content writing samples in english pdf

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24 Content Writing Samples Examples & How to Create Yours

Can you show us some samples of your writing? If that’s something you keep hearing but cannot say a confident yes to, you’re at the right place. We’ll show you 24 examples of how others write and present their content writing samples and answer some of the most frequently asked questions.

So the next time a potential client wants to see your samples or HR requests them for your job application, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. You can just send your writing portfolio over with all of your best projects included.

Looking for a quick and easy way to build your portfolio? Try Copyfolio and create a stunning website that’ll look good on every device. It’s free, no credit card required.

Read until the end, because we added free content writing sample templates for you!

Content writing sample examples

1. Kevin Anderson

Kevin created a page for his writing samples that's both visually appealing and informative. It shares details of the project while also allowing you to actually read the piece. He built his content writing portfolio using Copyfolio .

2. Shanice Perriatt

Shanice displays her social media content samples with screenshots and mockups.

3. Astor George

Astor used Copyfolio's "Charcoal" color palette to let the images shine, and added CTA buttons under each sample's description for better conversions.

4. Allana Schwaab

Allana did two things to present her content work for Hilton Supply Management: she wrote a short summary of the project and she also included large images of the final piece. Allana featured these writing samples on her portfolio website, built with Copyfolio .

5. Margaret Reeb

Margaret created a case study page for all her meditation-themed blog posts. She starts with a short explanation of their background and her process, then introduces and links out to each of them.

6. Sera Ozkivanc

Sera created neat visuals of browsers and mockups to illustrate her writing samples on her project page about her work for Loggle. She created it using Copyfolio .

7. Hazel McLaughlin

Writing samples that Hazel did for the Governor of Alabama. She featured them on her portfolio website made with Copyfolio , including all important details as text next to images showing the content.

8. Julie Yuen

A screenrecording scrolling through Julie Yuen's content writing portfolio, clicking on one of the project thumbnails, which opens a PDF writing sample on a new tab.

9. Halle Snavely

Similar to Shanice, Halle features multiple samples on one page, including screenshots and summaries, linking out to the full pieces. She created her content sample page using Copyfolio and the "Letterpress" template .

10. Robin Catalano

A magazine piece sample Robert wrote, with a little bit about the project background.

11. Tania Lewys-Lloyd

Blog samples by Tania, with a link to the blog and some background information.

12. Caitlin Wright

Caitlin follows the summary and a screenshot with a button linking to the piece published online.

13. Nidhi Pathak

Nidhi chose to add her content sample as a PDF with its preview and short summary.

14. Kelsey Ray

Kelsey listed multiple samples categorized by industry —and included a case study for more information.

She also wrote about the objectives and gave some additional information about the projects.

15. Angela Rodgers

Angela wrote short case studies for each of her samples, and displayed the finished results as screenshots.

16. Hannah Smith

Hannah included the excerpts of her content writing samples on her site as blog posts, with a link to the full article.

17. Leah Presser

Leah also added her writing samples as PDFs —each on their own page, with a short summary included.

18. Paul Maplesden

Paul added a screenshot with a title and short description to display his samples in his portfolio, followed by links to more of his blog posts.

19. Marijana Kay

Marijana writes a comprehensive case study when adding her writing samples, giving you a good idea on how the content she writes performs.

20. Laura Howarth from left field.

21. Yvonne Reilly

Similarly, Yvonne also added each project as a card, linking out to the pieces on different websites.

22. 3rd.Life

The content writing samples on the 3rd Life website pop up in lightbox windows, so you can take a better look and read the whole piece.

23. Julie Gabriel from Copywriter.world

Julie displays her writing samples with different CTAs depending on the format: some are linking to the published piece, while some offer a PDF download.

24. Shoaib Marfatiya

Why do you need to have content writing samples?

Okay, yes, these are great… But why do we need to have the content writing samples again? Isn’t it enough to just list all the previous clients and work experiences?

Not really.

Even if you worked with some big brands, it doesn’t mean that your next client or employer will like your writing style. Or that they’ll think you can adjust your tone of writing to their brand’s.

Getting to see multiple samples of your work in your writing portfolio , even if they’re not very long, will help them decide if you’re going to be a good fit or not. It’s kind of like trying an exotic new dish. You like how it sounds, but you’d still want to try it first before you can say that you actually do like it.

And that’s all the more true with clients working in complex industries. When it comes to highly technical topics, people like to see that you not only thoroughly understand it but can explain it in an interesting, easy-to-understand way.

What kind of jobs do you need content writing samples for?

First of all, you’ll need them if you’re a freelance writer, offering copywriting, or content writing services. Your prospective clients will want to check out your writing style before they hire you, that’s for sure.

But if you’re applying for an in-house or agency position that involves content writing, you will also be asked for it. It can be called a copywriter, content writer, SEO writer/specialist, or even a digital marketing position. So make sure you check the job description carefully and get your samples ready before you hit apply.

Types of writing pieces to include in your content writing samples

Now that you’re pretty sure you indeed need to collect your content writing samples, the next step is to decide what type of writing pieces you want to collect. If you’re an experienced writer, this will be a given.

But if you’re just getting started, choosing certain types of writing for your samples could help guide your projects later on. Because logically, for example, if you have a lot of podcast script samples, you’ll feel like a great candidate for the podcast writing gig. Just as a client would happily hire a writer to write for their blog if the said writer has loads of amazingly written article samples.

Blog posts and articles

One of the most common and popular types of content to write nowadays are blog posts and articles. As content marketing is becoming more well-known amongst companies, the need for writers who can write highly converting content is on the rise as well. So you’ll find that most content writers have blog posts or articles as samples in their writing portfolios.

Long-form webpage copy

Another type of written content all businesses need is copy for their website. With everyone trying to get their pages to rank on Google, if you can write SEO-optimized content for websites, you can get yourself ahead of the competition. Knowing at least the basics of SEO is a valuable skill for writers, so if you have it, don’t be afraid to show it off.

Content for social media

Do we even need to get into why businesses need to have an active social media presence? We all know that by now. But what many people often don’t think about is that writing content for social media is not something that just about anyone can do.

Yes, many social media platforms focus on the visuals - but without outstanding copy to go with it, even the best visuals will fail to convert. You need to know how to reflect on the consumers’ pain points and how to lead them to take the action you want them to take with the right CTAs.

So if you know the popular social media platforms and their requirements like the back of your hand –and can write content for them that will convert… Consider social media specific getting content writing samples and creating a social media portfolio .

Scripts for podcasts or videos

Blogs and websites have been around for ages, but it was in the last couple of years that the popularity of podcasts took off. So much so that now many podcasts are looking for writers to help out with their scripts, especially when they are starting a video podcast series . Since scripts for those need to be more versatile and well-thought-out. And the same goes for video content too.

It’s an exciting new genre, but also one that requires lots of time and effort. Podcasts tend to be quite long –and in most cases, you’ll have to do some research to be able to write a whole podcast script on a topic.

But if that’s something you’re interested in, add podcast or video script pieces to your writing samples to establish yourself as a promising candidate for these types of projects.

If you don’t mind ghostwriting (meaning that your name won’t be displayed as the author), writing eBooks for businesses that sell them is a great way to earn money as a writer. Similarly to podcasts, they’re lengthy and require lots of research –but the compensation usually matches the effort.

So if you’ve written eBooks –or want to get into writing them–, then samples or case studies to show your expertise will come in handy for your writing portfolio website .

How long should your content writing samples be?

The length of your samples will depend on a few things. Let’s start with the easiest.

If you’re adding a piece that was a previous project, the length is what it is. Although, for your portfolio, you can choose whether you want to showcase and publish the whole thing, or just an excerpt of it.

And that’s the second factor. Whether it’s a finished project or you’re just writing it now for your portfolio, you can always include just an excerpt of it. If it’s good enough that it shows your writing style, and your expertise in that specific type of writing, your sample doesn’t have to be thousands of words long.

Of course, if reading the whole piece is needed to assess your skills, write and publish it all. But showcasing only an excerpt can make reading it less overwhelming for the viewer. And as we all know, HR managers and potential clients often don’t have much time to review each content writing and copywriting portfolio . So making it easier for them by keeping the reading material shorter is a great idea.

How to format your content writing samples – a guide for freelancers and in-house content writers

This is another “it depends” kind of situation. Why?

Because if you’re applying for an in-house or agency position, the writing sample requirements might be very specific. They might ask you to send a certain number of samples that have specified length and format too. Or might even ask you to write something replying to a prompt or topic they gave you.

But if there are no such requirements, or you’re just putting your content writing portfolio together, you have more freedom in choosing the format. Our recommendation? A portfolio website , with each sample a separate project page.

Having your personal website with all of your content writing samples on there won’t only make you feel instantly more professional, but will also make it super easy for anyone to review your samples.

When each of your writing samples has its own project page, you have space to not only showcase the finished product but to also talk about how it came to be. Oftentimes the background information such as

• what the initial brief or your task description was,
• how you researched the topic and went around writing it up, and
• the impact it made, the conversions it drove,

...are just as important – and this format will enable you to write about all that.

Free content writing sample presentation template s

To make it even easier for you, we put together two free content writing sample templates. These templates will show you the ideal structure that a content writing sample project page should have.

If you follow one of these templates, your projects will be easier to review, will give insights into and background information on the project, and will convert better.

Create content writing sample pages based on this template easily with the help of prompts and guiding questions, and the super-fast page builder in Copyfolio — get started for free today, it's free, no credit card required!

This first template is for previous projects that are already published. Start out with your project title and follow up with a screenshot. It doesn’t have to show the whole piece, just that it exists and it’s out there.

People often simply link to the blogs and websites where their writing was published, but they forget one thing. It’s not guaranteed to stay there forever, unchanged. It happens that a company goes out of business, unpublishes some blog posts, or decides to change things in the copy you originally wrote. See how just linking to it becomes problematic?

But by providing a screenshot you can prove that it’s a real project that was published online.

Following the screenshot, write a few sentences about the project background. What was the task you were given? The brief or prompt you got? Who was the client you wrote for? Then, if you can, go into the creative process too.

In the end, show the final result. You can add large-enough images containing the content you wrote so that people can read it there - or even type it out. Additionally, you can link out to the live version of it online.

To maximize your conversions, always end with a clear CTA and your contact information. For example: “If you liked my writing and would like to work with me, email me at [email protected]”

This template is for you if you’re writing samples just to go in your portfolio. Because if you do that, you won’t be able to start out with a screenshot of your writing published online. You can still add a photo to make the whole page less overwhelming and easier on the eyes.

Next to the image, write a few sentences about its background and your process. Even if it’s a project you made up, you can still write about why you chose that topic and format, and how you got around to working on it.

For the final result, feel free to just type it out, or attach a screenshot of the document you wrote it in.

Collect your samples and add them to your portfolio with Copyfolio

The easiest way to create an online writing portfolio where you can add your content writing samples is using a website builder like Copyfolio.

Copyfolio was designed specifically for writers and will not only let you create a stunning website with just a few clicks but will help you with prompts and questions to write your case studies.

Just choose a template, write the copy, add your projects and you’re ready to go! Start building your professional writer website with Copyfolio, sign up today!

Dorka Kardos-Latif

Digital marketer & portfolio expert, the face behind all content on Copyfolio 👋

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17 Content Writing Examples, Samples, and Formats

The demand for content is insatiable. Nearly every small business, brand, blogger, and content marketing agency needs fresh, SEO-optimized content on a weekly – and sometimes daily – basis. If you’re considering launching a freelance web content writing career, stay tuned, because in this post we’re going to cover several content writing examples from a range of major industries. You can use them as guidelines to help you practice your content writing skills, or as inspiration for creating your own portfolio of writing samples.

Let’s jump in!

Content writing samples for beginners

In this section, we’ll look at samples of several major types of content writing , including SEO content, social media content, technical writing, and more.

Examples of SEO content

SEO content writing is a type of web writing that aims to influence search engine algorithms with the ultimate goal of ranking higher for a specific search query.

Example use cases for SEO writing include any scenario where a business’s goal is to drive traffic, leads, and customers via an Internet search. For example:

• Webpages such as service pages (e.g., “residential painting services Chicago”)
• E-commerce product descriptions, category pages, and buying guides
• Blog posts, including listicles, ultimate guides, tutorials, reviews, etc.

SEO writing follows on-page optimization best practices, including:

• Targeting one primary keyword (i.e., search query) per page
• Including secondary keyword phrases (i.e., related phrases with same or similar searcher intent as the primary keyword) throughout the content
• Including the primary and secondary keywords in key places throughout the content, such as the SEO title tag, H1 tag, first paragraph, subheadings, image alt tags, body copy, etc.
• Building external links to external relevant and authoritative sources
• Building internal links to related articles on the same website using appropriate anchor text
• Including elements such as subheads, bullet lists, images, etc.
• Avoiding over optimization or keyword stuffing
• Covering the topic comprehensively and avoiding “thin” or unoriginal content

If you frequently write web content, consider using DIY SEO software to help you keep track of the above on-page optimization tasks.

It’s important to remember that while SEO content is optimized for search engines, it should also be written with human readers in mind. For this reason, SEO content often includes elements of copywriting designed to persuade or convert readers, such as calls to action (CTAs).

The following are examples of SEO content writing:

The 8 Best Teas for a Sore Throat: Chamomile, Mint, and More (Artful Tea). A blog post targeting the keyword “best tea for sore throat” to sell tea products for an e-commerce store.

The Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens (Wayfair). Another example of a “best” post showcasing a variety of products on an e-commerce website.

How to Optimize Images for WordPress and Improve Your PageSpeed Score (WP Rocket). A technical tutorial targeting the keyword “how to optimize images for WordPress.” This blog post provides useful information to readers while also framing its product – in this case, a WordPress plugin – as a solution to their problem.

How to Choose a Hammock (REI). A typical example of an e-commerce “buying guide.” Instead of recommending products in the body of the post, the writer has opted to include calls to action (“Shop” buttons) throughout.

Original Kettle Charcoal Grill 18″ (Weber). A basic e-commerce product description with a bullet-point list outlining the features and benefits of the product. This is a typical sample of SEO content writing with copywriting mixed in.

Deck Painting (Wow 1 Day). A landing page for a company that offers a variety of painting services. In this content writing example, notice how the company is targeting a multiple very similar keywords in the subheadings (“deck painting,” “professional deck painting services,” “deck painting contractors,” “deck staining”, etc.). The post concludes with a call to action to book a free consultation.

In each of the examples above, note the primary keyword and secondary keyword phrases being used naturally, albeit strategically, throughout the content.

In addition, some of the examples include a FAQ section that borrows the questions from the “People Also Ask” section of the search results page. This is by design, to ensure that the topic is covered comprehensively and to increase the chances the article will rank when a searcher types in one of these questions.

Many freelance writers start their careers in the area of SEO content writing. With the vast number of websites, blogs, and online product catalogs increasing by the minute, the opportunities here are truly unlimited.

Examples of social media content

Unlike SEO content, social media posts don’t necessarily have to be written according to SEO best practices (although it doesn’t hurt to keep keywords in mind).

Instead, social media content should be optimized for engagement, such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks, as these are the behaviours that social media algorithms use to determine a post’s reach.

When writing for social media, consider using the following elements to increase engagement:

• Hashtags. Some social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, make use of hashtags to connect their post to a specific entity, theme, or trending topic. This way, anyone who searches for the hashtag will be able to find the content more easily. For instance, many brands use a brand hashtag at the end of each post or tweet.
• @usernames. If you share an image or blog post, consider “mentioning” (tagging) the people who are featured in it, or others who might be interested in it.
• Links to your blog or website. Give your followers a good reason to click on your links by continually providing value with the content you share. And don’t forget to use a link shortener like Bit.ly to make your links look more appealing.

Other ways to increase engagement include asking your followers questions, conducting polls, running contests, using calls to action, offering promo codes, sharing attention-grabbing images or videos, or using humour.

Unlike with SEO writing, there are no real rules for creating social media content (other than minding the maximum character count for each platform, staying on-brand, and protecting your or your client’s reputation!). So, there’s a lot more space to get creative, be clever, and even sprinkle in some emoji if that’s your thing.

The following two samples of social media content demonstrate how much room there is for variation in the format of a post, even on the same social platform.

In this example, The Honest Company creates a (rather long) Instagram post encouraging their followers to engage with the company’s profile for the chance to win a prize.

Pabst, on the other hand, seems to favor a much simpler approach to their social media marketing, with an Instagram post that simply says: “fancy.”

Examples of email content

Specializing in email copywriting can be a lucrative path for freelance writers. Many businesses and e-commerce operations rely on email as a primary marketing and sales channel.

As an email copywriter, you might be responsible for writing one-time email blasts or developing entire nurture series and even building out sales funnels. Therefore, email content writers must have solid copywriting skills.

If you’re interested in learning how to write email content, the best way to get your hands on some samples is to sign up to several email newsletters in your industry and pay attention to what they’re doing well.

Also, consider following and learning from these top email marketing experts:

• Ramit Sethi
• Joanna Wiebe
• Sujan Patel

Examples of technical content

Technical writing often conjures up mental images of user manuals with complicated diagrams and tiny print. But nowadays, “technical writing” often translates to technical blogging.

So if you have a knack for processes or concepts clearly and concisely, a freelance career as a writer for tech websites might be a great fit for you.

Below are some examples of technical content writing:

• How to Clean Your Car’s Engine (Car and Driver)
• Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac (Apple)
• How to resize your images (Adobe)

Industry-specific content writing samples

For more inspiration, check out the following content writing examples from specific industries:

• Fashion: 10+ Simple Outfits with Light Blue Jeans for Men . Article for a fashion affiliate site targeting keywords like “outfits with light blue jeans,” “what to wear with light blue jeans.”
• Education: Lesson summary: Introduction to Macroeconomics . An example of e-learning content. Note the use of bold and italic text, tables, bullet lists, etc., to aid learning.
• Food: Baked Potato . An SEO-optimized baked potato recipe. Looks delicious! Food bloggers are notorious for rambling on for days before getting to the actual ingredients and recipe. This gives them the opportunity to bulk up their content with a lot of SEO-friendly phrases such as “how long to bake a potato,” as you’ll notice in this post.
• Finance. How to Improve Credit Fast . An SEO-optimized how-to post for a finance affiliate site.
• Hotel. Where to Celebrate New Year’s Eve in Melbourne . A smart piece of content marketing by a hotel, complete with a call to action at the end of the blog post.

How do beginners write content?

The first step before beginning any new writing project — say, as a sample for your writing portfolio — is to get clear on the following points:

• Objective. What is the ultimate goal of your writing project? Is it to teach readers a new skill? Sell a product? Grow an email list? Drive traffic for a target keyword?
• Format. What type of content are you writing? A sales page? An SEO-optimized blog post? A Facebook post? What is the structure and word count?
• Audience. Who is the target audience? What industry or niche are you targeting? What’s their knowledge or experience level with the topic you’re writing about? What’s their job title? Etc.

Next, prepare a content brief or outline incoming any subheads, main points, and bullet lists you want to include. To speed up the writing process, consider including a target word count for each subhead so you don’t end up going over your target word count when you write the article.

Finally, write the content, making sure to follow SEO guidelines if applicable.

Download our beginner content writing samples PDF (English) for an example content brief and its corresponding article, plus an on-page SEO checklist.

How do I become a content writer with no experience?

If you have no previous freelance writing experience, don’t despair: You can create your own portfolio of writing samples from scratch. This is exactly how I landed my first writing clients.

The truth is, most prospective clients either don’t care or won’t ask about your previous writing experience. They only want to know that you have a working knowledge of their industry and can communicate that knowledge clearly in writing.

So don’t let a lack of experience stop you from achieving your dream.

Here’s how to get up and running as quickly as possible:

Choose a niche. If you specialize in a certain industry, such as finance, or a specific type of writing, such as email copywriting — or both — you can charge higher rates for your services.

Write 1-3 samples. Just 1-3. Don’t overthink this. You really don’t need 20 different samples across 20 different industries to start getting paid to write. As noted above, remember to determine the objective, format, and audience of your writing sample at the outset. Then get writing!

Create a website to showcase your portfolio samples. This step is optional but recommended. I also recommend getting a domain name and web host and building a self-hosted website with WordPress.org (not WordPress.com). There are plenty of WordPress themes made for showcasing freelance portfolios.

Decide on your rates. Again, don’t overthink this, as you can always change your rates later on. Just make sure not to set them too low. Look around at what others are charging in your niche and start there.

Start pitching your services. You can cold email businesses in your industry, reach out to SEO and content marketing agencies, or use writing job boards and freelance sites like ProBlogger and Upwork .

What does a content writer actually do?

Content writers create SEO-optimized content for businesses and marketing agencies. Typical writing assignments for a content writer include blog posts , website pages, e-commerce product descriptions and buying guides, and social media posts.

Clients will often provide a content brief or outline for the writer to work from. The brief will usually include the following information:

• Primary keyword
• Secondary keywords
• Type and purpose of content (blog post, social media post, etc.)
• Target audience
• Formatting instructions (subheads, bullet lists, etc.)
• Brand style guidelines, such as tone
• Required word count
• Any calls to action that should be included

In addition to writing skills, content writers must have a working knowledge of SEO best practices, and ideally some copywriting experience as well. They may also be required to collaborate (typically remotely) with editors and project managers , so good teamwork skills are a plus.

What are good writing sample topics?

If you need inspiration for creating your writing portfolio, consider creating some samples for one or more of the following major content writing niches:

• Fashion (e.g., “what to wear with sweatpants”)
• Education (e.g., “how to write a thesis statement”)
• Food (e.g., “how to boil eggs perfectly”)
• Finance (e.g., “best credit cards for travel points”)
• Hotel (e.g., “things to do in san diego with kids”)

See content writing samples for each of these niches earlier in this post.

Final thoughts

I hope these content writing examples sparked your creativity and opened your eyes to the many possibilities that are out there for freelance content writers. Too much information can be overwhelming, though, so remember not to overthink it. Start creating your own portfolio of samples today so you can start getting paid to write as soon as possible.

Similar Posts

16 Types of Content Writing to Consider for Your Business

How to Write Blog Posts Faster: 15 Tricks to Try

What Is a Content Brief? (And How to Write One)

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25+ Content Writing Examples, Best Practices, and Useful Tools

Organizations use data to analyze their customer behavior. They study what their customers are searching for and what kind of content they are likely to consume. This insightful data is then used to plan and create content that is relevant and meaningful to their customers

Great content comes with great effort. Any organization on its way to creating a marketing strategy cannot ignore content today. This blog will focus on collating some winning content marketing examples, best practices used in the industry, and content writing tools that will make your job as a content marketer easy. 

A fantastic visionary that he is, Bill Gates could see deep into the future. In an essay written in 1996, he wrote with conviction about how content is king. In 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant “new normal” have drastically changed the way people buy, sell, and work across the globe. Businesses have no option but to adapt and change. This entire situation has propelled the online space to the stature of a marketing hub. We are at a point where leading organizations across the globe are adopting content-led marketing strategies. 

In a digitally connected world, content is the new gold mine. Organizations and brands across the globe are using content to leverage their products and services. With more and more consumers moving online, the more agile brands have quickly made the shift. They are using content to tell their story and create brand value among their consumers.

But Wait. What Exactly is Content Writing?

Content writing is the art and science of creating content for the digital medium. Yes, you read that right. It is a finely crafted art as much as it is science. Why do we say that? Well, you will agree that writing is an art form. It requires someone to logically and meticulously put together thoughts into a coherent, readable format. But why is it a science? Because every piece of writing needs to have a structure. It must present a point of view in a well-framed, grammatically correct manner. The best content comes from a great mix of these two traits. 

Organizations use data to analyze customer behavior . They study what their customers are searching for and what kind of content they are likely to consume. Then, this insightful data is used to plan and create relevant and meaningful content for their customers. While science defines what needs to be written, it is the art and craft of writing that helps create highly readable and engaging content .

Different Types of Content Writing

Content is created primarily for digital marketing. Just like water takes the shape of its container, writing must mold itself to the medium. The tone, tenor, style, and length of the written piece must change based on where it will appear. Here are some classic content writing types :

• Scriptwriting for videos
• Writing for e-zines
• Newsletters
• Social media posts
• Case studies
• White papers
• Website content
• Landing page content
• YouTube video description
• E-commerce product description
• Reviews (books, movies, product, or service)
• How-to guides

While this list does not cover the vast ocean of content writing possibilities, it will give you an idea of what comes within its purview. From technology to recipes, from education to entertainment, from food to science, content can be created for any topic under the sun and beyond.

We have already established that content is the key marketing tool for any organization in today’s world. What, when, and who to write for is defined by an organization’s marketing strategy. Organizations or individuals setting out to make their mark must ensure that their content is customer-centric. This calls for a deep understanding of customer behavior, both online and offline. Brands have moved away from talking about what they can do for their customers. Instead, they speak about what the customer would like to hear within the context of their brand. In the highly competitive online space, content must be interesting and unusual to retain customer interest. The challenge is to create such content consistently .

8 Best Content Writing Examples

So, in short, organizations need to tune themselves to their customers’ frequency. They must clearly define their audience and create suitable content for this target segment. If customers find their content interesting, they will stay tuned, interact with the brand, and maybe even share it with their friends. Therefore, it is important to write honest and targeted content.

Here is a closer look at a few content writing examples via brands that seem to have got their content marketing formula right. They have a massive social media presence. They have a signature content style and have consistently maintained it through the years. This has resulted in their large social media following. Safe to say, they seem to have honed the art of creating content that connects with their customers.

1. Amul 

The iconic Amul girl graduated seamlessly from the traditional print advertising medium to the online space. This helped the brand stay connected with their customers while adding a new base of a younger audience. By maintaining the style and tone of its content in the online space, the company has earned the love and respect of its audience. Their communication is always topical, offering a brilliant mix of humor and current affairs. The brand also has frequent contests in its online space to keep its customers engaged and entertained. It is one of the best content writing examples.

2. Flipkart

A product of the e-commerce boom in India, Flipkart is a relatively new entrant to the market. However, they are in a highly competitive space, and they understood early on that they must follow the customer journey from research to actual purchase. 

User-generated content like customer reviews and recommendations forms an integral part of their content strategy. They maintain an active social media presence across all channels and ensure constant interaction with their customers through contests. Their Big Billion Day sale is a brand by itself, and customers withhold their purchases as they wait for this sale, much like the iconic Black Friday sale.

