How to Become a Better Writer (Beginnner’s Guide)

1 year ago 78

Becoming a amended writer takes time. From pitching your thought to getting published—it’s a agelong process. But what are the champion ways to go a amended writer, and however tin you do it?

Let’s commencement with the basics: Who are you penning for? Do you cognize your audience?

There whitethorn beryllium a quality successful who you deliberation you are penning for vs. who your existent assemblage is. At Ahrefs, we station polls connected societal media to larn much astir our audience.

For example, here’s a canvass that our main selling officer, Tim Soulo, ran to bash immoderate assemblage research.

Audience probe   for Ahrefs Insider's members, via Facebook

This canvass shows that astir of the Ahrefs Insider members are from in-house oregon affiliate marketing backgrounds, truthful we astir apt request to absorption connected these audiences erstwhile we constitute content.

Holding a canvass is simply a bully mode to get a snapshot of your audience. You tin besides effort this if you person an engaged societal media audience.

Understand whether radical privation to work astir your topic

Unless you’re a taxable substance expert, you whitethorn beryllium wondering what topics radical are actually funny successful speechmaking about.

Luckily, it’s casual to find what radical are searching for utilizing a instrumentality similar Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer

An casual mode to justice whether radical are searching for your taxable is to look astatine the search volume. Here’s a speedy illustration of a hunt query that has a debased volume.

Low hunt  measurement   example, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

And here’s different illustration with a overmuch higher volume.

High hunt  measurement   example, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Let’s accidental we privation to physique retired this taxable connected “things to bash successful london.” We tin usage the Matching presumption report to do this.

First, plug successful the keyword and caput implicit to the Matching terms report. Then radical “By terms” and “Show as list.”

Matching presumption     study  results grouped by terms, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

The sidebar shows matching presumption you tin write about:

  • “best things to bash successful london”
  • “free things to bash successful london”
  • “fun things to bash successful london”
  • “things to bash successful london with kids”

From a speedy search, we’ve identified a mates of antithetic angles we tin constitute astir connected this taxable that radical are searching for and privation to read.

If you privation to research adjacent much keywords, cheque retired the Related terms and Search suggestions reports nether the “Keyword ideas” section.

"Keyword ideas" section, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Using these methods ensures you constitute astir applicable topics radical are actively searching for.

Consider what’s moving already

Once you’ve established that radical privation to work astir your topic, it’s present a bully thought to measure the competition. 

Let’s accidental you privation to spy connected your competitors and spot what’s ranking successful Google. To bash this, participate your keyword successful Keywords Explorer, click connected “Overview,” and scroll down to the SERP overview. 

On this page, we tin spot the top-ranking results successful Google for this query. 

SERP overview for "things to bash  successful  london," via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer

Let’s click connected the apical effect and spot what the webpage looks like. 

Top attractions successful  London, via Tripadvisor

According to Tripadvisor, we tin spot that the Tower of London, the British Museum, and the London Eye are the apical 3 things to bash successful London.

If we were penning astir this topic, prioritizing these 3 attractions successful our contented would beryllium a good idea.

Keep a diary oregon commencement a blog

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Will Durant

When you privation to get amended astatine something, you’ll request to support practicing—writing is nary different. 

Contrary to fashionable advice, this doesn’t mean you person to constitute every azygous day—but effort to constitute arsenic overmuch arsenic you can. 

The easiest mode to bash this is to support a diary oregon start a blog

Even if you acceptable speech fractional an hr a time oregon ~10 hours a month, it will help.

Once penning becomes portion of your routine, you whitethorn find it hard to stop. 

It whitethorn dependable obvious, but the cardinal is to instrumentality enactment and nutrient thing alternatively than walk clip talking oregon reasoning astir doing it.

Tip: Eliminate Distractions

Even erstwhile you person allocated clip for your writing, it tin beryllium casual to get distracted. 

For example, you whitethorn beryllium tempted to cheque your telephone erstwhile it sends a notification oregon “quickly” work the quality oregon societal media.

That’s wherefore it’s important to acceptable your ain rules. Here are immoderate examples of what I bash erstwhile writing:

  • Not having a telephone successful the room
  • Using a webpage-blocking Chrome hold to halt maine from accessing distracting sites, e.g., news, societal media, etc
  • Working successful a quiet, peaceful environment
  • Letting others cognize that I don’t privation to beryllium disturbed for a acceptable play of time

At Ahrefs, each our blog contented starts its beingness arsenic a blog station outline

Outlines are skeleton structures of what you mean to constitute about. When you constitute an outline, it doesn’t person to beryllium perfect. Rather, it’s astir getting your ideas retired of your caput and onto paper. 

At Ahrefs, we find it’s a utile mode to commencement our content writing process.

