Earlier I said you don't have to be the whole package when you're a content writer. But having worked with many small and even medium sized clients, I realize some add on skills come pretty handy. I'm going to share some resources but not too many that you feel overwhelmed. The number one killer recommend you ramp upon is search engine optimization of content. Whether it's a blog post, you've worked on a video and image, or anything else that can be published on the web, it's a good idea to understand what you need to do in the body of the copy as well as the back end of the content management solution. How you need to place the keywords in say the title of the copy in the headlines, things like that.
The anchor text for the links and a lot of other aspects which you need to take care of. It puts you in a stronger position. Some websites that really help you in understanding this are copyblogger and HubSpot. Second, your editing. To start off I would highly record Using the Hemingway editor, this is an online app. And also check out the websites copyblogger again, and the publication coach.
Publication coach is one great website if you want to improve your writing style. And if you want to improve the speed at which you write. Here's a good demo of the Hemingway app. All you do is copy the content you want to edit and paste it here. It will give you the readability index of your content and any issues that it finds as the excessive use of adverbs complex sentences or paragraphs, the use of passive voice This is a good place to get started to check out copyblogger and the publication coach for more editing tips. For proofreading, I use both Grammarly and Microsoft words spell checker.
You can set the language in both these tools whether you want to use English, UK, English, us or whatever other language you're creating the content in. It will show you where the corrections are needed. I love Grammarly and I have the Grammarly. installed on my Chrome browser as well. So it constantly checks what I type, whether it's an email, or it's, it's some copy that I'm creating. For image creation, I'm going to suggest just one tool.
And that's an online tool called Canva. I use Canva for posters, flyers, social media, images, testimonials, symbol clips, invitations and loads of other things. The cover image of my class has been developed in Canva. This is a fun drag and drop online platform and it has a lot of good stuff that is available free mind mapping tools, check out these tools. Some of them are free some of the trials You will also need to check for operating system compatibility. Today, we also have mobile apps for mind mapping, you could try those.
Personally, a good sized piece of blank paper motivates me the best, try different things and see what works for you. Of course, there are many other tools and resources out there and many skills you could ramp upon, but honing these five skills will put you in a really strong position as a content writer.