You're a self-employed content developer looking to stay ahead. How can you keep sharpening your skills?

Think of continuous learning as an investment in you, important maintenance of visibility for your service offering to customer and likely a tax deduction.

✯ Explore reputable online resources, blogs, and industry publications. ✯ Enroll in online courses, webinars, and workshops. ✯ Join professional communities and forums. ✯ Attend conferences and networking events. ✯ Seek feedback and constructive criticism. ✯ Experiment with new tools and techniques. ✯ Stay updated on industry trends and developments. ✯ Seek mentorship or guidance from experienced professionals. ✯ Embrace a growth mindset and actively pursue learning opportunities.

As a self-employed content developer, staying ahead requires continuous skill sharpening. Firstly, staying updated with industry trends and innovations through online courses, webinars, and industry publications is crucial. Networking with peers and mentors helps in gaining insights and feedback. Practicing consistently and diversifying content types refines skills. Lastly, embracing feedback and adapting to new tools and technologies ensures staying competitive in the dynamic field of content development.

Practical Steps to get started to significantly expand your professional network. 1. Join relevant groups on linkedin and engage in discussions to share your expertise and learn from others. 2.Participate in platforms like Reddit, Quora, or specialized industry forums to stay updated with trends and challenges. 3. Attend webinars, workshops, and conferences to meet professionals and gain knowledge from industry leaders. 4. Building meaningful relationships with other content developers, marketers, and industry experts can unlock new opportunities, provide valuable insights, and foster collaborative ventures.

Show the courage to test out new, quirky and unique forms of content. Find some clear cases of comparison to mirror your creativity and efficiency in bringing up diverse forms of content. Pick up the best ones by measuring the success in terms of engagement. Be a trendsetter!

If you're shy to ask colleagues, clients or peers... There's a lot of opportunity to get feedback from AI tools now as well! Such as ChatGPT and Gemini. This works especially well if you specify what you want the content to be like (for example tone of voice) and you can tell it to pay special attention to for example structure, level of depth, being a fit to your target group, etc. You can also paste in a piece you like and ask what stands out, and then let it check for that. There's a lot of options doing it this way! But of course, just like asking your peers, it's an "opinion" and you get to decide whether you like the feedback and whether it suits you or not.

Teaching others what you know is a great way to expand your own knowledge and skills, IMHO. When you teach others they often ask interesting questions. Some you'll have answers for and others you'll need to research to learn about yourself. Teaching also forces us to find the best ways to structure what we know and come up with analogies/stories that help to communicate important "lessons" to be shared. Deeply embedding our own understanding of the topic(s) and making new creative pathways in our own thinking/understanding.