Even though I didn’t get much sleep last night and have already been working all morning, I am still motivated to write this article. Having turned on the space heater in my downstairs office and put on my hooded sweatshirt, I am all ready to get back to work and explain how to use all ready vs. already.

All Ready vs. Already at a Glance

*All ready is an adjectival phrase that means either an entire group is prepared collectively, or someone or something is prepared completely.

*Already is an adverb that describes an action that occurred in the past or something that happened sooner than expected.

What Is the Difference Between All Ready and Already?

When you look at all ready and already, there are apparent differences between the two. All ready is a two-word phrase while already is one word. You also define already differently than all ready. They serve different functions in a sentence, with already being an adverb referring to the time of an occurrence and all ready being an adjectival phrase describing a state of preparedness.

Things become trickier when speaking and listening. All ready and already are homophones, meaning that they sound identical when pronounced aloud. Depending on the context and the rhetorical intent, sometimes people put a short pause between the two words of the phrase all ready, but it is common for people to slur them together. Though not incorrect, this can become confusing. Knowing which spelling to use when writing can also be challenging.

When To Use All Ready

All ready has two meanings. It can either indicate a complete state of preparedness, or it can indicate that all members of a group are prepared. In either case, all ready can refer to the preparedness of people, animals, or inanimate objects.

Examples of using all ready in a sentence:

• Once loaded into her carrying crate, my cat was all ready to go to the vet’s office, but she wasn’t happy about it.
• The children were all ready to go caroling around the neighborhood.
• After applying mosquito repellent and sunscreen, in that order, I was all ready to go hiking.
• The cooked turkey was all ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

When To Use Already

The word already also has two meanings, both having to do with time. It refers to a task that has been accomplished in the past, sometimes at a given time. It also refers to an event that occurred unexpectedly soon.

Examples of using already in a sentence:

• I already took the turkey out of the oven at 11:00 a.m.
• It already gets dark at 5:00 p.m. after Daylight Savings Time ends.
• The children had already finished brushing their teeth before I had chosen a bedtime story to read to them.

Tips To Help With Correct Usage of All Ready vs. Already

One way to determine whether to use all ready vs. already is to substitute synonyms for each. If you can use ready or prepared in its place, you would use all ready, whereas if you can sub in so soon or before now or at a particular time, you would use already. You can also say the sentence you want to write out loud or in your mind, putting a slight pause between the first and second syllables. If it makes sense that way, you probably want to use all ready instead of already. Of course, you can also think about how the word or phrase functions in the sentence. If it is describing one or more people or objects, you want the adjectival phrase all ready, but if it is an adverb modifying a verb, adjective, or another adverb, use already. In the comments, please share with us any other tricks you use to tell these commonly confused words apart.

“Search engine optimization” can be a confusing term. Yes, it involves the strategic use of keywords to help your content rank highly in search results, but that’s only one side of the coin. It is also important to optimize content to appeal to human readers by presenting useful information in an understandable way. One way to accomplish this is by creating and publishing content at a readability level that is appropriate for your intended audience. One of the most popular tools to use to measure readability is the Flesch Kincaid grade level scale.

What Is Readability?

Before we get into how to use the Flesch Kincaid scale to measure readability, let’s first define what readability is. Readability is a measure of how easy or difficult your content is for the average reader to read and comprehend. For example, a technical manual or academic paper that uses a lot of complicated vocabulary and industry-specific jargon has low readability because only people with specialized knowledge can understand it with ease. On the other side of the spectrum, a storybook intended for elementary school students typically uses short words and brief sentences, making it easy for readers at almost any level to understand, and therefore more readable.

Top Two Factors of Readability: Presentation and Context

There are two important concepts to understand about readability. The first is that it has less to do with the content itself and more to do with the way it is presented. In other words, a complex topic does not automatically imply a text that is not easily readable, or vice versa. It is entirely possible to explain intricate subject matter in a simplified manner. The second concept to understand is that a readability score is not inherently good or bad. The level that you want in any given piece of content depends upon the audience for whom you are writing it.

For instance, if you were writing a piece for publication in a scholarly journal for an audience of physicians about how hand-washing can help stop the spread of disease, it would be appropriate to use medical terminology that may not be comprehensible to the general public. However, if you were writing a piece explaining to schoolchildren why it is important for them to wash their hands before eating, you would try to present the information in a way that kids could easily understand. Therefore, you would use simplified words and short sentences for high readability. The information is similar, but the way in which you present it changes based on the needs of your audience.

Why Is Readability Important?

Aiming for average readability when creating web content can help you reach as wide an audience as possible without either boring your readers with content that is too simple or frustrating them with content that is too complicated. Readers who are bored or frustrated with your content are unlikely to linger on it long. This can hurt your search engine ranking by increasing your bounce rate. Remember that the average reader will decide whether or not your content is worthwhile within eight seconds or so of accessing the page.

Accessible readability can also help your audience to find your content in the first place. While little is known about the algorithms that Google uses to rank search results, the available evidence suggests that it currently puts user experience on at least an equal footing with keywords as a ranking criterion, perhaps even showing a slight preference over the former.

When you write with readability in mind, you’ll adapt the presentation of the topic for the audience at hand.

How Can You Measure Readability?

You should gauge the readability of your content by using the same tools that search engines do: mathematical formulas. There are a wide variety of readability formulas available, but one of the most commonly used SEO readability tools is the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Score.

What is the Flesch Kincaid Readability Score?

So, what is the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Test? It derives from an earlier measure of readability called the Flesch Reading Ease Formula. The Flesch Reading Ease test was created in 1948 by Rudolph Flesch, an Austrian-born scholar and author. At the time, he was working with the Associated Press as a consultant to develop methods of improving newspaper readability.

Flesch Reading Ease Scale

The Flesch Reading Ease scale assigns each piece of writing a readability score between 0 and 100. The number assigned indicates the level of readability:

As you can see, academic or technical articles that are difficult to read receive low Flesch readability scores, while simpler texts receive Flesch reading scores on the high end. Articles that score within the middle range of about 50 to 80 on the Flesch Reading Ease scale should be understandable to readers at an average level.

Flesch Reading Ease Score Drawbacks

While the Flesch Reading Ease scale is a useful tool, it has its drawbacks. For one thing, the formula used to calculate the score is very complicated:

For another, it is not readily obvious what the numbers on the Flesch Kincaid scale mean. To correctly interpret the scores, you must have prior knowledge that a low Flesch Kincaid score indicates low readability, or in other words, more complex vocabulary and sentence structure. To further complicate matters, many comparable readability scales have the opposite relationship between numerical value and readability, meaning that the lower the score, the more readable the content is.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Scale

In the mid-1970s, the U.S. Navy wanted to measure the readability of its training manuals but found the existing Flesch Reading Ease scale inadequate. It engaged the help of researcher John P. Kincaid to revise the scale for ease of use and comprehension. In response, Kincaid and his fellow researchers came up with the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Formula.

Instead of assigning a work a seemingly arbitrary numerical readability score on a scale of 0 to 100, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level assigns a score on a scale of 0 to 18, with each numerical value corresponding to an academic grade level:

In other words, a text with a Flesch-Kincaid readability score of 2 should be comprehensible to a second grader, while a score of 12 indicates a text accessible to a high school senior. Middle school students, as well as the majority of Americans, should have little to no difficulty with a text scoring from 6 to 10 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. This readability scale is much easier to follow as far as who should be able to read the content piece when only knowing the Flesch-Kincaid readability score.

How Do You Calculate Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score?