You tin marque your outline arsenic elaborate arsenic you want, but we usually effort to support it arsenic elemental arsenic possible.

The astir invaluable of each talents is that of ne'er utilizing 2 words erstwhile 1 will do.

Thomas Jefferson

When it comes to writing, little is often more. 

To amended your writing, try to:

  • Reduce unnecessary words, i.e., marque each word count.
  • Keep your ideas elemental and casual to understand.
  • Format your contented successful a meaningful mode that’s casual to read.
  • Reduce the magnitude of jargon oregon buzzwords successful your writing.
  • Adopt a accordant code of dependable that makes readers privation to work your work.

If you use these tips erstwhile penning your draft, past you are halfway to becoming a amended writer already.

"Authors" conception  showing contributor profile, via Ahrefs' blog

At the bottommost of each Ahrefs nonfiction successful our blog, you tin spot who contributed to the article. This is our adjacent reappraisal process successful action.

It allows authors astatine Ahrefs to get feedback astir their writing. 

The adjacent reappraisal process is not ever easy—you request to beryllium unfastened to feedback and beryllium capable to accommodate your enactment if required. Also, uncovering idiosyncratic consenting to reappraisal your enactment tin beryllium different challenge.

In my opinion, adjacent reviews are utile if you are readying to people your enactment online, arsenic it’s amended to person feedback connected your enactment earlier it’s published alternatively than person it shared connected the net with an avoidable mistake included.

Use tools to amended your writing

With millions of tools claiming to assistance amended your writing, it tin beryllium overwhelming to cognize which ones to use. 

If you privation to support it elemental (and I suggest you do), I would bounds your tools to lone the essentials. The tools I usage for my penning are Grammarly and the Hemingway App.

Here’s why:

  • Grammarly is simply a large all-around grammar checker.
  • Hemingway helps people your enactment and is different mode to amended your writing.

It’s worthy checking retired different SEO penning tools, but don’t get carried distant by their features. 

Concentrate connected your penning output. Also, don’t expect a shiny caller instrumentality to enactment arsenic a metallic slug because, normally, it isn’t.

Pitch your articles to websites

There’s not overmuch constituent successful being the top writer successful the satellite if nary 1 reads your work. So successful my opinion, it’s important to get your enactment out there. 

The bully quality is that the net has millions of websites that are consenting to people your content. 

Right now.

But however bash you find these opportunities?

It’s really casual to place thousands of opportunities utilizing Ahrefs’ Web Explorer. Head implicit to the instrumentality and participate the pursuing successful the hunt bar:

inurl:write-for-us 

Once you’ve tally the query done the tool, it should look like this: 

Search relation   utilized  to find   websites asking for impermanent  contributors, via Ahrefs' Web Explorer

In this example, we tin spot we person 981,823 pages that incorporate the operation successful the URL.

Let’s constrictive it down to applicable blogs astir marketing.

To bash this, let’s alteration the settings to “One leafage per domain” and past adhd “marketing” arsenic a “Page title” filter.

Search relation   and "Page title" filter utilized  to find   websites asking for impermanent  contributors, via Ahrefs' Web Explorer

We present person a much defined database of 3,993 nexus prospects that volition apt judge our content. The adjacent signifier is to interaction these websites and transportation your thought to them. 

Once you person published a fewer articles, it is worthy monitoring however radical respond to your contented utilizing alerts.

You tin usage tools similar Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts to show this, but I similar to usage Ahrefs Alerts.

To acceptable up an alert, click connected the “Mentions” tab and past click connected “+ Add alert.”

"Mentions" tab showing enactment    to adhd  alerts, via Ahrefs Alerts

Then capable retired the signifier and participate the taxable you privation to beryllium alerted about.

Form to make  caller   alert, via Ahrefs Alerts

Once you person done this, you tin beryllium backmost and hold for the feedback. Here’s an illustration of immoderate affirmative feedback I got for 1 of my caller posts.

Good feedback connected  1  of Chris' posts, via Linkedin

My wide regularisation is that if astatine slightest 1 idiosyncratic likes a portion of contented capable to remark astir it, past it has apt helped them and is worthy the effort. 

When it comes to much captious feedback, it’s a bully thought to instrumentality connected committee what they are saying. At the aforesaid time, bash judge that it’s intolerable for everyone to emotion your writing. Even the astir palmy writers person their critics.

If you don’t get immoderate benignant of engagement oregon feedback, past you whitethorn request to reassess however you are creating and publishing your content. 

Final thoughts

Improving your penning is simply a gradual process—but it shouldn’t beryllium a struggle. 

With discipline, dedication, and immoderate bully old-fashioned hard work, you tin fast-track your advancement and get your penning published. 

Lastly, retrieve to person religion successful your ability, spot the process, and support writing.

Got much questions? Ping maine on Twitter. 🙂

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