Like Flipkart, Zomato is a “millennial” brand that engages with customers largely between the age group of 18 to 40. It is a food delivery app that offers a listing of restaurants. The company uses a versatile range of content to engage with its customers; this includes blogs, videos, and infographics. Their target base is clear: foodies. They also send out constant emails to their database of customers on topics ranging from food to safety. This is an excellent strategy, as it helps keep them on top of the customers’ minds. Their quirky, 

topical, and witty catch on food consumption behavior hold their large base of customers joyfully engaged. Again, an exceptional content writing example. 

4. Fevicol 

“ Fevicol ka mazboot jodd hai, tootega nahin ” is an iconic sentence, without which the history of the Indian advertising industry will remain incomplete. Be it Kareena Kapoor’s dazzling dance number “Fevicol se” or PM Modi’s speech in which he says India-Japan relations are stronger than Fevicol, the brand has glued itself to the Indian collection of words and phrases. 

This extraordinary journey began with a textbook marketing tactic: directly approaching the target audience ( carpenters). After gripping the entire market and implementing brilliant strategies, this digital content writing example has come a long way from conventional newspaper ads to rocking meme games on social media. 

Bumble is more than a dating app, connecting like-minded people for friendships as well. The marketing strategy of this product is noteworthy, from maintaining an all-yellow (also the color of happiness!) theme throughout their profile to reeling in trending influencers. Bumble is famous for launching quirky campaigns that tick all the boxes. The most famous one is the one regarding women “making the first move.” Bumble is a women-first dating app, and they are not afraid to leverage this fact. This is one of the best digital marketing content writing examples.

Nobody can start a sentence with the word “Paytm” and not finish it with the famous “Paytm Karo .” Paytm India’s topical marketing strategy and overall branding communication have helped the brand become an intangible neighborhood of their users’ lives. They’re able to find branding opportunities in mundane online trends, instantly becoming a platform for a much bigger, topical conversation. Paytm sneaks marketing and branding in its entire online presence. 

7. Simplify360 

Simplify360 explains interactions with customers and audiences across different social media platforms for leading businesses. It also allows you to keep tabs on your customer reviews and answer them. Their social media feeds comprise detailed guides on customer management, sales conversion methods, and statistics-supported social media analytics. Simplify360’s marketers seem to highlight their skills and features through their posts and hashtags extensively. This brand acts as the perfect content marketing example. 

8. Shaadi.com

It is right there in its name— shaadi ! But, can you imagine a brand discouraging its value proposition? Shaadi.com recently launched a campaign where they conducted a survey among women and found out that around 82% of women do not want to rush into marriage. This survey and the advertisement around it garnered a lot of attention and applause. While raising a serious issue, they also drew attention to their easy-to-use, user-friendly interface, suitable for all types of people and mindsets. Isn’t this content writing example mind-blowing? Other than that, they are known for their emotional campaigns as well. 

Content Writing Best Practices

COVID-19 has irrevocably disrupted the traditional marketing funnel. It has driven more people and organizations online than ever before. Although the e-commerce growth figures in India were not as high as they were in other big markets like the United States and China, the industry is optimistic about the financial year 2022. This also means that organizations must have their content strategy in place and employ proven best content practices to leverage the online presence of their customers.

1. Have a clear content strategy

Your content needs to be customer-centric. It must engage with your audience, and it must convince them that you can help meet their needs or solve their problem somehow. It must imply that you understand their situation and empathize with them. Any content created must be about what the customer wants to hear rather than what the organization wishes to say.

2. Have a deep understanding of your target audience 

Who is your customer? What are their likes and dislikes? What are the challenges they face (in the context of your brand), and how can you solve those challenges for them? Any content created must strive to answer these questions. Build a customer persona and ensure that your content is always about your customers. It should reassure them that you are earnest about solving their problem.

3. Create content that connects with your customer

Once you have clearly defined who your target audience is, it is important to create content that resonates with them. Content that they can relate to so that they, in turn, share it and talk about it with their friends. Make your content so compelling that customers begin to interact and, over time, build a relationship with your brand.

4. Create the right mix of content

Ensure you hold your customers’ interest by offering them a fantastic mix of content . Incorporate blogs, videos, social media posts, infographics, and thought leadership material into your content marketing plan. Give your customers a reason to keep coming back to you.

Source 

5. Ensure your content is SEO-compliant

Optimize your content. This is an important best practice for SEO content writing. This means you must add all the relevant keywords, descriptions, alt tags, and meta tags. How can you do this? You need to obtain data on what your customers are looking for and create content based on their requirements. Ensure that there is a mix of the right keywords in your content to attract and retain your customer’s attention.

6. Make your content engaging

Once the content is out there in cyberspace, your customers should consume it and stay engaged with your brand. How can you do this? Keep your content simple and relevant, engage in storytelling, use humor, use images and statistics, and keep it topical and honest. Above all, once you arrive at a tone and style, stay consistent, so that you do not confuse your customer. This is equally important in social media content writing . 

7. Have a compelling call to action

Now you’ve got awesome content out there. Your customer reads it or views it, and then what? It’s important to have a relevant and logical call to action (CTA). What is the answer, reaction, or activity you want from your customers? Do you want them to fill a form, register on your site, sign up for your event, or bookmark your upcoming sale? Whatever it is, ensure your customer perfectly understands what action is expected. A clear CTA is essential to meet your desired communication objective. 

8. Have impeccable grammar 

There is nothing more off-putting than badly written,  grammatically incorrect content. Be picky about grammar. Ensure that your content is constructed coherently and has a logical flow – regardless of whether it is a written medium, a social media post, or a video. Also, make sure that you get your facts right. Be meticulous so that your customers don’t feel let down. Check your punctuation, or it can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Dot your Is and cross your Ts.

12 Content Writing Tools to Bookmark 

Does generating the right content seem a little overwhelming? It need not be. There are plenty of content writing tools out there to help you at every stage of content creation – from ideation and design to conclusion.  

1. Hemingway Editor 

It makes sure that your writing is simple, lucid, and grammatically correct. It uses color codes to point out issues in your sentence structure. For instance, this content writing tool highlights long, complex sentences in yellow. If you see a sentence marked in red, know that the sentence is long and hard to understand. It pinpoints large words so you can think of smaller, simpler terms. It is easy to use and even helps you format your content well.

2. Grammarly

It is an AI-powered content writing tool that can help you create impactful, error-free content. It rates content based on correctness, delivery, engagement, and clarity. 

This tool scans data points and helps you create SEO-friendly content. It is driven by AI, and helps you search for keywords, edit content, as well as audit your overall piece. 

4. YoastSEO

It is an extremely popular WordPress plugin. Yoast helps you manage titles, tags, descriptions, and keywords. It also helps track how often you are using the keywords.

5. Copyscape

It is one of the best content writing tools to check your content for plagiarism. As soon as you enter your content into the box, it combs content across the internet to check whether your piece is original. 

6. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

It is a fantastic tool that assists you in writing powerful headlines within the prescribed word limit.

7. Cliché Finder

Do you have a penchant for repeating your favorite word? Cliché Finder is your go-to app. It will find and highlight words that have been repeated too often and help enhance the quality of your writing.

8. Readable 

Keep in mind the average reader’s ability. We don’t want readers trying to find word meanings in a dictionary. They won’t. They will simply lose interest and go away. So your content must be readable. And this is where this content writing tool can help you. It ensures that your content is simple and easy to read.

9. Hubspot Blog Ideas Generator

All you have to do is enter a word, and it opens the floodgates of topic ideas. It is effective in helping you come up with blog ideas regularly. 

10. SEMrush

SEMrush has more than 50 tools, add-ons, and products to help you market better online. From finding keywords and enhancing your overall SEO efforts to auditing your content, you can find everything here. 

11. Evernote

Evernote comes with useful features like templates for blog posts, reviews, planners, annual calendars, meeting notes, strategic planning, event budgets, checklists, and so on. 

12. Google Analytics

This is a free service by Google that helps get insights into different parameters regarding content. These include website traffic, advertising ROI, and more. 

13. Pepper Docs

Pepper Docs is an online writing platform that provides a range of features to help writers create, edit, and collaborate on written content. It also enables the sharability of documents with other users and the tracking of changes in real time. Additionally, the platform integrates with various other apps to streamline workflows and boost productivity. Some features of Pepper Docs include content rewriter, plagiarism checker, keyword researcher, and more.

To conclude, it is clear that content marketing is the way forward. Whether you are an individual looking to make your mark as a content writer or an organization seeking to build your online presence, content is key. Therefore, you must devise a strategy for the whole year and plan your content dissemination accordingly. Remember to use an interesting mix of content that includes social media posts, blogs, and videos. Podcasts are emerging as the next big thing in the content space, so you might want to consider adding that to your mix. 

The best part about digital media is that you can evaluate what is working and what is not. 

The trick is to orient your content according to what customers seem to consume more of. At the same time, ensure your content is topical and relevant to the consumers. Once you have a winning content formula in place, run with it, stay consistent with the style, and be honest about the promises you make. Because, as Maya Angelou says, “At the end of the day, people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”

Key Takeaways

• Content marketing supported by great content writing is an important arsenal in any brand’s marketing strategy today. 
• Content writing is the fine-crafted art and structural science of making content for digital media. 
• The different types of content writing examples on the digital front include blogs, scriptwriting for videos, emailers, social media posts, whitepapers, etc. All of these are important for the digital growth of a brand. 
• Some of the best practices in content writing include optimizing for SEO, understanding your target audience, and creating the right content mix for your brand. 

Content, today, comes in all shapes and sizes, from the written word to an engaging video. A good content marketing strategy uses a mix of different types of content to reach your target audience. Some examples of content include blogs, emailers, newsletters, social media posts, case studies, and more.

Apart from the necessary skills, motivation and passion are crucial to write content that compels audiences to take action.

SEO content writing is the art of writing content keeping the practices of SEO in mind. The idea is to plan, create, and optimize content with the goal of ranking it in search engine results.

Content writing tools are important to create engaging and unique content. Some of their benefits include: – Improved writing – Enhanced readability – Fresh ideas  – Structured content

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5 Content Writing Samples: Examples You Can Learn From

Whether you’re looking for a content writer for your business’s website…

Or a s a writer, you’ve seen tons of recent job postings for SEO content writers and you’re interested in adding an extra skill to your resume…

You’ve come to the right place. Bill Gates once wrote, “Content is King.” 

Decades later, as more and more businesses try to draw in customers through online interactions, we can’t help but agree with him. 

Today, businesses of all types are looking for someone to create content to help them build an online presence and create connections.

In this guide, we’ll show you:

• Concrete, easy ways to improve your writing
• How written content connects with readers
• Ways to influence potential customers/clients using written content

Don't Have Time To Read The Whole Guide Now?

We can send you a free PDF copy so you can read whenever you have time. It takes less than 10 seconds.

What Is Content Writing?

5 content writing sample articles, additional content marketing writing samples: portland seo growth, proof that our content writing samples perform well from an seo perspective.

We can share writing samples all day long.

But if you don’t know if they perform well, then who cares?

Here’s an example of a travel nurse staffing agency we’ve worked with for nearly 2 years. Below, we’ll share 3 writing samples (go ahead and read through the articles).

Q3 of 2022: This one content writing sample drove 4,488 organic visitors from Google

Q3 of 2022: This one content writing sample drove 3,036 organic visitors from Google

•  Where Do Travel Nurses Find Housing? A Comprehensive Guide to Travel Nurse Housing – here’s the link Q3 of 2022: This one content writing sample drove 2,792 organic visitors from Google

Q3 of 2022, across ALL content on their site (which we’ve supported with) drove 48,035 organic visitors from Google

Anything you put on the internet is considered content— Instagram posts, LinkedIn articles, newsletters, blog posts, etc.

The simplest definition of content writing is this : providing online users with relevant written information targeted toward a specific audience.   

For example, the content you’re currently reading targets people like you, who are looking for content creators or content writing samples.

Business owners are becoming more and more aware that written content plays a massive role in the success of their business.

 In fact, 70% of people prefer to get information about a company from written content , like a blog post, verses from an online advertisement. 

By providing consumers with free and useful information over the web, a business can: 

• Build authority and credibility in their industry
• Attract potential customers to their website
• Develop long-lasting relationships with customers
• Improve brand recognition and awareness 

Why SEO Content Writing Samples Are So Valuable

SEO content writing samples are extremely valuable because they can help you learn what quality SEO content writing looks like. Have you ever been to a blog and scrolled right through because you were overwhelmed by the amount of content on the page? Those websites aren’t good SEO content writing examples. But they are an example of why it’s so important to know what quality SEO content looks like.

What Does SEO Writing Involve?

• Conducting keyword research
• Learning proper post structure
• Creating comprehensive content — using keywords and phrases
• Connecting with your readers/customers easily

Creating valuable SEO content not only shows that you understand readers’ needs and you know how to help, but it also means that Google’s algorithm will recognize your content. Google knows that when someone is using the search engine, they are searching something specific.

And they want to find it, fast.

In fact , according to TIME , the average internet user only spends up to 15 seconds on a page. 

That means, as a writer, you have less than 15 seconds to connect with someone who’s come to your website.  

How can you connect with someone in less than 15 seconds?  

By creating content that is optimized for search engines.  

How Can Viewing SEO Content Writing Samples Benefit My Business?