Part of the goal of revising the Flesch Reading Ease scale was to simplify the formula used to calculate it. The Flesch-Kincaid readability formula is as follows:

Compared to the original Flesch Reading Ease Formula, Kincaid and his colleagues succeeded in simplifying the equation. However, simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy, and that is especially true for those of us who majored in English specifically because we are mathematically impaired.

Even if you do have the mathematical skills to calculate the readability score this way, doing so requires a lot of counting. This can be very time-consuming, especially if you’re writing an article that exceeds 1,000 words. Instead of applying the formula to the entire text, it may be easier to calculate the grade level of a few chosen paragraphs to give you an idea of the readability of the entire piece.

Syllables and Sentence Length Matter

The key variables in the Flesch-Kincaid formula are average sentence length and average syllables per word. Therefore, you may be able to get a general idea of how readable your content is by looking at these variables without plugging them into the formula. For example, recommended sentence length for higher readability is 20-25 words. You can count a few sentences to see whether they’re within the acceptable range. Sometimes you can also just tell by looking whether a sentence is long or short by comparing it to the other sentences around it.

Similarly, it follows logically that longer words tend to have more syllables, so you can count the number of long words without having to count the syllables. Then you can calculate their average number to give you a rough idea of your document’s readability.

Check Flesch-Kincaid Readability Scores in Microsoft Word

Another option is to leverage the power of technology to perform the difficult Flesch Kincaid readability score calculations for you. You may not even need any extra tools or apps to accomplish this if you are using Microsoft Word. Depending on the version you’re using, you may be able to calculate both Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid scores within the program itself:

However, this tool may not be available to everyone. When I tried to test it, the option to show Flesch Kincaid readability statistics was grayed out.

Other Online Flesch Kincaid Readability Tools

There are several free online apps available to calculate readability. Each has pros and cons. The Writer will require you to create an account and register your email address. Readable, on the other hand, uses a plug-and-play interface that allows you to copy and paste text directly into the display field and get instant results. However, it also assigns a letter grade to your writing that could hurt your self-esteem.

For example, I ran an earlier draft of this article through Readable and ended up with a Flesch-Kincaid score of 12.4, which the app graded a “D” for readability. Even though I am writing this article for an audience of experts, it stung a little to have a low letter grade applied to my writing. With revision, I have decreased the current draft to a grade level of 10.8. This moved the text to the outer limits of average readability and improved my letter grade to a “C.”

The Flesch Kincaid readability calculator you choose may also depend on the platform you use to write content. Yoast SEO is an example of a plug-in meant to calculate Flesch Reading Ease Score in WordPress and also gives you tips on how to improve your readability score in WordPress. However, it does not calculate Flesch-Kincaid scores.

What Else Can You Do To Optimize Readability?

There are plenty of factors beyond average syllables and sentence length from a Flesch-Kincaid or Flesch Reading Ease score that help to put readability in that sweet spot of middle-grade-level range. Here are some other things you can do to increase readability:

1. Improve the Page’s Appearance

This has no bearing on your readability score, but text that is broken up with lists, headers, and white space appeals to readers’ aesthetic sense and makes scanning the text easier.

2. Shorten Paragraphs

It is not only sentence length that contributes to readability but paragraph length as well. Try to aim for paragraphs of five sentences or fewer.

3. Avoid Passive Voice

Once in a while it is appropriate to use passive voice, but active voice is much more engaging. Passive usage of 10% or less is acceptable.

4. Choose Your Words Carefully

As one of my heroes, Jim Henson, once said, “Simple is good.” At the same time, however, he wasn’t afraid to get more complicated when he knew it would improve the final product. As a general rule, it is better to choose short, simple words over long, more complex ones, but don’t be afraid to use the latter where it would have more impact.

5. Know When To Break the Rules

These are general guidelines that do not work in every situation. Always keep your audience and rhetorical purpose in mind when applying them.

Readability Conclusions

Above all, never lose sight of the human factor in your SEO efforts. Always adhering to a Flesch-Kincaid readability score in order to deem content “acceptable” won’t work in every situation. For example, an article that includes medical, technical or legal jargon is going to require that you use longer words that have more syllables because those are the actual names of the things you’re writing about. You don’t want to overdo it and take out important words that would make more sense to a human just to appease a mathematical equation. 

Always use your best judgment and re-read your content before posting. Most times, a combination of gut instinct merged with helpful readability tools will do the trick in helping you create really great content. In fact, that’s exactly what I did in this article!

A successful content marketing strategy needs to take readability into account. Whether that’s through the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level Scale or by some other means, it needs to be considered. If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the thought of revamping your website or blog to make it both interesting and readable for your target audience, let us help — whatever content you need, we’ve got you covered!

​I’ve been freelancing and working from home for 12 years, and I’ve been freelance writing for four years, so I can tell you that legitimate work-from-home writing jobs are not unicorns. They do exist, and they can be very rewarding.

Unfortunately, they can also be difficult to find. Because of the huge demand for work-from-home jobs, bad actors see an opportunity to take advantage of others for their own gain. Therefore, job listings are flooded with entries that are really scams, and it can be difficult to sift through them to find the real jobs. Knowing the warning signs can help you avoid scams and find legitimate job opportunities.

What Does It Mean When Work-From-Home Writing Jobs Offer You Exposure?

When a job listing for a work-from-home writing job offers you exposure, it means that your article, with your byline, is supposed to be published online or in a print publication. This is something that you can add to your writing portfolio, and if you have a website or blog, it can be an opportunity to drive traffic to it. However, if the listing is offering you exposure, it also means that they probably don’t intend to pay you money.

The exposure you get from having your work published can be very valuable if the publication itself is legitimate. The more established you are in your field and the more published portfolio pieces you can show prospective clients, the easier it will be to get additional work-from-home writing jobs in the future. Nevertheless, while exposure can be valuable, you can’t take it to the bank or use it to pay your bills.

A writing job that offers exposure can be a good stepping stone to a freelance career if you approach it strategically. Don’t quit your day job for a gig that only offers you exposure, and check out the prospective client first to make sure the publication is legitimate. That way, you know that the exposure is valuable to you.

If you see any of the following red flags in the listing, even the promise of exposure isn’t worth it. Pass over the so-called opportunity and keep looking.

What Are Other Red Flags in Work-From-Home Writing Jobs?

Many work-from-home job listings are scams trying to take your money or steal your identity. If something about the listing feels wrong, trust your instincts and pass it over. However, there are some specific red flags to watch out for.

The Company Is Difficult To Find Online

A legitimate content creation company should have a significant online footprint. For example, BKA Content has a website, a blog, and social media accounts that we update on a regular basis. Lack of an online presence is a red flag in any case, but particularly for work-from-home writing jobs that are offering exposure. If you can’t find them online, then how will they disseminate your content?

The Company Has Poor Online Reviews

Maybe you can’t find the company itself online, but it has reviews on third-party sites that are mostly negative. Pay attention to these. One or two negative reviews are to be expected; not all work-from-home writing jobs are going to be a good fit for everyone. However, if positive reviews are the exception rather than the rule, this is a major warning sign that you should steer clear.

Representatives Are Hard To Contact or Have Suspicious Email Addresses

If the job listing includes a phone number that is not in service when you call, this is a sign that the number is for show to give the company an illusion of legitimacy. You should expect to be able to reach a representative of the company using the contact information provided. Furthermore, representatives of a legitimate company should have email addresses tied to their websites, not generic addresses from free email services, such as Gmail or Yahoo.

The Company Requires You To Offer Personal Information Upfront

It’s fair for a company looking to enter into a contract with you to ask for some basic information, such as your name and email address. However, if the information they are asking for is especially personal, such as your Social Security number or bank account information, and not relevant to the application process, do not give it to them. This is probably an attempt to steal your identity.

