SEO Content Writing: Skills Needed to Succeed in This High-Paying, Work-from-Home Job

Dec. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- SEO content writing is a hot, growing profession; one where you can easily earn between $35,000 and $75,000 – your first year – as a freelancer. And it has all the bells and whistles many aspiring entrepreneurs look for, ie, you can work from home, you can set your own hours, it's portable (if you have an internet connection you can work from practically any place in the world), it's easy to train for, etc.

If this work-from-home writing opportunity appeals to you, following are the skills you need to succeed.

FYI, SEO writers are also referred to as search engine optimization writers, web writers, SEO article writers, SEO content providers and SEO copywriters, among a few other titles.

SEO Content Writing: Basic Qualifications Needed
Foundational knowledge of the Rules of Search Engine Optimization (SEO): There's a lot to learn to become proficient as an SEO writer. But, you don't have to become a guru or know-it-all pro. In fact, that's impossible because the rules of search marketing change all the time.

However, you must have an intimate understanding of what online marketing and SEO is all about, and how web content fits into the overall scheme of them. This means knowing what keywords and phrases are; how to conduct keyword research; what whitehat and blackhat tactics are; what themed SEO content is; what keyword stuffing is; and how search engine algorithm changes affect SEO writing guidelines, for example.

Self-motivated: As mentioned above, the rules of SEO change all the time. Hence, you must be motivated enough to be proactive enough to stay on top of the industry. This means setting aside time to read top industry sources like SearchEngineLand.com, WebProNews.com, SeoBook.com and Google's search engine guidelines.

Excellent research skills: SEO writing is a profession where you may be writing on wedding cake toppers in the morning, arctic drilling equipment in the afternoon, and titanium wedding bands in the evenings. And yes, these are actual topics that clients of my SEO writing company (http://newmediawords.biz/) have commissioned us to write on.

One of the things that make being an SEO writer so much fun is that you cover a lot of different subjects. It's never boring, that's for sure! But it means that SEO content writers have to be keen researchers in order to successfully complete duties like sourcing stats and determining the angle from which a piece of content will be written – and this is before the actual writing ever begins.

Effective communication skills: As an SEO writer, you will be responsible for everything from communicating with clients about the content they've commissioned, to outsourcing/interviewing other freelancers you may hire o help you, to invoicing and collecting payment.

In short, you deal with a lot of people – about different matters; hence, effective communication skills are a must.

Organized: When you're hired as an SEO content provider, you're pretty much given an assignment and are left alone to get it done. So you must be extremely organized and self-motivated in order to meet deadlines.

Good writing skills: Not only must the content you produce as an SEO copywriter be grammatically and factually correct, it must be informative and move the end user (the web visitor) along toward taking some type of action. This is called producing copy that has a "call to action."

Clients commission SEO content for one ultimate reason – to increase sales. Now, how they do that might vary. For example, the call-to-action might be to "sign up for a free trial," as opposed to "buy this product right now." But the end goal of all SEO content is to attract more visitors to a website/blog in order to turn them into paying customers at some point.

SEO Content Writing: Conclusion

There's more that goes into being a professional SEO writer, but these are some of the top skills.

Learn more about SEO content writing (http://www.seowritingjobs.com/seo-content-writing-an-over...), eg, where the jobs are, education requirements, average salaries, etc. ______________________________________
About the Author: Yuwanda Black heads New Media Words (NewMediaWords.biz), an SEO writing company. She's the author of numerous ebooks on search engine optimization writing, as well as the creator of one of the leading SEO content writing courses online. The course teaches everything you need to know about not only how to write SEO content (http://www.seowritingjobs.com/seo-copywriting-training/), but how to earn $50,000 to $75,000 per year – your first year – as a freelancer. FYI, you can take the course online, or in person ... in Jamaica!