Taking the time to view SEO content samples before creating your website pages, or blog posts, you’ll be a step ahead of your competition.

SEO content can take your business to the next level.

On-page SEO and Local SEO help improve brand awareness by bringing potential customers to your website, introducing them to content that adds value to their life, and lands your business a new customer.

Google, as well as your potential customers, are looking for quality content that answers their questions quickly.

Curious about how SEO content writing can benefit your business? 

Portland SEO Growth services Portland-based businesses and businesses across the United States. Click here to learn more.

We believe in practicing what we preach. 

You’ve learned why SEO content writing is so important.

Now, we will show you how writing SEO content —or hiring a SEO content writing company like Portland SEO Growth— can lead to a more successful business. 

Instead of only telling you how to write quality content, we’re going to show you five web content writing samples that show how written content can influence readers and connect with potential clients.

1. Relate to Your Audience - Bridgetown Aesthetics

Bridgetown Aesthetics always focuses on the importance of  relating to their audience. 

We’re helping them with medical spa SEO to help them rank at the top of Google, and quality content is critical to their success.

The company knows how to connect with their reader and remind the reader that they can provide services they are interested in. 

Here’s an example of how:

Know Your Target Audience and Have Them In Mind As You Write

In this Bridgetown Aesthetics piece, the writer had their viewers in mind. 

They knew that if someone clicked on the page, they were most likely struggling with migraines and looking for relief. 

In less than 15 seconds, the person reading this article can find the answer to their question. 

Knowing your target audience— in this case it was people looking to get rid of wrinkles on their forehead —and creating content that is easy to relate to is key to developing engagement with your brand or product. 

If readers aren’t engaged, they aren’t likely to stay on your website or buy your products.

2. Build Credibility - Power Wizard

Power Wizard is a company that helps Texas residents find the best electricity plans for their homes or businesses. 

In order to build and strengthen relationships with their customers, PW understands that they have to show authenticity. Let’s look at a content writing sample that helped Power Wizard build credibility by doing some simple research.

Do Your Research

Internet users are coming to your website looking for reliable information. 

Think of yourself as an internet detective—a content writing problem solver.

Google users are searching for answers to their questions. In order to gain credibility, the facts you provide not only need to be valuable, but correct. 

By doing your research and using credible sources, you will gain trust, and build your website’s authority. Take this Power Wizard article, for example:

This article is answering the following question:

Can landlords turn off tenants’ electricity in TX? The writer could have responded with a simple yes or no. 

But a reader would then likely leave Power Wizard’s website to go find out why . 

Instead, the writer provides a Texas law that states what landlords can and cannot do. Now, the person reading the article not only found insights they were searching for, but they know why. 

By providing reliable sources, Power Wizard builds authority with potential customers while adding tremendous value.

Let’s assume Power Wizard embedded a link into the text that leads to the law, this would also increase their authority with search engines. 

3. Include a Call to Action - American Dream U

Creating content for websites is about drawing people in, answering questions, and solving their problems. 

American Dream U is a resource created for veterans and their families who are in transition from the military into the civilian workplace. In the following snippets, ADU’s content writer creates connections by writing pieces that encourage readers to think: “ Yes, I want more information! What else can I find while I’m on this website. ”

Keep Your Content Writing Actionable

American Dream U’s primary goal is to help veterans and their families as they successfully transition into life outside of the military. 

Content writing involves convincing readers to take action. This is known as creating a call-to-action .

See the banner at the top on the top of this content? 

ADU knows that many of their potential clients are looking for resources to help them find a job outside of the military. The banner encourages veterans to click the button, stay on the website, and take a free course that will help them find their dream job. 

ADU does a superb job of keeping readers on their website and providing them with valuable information.

People want to know why they should click a link, or subscribe to a newsletter, etc. 

At the end of this article, the writer introduces the reader to another page that will provide more information they may be looking for. This simple call-to-action keeps people from straying away from the company’s site. 

Aside from their great calls-to-action, ADU always puts its audience first. 

Veterans and their families feel understood and appreciated when they visit the website.

4. Create Readable Content - Clarity Council

Have you ever landed on a website and felt overwhelmed by the amount of information the writer was throwing at you in one paragraph?

It happens all over the internet. 

Creating content that is eye catching and engaging is something Clarity Council knows how to do.

Write Readable: Don’t Overuse Italics, Bold, or Underlining

Using numbered lists and bullet points is a simple way to break up large blocks of text and keep readers interested.

This excerpt from one of Clarity Council’s blog shows how content can be structured with SEO in mind: 

It didn’t take you long to read through that sample, right? 

The author successfully broke up the content, making it easy to skim. 

If someone is looking for a specific answer, their eyes are likely to go straight toward the bold text. 

But as a content writer, it’s vital to understand that overusing these tricks can cause the reverse effect. 

What if you read a sentence like this ?  What part of the sentence are you paying the most attention to?

Those two sentences probably weren’t easy to digest. 

Understandably so.

That’s because your eyes and brain couldn’t figure out which part to focus on. Avoid fancy fonts, overly exaggerated typography, and lengthy paragraphs. 

These simple tricks help people find what they’re looking for quickly and walk away remembering something.

5. Tone Matters - Chiavaye

The following content writing samples are from the blog of a company called Chiavaye. Chiavaye is a lubricant company that was created for women, by a woman who suffers from endometriosis. 

In these writing samples you’ll see how, when appropriate, creating content that is conversational and direct can fit well with some brands.

Her tone is light, but empathetic. 

Then, without beating around the bush, the author gets directly to the point – that women experiencing these symptoms aren’t alone and there are solutions to their problem. 

Here’s another look at Chiaveye’s website:

Do you see how the content writer makes it easy for women to relate?

If the woman reading the article is experiencing endometriosis with IBS symptoms, she may be thinking, “Yes! Finally someone who understands what I’m going through!”

The writer shows compassion and provides a preview of how Chiavaye can help the reader find the answers they’ve been looking for.

Use The Right Tone

For a company like Chiavaye, a conversational, yet direct tone is appropriate for the audience the owner is trying to reach. This isn’t always the case.

For instance, say you’re writing for a local pharmaceutical company. 

A light, conversational, fun tone, probably isn’t appropriate. Instead, a more professional, tactical tone might be necessary.  Learning the voice of your business/client makes all the difference in connecting with your audience. When your audience feels understood and comfortable, they are more likely to return for more information and ultimately purchase your product or service.

Th snippet above also illustrates the importance of creating a compelling introduction. The writer uses what’s known as the APP method . Created by Brian Dean, APP stands for Agree, Promise, Preview. 

Here’s how it works:

First, the writer acknowledges the symptoms women may be experiencing: pain, gas, and bloating.  

She understands just how uncomfortable, inconvenient and confusing these symptoms can be. Women reading the article are likely nodding their heads in agreement.  

Then, the author promises that she has the answers her readers are looking for.

Finally, before jumping into the content, the writer gives a preview of what the guide is going to include and how she can help her readers find a solution.

Using the APP method, you can immediately connect with your audience.  

They know what the piece of content is about and if it will be useful to them.

6. Bonus Example! Create a LOT of Valuable Content - Senior Services of America

Writing one amazing piece of content is great.

It’s a starting point. But…

It’s really not going to change your business’s life.

We’re helping Senior Services America with assisted living SEO services. On top of helping them rank locally, we’re creating rich, engaging content that their target audience (seniors or the children of seniors) care about.

We’ve written over 50 pieces of content for their site. No AI. No weird “automation”. Real, pen-to-paper content.

The more high-quality content you can create, the more keywords you can rank for on Google, the more visitors to your site, and the more conversions you’ll get.

• “how much does senior living cost per month” = this article is ranking first
• “skilled nursing facility vs assisted living” = this article is ranking first
• “does social security disability pay for assisted living” = this article is ranking first

They’re ranking first on Google for dozens and dozens of keywords.

You’re probably thinking “cool, they’re ranking for keywords. Businesses don’t care about rankings.”

And yes, you would be correct. They care about traffic & leads.

Well, Senior Services of America last month had 53,087 organic visitors to their site from Google last month . Before working with us they were averaging 3,000 organic visitors from Google per month.

Content Marketing Samples by Industry

As we’ve already discussed, content marketing is so dependent on industry.

If you’re doing photography SEO and writing content for your blog, then your tone, style, and design should look VERY different than a lawyer’s blog.

Lifestyle Content Sample:

Here’s a great lifestyle content sample from Epic Gardening.

The screenshot below is from their blog post about how to grow sunflowers.

Why is this so great? It’s INCREDIBLY easy to digest. And that’s what users want!

Professional Content Sample:

Here’s a great professional content sample from Flexbase .

The screenshot below is from their page about Lien Waivers in Texas (seems boring, huh? Just wait for it!)

Why is this so great? While it’s professionally written and speaks the “language” of construction companies, it’s also easy to digest and comprehend. It’s not hard for the user. They understand what Flexbase offers very, very quickly. 

Without SEO content, it’s almost impossible for your website to rank with search engines. 

Here at Portland SEO Growth, we understand how important content is in order to lead people to your business. And we want to help your business succeed. 

We create valuable content that gets your business seen by search engines and your customers.

Are you ready to create content that drives traffic and builds revenue?

Are you looking for additional content writing samples? Are you wondering how an experienced team with proven results can help you utilize SEO content? Portland SEO Growth can help. 

• Free SEO Resources
• Keyword Research by Topic

Our Services

• Multilocation SEO
• National SEO
• International SEO Consulting

About & Contact

• Portland SEO Growth Partners
• Portland, OR
• (503) 487-8677

Industries We Serve

• SEO For Accountants
• SEO For Art Galleries
• SEO For Assisted Living
• SEO For Bookkeepers
• SEO For Chiropractors
• SEO For Contractors
• SEO For Construction Companies
• SEO For CrossFit Gyms
• SEO For Dispensaries
• SEO for Florists
• SEO for Flooring Companies
• SEO For Furniture Stores
• SEO For HVAC
• SEO For Interior Designers
• SEO For Jewelers
• SEO For Medical Practices
• SEO For Medical Spas
• SEO For Orthodontists
• SEO For Orthopedic Doctors
• SEO For Painters
• SEO For Pest Control Companies
• SEO For Photographers
• SEO For Physical Therapist
• SEO For Plumbers
• SEO For Psychologists
• SEO For Real Estate Agents
• SEO For Remodelers
• SEO For Roofers
• SEO For Veterinarians
• SEO For Web Designers
• SEO For Wineries

Content Brief Templates: 20 Free Downloads & Examples

Content briefs are critical to managing and streamlining your content program, but building your content brief templates from scratch is a painstaking process, and you’re often reinventing the wheel.

In this post, we’ll list 19 free and paid content brief templates for you to get started faster. We’ll also show you how Content Harmony’s content brief software allows your team to quickly generate more consistent briefs for your writers, so you can publish more of what works — blog posts, product pages, or landing pages.

How To Automate Your Content Brief Templates

If you really want to make your content brief template into a robust process for your team to work more effectively, you'll need more than a single template. What most teams need is a templating system that allows you to quickly customize briefs to each client, project, page type, and more.

Content Harmony’s new Content Brief generation workflow and our content brief templating system allow your team to build completely customized brief templates and easily populate them with data-driven research from our Keyword Reports .

The end result? Professionally-formatted content briefs, based on live data, built in minutes instead of hours with your current brief building process.

Take a look at how easy it is to build a brief in Content Harmony:

👉 Try our full-featured trial for $10 and build the best briefs in the world

Free Content Brief Templates

1. content harmony’s free content brief template.

[Scroll down to download versions for Google Docs, Notion & MS Word]

Content Harmony’s brief template is based on our experience building out a content marketing agency and working with dozens of writers during that timeframe.

We believe that the best content briefs do most of the heavy lifting and provide structure for the intended piece of content, while giving a writer creative freedom and flexibility to approach the topic as they wish.

That’s why Content Harmony’s content brief template starts with the high-level details — the intended title tag, H1, meta description, target audience, and estimated word count so writers can factor that in when they’re beginning their work.

Directly below the ‘Content Overview’ section is where the magic starts. Here, you can dive into the details of what the content is about, including suggested H2s, H3s & H4s. This section also covers the business & SEO essentials such as:

• Primary & semantically related keywords
• Common questions people ask on the topic
• Additional page elements such as tables, screenshots, or featured snippet attempts
• Internal & external link suggestions
• Other resources to help the writer

Further down the brief is where you can help your writer understand who they’re writing for and the kind of tone you want them to infuse into the content. Audience-specific details go a long way in guiding a writer—the more information you can provide them about the targeted readers and the brand’s stance on the topic, the better.

An expert-level audience will be turned off if they find the content to be high-level and lacking in technicality. Expect the reverse if your audience is newbies or folks just starting out. And as the marketing adage goes: content that speaks to everyone ends up speaking to no one.

Skilled writers can tailor their copy for specific audiences and encourage readers to take certain actions—but they’ll need the strategist to fill in the gaps before getting started. That’s where you’re going to need to fill in as many details as possible to prevent content rewrites.

💾 Google Docs Version

To download our content brief template for Google Docs, simply click the link below and click "Make A Copy" to import it in your personal Drive.

👉 Copy Google Doc Version

💾 Notion Version

Content Harmony’s content brief template for Notion is refactored from our Google Docs version with a few tweaks to make it on-brand.