You Must Pay a Fee To Apply

You should never have to pay a fee to apply for a job. Even when freelancing, that’s not how the process works. If an organization asks you to pay money for the privilege of applying for work-from-home writing jobs, do not pursue the matter any further.

Note that this doesn’t apply to job listing sites. There are sites, such as FlexJobs, that ask you to pay a nominal subscription fee for access to their job listings. This allows the people running the site to filter through the scams and find legitimate job listings for you, which can be a good investment and time saver.

Pay for Work-From-Home Writing Jobs Is Too Low, Too High, or Poorly Defined

Don’t bother with jobs that list pay that is too low. The people who put out these listings are trying to play on your desperation, but the work isn’t worth your time.

You’re more likely to see listings offering earning potential that seems exorbitant. Be wary of these listings too, especially if you are offered ridiculously high pay for putting in very little effort. Freelance writing can be enjoyable and rewarding, but it does require hard work.

Perhaps the advertisement or listing is vague about the pay the company is offering. It may promise big money without giving a specific dollar amount. If you can’t get a concrete answer about how much you can expect to be paid, don’t pursue the job any further. There’s an old saying that applies here: If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Work-From-Home Writing Jobs You Can Trust

At BKA Content, we clearly outline our pay structure, perks and requirements for our work-from-home writing jobs on our website. We also describe each of the positions we have available. What are you waiting for? Start the application process today to begin the freelance writing career of your dreams!

Starting out as a freelance writer can be a big upfront investment in time and money. That investment can pay dividends, but making mistakes while looking for freelance writing jobs for beginners can jeopardize the entire venture.

Mistakes To Avoid When Seeking Freelance Writing Jobs for Beginners

Mistakes are inevitable when starting any new endeavor, especially when you don’t have much experience. You may have experience writing but not in entrepreneurship, and that is where many new freelance workers struggle. Here are some mistakes that can do significant damage to your current or future career prospects as you seek to make a living at freelance writing.

1. Quitting Your Day Job Too Early

You might want to quit your day job right away to devote all your time and energy to freelance writing. This can be especially tempting if you don’t like your day job. However, it can take time to start earning a significant income from freelance writing jobs for beginners. In the meantime, you have bills to pay as well as yourself, and possibly a family, to feed. Quitting your day job too early can sink you into deep financial difficulty, and it can be difficult to extricate yourself.

Instead, make the freelance writing venture a side hustle that you do during your off hours. As the venture becomes more successful, talk to your boss about reducing your hours at your day job so that you can split your job more evenly with your freelance writing. Once you have determined that you can become self-supporting through freelance writing alone, you can finally quit your day job.

2. Failing To Make Sufficient Plans

If you intend to make a living as a freelance writer, you have to make both long-term and short-term plans. Short-term plans include making schedules and deciding when you are going to work on your side hustle every day and how many total hours a week you are going to spend on it. This type of planning helps you to avoid procrastination. As a freelance writer, time is your most valuable resource. Procrastination is your enemy because it steals time that you can never get back. Short-term planning on a daily and weekly basis also helps you to avoid burnout by scheduling time away from both writing and your day job for rest and relaxation.

Long-term planning involves assessing your financial situation and figuring out a benchmark that you need to meet before you can start scaling down your hours from your day job and eventually quitting it altogether. Both types of planning are crucial to your success, and you should start the planning process before you start looking for freelance writing jobs in earnest.

3. Falling for Freelance Writing Scams

There are many legitimate freelance writing jobs for beginners available, but there are many more scam offers that are trying to take advantage of you. Learn to identify the signs that a job is legitimate. Furthermore, heed the old advice that if an opportunity sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

4. Taking the Wrong Kinds of Jobs

Just because a job is legitimate doesn’t necessarily mean that it is right for you. The “wrong kinds” of jobs are jobs that aren’t worth your time and that you don’t believe in.

A job that takes hours to do but doesn’t compensate you enough for your investment of time isn’t worth it. You can figure out whether a job is worth your time by estimating how long it will take you to write it and comparing it to the pay rate. Bear in mind that it takes time and practice to reach your top writing speed.

Earning a living as a freelance writer could present work opportunities that might compromise your ideals, especially at first. Therefore, you should clearly delineate the lines that you won’t cross under any circumstances and avoid taking jobs that feel wrong to you. If you don’t believe in the project, you won’t do a good job, and that doesn’t help anyone.

5. Having Too Many Grammatical Errors

Everyone makes occasional spelling and grammar mistakes, but having too many in your writing can hurt your credibility. Budget time for proofreading before the deadline so you can look at your writing with fresh eyes. As you gain success as a writer, you can consider whether hiring proofreading services would be worthwhile.

6. Not Following Up on Inquiries

When you’ve found some prospective freelance writing jobs for beginners, make inquiries to the client. However, don’t give up if you don’t hear back right away. Following up on your inquiry shows that you are serious.

The Biggest Mistake: Not Working With Content Creation Firms To Find Freelance Writing Jobs for Beginners

When you first start out as a freelance writer, you can spend at least as much time marketing your services as you spend actually writing. If this doesn’t sound appealing, look for freelance writing jobs for beginners with content creation companies. Companies such as BKA Content handle the business and marketing sides so you can develop your skills with far less hassle.

If you have other tips on how to get started as a freelance writer, please share them in the comments below.

Maybe you’re a health care provider looking to expand beyond the realm of clinical work. Maybe you’re a fitness expert looking to reach a wider audience. Or maybe you’re someone with a talent for writing and an interest in health and wellness looking to apply your skills. Whatever the case, you may be interested in a new venture as a health writer.

What Health Writer Jobs Exist?

Whether you are approaching health writing as a clinician or a layperson, the steps to becoming a health writer are more similar than you might expect. You may look at it as a side hustle, particularly if you are a provider satisfied with your clinical position or a layperson just starting out. However, health writing can turn into a lucrative career. Projected earnings vary depending on a number of factors:

• Whether you are an employee or a freelancer
• The type of work you do
• Your experience
• Where you live

Nevertheless, according to the American Medical Writers Association, even a beginning or junior-level medical writer can earn between $52,000 and $80,000 per year.

What Is Health Writing?

“Health writing” is a broad term with different connotations for various situations. It can include a freelance health and fitness writer who writes light lifestyle pieces for consumption by the general public as well as a scientist who writes research-heavy tomes for use in the medical community. According to one definition, medical fiction also counts as health writing, so authors such as Robin Cook and Michael Crichton could also be considered health writers, although I wouldn’t look to their books for guidance on how to live well.

When I use the term “health writing” in this article, I’m looking at it as a large category of writing related to general health and well-being that’s divided into three main subcategories:

• Medical Writing: Work related specifically to the science of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, which can be either professional-facing or public-facing
• Wellness Writing: Work that is usually public-facing and devoted to promoting a general state of well-being as it relates to intrapersonal matters, such as lifestyle and diet, as well as socio-economic factors
• Fitness Writing: Similar to wellness writing in audience and scope, but focused specifically on maintaining a healthy weight and muscle mass through sports and exercise

If you want to be a health writer, then regardless of what subcategory you choose to specialize in, make sure that the content you put out is accurate and factual. It must also draw from reputable sources. Both your audience and the people who hire you to write the content expect and demand reliable information based on scientific data.

What Does a Health Writer Do?

The answer to this question depends partly on what subcategory of health writing most interests you. For example, a magazine may advertise “fitness writers needed” to create how-to articles about effective exercise techniques. Because medical writing may be either public-facing or professional-facing, there are many different types of content that you may write when working in this specific subcategory.

