If you’re a content writer, you may not know just how amazing you are. Here are just five of the many reasons that content writers rock.
1. We Know a Little About Everything
Oh, the stories we can tell. We’re much less like old people who talk endlessly about outdated things and much more like Cliff Clavins who actually has all the facts. Did you know that being around bat poop can cause scarring to your eyes? I did! Do you know the difference between llamas and alpacas? I do! We clean up on trivia nights and always have something to add to the conversation.
2. We Help Small Businesses
I can’t count how many small businesses that I’ve helped by providing them with professional content. I also consult with them about their sites’ needs, give them content marketing tips and make their sites more prominent and trustworthy. Some of these sites are enormous, but many are small-time operations that make a big difference to the owners’ lives. Content writers contribute a lot to small businesses around the world.
3. We’re Versatile
Every good content writer knows how to adapt quickly to new formats, new guidelines and new topics. One day it may be 200-word blurbs about electricians written with AP Style, and the next it may be 500-word articles about lions written with a house style. In content writing, you adapt or die. Or, you know, stop working.
4. We’re the Future of Professional Writers
I got into journalism at an intriguing time. After 400 years of industry growth, it finally began its freefall right about the time I graduated from journalism school. Newspapers and magazines have closed right and left since that time, and the job I once did just isn’t in demand anymore. Content writing, however, is growing by leaps and bounds. These days, I’d advise a new writer to start building a career in content writing rather than in newspaper or magazine writing. Even book writing doesn’t pay as well, nor is it as stable. Every time I go to a writers’ convention, I’m one of the few who actually make a living at writing. The book writers on the panels very rarely do. If you want to write for a living and roll around naked in cash, we’re what the future of professional writing looks like. Ok, maybe not the rolling around part, but the industry is stable and pays talented writers well.
5. We Can Work Anytime, Anywhere
You know that friend that you can’t go to lunch with because she has to be in the office? That’s because she isn’t a content writer. Content writers generally write from home, and that means writing anytime and from anywhere they choose. I’ve worked from the beach, distant hotel rooms and from outside in the back yard. There’s no one place that I have to be to work, and I can keep any hours I like. There are very few jobs like it, and that’s one of the many reasons we love it.
Lizz S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