Click ‘duplicate’ to copy an editable version into your Notion dashboard.

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2. Portent’s Content Brief Template

• Source: Portent
• Style: Comprehensive
• Format: PDF

Portent's content brief template is well put together, starting off with a 'summary' section that organizes high-level information that's useful for the writer before they get started.

Things like audience insights, primary CTA, and the goal of the article help set the stage and enable the writer to approach the piece with either an educational/informational mindset or a conversion-driven goal.

Lower down the template are the necessary SEO details—target keywords, internal links, title tag, meta description, and more. It's good to see Portent leading with the audience & brand details before diving into the SEO stuff, since it's clear they're optimizing for the reader first.

The PDF file isn't directly editable, but it should be straightforward to download the file and build out your own variation on Google Docs or Notion. And if you're confused by the 'Strategy Goals' section at the top, we believe it's meant to point to the goal of the specific content asset — what action is it trying to encourage?

3. Contentfolks' ABCD Content Brief Framework (Article)

• Source: Contentfolks
• Style: Great at including brand-specific data
• Format: Google Docs

Dr. Fio's content brief template is a great example of getting outside of the basic competitor data that most briefs start with, and adding more brand-specific information and data:

Audience → the people you’re creating your content for Brand → the company and product behind the piece Context → piece-specific instructions (e.g. keywords or internal links) Details → useful information for planning and building the piece

Even if you're working on very competitor-focused topic areas where exceeding competitors is critical, I think all briefs need to focus on how their brand can show they're better, not just their content.

Subscribe to Dr. Fio's Substack while you're over there.

4. Avo’s Content Brief Template (Google Docs)

• Source: Avo
• Style: Good for beginners

Avo’s content brief template leans slightly towards the technical / project management side, but it does its job well overall. The first page includes things like the content type, intended word count, due date, and content summary while lower down the brief are sections for audience details, keywords, and business goals.

Things like recommended internal and external link targets, desired CTAs (what should the content encourage the reader to do next?), visual information, and related questions to be answered are not included in the template, but a skilled strategist should be able to add those without much fuss.

5. Writing Studio’s Content Brief Template

• Source: Writing Studio
• Style: Professional

Writing Studio’s content brief template is fairly no frills but includes all the sections your writer needs to produce content. Each row seems small but it’s really up to the strategist to make it as detailed as possible. Things like target audience, objective, and headings deserve a lot of information to make the job easier for your writer and to ensure that the piece of content satisfies both search intent and brand goals.

6. Convince & Convert’s Content Brief Template

• Source: Convince & Convert

What we like about Convince & Convert’s content brief template is that it’s one of the rare ones that includes a distribution and promotion section. Content distribution isn’t talked about enough, but it’s an equally important piece of the puzzle so it’s nice to see a template that dives into the publishing channels and promotion strategies.

The target audience, buyer journey, and CTA sections are also important to assist the writer for the tone of the post. Some missing sections include SEO details such as keywords, internal & external links, common questions to answer, and others, but they should be straightforward for a strategist to add directly.

7. Brafton’s Content Brief Template

• Source: Brafton

Brafton prefers to refer to its template as a creative brief, but it includes most of the sections needed to pass on a well-crafted SEO content brief to your writer. We like the explainer text inside each section, clearly explaining what it’s trying to achieve and passing on relevant details for the writer.

The distribution recommendations and KPIs are a nice touch, too, which helps in the post-publication process. Things like brand & audience details, buyer stage journey, and recommended CTAs are not included in the template, but a strategist should be able to incorporate those easily.

Not only would that help the writer, it would also determine things like KPIs — success of top of the funnel content should mostly be determined by traffic and SERP rankings, while bottom of the funnel content is judged by conversions, signups, and demo requests.

8. Content Folks’ Content Brief Template

• Source: Content Folks
• Style: Educational

Content Folks’ content brief template is very detailed with sections around audience, brand, and context. What we like about it is that the template takes you through a live example — it documents how a content manager might build a brief for a post that talks about content calendars.

This live example is great for those who want a bit more context around the sections. As we mentioned earlier, the overall template is incredibly detailed—which helps you understand how deep you might want to go when building one out for your writers.

9. Orbit Media’s Content Brief Template

• Source: Orbit Media
• Style: Instructive

Both Orbit Media and its founder Andy Crestodina are well-known in the content marketing industry and this content brief template does a great job of covering everything from content planning to publishing and promotion.

Included are clear instructions encouraging writers to keep their posts scannable, with lots of visuals and helpful screenshots thrown in. The nod to social promotions with tracking URLs is also a nice touch.

10. Zapier’s Content Brief Template

• Source: Zapier
• Format: Google Doc

Zapier says it doesn’t use content briefs for its internal workflow, preferring to rely on its decade of experience to guide content processes instead. It does offer a blog template though—which isn’t bad, but probably only worth it for junior writers. It covers the SEO aspects well, but doesn’t delve into audience & brand considerations, which are essential if you’re going to create world-class content.

11. Daniel Cheung's Content Brief Template

• Source: Daniel Cheung
• Style: Advanced

Daniel's an expert SEO manager and his content brief template reflects his primary audience. The first page includes detailed instructions for considerations like the target keyword, audience details, search intent, and internal link targets while the second and third page encourages you to pencil in the overall structure.

The template emphasizes user experience over SEO targets, which is refreshing and a nod to Daniel's experience building world-class content.

12. Smart Blogger's Content Brief Template

• Source: Smart Blogger

Smart Blogger's content brief template covers all the details you need to pass on a well-structured brief to your writer. While it lacks explainer instructions inside each section, an experienced content manager should be able to fill those out without any problem. The sections of 'key takeaways' and 'success criteria' are a nice touch, and one that will help your writer as they craft the piece.

13. Jake Sheridan's Content Brief Template

• Source: JSVXC
• Style: Beginner

Jake's content brief template is ideal for when you're looking to fast-track your content program by publishing rapidly. The template isn't fancy or detailed but gets the job done to communicate essential information to your writers. And if you're working with good writers, they should be able to take the details provided and run with it.

14. Kameron Jenkin's Content Brief Template

We're recommending Kammie's content brief template based on her excellent article in Moz outlining the steps to build a world-class content brief.

Kammie's guide is a comprehensive resource on how to instruct writers in creating content that balances both audience and search engine requirements. It has a step-by-step process that starts with identifying the right keywords and search intent, then moves on to audience and brand considerations, and ends with link targets, H2s, and meta descriptions.

15. No Brainer Agency's Content Brief Template

• Source: No Brainer

No Brainer's content brief template reflects their work as an SEO and content agency. The template starts with high-level considerations such as the title, topic, and keywords and goes on to discuss linking requirements, audience & brand considerations, CTA, and things to avoid.

Paid & Gated Content Brief Templates

In this section, we’ve included a couple of content brief templates that are paid or are behind an email paywall.

While we haven’t had the chance to purchase the paid versions and take them for a spin, all of the templates below come from credible and experienced content marketers that are worth learning from.

Kaleigh Moore’s Content Brief Template [Paid]

Kaleigh Moore is a freelance writer with bylines in Forbes, Shopify, ConversionXL, and many other SaaS brands. She offers her content brief template as part of a wider content manager template bundle , including a style guide template, an onboarding deck template, and a writer screening template.

The Blogsmith’s SEO Content Brief Template [Paid]

The Blogsmith is a content marketing agency founded by Maddy Osman that’s worked with Adobe, Hubspot, and Trello. It offers a paid bundle comprising of an editorial calendar template and an SEO content brief template — there’s also an option to apply for a scholarship if the fee is out of reach.

Ashley Cumming's Content Writing Brief [Paid]

Ashley's a prolific freelance writer who's written for Shopify Plus, DTC Newsletter, Salesforce, and more. She also runs Content Connect — an email newsletter for writers and content marketers of all backgrounds. Ashley's content writing brief template is a paid resource, and is meant for freelance writers looking to streamline new client onboarding.

Canny Creative’s Template [Requires Email]

Canny Creative’s content brief template is free, but requires an email address to unlock access. It claims to cover the basics though, including content overview, objectives, keywords, competitor analysis, research, and other SEO details.

Landmark Lab’s Template [Requires Account Setup]

Landmark Lab’s content brief template is built out in Notion and includes the usual details such as word count, target keywords, audience background etc.

Apart from that, it also uses Notion’s database elements to look at the status of each brief and sort by dates. The only downside is that you’re going to need to create an account to be able to access it.

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Osman Husain

Osman is the former Head of Content Marketing at Content Harmony and now specializes in building SaaS content marketing programs. His work has been published on ExpressVPN, Shopify, Enzuzo, and more.

Twitter: @osman_husain

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Content Writing Tips for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Everyone has to start somewhere. With content writing, the place to start is with writing. While many content writers go to school for English or Marketing, or even a Writing-specific degree, it's certainly not necessary. There are plenty of successful content writers out there who have never had a day of writing-focused education, and many whose first language isn't English besides.

It's possible to be a successful content writer without training and certification, but it requires one thing: experience.

I consider myself a fairly proficient content writer, though I don't know that I'm among the best of the best. I'm knowledgable enough to distill some tips for you, though, and I can help you become a better content writer. Here are my tips!

Read, Read, Read

You aren't alone. You aren't writing in a vacuum. Every writer, and indeed virtually every creator of any kind of content, will tell you that the number one thing they do to keep themselves going is consuming media. Authors read. Video producers watch movies, TV, web videos, and streams. Illustrators take the time to consume art.

It's important to read with a critical eye, but also to read for pleasure. Read because you're interested in the topic, and read with an eye for the intricacies of writing. What perspective does the writer use? What tone have they adopted? How long are their sentences, their paragraphs, their sections, and their posts? How natural is their language? You can learn a lot just from reading.

Here are some key reasons why reading other content is essential for writing your blog posts:

• Inspiration: Reading other blog posts can inspire you by providing new ideas or perspectives on a subject; this can spark your creativity and help you think about how to approach your blog in a unique and engaging way. Inspiration doesn't have to originate from the content you read; I've thought of specific questions and topics after reading something that has nothing to do with the article I'm reading, and I wrote a blog post about it!
• Knowledge and expertise: Reading content from other sources helps you stay informed about your niche or industry. This knowledge can be invaluable in developing well-researched and credible blog posts. It also helps you better understand and address your target audience's needs and concerns. Trust me; writing confidently about a topic is challenging when you don't have much expertise. Reading content by other experts can speed up this process.
• Identify trends: By reading content from various sources, you can identify emerging trends and topics gaining traction in your niche; this enables you to write timely and relevant blog posts that cater to your audience's interests.
• Improve writing skills: Reading high-quality content exposes you to various writing styles, techniques, and structures; this can help you improve your writing by adopting effective strategies, refining your voice, and learning new ways to communicate your ideas.
• Understand audience preferences: By analyzing the types of content popular among your target audience, you can tailor your blog posts to meet their preferences; this can help increase engagement, readership, and overall satisfaction with your content.
• Learn from successful bloggers: Observing the practices of successful bloggers can help you identify what works and what doesn't; this can help you avoid common pitfalls .

Reading also gives you useful insights you can use in your own writing later. You accumulate facts, which you can pull out and use as citations later. You learn clever wordplay, new words you can use to spice up your own writing, and terminology common amongst professionals in your industry. You gain insight. So: read!

Know What You Want to Write

Depending on why you want to write, you may already have a goal in mind. I generally see people in a few categories.

• The people who want to start a blog because it's a way to make money, but have no guidance or goal in mind.
• The people who have a passion for a topic, and want to start a blog to turn that passion into something more.
• The people who have the ability or talent for writing (and have been told as much through their schooling years) and figure they might as well make a career out of it.

The first group is difficult because they have to spend time developing a niche, a topic, an interest that interests them. Choosing what to make a site about is very difficult, and it's even more difficult when you have to learn every aspect of the craft along the way.

The second group is people who already know their stuff and just might need help putting their thoughts into writing. This is the kind of group most of my article here is aimed at, but everyone can get some use out of it.

The third group doesn't generally need help with the technical aspects of writing, but transitioning from the stuffy world of academic writing to the free-flowing world of content writing can be a shift that not everyone is equipped to deal with.

In any case, you need to know in a broad sense what you want to write about for your site, and in a narrow sense what you want to write about for a given article. I often start with some keyword research to develop a topic idea , write a killer title for that topic , and then create my outline for the article based on those search phrases and that topic.

It's worked well enough for me so far - writing articles that match real searches and catering to those searches is a great roadmap to getting your articles found.

Write, Write, Write

Believe it or not, I didn't start out writing great content. I spent years writing some pretty mediocre content , and I only stood out because a lot of the people also writing content in the same arena were so, so much worse. Like, you'd be surprised just how bad some of the people out there writing content are. Go to Textbroker and spend a few bucks on some 3-star articles and you'll see what I mean. Content mills are generally a wasteland.

Part of successful content writing is just practice . The more time you spend writing, the more familiar you'll be with the process. The more details you'll be able to stick in your mind as you write. The better you'll be able to formulate posts as you go along. A post that might have taken me two or three hours to write a few years ago, I could write better in less time today.

Writing a lot and writing consistently is often cited as a key factor for blogging success. I'm not sure it's 100% necessary from a marketing standpoint, but I can tell you that it's extremely beneficial from a technical standpoint.

They say that practice makes perfect, and while there's no such thing as perfect, practice is always important.