Professional-Facing Content

Professional-facing content is written for an audience of health care professionals, including doctors, researchers, nurses, physical therapists, lab technicians, etc. It may include manuscripts and articles intended for publication in a medical journal or presentations for scientific conferences. It may also include research proposals, clinical trial protocols, or study reports. Textbooks for medical students or educational content for Continuing Medical Education programs are additional examples.

Public-Facing Content

Public-facing content is intended to be read by the general public on sites like WebMD for patients with particular health conditions and their families, as well as people who are conducting basic research or seeking information generally. The health writer needs to make such content comprehensible to an audience of laypeople, which means using plain language for the most part and keeping medical terms and jargon to a minimum. If you are writing public-facing content, you should be prepared to explain any medical terminology that you end up using in the text.

Medical journalism is one of the most common types of public-facing health writing. When a new medical development or breakthrough occurs, a medical journalist explains it to the public in the form of a magazine or newspaper article. Medical journalists may also write press releases for university research facilities, private pharmaceutical companies, etc.

Another opportunity for a health writer interested in public-facing content is patient education. When a patient is diagnosed with a disease, he or she will likely turn to other sources to find out as much as possible about his or her condition. Patient education writers perform a valuable service by interpreting clinical information about the disease into plain language that those affected can understand clearly.

Are Health Writers in Demand?

As you enter into your new venture, you may encounter multiple pleas of “health writers wanted.” There are several reasons why health writers are currently in high demand and likely to stay that way.

Medical Industry Growth

One really exciting and rewarding aspect of working in the medical industry in general, and the field of medical communication in particular, is that there is always something new and fascinating to learn. Scientists are constantly conducting research into disease processes, treatment techniques, diagnostic tools, and pharmaceutical therapies. Health writers are a vital link in explaining new medical developments to physicians and patients alike.

Patient Education Need

The current COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the vital role that a health writer can play in disease management and prevention. The disease is caused by a novel coronavirus that emerged less than a year ago. Because the disease is new, researchers have had to work quickly yet thoroughly to gain an understanding of the virus, its effects and its contagiousness, as well as effective means of preventing the spread.

Medical writers have had a crucial role to play in providing the necessary information to health care professionals and the general public, which is not an easy task for several reasons. As researchers’ understanding of the virus grew, the information changed. Articles about COVID-19 sometimes became out of date almost as quickly as they were written. At the same time, there has been a wave of misinformation disseminated through social media outlets. Part of a health writer’s responsibility is to evaluate sources and reject the unreliable ones to be sure that the information presented is as accurate as possible based on the most recent data available.

The need for accurate and timely patient education is also evident in the aging baby boomer population. Born during the first two decades following World War II, baby boomers are currently the second-largest generation of adults in the United States after millennials. The oldest baby boomers reached retirement age in approximately 2010. By 2030, all of them will be at least 65 years old.

As baby boomers age, they become susceptible to a wider range of health issues, some of which are degenerative in nature. Boomers, their family members, and their caregivers need access to accurate information about specific health problems they may face, as well as thoughtful guidance about health and wellness targeted specifically to older people. At the same time, health care providers need detailed literature about providing effective treatment to a burgeoning elderly population.

What Are the Steps To Become a Health Writer?

If you are already a medical professional, the path to becoming a health writer may be slightly different than that which you would take as a journalist or professional writer without specialized health knowledge. Nevertheless, the steps that you take along the path are remarkably similar to that which you would take as a layperson.

While health writers are in demand, your success for becoming one depends on demonstrating that you have the necessary skills, knowledge, and writing ethos to produce quality medical, wellness, or fitness content. Whether you are a health care provider, a professional writer, or a hopeful amateur, you need to take roughly the same steps to establish your qualifications.

1. Get the Necessary Education

To be considered for a health writing position or freelance gig, you typically need to have at least a four-year bachelor’s degree. This can be in any area of study, but it is often helpful if it is in the sciences or language arts, as these knowledge bases are directly transferable to health writing.

If you have an associate’s degree in a medical field, that might be sufficient to open the door to health writing, especially if you have practical experience to back it up. If you are a physician or a registered nurse, then you have already met the educational requirement and can skip to the next step.

2. Strengthen Your Weak Areas

If you are already a health care professional, you may not have to do as much to establish yourself as a medical writer. However, you may need to refresh yourself on the rules and conventions of writing. This is especially true if you have not produced much since completing your education.

If you’re approaching health writing via the other path, you may already have the necessary writing skills but lack the scientific knowledge required. If this is the case, it is crucial that you give yourself a basic grounding in medicine, particularly medical terminology. Even if you intend to write public-facing content, you still need to understand and correctly interpret the professional language that you will encounter while researching the content that you write. There are training programs available to help you, most available for a reasonable fee.

On a related note, as someone who worked in medical communication for the better part of a decade, I recommend that anyone serious about health writing obtain medical spellcheck software and install it on your computer. It’s not a substitute for understanding medical terminology, but when it comes to the proofreading and editing stages, it saves you so much time.

3. Update Your Resume

Your resume should reflect both your knowledge of health care and your skills in writing. If you’re a layperson just starting out in health writing, this can be a little tricky at first. Nevertheless, even if your experience is a little thin, you can list any training that you have gone through in regard to health writing and medical terminology.

On the other hand, if your experience is clinical in nature, you should refresh your resume to showcase any professional or scientific writing that you have already done. For example, if you have written articles that have been published in medical journals or other professional publications, that is something that you want to highlight on your resume when trying to establish yourself as a medical writer.

4. Join a Professional Organization and Get Credentialed

Becoming a member of a professional organization, such as the American Medical Writers Association, can open a lot of doors for you. Professional organizations often offer you the opportunity to receive a certification or other credential. This can give you an edge when you are competing against non-credentialed writers for positions and jobs. It shows that you have met or exceeded a baseline set of standards for qualification in your chosen area. Membership in a professional organization may also give you access to exclusive job search resources.

If you are already a health care provider, you are almost certainly a credentialed member of a professional organization. However, if you are serious about medical writing, you may want to consider becoming a member of AMWA or a similar organization to take advantage of the specific benefits it offers.

5. Establish Your Online Footprint

Certification and professional organization membership are important ways of establishing your credibility. However, in the Information Age, credibility also comes with a significant online presence. If you do not have much of a footprint on the World Wide Web, you may end up an unknown quantity to those who may be interested in hiring you to create health content for them. Furthermore, if you’re planning on writing content for web publication anyway, it is a good idea to show yourself to be technologically competent at the very least.

When you start seeking health writing jobs, you usually have to show a portfolio. You can build your portfolio while establishing your online footprint by starting up a blog related to medicine, wellness, or fitness. Once you have a blog, it puts you in a better position to start writing guest posts, which is another way to both demonstrate your writing skills and establish your online presence.

6. Build Your Network

Joining a professional organization is one way to start networking. However, you can do more to build your network. It can start with connections you already know. Ask your doctor, dentist, or veterinarian, as well as friends you may have in the health care field, if they know of any health writing opportunities. Read blogs related to health and medicine and get in touch with the authors about the possibility of becoming a guest contributor.

Where Can You Find A Health Writer Job?

Because health writing can be highly technical and requires specific qualifications, it can be difficult to find related jobs on ordinary employment sites. Where you go to find work as a health writer may depend on the kind of work you want to do. For example, if you want to write professional-facing content, you should query peer-reviewed medical journals, health care organizations, government agencies, or medical schools. On the other hand, if you want to write public-facing content, consider contacting newspapers, magazines, trade journals, or health care societies and associations.

