Essential Skills for Writer Distant Assistants

Looking forward to pursuing an online writing career? There are many areas where a writer might be needed — blogs, podcast show notes, website content, newsletters, and even social media. Here are 5 Essential Skills for Writer Distant Assistants.

1. Creativity

Part of the responsibilities of a writer is coming up with interesting, quality content. This may include the creation of post titles and stories that should be appealing enough to the target readers.

Among the questions that a writer might ask are:

• How should the story flow?
• Which title is the most suitable for the topic?

It can be challenging at first especially when you do not have a topic yet. But once you have set your mind on what to write and start working on it, you will find that it gets easy in the process.

The key is to be clear on the topic. You can brainstorm ideas and outline your thoughts. It does not have to be perfect immediately.

2. Research

To write is to know something about the topic. This makes it essential for the writer to have enough information at hand.

What you can do:

• Have the nose for what’s interesting
• Identify credible sources and keep them
• Use tools that can help you in your search
• Take note of important information as you find them

Ideas can be just around the corner. Allow your topic to guide you in the search. You might also want to try listing down relevant questions and try to answer them as you move along.

3. Communication

A writer DA’s work life does not just revolve around her blogs, show notes, or other forms of written content. Every day that she reports to work, there is also a need for her to collaborate with her client or teammates.

Among the situations where effective communication is needed:

• Email correspondence
• Interviews with personalities to feature
• Tasks with the marketing team

At the end of the day, you want your message to be clear regardless of who you are dealing with or what you are working on.

4. Search Engine Optimization

Here is one common concern across the industry…

I am helping my client with his blogs but I am not sure how SEO works. Writing quality content for print publications is what I am used to. But online, I found that one also has to work around optimizing content for search engines like Google. What should I do?

Apparently, writing online is not the same as writing for print publications. This is largely tied to the marketing efforts of the brand or client you are writing for.

To optimize your content, you can:

• Make your content easy to read
• Use keywords in your title, permalink, and meta description
• Use keywords moderately in your text body
• Write at least 300 words
• Insert links to your other content
• Use images with Alt Attributes to support your message

Every day, millions — if not billions — of content is released on the internet. And to be found on the first page of the search engine results could already be like being on top of your game.

5. Editing and Proofreading

The tandem skills of writer virtual assistants. Many times, people mistakenly understand them as the same. But they are, in reality, different from each other.

By definition, editing is making sure that everything you include in your written content is in agreement — that everything makes perfect sense to your readers. On the other hand, proofreading is making sure that your copy has no errors in terms of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself when going through your copy:

• Are there any misspellings?
• Have I used appropriate headings for each set of paragraphs?
• Is there a word that is out of context?
• Is the first letter of each sentence capitalized?

One popular suggestion is to read backward to easily spot the errors. Overall, what is important is that your final message goes out clear and clean. A second reading before publishing your content can also be helpful.

Extra: Basic Graphic Design

Many clients prefer having writer distant assistants who can also do basic graphic design. It is not only budget-friendly but it also saves a lot of time in the hiring process.

Not to mention, there are online tools that make graphic design easy. The key is to determine whether the graphic is:

• Aligned with your client’s brand design standards
• Appropriate for the written content you are going to release

Having an eye for detail and a touch of creativity can lead you to more projects. It is a skill that you can definitely pair up with your writing prowess.

Recommended Tools for Writer Distant Assistants

Stop wasting your time on things that do not work. The internet has lots of tools you can explore and use for your advantage. They can make your work easier and more productive.

Here are some of the tools we recommend:

• Leads – Not sure where to look for new topics to write about? You can try Google Alerts where you can have access to relevant search releases.
• Keywords – Once you have your topic, you can look for a corresponding keyword using KWFinder or Google Suggest.
• Rough drafts – Does a plain white canvass inspire your more to write that awesome content for your client? Google Docs can be just your thing! Sync it offline to enable editing even without an internet connection.
• Storage – Store and organize your files and folders in the way that works best for you! How about using a cloud storage like Google Drive and Dropbox? For passwords, LastPass can be your go-to software.
• Graphics – For free images, you can check out Unsplash and Pixabay. And for editing or creating designs, our picks are Canva and Photoscape.
• Grammar – Is there anything better than Grammarly?
• Eye help – When you are up working at night, you can make it easier for your eyes to adjust to the brightness of your screen by using Night Mode Pro on your Google Chrome browser. It dims the light just right for you to see the words and images.

That’s it. We hope you learned something new from this blog post. Get your ideas moving and enjoy the “write” life! Cheers to your success ahead!

Let us know what you think about these Essential Skills for Writer Distant Assistants. Feel free to share your thoughts with others in the comments below!

Other Articles You May Like:

• How to Communicate Effectively in a Distant Workplace
• Tips to Get Ahead of Your Work Schedule
• 12 Tasks You Can Outsource to Distant Assistants

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