CAREER IN CONTENT WRITING IN INDIA

If we go a few years back, then we observe that careers like content writing were overshadowed by the alleged mainstream careers like engineering, doctor, and many more. Content writing in our country was always considered as a passion or a hobby. No one ever imagined taking the skill forward as a career option.           

On the contrary, if we notice the current scenario, the content writing industry seems to be blooming nowadays. Be it an article, post, blog, or even marketing, content writing covers this all. Recent times are proof that technology has been a boon for most of our content writers. Technology in India has opened doors for lots of content writers, helping them to pursue a career in content writing.           

Either you own a company or coaching or say a blog, one needs to have a team of standard content writers to enhance their market at times of digital India.            

Content writing if seen closely is not only about simple classic writing. Rather, every content writing career requires a different set of skills. Expressiveness, language, vocabulary, qualification, and above all, an understanding of whatever stuff he/she is writing are some basic skills which a good content writer must-have.            

Someone once said, “content is king, but marketing is queen and runs the household.” and indeed, this marketing is the key to open our doors of a career in content writing.          

A diverse career like content writing can be a fruitful and a bitter experience at the same time. Where on one hand it could be a cherry on top for student and individual as it comes with numerous amounts of opportunities, on the other hand, the career in content writing may not be a cup of tea for many as it requires a skill which needs to be developed and enhanced at every step you climb. Like any other career, content writing requires the same amount of dedication, zeal, commitment, and hard work.    

CAREER OPTION ON CONTENT WRITING     

Some content writing career options which a person can genuinely pursue in the field are mentioned below, and remember a job in content writing includes an equal amount of stress as any other career will involve.         

NEWS  WRITING:      

With the massive growth in our media industry, comes a huge amount of career opportunities for people who could easily turn an incident into a news story or news article.          

A news story or news article can either be published for an e-newspaper or hard newspaper. One needs to have a strong command over language for pursuing a career in news writing. People with graduation degrees like BJMC (Bachelor of journalism or mass communication), BMM (Bachelors in mass media), or BJ (bachelors in journalism) could get an edge over other people in the news writing career. English honors students with appropriate skills and knowledge can also be preferred by the recruiters in the job selection.         

For pursuing a career in content writing, one should have the creativity to present raw facts, statistics, and data innovatively and attractively. Aa person should know how to express his views by using the right language in an easily understandable form.          

If a person has the aforementioned skills and qualifications, one can imagine news writing as a stable option with a good salary.         

Also, with news writing as your career, you can have an opportunity to develop connections by working in renowned media houses like Times of India, the Hindu, etc. Not on newspapers but also news channels require news writers for publishing the content on the online platforms and also for preparing scripts for news anchors.       

BLOGGING:       

Every content writer in India or say in the world has been through the world of blogging in some part of their life. Blogging is considered generally, is done by every person who is an active social media user, but only the ones with proper skills and knowledge are known as bloggers.       

The career in blogging itself can be very artistic and interesting. Blogging is usually done in one single motion. Knowing one’s interest and knowledge about the motion is a must in the blogging career as your niche will only decide your future in the field of blogging.       

Creative writing, innovative ideas, thorough research, accurate knowledge, marketing, keyword research, data analysis, and most important SEO are a must-have list if you want a good career in blogging.       

One should always expect a massive amount of competition in the field as over 3 million people daily publish their articles on the blog online. Such an amount of competition makes a good earning and stable career in blogging a slow process.       

Patience is necessary if you want to achieve success as a blogger. The basic earning mediums for bloggers can be advertisements, endorsements, traffic, and sponsorship.        

Above all, one can also work as a freelancer in the blogging field. Many companies hire bloggers for writing content on their websites giving a good amount of money in return.      

FREELANCING:      

If you are an aspiring content writer, freelancing can be your first step on your way to success. Freelancers are given virtually or manually assignments and are paid accordingly.      

Where on one hand, the career in freelancing can be a bit unpredictable, as to how many assignments and projects you will get is a tough thing to predict. On the other hand, a career as a freelancer can be a boon for college students and part-time workers. Platforms like Internshala offers numerous amounts of opportunities for a freelancer to showcase their talents. College students and part-timers can choose their working hours as per their ease and work accordingly.      

Also, if you are a newcomer in the field, then you can choose freelancing as a medium to test and enhance your skill. One also gets a lot of professional experience in the field which can help them in the future while pursuing a more stable career in content writing.       