A content writing agency such as BKA may also offer opportunities in health writing as well as a wide range of other fields. Companies and organizations seeking freelance health and fitness writers may benefit significantly from working with a writing agency as well.

As a freelance writer, procrastination can be disastrous to your burgeoning career, but so can working yourself too hard. The former can deplete your most valuable resource, time, but the latter can result in burnout, a condition that renders you unable to function. When working freelance writing jobs online, it is important to strike a balance so that you can make a living without experiencing the damaging effects of burnout.

What Is Burnout and How Can Freelance Writing Jobs Online Contribute?

Burnout is an actual phenomenon in which a person feels like they are unable to get ahead of the demands and stresses they face. Everyone experiences stress from time to time, but when it is constant and unrelenting, it can cause you to feel exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. It can cause you to adopt negative attitudes toward yourself and others, and it can decrease both your motivation and performance.

Causes of Job-Related Burnout

Work is not the only source of stress that can cause burnout, but job-related burnout is one of the most common types. You may start seeking freelance writing jobs online to escape a job that causes you undue stress, but even freelancing can contribute to burnout in the following ways:

• Feeling isolated from others by the schedule you have set for yourself
• Exerting high levels of focus and attention on trying to meet deadlines
• Struggling to maintain a balance between work and a personal life

Signs of Burnout

Different people may experience various symptoms of burnout, but there are some that occur more frequently than others:

• Apathy: Going through the motions of work without investing in it emotionally.
• Diet Changes: Feeling that you don’t have time to plan or prepare meals and adopting unhealthy eating habits as a result.
• Fatigue: Feeling tired all the time, to the point that it disrupts both your work and your personal life.
• Headaches: Experiencing a squeezing sensation around the head, which ranges in severity due to tension.

How Can You Avoid Burnout From Freelance Writing Jobs Online?

Burnout can be a vicious cycle. It can cause health problems, which can hurt your productivity and cause more stress. Fortunately, there are things you can do to break out of this cycle or, better yet, avoid becoming trapped in it in the first place.

1. Set Boundaries

Separating work from your personal life to avoid burnout involves setting both literal and figurative boundaries. Part of the appeal of freelance writing jobs online is flexibility, but some people confuse flexibility with a complete lack of structure.

For example, you should dedicate a specific area of your home as your work area. Ideally, this should be a room with a closing door, but in any case, it should be an area where you don’t do anything but work. You should set rules for your family that you are not to be disturbed while working except in case of an emergency. You should also set work hours for yourself and adhere to them as strictly as possible.

There are figurative boundaries you should set for yourself and your clients to guard your personal time. For example, let your clients know the hours of the day and the days of the week that you answer your phone and reply to emails. Make a rule that you do not check your work email during family meals or other personal time. Learn to say no to jobs you don’t want, that don’t pay enough, or that you can’t complete by the deadline.

2. Organize Your Workspace

Once you have dedicated your work area, keep it clean and organized. Decluttering helps you to focus on your freelance writing jobs online. This allows you to stay productive, which helps you decrease stress to avoid burnout.

3. Schedule Time Off

Maintaining a structured work schedule doesn’t mean that you can’t have flexibility. You can rearrange your schedule as needed to accommodate any appointments that fall during the working hours you set for yourself.

By being your own boss and setting your own schedule, you get to work during the times that are most convenient for you. However, when you are setting your schedule, don’t forget to calendar some downtime. It can be tempting to keep your nose to the grindstone as much as possible, especially when you are first starting out in the freelance writing industry. Nevertheless, if you don’t take time to relax and release that pressure valve, stress can build up until you get burnt out. In addition to taking weekly days off, you should also budget time and money for vacations.

Take Control With Freelance Writing Jobs Online

Managing stress to avoid burnout can help you stay happy and productive with your freelance writing jobs online. Writing for a content-creation company such as BKA Content can help remove some job-related stress by making freelance work more readily available. Find out more about the advantages of writing for BKA, and comment below on other ways to manage burnout.

In the past, we have discussed the importance of a detailed strategy for your content marketing. Your strategy should incorporate certain web page writing best practices, one of the most fundamental of which is publishing completely original text. This means no plagiarism or duplicate content of any kind. In order to check for plagiarism, you can use website plagiarism tools made for this very purpose.

What Are the Potential Consequences of Plagiarism?

Before we get into specific plagiarism tools you can use, let’s talk about what the potential impacts of plagiarism are. During my two-year tenure as a graduate teaching assistant, I fortunately only encountered a few cases of plagiarism among my students. Each was extremely frustrating in its own way. Some attempts were blatantly intentional, which I found insulting to my intelligence. Others were unintentional, and it was exhausting trying to gently, but firmly, explain to a student that even if she and a friend researched a paper together, she still has to turn in her own work.

Even Unintentional Website Plagiarism Has Consequences

To my embarrassment, I later discovered that a master’s in literature does not immunize one from a lapse in judgment that can lead to unintentional plagiarism. Three years ago, I started a personal blog on a topic of particular interest to me. At first, I was at a loss for a title, but suddenly I was struck with inspiration. In my excitement, I made the rookie mistake of forgetting to search for my chosen title on Google.

A few weeks later, I received a comment on my blog from a playwright who very politely informed me that she had written and published a play with the same title as my blog. Had I done my due diligence beforehand, a Google search would have informed me that my preferred title was taken. Titles themselves are not copyrighted, but they can become trademarks, which are also protected by law. Although the playwright did not expressly ask me to do so, I decided to choose a different title for my blog.

Even when plagiarism is unintentional, it can have consequences. In an academic setting, it can lower your grade or cause you to fail a class, the way it did for my students. Had I not decided to rename my personal blog, the playwright or her publisher might have sent me a cease-and-desist letter threatening a lawsuit for infringement of intellectual property. Even if the court eventually decided against them, defending myself could have caused me to incur significant legal expenses. There are more extreme cases in which people guilty of plagiarism have been fired from their jobs, lost political elections, or been divested of academic degrees because of plagiarism.

How Does Plagiarism Specifically Affect Search Engine Optimization?

There is a misconception among some in the online community that anything posted to the internet is fair game. However, according to the U.S. Copyright Office, any work of authorship published in a tangible medium is automatically protected by copyright under federal law. This applies to both text and images, and the law considers a computer file a fixed and tangible medium.

Believing it to be a threat to their users’ experience, search engines have made efforts to penalize website plagiarism in search results. Search engine algorithms scan the content of any new web page and compare it to existing websites before indexing it. Since search engines want to provide content that is original and valuable, plagiarized content may be penalized to the point that it does not show up in search results at all.

However, search engines are not perfect. If someone else copies your content, a search engine could fail to recognize your web page writing as the original. Therefore, the plagiarized page may end up ranking and your carefully crafted original content may end up wrongfully penalized. Fortunately, in this situation, you have the right to ask Google to remove any pages with duplicate content from their index under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

How Can Plagiarism Tools Help You?

When I was a teaching assistant, the department provided us with software that allowed us to upload digital versions of students’ papers into the computer. The software would then check the content against a database of existing documents as well as any student’s papers already entered into the system. Online plagiarism tools are based on the same concept but allow you to check web content for plagiarism.

This can be helpful to you in two different ways. As you publish web page writing online, whether you buy articles or write them yourself, you can check them to see if they contain any content that is duplicated elsewhere on the web. This allows you to make any necessary revisions to remove the duplication before publishing. You can also use plagiarism checkers to look for illicit copies of your existing content. Once you have identified any instances of plagiarism, you can reach out to the person who published the duplicate content to ask them to take it down or take your case directly to Google as you deem appropriate.