Keep Tone, Voice, and Perspective Consistent

One thing I often see novice writers struggling with is perspective, tense, tone, voice , and all of those other subtle technical elements of grammar that come naturally with practice.

Here are some examples:

• Shifting between "I", "We", and "The Company" as self-referential signifiers. Know who you're representing when you write. If I write something for a client, I'll use a different voice than when I write something for myself.
• Shifting between the personal and the impersonal, as in going from "we recommend X" to "X is generally recommended." There's a time for different levels of formality; know which one you want to use.
• Referencing industry terms incorrectly. I see this a lot with freelancers who have to write for multiple industries; using terminology incorrectly makes people who know what they're talking about recognizing that you don't.

It doesn't really matter which perspective, which tone, which voice you use. What matters is that you keep it consistent throughout any piece you write.

Care About Keywords

A huge part of successful content writing online is caring about keywords . Keyword research is the core of every good blog post, most paid advertising, and a whole lot else besides. That's just how powerful Google is these days.

I'm not going to go extremely deep into keyword research here. It's a very detailed topic, and there are a lot of great guides out there already written to help people of all skill levels get started.

Suffice it to say that, in my mind and in my experience, keyword research is an essential part of good content writing. Knowing how Google interacts with keywords, how to use keywords appropriately, and how to write around awkward keywords is essential.

Don't Care Too Much About Keywords

Look, I know what I just said, and I know what I'm saying now.

The fact is, keywords are a lot less important than they were five or ten years ago. Back then, you needed to figure out exact, specific keywords and write posts with specific levels of keyword density to make sure your content thrived. Pick the wrong keyword and your content never shows up for high volume web searches . Use the keyword too little and Google doesn't think the post is relevant. Use it too often and you get dinged for keyword stuffing. It's a fine line to walk.

We create blog content that converts - not just for ourselves, but for our clients, too.

We pick blog topics like hedge funds pick stocks. Then, we create articles that are 10x better to earn the top spot.

Content marketing has two ingredients - content and marketing. We've earned our black belts in both.

At least, it was. Then Google introduced a bunch of machine learning and semantic indexing features to their index. These days, Google will show you search results that don't even include a phrase you used when searching but are still relevant. They understand things like synonyms, variations on keywords, and so on.

That's why these days, I don't worry too much about specific keyword usage - at least, not within the context of my articles . I use keyword research to guide the topics I choose to write about, and I might sprinkle in a specific keyword here and there when I find a way to work it in, but I'm not going to double over backward to include specific long-tail keywords in every post I write. Over-optimizing your posts like that can have the opposite effect:

"The idea is basically to try and level the playing ground a little bit. All of those people who have sort of been doing, for lack of a better word, 'over-optimization' or 'overly' doing their SEO, compared to the people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we want to sort of make that playing field a little bit more level."

Heck, here's an example. This blog post uses "start content writing online" as its primary keyword. You can tell this because they use the phrase a couple of times throughout the piece when it's awkward to type the whole thing. You can also tell it because it's in a different font than the rest of their content, though I'm not sure that's intentional. Just… don't be that awkward and obvious about it, right?

When In Doubt, Add More Formatting

One key insight that most content writers have at some point is that web readers don't actually read the content. You might notice this behavior in yourself, or you might have it pointed out to you by a marketer, but it's pretty true. People who see posts on social media, half the time they don't even click through, they just read the title and the snippet and make assumptions based on that.

For people who click through and see content, they still skim . They read the first paragraph or two, then they skip through it looking for value. It's up to you as a content writer to provide that value. You just have to know how to do it.

The easiest way, beyond making sure your writing is, you know, valuable, is to add formatting.

Add subheadings as much as possible. This helps break up your content into digestible chunks. Add formatting like bold and italics to emphasize certain points. Add gaps in between paragraphs and sentences to emphasize points. Add bulleted or numbered lists to build up, well, lists.

Formatting enhances the user's ability to skim and extract value from content. Even if there are better resources out there, if yours is the most readable, it's the most useful.

Strive to One-Up the Competition

A lot of content writers, when they first get started, find it very hard to figure out their place in the world. They come up with an idea, then they see that there are 10,000,000 Google search results for that idea already and that the top five results are all that idea done better than they would do. It's easy to get discouraged looking for that one unique piece of content.

I'm here to tell you that you don't need to be unique to be valuable. This article you're reading right now? Dozens of other people have written other articles on the same topic, some of the same points, and some with other tips and hints as well:

Here's what you do. You find something that already exists, and you do it better.

There are three main ways you can out-do existing content .

• Take content that is broad but shallow, and add depth to it. This involves more research, more data sources, and more critical thinking to find conclusions the data leads you to.
• Take content that is narrow but deep, and add breadth to it. A deep dive into one subject in one industry is narrow, but it's an opportunity to tie another related subject or another industry into it.
• Take content that is old and make it up to date . A lot of old content these days is kept up to date by the initial author, but if it's left abandoned, you can try to supersede it by writing the same basic content with newer information.

Keep in mind that when I say "do what they do" and "you don't have to be unique", I absolutely do NOT mean you can just copy their content. You still have to write unique and original content, but you can cover the same topics and similar points.

Don't Be Afraid of Tools

I've known a lot of writers over the years who pride themselves on their precise knowledge of technical grammar, and who end up focusing more on their grammatical accuracy than on the quality of their content.

To me, this is hilarious. You're priding yourself on a skill that is easily replaced by a free online tool.

With the rising popularity of AI tools like ChatGPT , there are tons of content and blog writers that can help generate outlines, blog topics, and provide inspiration for your own writing.

Don't be afraid to use the tools you have at your disposal. Use a spelling and grammar check. Crank up the settings in MS Word. Use keyword research and topic ideation tools.

Here are some of my favorite tools:

• Ahrefs. I wrote a good breakdown of Ahrefs and similar tools .
• Grammarly. Proofreading and grammar checking is super important. If you run a WordPress site, you can even embed Grammarly into your site automatically.
• Clearscope . Clearscope can help you find opportunities to improve your content. I use it to help me discover things that I may have missed, as well as easy opportunities to include relevant keywords. I wrote a guide comparing Clearscope and Marketmuse here .
• WordPress plugins. There are a lot out there; here are some of my favorites , as well as a seperate guide for PageSpeed plugin recommendations .

There are tons of tools out there to help you be a better content writer, and there's absolutely no shame in using them.

Finish With a Proofread

When you finish any given piece of writing, go through it with a fine-toothed comb looking for errors . I know I just told you that tools can do a lot of that for you, and that's true. I make a lot of typos and minor grammatical errors as I type, and you know what? I have a few different autocorrect rules in place to fix them for me. Until you develop your own library or process, make sure you're proofreading everything.

Now and then an error will slip through. That's fine. If you notice it, fix it. If someone else notices it, fix it. If no one notices it, it's not really going to do you any harm. Even still, it's important to get a proofread in on your content before you finalize it and publish it.

Develop a Style

Over time, as you write, you can develop a style . That style will develop naturally, as you find your voice. You find the way you like to express your ideas. The way you like to use lists and formatting. The perspective you use to cover various topics and make analogies. Your style is built up over the years and it comes about from experience.

Your style will also change over time. After you've been writing content for a year or two, if you go back and look at the early content you've written, it will read like something written by someone else entirely. Don't worry; an evolving style is perfectly fine. Developing a style that's unique to you is the important part.

Keep at it. Content writing is a long-term investment, and it's a skill that never stops improving. The more you keep going, the better you'll become.

James Parsons is the founder and CEO of Content Powered, a premier content marketing agency that leverages nearly two decades of his experience in content marketing to drive business growth. Renowned for founding and scaling multi-million dollar eCommerce businesses through strategic content marketing, James has become a trusted voice in the industry, sharing his insights in Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, and other leading publications. His background encompasses key roles across various agencies, contributing to the content strategies of major brands like eBay and Expedia. James's expertise spans SEO, conversion rate optimization, and effective content strategies, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.

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August 12, 2020 at 9:38 am

Hi James, this was super helpful! I've read a lot of guides besides yours and yours is the only one that left me with some takeaways that I can actually use. I didn't realize how important (and also un-important!) keywords were, and your Grammarly screenshot inspired me to try it out. I'll also be way more mindful of who has already written about a subject before I start writing, that's something I haven't really done before, at least, not in a detailed way. Thanks again!

August 12, 2020 at 11:20 pm

Hey Faeeza, thank you for the very kind words!

This post was aimed at beginners, if you're interested in reading more, we have a handful of other posts you might find useful/interesting in our "Blogging" category: https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/category/blogging/

Topic ideation and competition research are easily the two biggest overlooked things when it comes to beginners and blogging - master those two things and you'll be far ahead of the curve!

August 30, 2020 at 8:16 am

I have been using the inverted pyramid approach to my writing style as it’s more easier to write long form content with this tactic and I can easily formulate my subheadings.

August 30, 2020 at 5:33 pm

Hi Sonny, thanks for sharing with us! It's good to know what's working for others. I think the fundamentals of the inverted pyramid are sound, if the bulk of your content is legitimately useful and actionable information, then your content is already off to a good start.

October 05, 2020 at 8:32 am

Hi James, This helped me a great deal, just wanted to say thank you. You really know your stuff with blogging. I'll be reading your other articles too.

October 05, 2020 at 7:59 pm

Thanks for stopping by Nur and for the kind words!

January 08, 2021 at 12:04 am

Hi James Your post helped me a lot. Thank you for this amazing work. God bless you more.

January 08, 2021 at 9:08 pm

Hey Adila, you're very kind, thanks for that! Very happy it helped you.

March 07, 2021 at 9:45 pm

Hey,James. This is my first time going through an actual content writing beginner tips article, as I am thinking to start writing online. Thanks for giving me some valuable pointers which I will keep in mind when I find my interest. No, I will no be doing this,initially, for money (but money is required to sustain, right?) but to search where my interest lies. Baby steps!! Wish you good luck 🤞, from India.

March 12, 2021 at 12:44 pm

Hey Ipsa - thanks for hopping on live chat with me, and I'm very happy this helped you out!

Revenue certainly helps. Being able to hire people to help you grow your blog will amplify your results, and it's hard to do that without any cashflow.

That's what's so great about blogging - you can bootstrap it at first until you're up and running. If you can give your readers enough value, customers will usually follow. It's a great way to draw people into your orbit.

March 09, 2021 at 7:36 am

This is never an easy job! Besides putting in the actual work, you need to have passion, patience, and time otherwise you’ll give up. I remember back in the day that I was on the verge of dropping my blog completely, and I did pause for a bit. A few months later my traffic was skyrocketing, all organic traffic to my blog posts. That has made me a believer ever since. It just takes a while to start working, but once it does it goes HARD.

March 12, 2021 at 1:00 pm

Hey Matt, thanks for your comment!

This sounds similar to my story - my first blog was over 10 years ago for a free flash game site. It had ads on it and was making a few hundred bucks a week, so I started reinvesting that into the content. I probably did a dozen or so blog posts, waited a month, then gave up.

A year or so later, they were the highest traffic pages on my site and were generating the lion's share of my AdSense revenue. I sold the site shortly after, but I think that's what made me a believer in blogging as well. It does require a good deal of patience and putting love into your content, not rushing it or skimping out. Man, Google's algorithm has really changed a lot since then, as has WordPress.

What brings you here today, just brushing up on the basics? 🙂

May 19, 2021 at 3:32 am

This is a great post. I appreciate your skills. Thanks for sharing.

May 19, 2021 at 11:35 am

Thanks Frisco! I appreciate it, glad it helped you.

May 24, 2021 at 10:38 am

Hi James! Your article is superb. I love it. It helped me a lot.

May 24, 2021 at 1:28 pm

Hey Fatima, really appreciate it! I'm happy it helped you 🙂

November 28, 2021 at 2:58 am

Hi james, thank you so much. The article has really helped me alot

November 29, 2021 at 1:58 pm

Love to hear it! Thanks, Brenda!

June 04, 2021 at 9:16 am

Hi James, i just started learning how to write articles. But it is not an easy task. Your article is good and gave some nice information.

June 04, 2021 at 2:34 pm

Hey Pankaj!

I really appreciate that, thanks for taking the time to say that. It makes writing these worth it.

Keep it up, if there's anything I can do to help point you in the right direction, please let me know!

June 06, 2021 at 5:18 am

Thank you so much! You've actually encouraged me to give content writing a try. This is really helpful.

June 07, 2021 at 10:32 am

Hey Ginnie! That was my goal, so I'm very happy to hear that. Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

July 07, 2021 at 7:58 am

Hi James, Thank you so much. It very helpful. I am very interested in content writing but the area that I have passion in is what I can't figure out, I think will give a try. Thanks

July 08, 2021 at 2:12 pm

Thanks Peter! Good luck 🙂

July 12, 2021 at 8:19 am

Hey Mr James, Nice article especially for beginners like me... Hope to hear more from you.

July 12, 2021 at 4:29 pm

Hey Ezekiel, thanks for the kind words and for stopping by! I hope it convinced you to start a blog of your own 🙂

July 29, 2021 at 7:04 am

Awesome post, simple and informative. I liked this line,

“Keep Tone, Voice, and Perspective Consistent”.

Super important to succeed in this, if articles are boring to read it's hard for anyone to be fulfilled.

But it was nice to read this. Thanks for writing this useful content.