Now many foreign companies have also started hiring interns or freelancers for India, giving rise in the pay of freelancers.      

Knowledge and understanding about your core strengths and niche, creating writing, researching, vocabulary, and language are some skills which a freelancer should have. Also, good ratings and reviews from the customer can help freelancers grab more assignments and projects.       

COPYWRITING:     

The person behind the tagline ‘utterly, butterly, delicious: Amul’ is often known as the copywriter. So, in simple words, a man behind any slogan, tagline, or advertisement is known as a copywriter.     

It is humorous to even notice that a person responsible for taglines or advertisement gets a much higher salary than any other content writer in the industry. Without a doubt, copywriting is one of the highest-paid jobs not only in the field of content writing but also in comparison with other professions as well.      

The basic goal which every copywriter needs to accomplish is to sell a product, virtually or manually. For selling any product, one needs to have a piece of deep knowledge about the audience that the product is targeting.      

He/she should know what impact a particular tagline or advertisement would have on the mind of its audience.      

It goes with saying that creative writing and beautiful imagery is must to be a copywriter. Also, copywriters should have the ability to write in such a manner that they can capture our eyes and attention. Besides, copywriters should be to manipulate and influence us to spend our time buying a particular product or buying a particular idea.      

In short, one with the required skills can surely expect respect, dignity, good pay, and a stable place in the field of the copywriting industry.     

People with journalism degree have an edge during the job selection. At last working for renowned companies can help a content writer gain respect in the market as well.    

PROOFREADING/ EDITING:    

For any content writer, being an editor or a proof-reader is a position of high respect. Editors and proof-readers are necessary for any content-based industry. Be it news website, media house, or some entertainment company, editors and proof-readers have a remarkable place.    

Editing also comes with a good amount of pay, but such a respectable job requires a massive amount of experience.    

Editing can be a wise choice as it is a job in the long run. Knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and writing is of utmost significance in the field.    

One needs to be patient and concentrated while editing or proofreading.     

Media houses or channel generally offer people who already have experience in the same arena.     

ACADEMIC WRITING:  

So many coaching centers, especially on virtual platforms like Byjus, Udemy, etc have emerged a career in academic writing. All the learning platforms, be it virtual or not, require content writers for academic writing.   

Academic writing involves deep root analysis of textbooks and amid the analysis, one needs to prepare research-based easily understandable texts. Academic writing is always expected to be crisp and full of facts. All the guides which you read like all in one, ‘chapters‘ are examples of how academic writing is done.   

Nowadays, many people are even buying e-materials for studying thus giving a boon to the career of academic writers. Before going into the academic writing field, one should be aware that in academic writing there is no or little room for creativity so one needs to close the door of creativity from his/her mind.   

Academic writers follow a specific style of writing and layout as the academic rhetoric. It can also include topics like summaries or key points.   

From preparing journals to essays, academic writing involves everything. The writers are expected to write simple in an authentic manner. With blooming virtual word in India now, online platforms are crammed with academic writer jobs.   

An established academic writer can also expect proofreading/editing as a part of his job.   

A salary of an academic writer can be as low as 1.5 lakh per annum and as high as 8 lakh/annum based on the image of the person in the market.  

SEO WRITING:  

Search engines like google use the technique of SEO (search engine optimization) to rank the content online.   

SEO writing involves a deep knowledge of the algorithm on which SEO works. SEO involves all the technical parts of writing like keyword research, keyword analysis, data analysis, and many more.    

Before pursuing a career in SEO writing which is at present one of the highest paid jobs in the country, one should have training in SEO to gain knowledge of how a search engine works.   

There are plenty of jobs for a content writer who wants to pursue a career as an SEO writer because of the emerging content-based platforms in the country. Recruiters generally prefer people who have a certificate of SEO training. A good SEO writer can enable your website ranked number 1 even in the presence of tough competitions.   

A career in SEO writer comes with an equal amount of challenges as any other career. It is usually tough for a content writer to be an SEO writer as it takes time to adopt SEO as a skill.   

Despite challenges, SEO writing is blooming as every blog, website, targeted articles and journals require good SEO writers for their ranking and marketing, hence, creating more and more job opportunities for newcomers as well.   

Several courses now offer SEO pieces of training. Sometimes SEO writing also comes under content marketing as SEO also teaches one to do the correct marketing of the content based on technical knowledge which enables the SEO writers to get the content ranked 1.   