What Are the Best Online Plagiarism Tools?

Some online plagiarism checkers require you to download software, but the ones listed here are available right from your browser. Some charge a fee to use, while others are completely free, although you may have to create an account. Several offer both a free version as well as an option to upgrade to a premium paid service that unlocks more features. To help you find the tool you need, I’ve organized this list as follows:

• Plagiarism checkers that are completely free to use
• Free tools with premium options
• Tools you can only use when you pay a fee

Given the significant revenue that content marketing can yield, it may be worth the small investment to upgrade to a premium service. The checker can help find plagiarism of your existing content as well as check that your new web page writing is completely original. Use this list as a guide to help you choose the best tool for your situation.

1. Duplichecker

Duplichecker is free to use and offers you multiple options to make checking your content for originality easy. You can either copy and paste your text directly into the plagiarism tool, upload a document file, or enter a URL to have it check the whole page. Once complete, Duplichecker shows you the percentage of original text and plagiarism in your content. It also offers suggestions on how you can rewrite your content to make it unique, although I didn’t find this feature helpful or intuitive.

You can perform up to 50 checks per day with the free version of Duplichecker, which should be adequate unless you are publishing massive amounts of content per day. If you copy and paste your text directly into the application, you can only check 1,000 words at a time. You can scan a longer web page by entering the URL directly, but you won’t be able to use the rewriting tools if the text is more than 1,000 words. Depending on the length of the piece, Duplichecker takes a little time to complete its scan. The shortest page I checked took about 16 seconds to scan, while the longest took approximately three minutes.

Knowing that it would be ironic if there was any unintentional plagiarism in this article, I used Duplichecker to scan this article before submitting it. Because it is long-form, I had to copy, paste, and scan it in three smaller chunks to avoid going over the 1,000-word limit. Nevertheless, I was very satisfied with the results. With an upper scan limit of 50, I may use this free tool again to check for inadvertent duplication in my own writing.

2. Plagramme

Plagramme has over 6,000 reviews on Trustpilot, 84% of which rate it as excellent. It is a free plagiarism checker that touts its speed and accuracy. Plagramme finds all sorts of plagiarism for review and correction. Unlike Duplichecker, it allows you to visualize duplicate text with underlining and changes in font color.

Though geared toward academic writing, Plagramme is valuable to anyone publishing web page writing because it uses an open database of nonscholarly content available on the internet. Although Plagramme is free to use, it does require you to sign in with either an account that you create or an existing social media account. There is no word limit, so you can copy as much or as little text in the application as you want.

3. Copyscape

There are both free and premium versions of Copyscape available. Both versions are web-based, meaning that you do not have to download any software in order to use them. The free version of Copyscape allows you to enter a website URL to check if anyone else has duplicated your content.

However, if you would like to check your web page writing for plagiarism before you publish it, you need to purchase a premium Copyscape plan. Copyscape will show you exactly where your content is duplicated on another website and provide a sharable report. With a paid Copyscape account, you can check up to 2,000 words at a time, although the accuracy may diminish with longer articles.

4. Grammarly

Grammarly has a very good reputation as a spelling and grammar checker that can also scan for plagiarism. However, the free version of Grammarly does not check for duplicate content. You can only check web page writing for plagiarism using Grammarly if you upgrade to the paid version. I have not used Grammarly as a plagiarism tool, only for spelling and grammar. I find it to be superior to the typical spell-checker included with word processing programs in that it uses artificial intelligence to provide suggestions based on context.

5. Unicheck

Unicheck is only available as a pay service to check for plagiarism. To meet your unique requirements, it offers flexible billing packages geared toward business, education, and personal use. It does not need to be downloaded because it runs on cloud-based software. Educational plans offer the following basic features:

• 10-second scans per page for real-time results
• Web search across 40 billion-plus documents, including unique web pages and open source databases
• Full data encryption
• 99.9% uptime

Business and personal plans work a little differently. You purchase checks for a certain number of pages in bulk, using a slider to choose greater or fewer pages. Because you are buying in bulk, your savings increase the more pages you buy. Without an additional purchase, unused pages expire after six months. Unicheck defines a page as 275 double-spaced words.

6. PlagScan

Like Unicheck, PlagScan is a premium plagiarism tool that charges a fee to use and provides different pricing plans based on whether you intend to use it for educational, business, or individual use. Depending on the plan you choose, PlagScan may offer you the opportunity to test the service by offering to check a certain number of words for free. PlagScan describes its search results as the most accurate available.

Since its launch in 2009, PlagScan has seen exponential growth. Over 1,500 businesses use Plagscan, as well as a reported 1,500,000 single users. Plagscan operates fully online, requiring no download. In addition to importing text from a URL or copying and pasting it from a word processing program, you can also upload directly from a cloud-based source.

7. Plagiarismhunt

Plagiarismhunt works a little bit differently from the other checkers. It is a multichecker that partners with other plagiarism tools, such as PlagScan and Unicheck, to conduct multiple scans for duplicate content with several tools at once. This saves you from having to create multiple accounts and pay fees to several different companies.

Plagiarismhunt charges by the scan, so there is no need to create an account. You can choose a tool to perform a single check of a single document for $15. If you want to use up to four plagiarism checkers to scan your document, the cost is $45, and the result that finds the most plagiarism will show up first. If you want to check a document for free, Plagiarismhunt will perform a scan using a random tool. Whichever of these options you choose, you can purchase a detailed report for an additional $6.

Is There Anything You Can Do To Prevent Plagiarism of Your Website?

It’s frustrating to think that you can only react to plagiarism after it happens rather than preventing it in the first place. Aside from using the plagiarism tools above, there are a few steps you can take to prevent people from stealing your content, but some have unintended adverse effects. Right-click prevention scripts can stop someone from copying your web page writing manually, but it can also prevent sharing of your content by legitimate users. This could do your content marketing strategy more harm than good.

If you use WordPress to host your business website, WordFence is a compatible endpoint firewall that prevents theft of your content by a type of malicious software called a scraper bot. This is a premium pay service but may be worth the investment, given the value of your content.

Are You Vulnerable to Plagiarism When You Buy Articles?

There are some disreputable content writers and writing services who sell you content plagiarized from an original source to publish on your website. The plagiarism tools listed here will help you identify such content so that you can remove it or check it before publishing it. Once you have determined that a writer or service sells plagiarized content, you can avoid purchasing from that provider in the future.

To avoid inadvertently purchasing plagiarized material, do some investigating of any content writing company before deciding to do business with it. Ask for a test article and check it for plagiarism. Reputable website content writing services such as BKA may even perform plagiarism checks for you on any content that you order.

Use Website Plagiarism Tools to Fortify Your Content Writing

Ultimately, what you publish on your own website is your responsibility. To avoid any ethical (or legal) issues, it’s always best to search out the best plagiarism checkers available and quickly doublecheck your content before you publish. Most of these online plagiarism tools are cost-effective and can help shore up your content strategy to make sure you don’t have any unwanted surprises down the road.

If you need help creating original content and want to work with an online writing service that utilizes plagiarism checker tools, contact us today!

Freelance writing jobs from home are an attractive choice for people seeking a better work-life balance and flexibility. The internet has opened up even more opportunities to earn a living by writing, which makes it easier to find freelance work. The bad news is that the wide array of choices can be overwhelming.

Choosing a writing niche in which you prefer to work can help you narrow down the writing jobs you are most interested in. Finding your specialty is easier if you know more about the different opportunities that are available.

6 Common Freelance Writing Jobs From Home

Starting on familiar footing can make you feel more grounded at first. Therefore, if you have a particular skill or interest, it can be easier and more enjoyable for you to write about that. There may be multiple types of freelance jobs available that relate to your professional knowledge or hobby.