July 31, 2021 at 4:33 pm

Thanks for the comment, Mohammad!

I couldn't agree more. Thank you for your words of encouragement.

January 30, 2022 at 6:48 pm

Super effective, practical, and easy to apply / follow article.

I love your simple yet powerful writing style. It seems you are taking a live class!

I recommended your link to at least 15 people. They are all so grateful! I, too, am fascinated.

You are a trustworthy, excellent content writer and mentor. Thanks from the heart.

January 31, 2022 at 2:02 pm

Thanks Ahmed!

Wow, that means a lot. Thank you for your heartfelt comment on my post, and I'm so happy it's helping to make a positive difference.

This is why I do what I do 🙂

March 13, 2022 at 10:29 am

Thanks, James. Your post was helpful and detailed. It helped to clear a lot of concepts for me.

March 15, 2022 at 6:39 pm

You're welcome, Suhail!

March 28, 2022 at 10:15 am

I'm really impressed and happy with these tips! You are a great mentor!

March 31, 2022 at 8:23 pm

Thanks Oluwasola! That's very kind of you to say.

April 07, 2022 at 7:55 am

waoh, this is very informative, guess I've found what I've been waiting for to become a content writer. Thanks a million James Parsons.

April 07, 2022 at 3:00 pm

Thanks, Ruth! Love to hear it.

August 25, 2022 at 6:34 am

Thanks, James. I'm just about to start content writing and your article was the first I have read. It really feels like I'm in it already, and I hope the tips grabbed would do me much help in my pursuit. Please, if you have more articles for a total beginner like me, I would appreciate it. Thanks many times🙏

September 01, 2022 at 2:08 pm

Thanks Olivia, love to hear it!

Here's are a couple of articles that I recommend next:

https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/blog-optimization-tips-seo/ https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/tips-beat-competitors-seo/

This is a great one too; small changes to your user experience are reflected across all of your pages and will help your site perform better overall: https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/improve-user-experience-website/

Feel free to reach out any time if you need pointing in the right direction 🙂

March 11, 2023 at 9:18 am

Amazing blog article!

March 11, 2023 at 12:13 pm

April 26, 2023 at 10:10 pm

Hey James, I retired from my job a couple of years back. Did try my hand at a couple of things. But always wondered what do I do with some exclusive work experience I gained during my employment. Then it struck me that I should start writing a blog and discuss various aspect of the commodity I worked on during my job. I saw many YouTube videos on how to write blogs and also read many online articles available on the net, as mentioned by you. Honestly, found your article to be very crisp and clear. I will surely follow your guidelines and start reading/researching/writing earnestly.

Thank you very much James.

April 29, 2023 at 11:47 pm

Absolutely. It's incredible what reach blog articles have on the internet, even on subjects that you wouldn't think would get much traction. In some cases, ESPECIALLY on subjects you think wouldn't get much traction.

My best advice is focus on having a great website and try to create content that is 10x better than anybody else. Do that, stick with it for years, and you'll be rewarded!

The reason most people's blogs fail is because they think they are creating great quality content, but aren't. Or, they don't stick with it long enough. Knowing that will help you succeed.

It's hard work, but it's rewarding and well worth it.

April 26, 2023 at 11:54 pm

Hey James! Thanks for the Guide. Which is better for blogs in your opinion?

April 29, 2023 at 11:45 pm

I'm a sucker for WordPress.

It doesn't get much better than WordPress for internal/external link management, optimization, SEO, custom development, automation, etc.

April 27, 2023 at 10:19 pm

Nice Article

April 29, 2023 at 11:43 pm

May 16, 2024 at 6:25 am

Hi James! Your content is top notch. I have learn't a lot through this site

May 23, 2024 at 12:55 pm

Thank you Chris, I appreciate it!

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14 mins read

25 Writing Portfolio Examples (PDF & Other Formats) + Useful Portfolio Tips

Are you struggling to create the perfect writing portfolio? Here are 25 writing portfolio examples + 7 useful tips to make it happen!

Protim Bhaumik

Director, Content Marketing

Written by Protim Bhaumik , edited by Shreya Bose , reviewed by Eric Hauch .

2. Dec 2022 , updated 8. Feb 2024

Looking to create a writing portfolio? Curious how to do that without futzing with a website builder for days? We’ve been there.

We know that building a writing portfolio is hard — questions like what you should include, where you should host it, and how to effectively create something that gets you work, need answering! To that end, we've put together a list of 25 writing portfolio examples from our customer base that can inspire you as you make your own and included their tips on how they use Authory. (This is a collection of amazing writers, top journalists, and more.)

I also flagged examples that include PDFs because this type of content is notoriously clunky to upload in some website builders. Some clients and employers ask for PDFs, and building that into a portfolio website can be tricky. So, we'll cover how to do that by showing you 5 PDF writing portfolio examples and then 20 regular writing portfolio examples.

5 Writing portfolio examples in PDF format

When you want to save your writing samples, many people start by downloading a PDF that’s saved in a folder and then sometimes, maybe, once a month/year/panic attack, uploaded to a website. It’s a pain to constantly upload your writing samples, but it’s also risky. There’s always the potential your work is edited or removed before you think to save it.

With that in mind, we built Authory. We search the internet for your content and automatically add it to your website. However, we also make it easy to upload existing PDFs you might have.

Here’s how you can do it:

Here are a few examples of how it looks and advice from our customers on building a smart portfolio.

1. Sarah Sparks

Sarah is an advocate, consultant and writer.

For Sarah, Authory is “easy to use and I like how it aggregates media links before I do sometimes.”

That’s our goal. We automatically collect and back up your work so you don’t have to.  

Sarah’s tip: Just make it easy to navigate - one of the reasons I like Authory. One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating collections.

For example, Sarah’s collections include “legal” “social justice” “Indigenous” and “opinion.” Collections make it easy to categorize your content and then send specific collections to editors and publications when you’re asked for writing samples. You can watch a video on creating collections here.

Sarah Sparks' PDF portfolio.

Here are a few additional PDF portfolio examples that you can review.

2. Alex Hargrave

Alex Hargrave's PDF portfolio

You’ll notice that Alex has two collection examples; education and COVID-19.

3. Kevin Johnston

Kevin Johnston's PDF portfolio.

4. Kerry Sunderland

Kerry Sunderland's PDF portfolio.

5. Urvashi Aneja

Urvashi Aneja's PDF portfolio.

20 Writing portfolio examples in other formats

Besides PDF focused portfolios, we pulled examples of other portfolios and tips for how our expert customers are adapting them to make the best use of them.

Authory is a great additional branding tool

For many people, they have an Authory account to collect their work samples in addition to other branding tools.

1. Brian Clegg

Brian is a science writer with over 40 (fourty!) books in print.

Brian’s Authory site isn’t his only site. It works in addition to his other properties and supports his other online properties. When you google Brian, you’ll find all of these properties. Of note, it’s also possible to integrate an Authory portfolio into an existing online portfolio builder like Wix or SquareSpace.

But why bother? Brian uses Authory to “make my online writing easily available to my book readers and to support my book review site www.popularscience.co.uk .” And with our automatic tools, it takes little time to create this additional homebase for readers.

For Brian, Authory also collects his work, saves it, and he distributes it in a newsletter. It automates and does a lot of work quickly.

Brian Clegg's writing portfolio.

2. Brandon Hill

Brandon is a multimedia journalist covering music and culture, public policy, mental health, the labor movement and social inequality.

“Authory is a great resource for freelancer writers in more ways than you would expect. By automatically updating and feeding your work into a newsletter, it both saves the time and frustration of managing a website and makes for more reliable one to one connections with your audience than social media. Also, by creating automatic pdf back-ups of your publications, you’ll never loose a portfolio piece,” he said.

Like many people in this list, he’s thoughtful about his categories and collections.

“Include some pretty specific categories to lesson the time an employers spends looking at content that might not be relevant to them,” he said.

Brandon Hill's writing portfolio.

3. Scott Matthewman

Scott is a theater critic who is frequently writing reviews. It can be quite a pain to keep these recorded and organized.

“I review over 100 theatre shows a year for various online publications. Authory’s automated tools gives me a single URL where all those reviews can live, hassle-free,” Scott said.

You’ll notice that Scott’s profile shares collections.

“[Authory’s] been useful to promote my reviews to a wider audience on social media. At the end of last year I built a dedicated collection of my 20 favourite reviews for 2022, which was so easy to do and then link to from everywhere.”

Scott Matthewman's writing portfolio.

Use Authory and never worry your work will disappear

4. Tabitha Potts

Tabitha is a published writer with several short stories in print anthologies as well as online.

She uses Authory to share her work with “potential employers, literary agents or publishers (my creative writing, book reviews and journalism are all there).”

The big reason she recommends using Authory is to avoid the situation where your content might be lost and because much of the work is done for you automatically.

And of course it makes it easy to showcase your work.

“I share my Authory profile with every new and potential new client so they can sort and view my published work by category,” she told us.

Tabitha Potts' writing portfolio.

5. Diana Rosen

Diana is an essayist, flash fiction writer, and poet. For her, Authory is “an elaborate business card.”

Her advice is simple: When capturing published work, review thoroughly to avoid duplication or (Egads!) errors.

Diana Rosen's writing portfolio.

Create collections to share what’s relevant

When you’re sharing your work, with an editor, employer, or even just another writer, you don’t always want to share all of your work. It’s key to create and categorize your work by niche or category. You can create collections that make this very easy and share only specific pieces of content with certain people.

6. Carrie Cousins

Carrie  has 15 years of experience in media, design, and content marketing and is a freelance writer and designer.

We asked her for advice for other portfolio builders.

“Think about ways to group content that showcases specific niches that you work in or want to work in. It can really help make sharing and getting new work a lot easier,” Carrie said.

That’s easy to do with Authory’s collection tools. It’s easy to categorize content, give it a label, and share just this grouping with editors.

Carrie Cousins' writing portfolio.

7. Stephanie Bernaba

Stephanie is a writer, multimedia journalist, and photographer.

This is easy to do with our collections feature. We want to make it easy for you to organize your work and send exactly what you need to editors so you can land the gig.

Stephanie had a bit of advice, too.

“Communicate your passion with your header. Make your headline impactful but succinct. Lastly, arrange your work into easily-searchable categories,” she said.

Stephanie Bernaba's writing portfolio.

8. David Worsfold

David is a journalist and author, specialising in finance and insurance

You’ll notice that his portfolio uses the collection feature, too.

“By making it easy to share my work. The collections help showcase writing on specific topics,” he said.

Of course, be thoughtful with your categories.

“Think about the audiences you want to reach and organise your work accordingly,” he mentioned.

David Worsfold's writing portfolio.

9. Kathy Parker

Kathy Parker's writing portfolio.

10. Geraldine Brook

Geraldine Brook's writing portfolio.

11. Pam Moore

Pam Moore's writing portfolio.

12. Mary Ann Gwinn

Mary Ann Gwinn's writing portfolio.

13. Simon Denyer

Simon Denyer's writing portfolio.

14. Jarrod Kimber

Jarrod Kimber's writing portfolio.

15. Carrie Back

Carrie Back's writing portfolio.

16. Crystal Housman

Crystal Housman's writing portfolio.

17. Steven Levy

Steven Levy's writing portfolio.

18. Carin Marais

Carin Marais' writing portfolio.

19. Rosanne Barrett

Rosanne Barrett's writing portfolio.

20. Dan Rosenbaum

Dan Rosenbaum's writing portfolio.

What your takeaways should be from these writing portfolio examples

What a writer portfolio is, and why you need a writing portfolio.

A writing portfolio is a collection of your best (and possibly all) writing samples put together on a website so that potential clients and employers can make a "buying" decision — in essence, all the information that they may need to engage you for your writing services.

An online writing portfolio can also do wonders for your personal branding if managed well. So, in a word, your portfolio is a single place through which you can source work.

Curating the perfect set of writing samples for your portfolio

It's important to figure out what kind of writer you are and the type of writing work you're looking for. This process will inform the writing samples that you'll highlight in your writing portfolio.

Remember, writers come in all shapes and sizes (literally!), and you could be a content writer, copywriter, novelist, author, non-fiction writer, poet, journalist, and more... the list is practically endless.

With that in mind, it's essential that you curate the content on your writing portfolio with examples that will impress upon readers your specific set (and type) of writing skills so that they can make an informed decision when hiring you.

To that end, if you feel that you don't have a good set of writing samples to upload to your portfolio, then it might be best to get writing!

To help you build out your writing portfolio, I've put together a small set of ideas/resources that I turn to for inspiration, support, and general diversion:

• Subreddits like r/writingpromts, r/thedailyprompt, and r/promptoftheday are excellent for trying out amateur storytelling.
• Other subreddits like r/writing, r/freelancewriters, r/keepwriting, r/writers, r/selfpublish, r/blogging, r/copywriting, r/technicalwriting, r/wordcount, r/writingmotivation, offer up a plethora of options for3 you to explore as writer.
• To find work, subreddits like r/hireawriter, r/forhire, r/b2bforhire, r/writersforhire, r/jobbit, and r/writingopportunities can be a source for work if you're lucky.
• What's more in your control is writing for your personal social media accounts to build up that personal brand.
• You could also provide your services for free or reduced rates to friends and family who run a business — this can be for their social media accounts or even their websites.
• Form a writing group with a friend — I have a weekly writing meetup with a close friend, and this can be an online meetup — my friend is half a planet away!
• Write about what you know: everyone knows something and has a lot to offer, even if it's a personal experience. For example, when I am stuck, I write about content marketing and SEO — I don't publish these pieces necessarily, but they're great for getting the juices flowing. That said, I could post them in my writing portfolio.

