If you’re reading an article about developing content writer skills, it’s probably safe to assume you have a basic understanding of these fundamentals.

Simply being a good writer isn’t enough to create high-quality content for online readers. There are many more aspects to content writing than putting words on a page.

The content you’re creating should have a purpose that moves you toward your ultimate goal. This content needs to be well-researched, competently-written, and optimized for readers as well as search engines and social media.

12 Essential Skills for Becoming a Full-Time Content Writer

you should have a basic understanding of grammar, spelling, and sentence construction. Not only is this the foundation of good writing, but lacking it decreases your credibility.

There are plenty of resources online, numerous helpful free tools, and when you’re in doubt about a sentence, you’re a Google search away from resolving your doubt.

Being able to correct and update your own work is part of being a good content writer.

After you write an article, take a short break and take off your writer’s hat. Then, sit back down and put on your editor’s hat instead.

One of our community members recently plowed through multiple pieces of content only to realize through the help of our community and some of his friends that the content was near-impossible to read.

Checking for errors after you write the first draft of your blog post may take time, and you might think it’s more productive to use that time for other blog maintenance activities or to create new content, but this is not the case.

Telling a story is beyond grammar, word choice, and spelling. It’s using your own experiences and perceptions to break down a complex topic and relate it to your readers.

Great storytellers are able to entertain readers while teaching them something and can evoke emotions while being concise.

The more skilled you become at weaving storytelling into your content writing (no matter the topic) the more effective your content will be.

To feel any sort of connection to you, people need to feel that they’re reading content written by an actual person and not an article generator

Telling real, relatable stories involves offering up a bit of yourself to your readers. It can be scary, but you don’t need to reveal everything.

A good content writer is able to reveal enough humanity and individuality to connect with their readers, compel them to read their content, and keep coming back.

the insights you provide that your competitors do not is what gives you the edge and directly correlates with your content’s success. Those insights come from research.

The point of creating content is to provide your readers with as much useful information as you can. You can only achieve that when you know how to research, and where to find reliable sources of information.

Google is invaluable for research, but there are other sources that you might be overlooking. Reddit (one of the best sources of unbiased, community-driven information), Quora, and other community-based websites are goldmines of insider information.

You need to have a clear idea of who you want to read your content. If you’re a blogger and you’ve conducted your audience research when you were deciding on your blog niche, you should already have an idea of who your target readers are.

you need to thoroughly consult with the marketing team or the business owner to find out who their target audience is.

Your target reader informs your writing style, word choice, and even the content format, so fully understanding who you’re writing for is key to creating the best content possible.

Writing skills are based on the relatively solid foundations of language, but the digital climate is constantly changing. What’s trending today may be gone tomorrow, and there’s always an up-and-coming craze or new social media platform waiting for its turn in the spotlight.

consumer preferences constantly change as well. Your target demographic may change their preferences in a heartbeat; something that’s popular among them now may be obsolete in a few months or even a few weeks.

A good content writer evolves with the ever-changing tide and never lets their content become dated.

Content that goes viral on social media increases the chances of reaching large swaths of your target audience.

developing at least basic social media skills are a great way to get in touch with your target audience and get to know them better.

knowing your target audience is a key aspect of creating valuable content.

Enter SEO.

It can be complicated, so if you feel it distracts you from creating your content, you don’t have to go too deep . However, you need to know at least the basics.

When you feel you can handle it, you can always read up on advanced SEO techniques, but always remember that creating relevant, helpful content should be your priority.

People are tired of being sold to, and they’re tired of being lied to about being sold to. As they digest more online content, consumers have gotten significantly better at spotting sponsored posts (i.e. posts created to promote affiliate links).

If you insist on hiding this important fact and your readers find out, you can say goodbye to your credibility and goodbye to your audience.

Anyone reading this post likely realizes by now that I run the internet’s most radically honest blogging community — I create content to find likeminded, aspiring bloggers and help them achieve their goals.

It costs you nothing to be honest. Always clearly indicate within your article if you were paid by a company to write about their product or service.

You’ll have to optimize your content for search engines to find, promote your content, maintain your blog, and more.

you’ll need to manage your time efficiently and organize your tasks so you can meet your targets, whether they’re set by yourself or by a client.

There will be times when you just won’t feel like writing; like everything you’re typing right now is crap.

Here’s a reassuring (or discouraging) thought: ALL content writers go through that.

The only way you can go over this feeling is to just show up. Day after day after day, just sit your butt down in front of your workspace and get to it.

Just because you don’t have the qualities I listed above doesn’t mean you’ll never be a good content writer. It just means you have to work harder to and practice to develop these traits.

The good thing about these qualities is that, even if they don’t come naturally to you at first, you can work on developing them

Developing the skills of a content writer and improving oneself is an investment that will pay dividends throughout your writing career.

If you want step-by-step guidance for becoming a full-time writer and working for yourself (rather than unpredictable freelance work for clients), check out our free workshop to get started in the right direction!