As you continue to grow in your writing abilities, you may wish to embrace new challenges by branching out into other types of freelance writing jobs. This helps to add diversity to your portfolio and stability to your income.

There are many different types of freelance writing jobs from home available, but here are a few of the most common.

1. Transcription

Transcription isn’t composing words yourself. Rather, it is listening to recordings of spoken words and creating a written record of them. Transcription jobs typically fall into one of three categories:

• General
• Medical
• Legal

Medical and legal transcription are more technical categories that require special training. As implied, general transcription is a nonspecific category that may involve anything from typing academic lectures (e.g., TED Talks) to interviews to podcasts.

Many health care documentation specialists are no longer transcribing but editing documents produced through speech recognition. Legal transcription involves producing written documents from recorded depositions and court proceedings. Many medical transcriptionists switch to legal transcription because they have skills that transfer.

2. Ghostwriting

A ghostwriter is someone who creates content for people that lack the time or skill to do it by themselves. With these projects, the writer does not get credit for the work. Sometimes ghostwriting projects can be long-form work, such as a memoir, but they come in many different forms. Ghostwriting opportunities can be lucrative freelance writing jobs from home, but the anonymous nature of the work makes it a poor way to build up a portfolio.

3. Blogging

There are two common ways that you can make money writing blogs. If you write a blog about a specific interest or hobby of yours, you may be able to monetize it with advertising. You can also make money writing blogs for other people. For example, BKA Content has many clients who order blogs because they are too busy running their businesses to write the articles themselves.

4. Newspaper Writing

People who make a living freelance writing for newspapers or magazines usually start out reporting on newsworthy events. As they become more established, they may move on to writing commentary or opinion pieces. To write for the newspaper, you typically have to have a degree in journalism or a related writing field, but even without those credentials, newspapers frequently offer freelance writing jobs from home.

5. Web Content Writing

Web content writing is an umbrella term for any online content that a business uses to connect with its customers. If you have ever made a purchase from an online retailer, the pages that you saw on its website are examples of this type of writing. Business blogging is also a type of web content writing.

Web content writing can be very short, such as social media posts and product descriptions, or longer, such as location pages and blog posts. BKA offers opportunities to write many different types of web content for a wide variety of clients.

6. Technical Writing

Technical writers take complex concepts and translate them into layperson’s terms so that anyone can understand them. As a technical writer, examples of written works you may create include the following:

• Research reports
• Evaluations
• Handbooks
• Policies and procedures
• User manuals
• Educational materials

Technical writers are sought after in the fields of technology, software development, and medicine, to name a few. Becoming a technical writer usually requires you to have some specialist knowledge in a particular field since you need to be able to understand high-level concepts. Because of the extra time and research involved, technical writers typically get paid more.

Try a Variety of Freelance Writing Jobs From Home

Writing for BKA allows you to try a little of everything so you can figure out which freelance writing jobs from home you like best. Comment below if you have tips for writers seeking freelance opportunities that fit their needs.

Your company, no matter the size, should have a blog on your website.

Not just create a space for blog posts, but have a consistent posting schedule with fresh, engaging content at least twice a month.

Why? A blog allows you to connect and engage with your customers. When you provide information that is relevant and useful to consumers, it establishes you as a trustworthy source. And data shows that consistent blogs create compounding results over time in both lead generation and traffic.

However, effective blog content writing is a skill that takes time to learn.

You do not necessarily have to write your own blog content. It is often preferable to hire a blog service to create the content for you. However, this is not always possible. Maybe you are just starting out and cannot yet afford to hire outside agencies to help you with some aspects of running your business. If you need to write your own web content but aren’t sure how to start, the following guide may help you.

How Do You Get Started With Blog Content Writing?

If you’re going to create quality content, which is the goal, there’s actually a lot you need to do before you start writing. That’s the bad news. The good news is, once you get the preliminaries out of the way and get something down on the digital equivalent of paper, the writing tends to get easier. In other words, getting started is often the hardest part, at least in our experience. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of those first steps you need to accomplish before you get down to the actual business of writing.

Decide on a Posting Schedule

Generally speaking, the more frequently you can post on your blog, the better. If there were no other considerations, a new blog post every one or two days would drive the most traffic to your website and probably generate more leads.

The problem is that quality blog content writing takes time, and you are busy from day to day with other aspects of running your business. While a new blog post every day is an investment that could pay dividends, it may be more than you can afford.

There is some evidence to suggest that it helps just as much, if not more, to post regularly than to post in greater volumes. Therefore, you should come up with a sustainable posting schedule that has you publishing new content on a consistent basis. This is more beneficial than posting sporadically and helps keep you from burning out. If the most you can manage is one blog post a week, then that is the standard that you should set for yourself. A consistent posting schedule may be more likely to garner a consistent readership.

Identify Your Audience

Before you do any blog content writing, you should know the audience that you are trying to reach. Your task is to provide information that is relevant and helpful to your audience. If you don’t know who you are writing for, then content creation turns into a game of roulette. Once in a while, you might hit what you want, but most of the time you’re going to miss the mark.

Instead of roulette, your blog writing strategy should be more similar to a game of horseshoes. You should have a very specific target in mind. If you don’t hit it exactly, you can at least get into the vicinity, and that can be beneficial as well.

Maybe you already have a very clear idea of the audience you want to reach. If not, you may need to do some investigating to gather helpful data about potential customers, including:

• Where they live
• How old they are
• Whether they are married
• If they have kids
• Whether they own or rent a home
• What their transportation is

These are some examples of information that might be helpful to you in identifying your audience. The exact demographics you should target depend on the goods and services you provide.

Choose Your Topic

There are a couple of important aspects when it comes to choosing what to write about. The topic of your blog content writing should be relevant to your audience, which is why you should identify those you are writing for before choosing the topic. There should also be a relationship between your topic and what your business does. It should be something that you can speak about with confidence.

Perhaps most important, you should write about a topic that is of interest to you. If you are not interested in your topic, chances are that your audience won’t engage with it either. Also, it’s more difficult to write about something that you don’t care about.

Do Your Research

Part of the purpose of your blog is to establish you as an authority in your particular field. Therefore, you should do enough research before writing so that you are able to speak confidently and accurately about your chosen topic. The amount of research that you have to do may depend on how much knowledge you already have about the topic. However, even if you are writing about something you are an expert in, you may still need to do a little light research to get the most up-to-date statistics or to confirm a salient fact.

If you do publish an inaccuracy in a blog post once in a while, it might not be the end of the world. You’re only human, after all, and if you are otherwise competent at what you do, an occasional error may also help your reputation with your audience because it makes you seem more relatable.

However, if you consistently publish content with glaring inaccuracies or omissions, it can start to erode your audience’s confidence in you. People may start thinking that you are lazy, untrustworthy, or incompetent. In addition to pointing out your errors to you, they are likely to stop patronizing your business and may even give negative reviews about you.

What Does It Take To Create Quality Blog Content Writing Fast?

Okay, so you’ve taken care of the preliminaries and now you are ready to write. But you don’t want to write just any content; you want to create good, effective content that your audience will engage with and hopefully share with family and friends. The fastest way to do this is to use these tips to get straight to the point when writing content.

Here are some ideas for creating effective, engaging content for your blog.

Create a Strong Headline

Many people decide whether to read an article within a few seconds of looking at it. A headline that grabs their attention often encourages them to click through and see what you have to say. Neil Patel has collected a few examples of effective headlines and explains why they work so well:

The same principle holds true for introductions. Once you grab attention with your headline, you should hold it with a snappy intro that draws readers in and makes them want to find out more.