Seven tips for creating the ideal writing portfolio website based on the writing portfolio examples above

The writing portfolio examples above should give you a great idea of what a writing portfolio must look like, and the various ways other writers choose to exhibit their work.

We've also gone over why you need a writing portfolio and how you can create a few writing samples in case you feel the need to.

Now, let's get down to how you should create a writing portfolio website. We'll go over the best and most efficient ways to go about creating it.

1. Make your website more organized for simpler navigation.

It's vital to organize your online writing portfolio in a way that's easy for your readers to follow. Place your top projects front and center for simple accessibility. Note: what the ideal projects are may differ from client to client. So, suppose you divide your work into carefully curated collections with different URLs. In that case, that specific URL that contains projects pertaining to that particular client can be shared with them.

2. The "correct" number of your projects for easy viewability

The conventional wisdom is that you should limit the number of projects on your online writing portfolio so that a prospective client can make a quick and easy assessment.

I think this is WRONG.

Your portfolio website HAS to have ALL your content. Why? Well, because hiring managers, clients, and employers are looking for both quality AND quantity. Yes, they aren't going to read your entire portfolio website, but they are looking for consistency and experience.

Obviously, if you wrote a terrible article long ago as a young budding freelance writer, don't include it. So, I'll change my caveat to " nearly ALL your content."

Hence, the navigation of your writing portfolio becomes super important. Remember how I spoke about dividing your work into collections? Well, that is a must if you're including a ton of content. Split it by topic, type, publication, etc., and then share the correct URL with your prospect. Let them begin their journey through your writing portfolio from a starting point that you have determined for them.

Place your contact information in an easy-to-find spot so that when a prospect is satisfied with your writing, they can contact you immediately.

3. Imagery for better conversion rates

Human beings positively respond to visual stimuli, especially faces, which means if you're able to include graphics in your writing sample, you have a better chance of converting your readers.

4. Write case studies to exhibit results

If you have the bandwidth to do so, then you should take some time to write case studies for the work that you have done. A simple format to follow for writing case studies is as follows:

• Start with the results: usually exhibited in the form of "increase X by Y." So, for example, I could say I increased traffic to the blog by 11X.
• Then outline the problems and challenges that the client was facing before you joined the project.
• Next, explain how you solved those problems with your writing, your work, and general professionalism.
• And finally, round it off by digging into the details of the results you achieved a bit more and touch upon how the client is doing now.

5. Add social proof to lend credibility to your work

Unfortunately, writing is a creative art, and there are always critics. If you can get a past client to vouch for you and your writing, then that social proof can stand you in good stead when soliciting even more work. Add all the social proof (read: testimonials) you can in your writing portfolio to bump up that conversion rate.

If you have done work for friends and family, this would be a great place to begin hunting for testimonials.

6. Present your contact info in an easily accessible place

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating because it's so important. The whole point of having a writer's portfolio is to get work. If people cannot contact you or can't find your contact details, that will severely affect your chances of getting new projects. Social media handles will do if you're uncomfortable with sharing your email address or phone number publicly.

7. Use a website builder for writers like Authory to create your portfolio quickly and back up your work

All of the tips here are excellent (if I say so myself!), but that said, creating a writer's portfolio is a lot of work !

So, leaving the best for last: my final piece of advice is to use a portfolio website builder so that you can cut down the time to build one.

A couple of major issues that writers face are:

• Updating their writing portfolios when they write new content, especially when creating a portfolio from scratch, takes effort. So, in essence, most writing portfolios are out-of-date.
• And writers also lose access to their work when websites go down, and content gets re-bylined, etc.

That's why a service like Authory is perfect for writers worldwide. With Authory, you get a self-updating portfolio plus a full auto-updating backup of ALL your content. It's super simple to set up your Authory portfolio:

• Sign up for Authory for free !
• Add your sources, i.e., all the places where you've published content on the web. Authory will automatically find your bylined content from these sources and import it into your Authory account.
• Build a collection from the collection tab: click "+ Create collection" and follow the instructions.
• Then go to the portfolio tab : go to the "Content" tab on the left menu and add the collection you just created.
• And then, toggle your portfolio on from the "Portfolio" tab on the left menu, and check out your portfolio!

And now you'll have a self-updating portfolio that also automatically backs up all your content!

To see more writing portfolio examples, check out our other collection :

• Content Marketers
• Journalists

Protim is a startup founder & marketer with over a decade of experience in content marketing, content writing, SEO, and more. He loves dogs, D&D, and music!

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AI Generator

A manuscript is a handwritten or typed document that contains the original text of a work, such as a novel, screenplay, or script. It serves as the first version of a piece of writing before it gets edited, published, or produced. Authors and playwrights use manuscripts to draft and refine their ideas, ensuring the final product is polished and ready for an audience. Whether it’s an English essay, a gripping screenplay , or a compelling script , a manuscript is the crucial starting point for any written work.

What is Manuscript?

Manuscript format, 1.title page.

• Title : Place the title of your manuscript in the center of the page.
• Author’s Name : Add your name below the title.
• Contact Information : Include your address, phone number, and email in the upper left corner.
• Word Count : Note the word count in the upper right corner.

2. Margins and Spacing

• Margins : Use 1-inch margins on all sides of the page.
• Line Spacing : Double-space the entire manuscript for readability.
• Font : Use a readable font like Times New Roman, 12-point size.
• Page Numbers : Insert page numbers in the upper right corner.
• Author’s Last Name and Title : Include your last name and a shortened title of the manuscript in the header.

4. Body Text

• Indentation : Indent the first line of each paragraph by 0.5 inches.
• Alignment : Use left alignment and do not justify the text.
• Scene Breaks : Insert a blank line or use three asterisks (***).

5. Dialogue

• Quotation Marks : Enclose dialogue in quotation marks.
• New Paragraphs : Start a new paragraph for each new speaker.

6. Chapters

• Chapter Titles : Center the chapter title or number one-third down the page.
• Page Breaks : Begin each chapter on a new page.

7. End Matter

• Author Bio : Include a short biography at the end if requested.
• Acknowledgments : Add any acknowledgments or thank-yous.

8. Proofreading

• Grammar and Spelling : Check for and correct any grammatical or spelling errors.
• Consistency : Ensure consistency in formatting, font, and style throughout the manuscript.

Examples of Manuscript

• Medieval Religious Text : Handwritten copies of the Bible or the Quran.
• Ancient Greek Philosophical Works : Original writings of Plato or Aristotle.
• Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts : Decorative and colorful manuscripts, like the Book of Kells.
• Literary Manuscripts : Early drafts of novels by famous authors, such as “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen.
• Historical Letters : Correspondence from significant historical figures, like letters written by Abraham Lincoln.
• Scientific Papers : Original manuscripts of groundbreaking scientific discoveries, such as Isaac Newton’s “Principia Mathematica.”
• Playscripts : Original scripts of plays by renowned playwrights, such as Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
• Poetry Collections : Handwritten collections of poems by poets like Emily Dickinson.
• Travel Diaries : Personal accounts of travels, like Marco Polo’s “The Travels of Marco Polo.”
• Historical Chronicles : Manuscripts detailing historical events, like “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.”
• Ancient Legal Documents : Early versions of legal codes, such as Hammurabi’s Code.
• Medical Texts : Original medical treatises, like Hippocrates’ “Corpus Hippocraticum.”
• Philosophical Essays : Handwritten essays by philosophers, such as Michel de Montaigne’s “Essays.”
• Autobiographies : Manuscripts of personal life stories, like “The Diary of Anne Frank.”
• Music Scores : Original sheet music composed by musicians like Beethoven.
• Epic Poems : Manuscripts of long narrative poems, such as Homer’s “The Iliad.”
• Art Sketchbooks : Artists’ original sketchbooks, like those of Leonardo da Vinci.
• Cookbooks : Early handwritten recipe collections, like “The Forme of Cury.”
• Scientific Journals : Personal scientific journals, such as those of Charles Darwin.
• Mythological Texts : Manuscripts of ancient myths, like the “Epic of Gilgamesh.”

Examples of Manuscript for Students

• Essay Drafts : Early versions of an essay on Shakespeare’s works.
• Science Fair Reports : Initial reports on a student’s science project.
• History Papers : Drafts of research papers on historical events.
• Creative Writing Stories : Handwritten or typed stories for a creative writing class.
• Classroom Journals : Daily entries in a student’s journal.
• Book Reports : First drafts of book summaries and analyses.
• Research Proposals : Preliminary proposals for a research project.
• Thesis Papers : Early drafts of a student’s thesis or dissertation.
• Lab Reports : Initial versions of laboratory experiment reports.
• Poetry Collections : Handwritten collections of original poems.

Examples of Manuscripts in a Sentence

• The manuscript of her novel was accepted by the publisher.
• He discovered an ancient manuscript in the library archives.
• She spent months revising her manuscript before submitting it.
• The manuscript contained detailed illustrations and maps.
• His latest research manuscript will be published next year.
• They found a medieval manuscript hidden in the monastery.
• She lost her original manuscript in a computer crash.
• The professor reviewed the manuscript for scientific accuracy.
• The manuscript was written in beautiful calligraphy.
• He donated his personal manuscript collection to the university.

Examples of Manuscripts for Research

• Thesis Drafts : Early versions of a PhD thesis.
• Research Articles : Preliminary manuscripts of journal articles.
• Grant Proposals : Initial drafts of research funding proposals.
• Literature Reviews : Manuscripts reviewing existing research.
• Case Studies : Detailed reports on specific research cases.
• Conference Papers : Drafts of papers to be presented at academic conferences.
• Field Notes : Original observations recorded during field research.
• Dissertation Proposals : Early drafts of dissertation plans.
• Experimental Reports : Manuscripts documenting research experiments.
• Annotated Bibliographies : Manuscripts compiling sources with annotations.

1. Manuscript Template Instructions

2. Manuscript Format

3. Manuscript Format Template

4. Steps to Create Manuscript

How to Write a Manuscript for Your Story

A well-written manuscript will allow readers to comprehend and understand the text written as if it was a published book. The completed manuscript will undergo a process where it will be reviewed and edited to a certain extent. The complete manuscript will have all the necessary parts of a book, this will include the cover page , references, and dedication.

Create an Outline of The Story

Begin by creating an outline that will detail the overarching plot of the story you want to write. This should follow a specific flow and should be comprised of three arcs with multiple chapters in between. The outline will act as the structure of your story, which is very important as it can help minimize and prevent writer’s block.

Write the Chapters, and Finish the Manuscript

After creating your outline, you must begin writing the chapters using the outline as the base of said chapters. Do note, this will be the longest part of the manuscript and it will take some time and effort to finish writing the manuscript.

Edit the Manuscript

When you have finished writing the manuscript, it must undergo a couple of revisions and test-read to improve the overall quality of the manuscript. Doing this will increase the chances of a publication accepting your manuscript.

Publish the Manuscript

After you have finished the editing process of the manuscript you can opt to publish your manuscript in a variety of ways. You may self-publish the manuscript, though this will be the hardest to market and sell. Alternatively, you may approach various publications to try and vet your manuscript to them.

How to Read Manuscript

• Find a Quiet Space : Choose a quiet and comfortable place where you can focus without distractions.
• Understand the Context : Research the background of the manuscript, including the author, the time period, and the purpose of the work.
• Skim the Manuscript : Quickly skim through the manuscript to get a general sense of its structure and main points.
• Read the Introduction : Carefully read the introduction to understand the main theme and objectives of the manuscript.
• Annotate as You Read : Make notes, highlight important points, and write down any questions or comments in the margins.
• Break It into Sections : Divide the manuscript into manageable sections and read each part thoroughly.
• Focus on Key Arguments : Identify and focus on the main arguments or points presented in the manuscript.
• Look Up Unfamiliar Terms : Research any unfamiliar terms or references to ensure you fully understand the content.
• Summarize Each Section : Write a brief summary of each section to reinforce your understanding and retention.
• Review and Reflect : After reading, review your notes and summaries, and reflect on the overall message and implications of the manuscript.

How Long is a Manuscript?

A manuscript typically ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 words, depending on the genre and purpose.

How to Publish a Manuscript?

Submit your manuscript to literary agents or publishers, or self-publish through platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

What is Another Word for Manuscript Writing?

Another term for manuscript writing is “drafting.”

What is a Manuscript vs Book?

A manuscript is the original, unpublished version of a work, while a book is the final, published version.

What Does the Word Manuscript Literally Mean?

The word “manuscript” literally means “written by hand.”

How Do I Make My Own Manuscript?

Write your content, format it according to guidelines, and revise it thoroughly before submission.

What Not to Do When Writing a Manuscript?

Avoid plagiarism, poor formatting, inconsistent style, and ignoring submission guidelines.

Is a Manuscript a Full Book?

Yes, a manuscript can be a full book, but it is in its unpublished form.

What is the Manuscript of a Paper?

The manuscript of a paper is the original version submitted for publication in an academic journal.

What to Write on the First Page of a Manuscript?

Include the title, author’s name, contact information, and word count on the first page of a manuscript.

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