an opportunity to create their audience base.
7. An audience base is beneficial for a writer. Even though you take a break from writing with an audience base you won’t have to start from scratch. 

8. As the experience increases, growth increases.

Skills Required to Become a Content Writer

Some of the key skills that are essential to become a Content writer are tabulated below for your reference, 

Content Writer Top Recruiters

Given below is the list of some of the top recruiting companies of content writers: 

Content Writer Salary

The salary of a content writer is driven by various factors like the experience of the content writers, the brand value of the organization, state/city in which the content writer is employed. The average salary of a content writer is between INR 13,900 and INR 50,6000 for beginners. For experienced writers, the average salary might be more than INR 50,000. The salary of a content writer solely depends on the writing skill of a writer.

Writers having rich writing and freelancing experience of more than 2 years can bag a job earning more than INR 1,00,000 per month. Every sector nowadays needs a content writer so a candidate having technical knowledge and writing skills can guarantee a job in a technical sector and bag a job offering a salary minimum of INR 50,000.