Make Your Writing Easy To Read

Unless you are writing to an audience with advanced technical knowledge, you should try to make your writing accessible to as many readers as possible. A reading grade level between six and 10 on the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale is considered accessible to most readers.

Your blog post can be long or short, depending on what you think will be most effective. Even if you end up writing a long article, however, try to keep your paragraphs relatively short. Break up the text with headers and use numbered lists or bullet points to summarize key points. Try to streamline your text and eliminate unnecessary fluff.

Create Actionable Content

Sometimes people perform web searches merely to find out general information. More often, however, they have a problem and are looking for a solution. Your content should offer your readers a fix, preferably one that involves buying your product or hiring your service. You should empower your audience by showing them how to apply what you have to offer rather than by telling them what to do.

Tell a Story

You may have had a language arts teacher in school who told you, “Show, don’t tell.” It’s good advice for writing in general, and it also has applications for blog content writing. In a marketing context, storytelling can accomplish several objectives:

• Create a picture in your audience’s mind
• Evoke your audience’s emotions
• Help your audience imagine themselves in the situation
• Encourage the desired outcome

From parables in the Bible to popular folk stories in many different cultures, people around the world have been telling stories for centuries to convey valuable information. This attests to how effective storytelling can be.

However, as with most rhetorical tools, there is a right way and a wrong way to use storytelling. Your story should be brief and relate directly to the main point you are trying to make in your blog post without a lot of meandering or unnecessary details.

Take Advantage of Multimedia

Content that includes videos or images in addition to text is more likely to rank high in search results. Search engine algorithms recognize multimedia as adding extra value. When you include multimedia, you are also helping different segments of your audience understand your message better. Not everyone retains what they read; some are auditory or visual learners. Adding multimedia allows your audience to receive your message in the way that is most effective for them.

You can either create your own multimedia or obtain it legally from other sources, e.g., purchasing a stock image. Don’t steal other people’s copyrighted material, and don’t include multimedia merely so you can rank better in search results. Any videos or photos that you include in your post should relate directly to the content and amplify your message. Unrelated multimedia will only confuse or distract your audience.

Vary the Type of Content

Your blog content writing should always be relevant to your company and useful to your audience. However, that does not mean that you have to keep posting the same type of content over and over. If you do, you may find that your audience gets bored with the content quickly. Keep their attention by varying the type of content you produce. Examples of types of content that tend to rank well and engage readers include the following:

• Infographics
• Trend predictions
• Interviews
• Listicles
• Case studies
• Tutorials

Not all of these different content types may work for you and your company, but a few of them probably will, and you can rotate among these. When you create your posting schedule, you can decide on the type of content that you are going to create for each new post. In addition to keeping your audience interested, you may find that varying the type of content keeps you more engaged with your writing as well.

Budget Time for Revisions

When I was in school, I had a bad habit of leaving writing assignments until the last minute and then turning in the first draft. I continued doing that throughout most of my college experience until I took an education class that showed me how much a piece of writing, or any creative work, can be improved through revision. From that time on, I’ve always tried to budget time between the point that I finish my writing and the deadline by which I must turn it in so I can make revisions.

When you are setting your posting schedule, plan for some time between writing and publishing to look over your draft a few more times and make some revisions. You may surprise yourself with how much better your writing can become. However, don’t become so occupied with the revision that you miss the deadline you have set for yourself. Strive for perfection, but be realistic that you might not reach it in time to keep to your schedule.

Can a Blog Service Provide Better Balance?

If all this makes it sound like blog content writing is a lot of work, it is. As with most other skills, it gets easier the more you practice it, but the multiple steps involved, including research, writing, and revision, always take time, sometimes more than you anticipate. Admittedly there are shortcuts you can take, but these result in substandard content that doesn’t rank well or connect with your audience.

Fortunately, you do not have to choose between quality content and time spent running your business. When you outsource blog content writing to a reputable service such as BKA, you can have both. Check out our blog writing services to see how we can help you.

As a college student, it can be difficult to find a job that allows you to make money while offering the flexibility to attend classes. If you are a wordsmith, part-time freelance writing jobs allow you to work as much or as little as you want so you can pace yourself and avoid burnout. The experience you gain writing may also help your post-undergraduate career.

What Are Some of the Best Part-Time Freelance Writing Jobs for College Students?

It can be challenging to start in any field when you don’t have much professional experience. Nevertheless, there are entry-level positions that can help you gain experience in professional writing. Additionally, you may have experience in other areas of life that may be applicable.

Here are examples of part-time freelance writing jobs that may be available to you as a college student.

1. Tutor in Your College Writing Center

Any student on campus can make an appointment in the writing center when struggling with an assignment. Tutors are usually fellow students who read through assignments and give suggestions on how the writer can improve.

Working in the writing center can be a great way to earn money as a student. Because the writing center primarily hires students, the supervisors understand you need to make time for class, so they are willing to accommodate your schedule. Working as a writing center tutor allows you to apply the skills you already have, and working with fellow student writers can help you improve your skills.

2. Publish Guest Posts on Websites or Blogs

When you start looking for part-time freelance writing jobs, you may be asked to submit a portfolio. One way to build a professional portfolio is to write guest posts on other people’s websites or blogs.

Identify a topic about which you have knowledge that could be helpful to others, such as a hobby you have had for many years. Look at the websites and blogs that you frequently read to see if they accept guest submissions. You may be able to earn money by writing guest posts, and you will definitely gain experience and be able to build your portfolio.

3. Create Social Media Content

If you’ve grown up in the world of social media, you’ve probably had years of experience creating content for your own personal accounts on Instagram, Twitter, etc. You may be able to apply your personal experience when looking for part-time freelance writing jobs by creating social media content for other brands. This may be a local business in your community, perhaps the coffeehouse where you and your friends hang out, or a huge nationwide brand. In either case, your role will be to create content that helps the company connect with its existing customers and reach out to new ones.

4. Write Articles for Kids’ Magazines

Even if you don’t have much professional experience as a writer, you have years of experience as a child and adolescent. You may be able to apply that experience to create content for magazines aimed at kids and teens. If you’re just out of high school, this may be one of the few part-time freelance writing jobs open to you. Magazines that cater to young people are often interested in the voice of a peer or someone just slightly older than their readership.

5. Offer Gig Work on an Appropriate Online Platform

Use websites such as UpWork or Fiverr to create a professional profile, promote your services as a gig writer, and connect with people offering short-term, part-time freelance writing jobs. With gig writing work, you arrange with someone to write a piece of content for a certain fee. The downside to this approach is that once the gig is over, i.e., you submit your piece of writing and collect your fee, the professional relationship may be over. However, people who have hired you for gig work before and were happy with your writing may want to hire you to create more content for them.

6. Write for a Content Creation Company

If you’re interested in the flexibility of gig work but would prefer a long-term professional relationship, look for a freelance position with a content creation company such as BKA. We have clients order content from us such as blog posts, product descriptions, and landing pages. We contract with freelance writers all over the United States to produce high-quality content of all types.

When you become a member of our team of freelance writers, you have the freedom to choose the assignments you want to do. We give you a deadline by which you need to finish and submit the work, but other than that, we do not impose any schedule requirements for you. We make it easy for you to work and submit finished pieces from wherever you want to.

Flexible Part-Time Freelance Writing Jobs for Students

Are there any flexible writing jobs that are perfect for college students? Share them in the comments below!

If you’re ready to get started writing today, learn more about the part-time freelance writing jobs we have available and how you can write for BKA Content.