Why content writers have no future?

Oops, I did step on some toes. May be it wasn’t well communicated but let me put it in better words. Hey, no biggy fights, I have too much work to worry about. I will certainly put my thoughts to clarify it. Was pending for quite sometime. Many have raised this, many objected and I stand with the responsibility to explain it.

Some ground work before I answer the many concern, “Why did I say that content writers have no future?”

Some traits that are always useful:

1. Public speaking.
2. Writing.
3. Listening.
4. ….. few more.

Writing is a trait that is always useful, with or without the tag “CONTENT WRITER”. Before jumping into conclusion lets visit some of the points.

Let’s define “content” using content categorization:

• Easy learning topics: There are some topics that can be learned easily and are not connected with many things, like say education. We all have some knowledge/experience and more importantly an opinion about this topic.
• News/Events/Moments coverage: There is one event that happened, 80% of the information can be gathered from the event itself, no background/previous knowledge required. Just the right skills to present it artistically.
• Connected subject: IT, Finance, Marketing, HR and major topics fall under this. THIS CAN’T BE LEARNED EFFECTIVELY IN ONE DAY. One need to develop an opinion about it. The problem with this category is its connectivity with many things. Lets take an example, if one need to write about “Web site usability”, he/she must know how web works, how pages are rendered etc. Lets take a better example, say if you need to write about refinance, it is very easy to write what is refinance and different aspects of it but if you really need to write an article that will be used then you need to pen down in a practical format (which is almost impossible to learn for a content writer, it needs long experience or help from experts).

What does industry say about content writers (in general) and how they work?

A topic (generally connected type content and sometimes easy learning topics) is given to them to write about it. They will search across the web and will gather enough knowledge to pen down an article. Deadline 1 to 2 days (max 3 days), amount paid $1 to $10 (max). As Kamanshish said, “they are suppose to write something about the topic, thats it“. As he said, “it is not possible to produce quality work in that short time or with that budget“, just check out some of the freelance websites and their work. THEY ARE PURELY MAKING SEARCH ENGINES more spammy and thus OUR LIFE DIFFICULT. THEY ARE SPAMMING THE WEB with unwanted/useless content.

Then there are technical writers (background education required), financial writers (CFAs and other financial degrees), Person development writers/trainers and topic-expert writers. They do a wonderful job with their field. A technical writer is not a good financial writer and vice-versa.

Simple Acid Test to check content writer quality for that topic

One and only one acid test to determine your present standing as a content writer on any topic.
Do you have an opinion about what you write?

• Yes - Carry on and enjoy a future as a topic-specific writer.
• No - Sorry you will die off as a content writer, please don’t spam. Either you study enough or buy two ox and two cow.

How to become a content writer designer?

There are many technical, financial and topic experts with immense knowledge about the subject but they don’t know how to put their experiences using words. A good content designer can help these topic experts design their content, this is a pure blend of engineering and art. Example: I have a great logo designer, he makes amazing logos but when I asked him to pen down an article on logo designing tips, he wasn’t able to frame it properly. Moreover people like us are grammatically incorrect most of the time. A good content writer is the one who:

1. can write useful content on easy learning topics and news/events etc.
2. who can work with an expert to produce a good content for connected topics.
3. understands how people read content and knows current trends of writing.
4. who can simplify the content.
5. who has confident grip over linguistics.
6. who knows how to check the performance of their content and follow up to achieve the goal.
7. who can arrange/rewrite the content in a more logical way.

This wasn’t an easy post for me, it took me more time than I thought.

4 Comments »

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1. I think not every content writer has a future but the one who delivers quality and have good experience can definitely survive in the market.

   
   
   Jeremy Dawes on May 17, 2008 - 3:29 pm @ 3:29 pm

2. >> I think not every content writer has a future but the one who delivers quality and have good experience can definitely survive in the market.
   I will put it this way I think not every content writer has a future but the one who have good experience and can develop an opinion about a topic will deliver quality and can definitely survive in the market.

   Welcome to the blog Jeremy.

   
   
   AjiNIMC aka Web Kotler on May 17, 2008 - 5:28 pm @ 5:28 pm

3. [...] has written his post on why content writers have no future in his own style as a reply to my post that I wrote against [...]

   
   
   Content writers have a future on May 19, 2008 - 12:15 am @ 12:15 am

4. reply to post at oddseo (discussions, our way of looking at it can be different, its purely ok)

   I have written content (on many topics), I have seen content of content writers, I have worked with a dozen of them. In most of the companies you are paid for essay type content. I am not again content writers, I am just explaining that when their content can become really helpful. In reality the difference between programmer and content writers is just 25% and rest 75% is the same, analysis and design.

   We have pure programmers who just code, they don’t really understand the requirement, if we allow them to code without guidance, they will SPAM the word with unwanted applications, check hotscripts you will find many. We don’t value them much, we value the programmers who can understand the requirement well. 75% of software design depends on understanding of problem. We can experts programmers in various fields as well but in programming it is one or two application and client is the one who provides the real opinion about the application.

   When I said opinion, I mean understanding of the subject not understanding just the topic. Ideally a person who understands the subject (connected part of it) can only have a good opinion about it. Imagine ourselves, do you think any content writer can write a better SEO article that what I can write? Can a content writer can write a better content than financial expert?

   Look around the content writers at about.com
   1) http://economics.about.com/mbiopage.htm - Mike is an economist and lecturer at The Richard Ivey School of Business located at the University of Western Ontario. He teaches courses on the “Global Environment of Business” that deal with economic performance
   2) http://management.about.com/mbiopage.htm - John Reh is a senior business executive whose broad management experience encompasses managing projects up to $125 million and business units including up to 200-plus people.
   3) http://sales.about.com/mbiopage.htm - Emjae Johnson, a woman in sales for over twenty-five years, has creatively developed unique techniques for increasing sales that aid both the independent sales person and the business owner.

   Show me some content writers who are not domain experts.

   In simpler words, people want to read experiences/findings/researches for connected topics as I explained in my blog post. Again its not a fight but an opinion

   
   
   AjiNIMC aka Web Kotler on May 19, 2008 - 7:15 am @ 7:15 am

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