10 Best Habits for Great Content
Written by Kathryn Lang
The New Year provides a great opportunity to reset writing habits that will allow you to build better content and a stronger website. Becoming a better writer does include writing better content, but other traits and habits are equally important for providing great content on a consistent basis.
10 Tips for Content Writing Habits
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1. Be Accountable – the number one complaint I hear about writing personal content is that there is no motivation to write that content. So many website owners put off doing their own content because it can be done “any time.” Having an editor that checks your content (even a friend that is in the industry) may be the one extra push you need to get the work done. Developing an accountability group that meets regularly to discuss goals and actions may also help.
2. Say it Again – write the same material multiple times making one article longer and one shorter. Link these all together and post them on different article directories. Rewriting will build your editing skills and also provide you with more content to share on other sites.
3. Give to Receive – spend some time every day visiting other forums and websites in your niche. Take a few moments to comment on these sites with relevant and helpful information.
4. Go Back to School – there are hundreds of online courses and classes that can help you improve your content writing skills. Many of the top industry sites provide regular challenges to help you build your content and improve your website. Make a commitment to participate in one class, course or challenge every month.
5. Step Outside the Box – write something you do not normally write. Fiction writers should write in a different genre. Non-fiction writers should tackle a little fiction. You may not ever use the material that you create from the experiment but it will make you think about words in a new way which will make your ordinary content writing a little more extraordinary.
6. Manage the Time – the number one complaint I heard from editors this year is that writers do not meet deadlines. Managing your time through schedules and lists will help you improve your reputation in the industry. More importantly, the better you manage the time that you have then the more time you will discover in the process allowing you to do even more than you thought possible.
7. Keep it to Yourself – sharing content is an important part of expanding your online presence. Creating content that rants about other people, websites or companies may not be the best content for sharing. Sharing complaints may be necessary in some situations, but tread lightly. Talking about others in the industry – particularly by name – can do more to crush your own reputation than it may do to injury theirs.
8. Get Organized – not only do you need to have your writing organized, but you need your paperwork organized. Organization is the key to having the time and the money that you need to get to where you want to be. The right organization will help you get tax deductions, develop new writing content and even expand your industry connections. A little time spent getting organized can add hours to your day, days to your weeks and weeks to your year!
9. Write – it sounds silly, but there are many people out there right now wondering what the key to building a website might be and they have not written a single word in the last few weeks. Write every chance that you get. Post some of what you write and reserve some of what you write. Great content is a lot like money. If you use all that you have you will not have what you need when you get into a pinch.
10. Make a Plan – you cannot know how to get where you are going with your content writing if you do not know where you want to go. Take the time to understand what you want from your content. Write out these goals and then use these goals to help you plot the right content writing plan for your needs.
There is not magic bullet for content writing success. Every journey will be unique to the individual. The best plan for content writing success in 2010 is to develop the habits that will make your content writing the best that it can be.
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About the Author
Visit Kathryn online: KathrynLang.com
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Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
juli parker says:
Great tips. It really helps to ‘schedule’ writing into your work week, turn off the phone, don’t check the email and get to it. A timely reminder.
Kathryn Lang says:
Most work at home people (and even stay at home folks working to keep the house in order) complain about the lack of time. I think it is easy to get caught up in little tasks that eat our time and forget about the ones that actually need to get done.
I’m investing in a timer for 2010 to help me monitor how much time I actually spend doing those “little things.”
Michelle - Ethnic Skin Care says:
These tips are very thought provoking. I especially need to get more organized and to plan better. I’ve started and working towards being better at it.
Adam Fairhead says:
A great read; some of these will be making their way into my moleskine for repeat reading
dealofday says:
Successful bloggers have to keep their heads around many different aspects of the medium – but at it’s core is being able to write compelling and engaging content on a consistent basis over time.
How you do this will vary from blogger to blogger to some extent as each blogger has their own style – however there are some basic principles of writing great blog content that might be worth keeping in mind.