In simple words, a content writer with knowledge of SEO can pursue a career in SEO writing.  

SOCIAL MEDIA WRITING:  

Social media writer is the one who handles your social media platform to get the maximum number of audiences. Good writing and research skill are a major part to pursue a career in social media writing.   

Creative writing is must-have knowledge for social media writers. One needs to be creating and innovating while posting the content on social media handles to attract the larger audience to their service/ product.   

With higher reach on social media handle, come lots of traffic for your website, thus, helping you gain popularity in no time.    

Nowadays every company/brand needs a social media platform to publicize and market their content. They all have a social media handle and needs social media writers for promoting the products/services, in return, creating numerous amounts of job opportunities.   

Social media writing can either involve writing a product description or posting stuff that generates a large amount of traffic for you.    

Social media writing comes with a considerable amount of money but if one is thinking to pursue a career in the same, he should be patient and dedicated as it can sometimes be a slow process.   

But with millions of posts on social media handles daily nowadays, one can expect a good and interesting career as a social media writer.  

SCRIPT WRITING:  

Despite, the above-mentioned career option, there is always a door for starting independently by writing scripts.   

Scriptwriting is known to be the most independent career in the content writing field. All you have to is pen down a script and refer different production houses and channels for making a full stream project on the show.   

Vision and imagination are some of the key factors to focus on while scripts writing. You should always know what would be the audience’s reaction to your script.   

Skills like creative writing, imagination, easily understandable language can help you become a good scriptwriter in the beginning.   

People take up a project independently as work on them as per the requirement of the production team. Creating understanding is key to success in the field.   

So, if you want to work independently and have the appropriate skill, then you can go for scriptwriting as a career. It is a high paid job if you are a recognized writer.  

EDUCATION/ QUALIFICATION NEEDED FOR CAREER IN CONTENT WRITING IN INDIA:   

In general, there is no defined qualification or degree for pursuing a career in content writing. Based on observations, it is the basic tendency of a recruiter to be inclined towards a person with journalism or a literature degree, which can be because of the kind of subject and knowledge they cover.    

If you aspire to become a content writer and pursue a career in the content writing industry, then it is advisable to be qualified with either journalism or a literature degree. There are three ways to complete your qualification either in journalism or literature according to your interest only.   

• STEP 1: XII (from any stream)>GRADUATION (in either of the two)> CAREER   
• STEP 2: XII (from any stream)> GRADUATION (in any subject)>DIPLOMA (mass- communication)>CAREER   
• STEP 3: XII (from any stream)>GRADUATION (in either of the two)>MASTERS (in the remaining one)> CAREER   

As per the studies, the following are some wonderful colleges in India for pursuing the aforementioned qualification: 

CAREER IN CONTENT WRITING IN INDIA:  

It is evident and clear that content writing is a vast and diverse field. So, it comes with an ample amount of opportunities.    

Where on one hand, the career amounts to be fast and stable for the person, on the hand other, a career as a content writer can be a tough nut to crack. One needs to have lots of patient in the field as there can be chances of failures as well.   

Content writers are known to be the backbone of success in any field. . The media industry, entertainment industry, marketing industry, or sales, every company and industry need content writers for the sake of marketing the services and making a remarkable amount of money.   

The content writing industry is for the ones who have a keen interest in writing as if you think that is an easy career to pursue then just to burst your bubble, it comes with an equal amount of dedication, stress, risk, and challenges like any other career option.   

If taking a salary of a content writer in context, then being an uncertain industry, the pay is quite unpredictable. Some can even get as high as 1 lakh/month and some can even get as low as 6000/month. Thus, the pay usually depends on your skills, knowledge, reputation, and above all experience.   

If one has good experience in the field, then a person can easily be recruited anywhere he/she wants.   

With technology booming nowadays, the content writing industry is also emerging. Some students just want to become a content writer and for that, they are pursuing the courses through which they can easily get a job as a content writer.   

Individually also, there are content writing certified courses like IIM Skills which can surely give you an edge during the job selection.    

Now that lots of students are interested in the content writing industry, it is obviously less crowded but comes with a considerable amount of competition. One needs to have a passion for pursuing a career as a content writer otherwise the field may not lead to a long-term career option for you.   

In simple words, if you have dedication, hard work, interest, knowledge, skills, and if you know the relevance of the opportunities and responsibilities in the field, then you can expect to become a content writer and be a part of the race.