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:
- Public speaking.
- Writing.
- Listening.
- ….. 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:
- can write useful content on easy learning topics and news/events etc.
- who can work with an expert to produce a good content for connected topics.
- understands how people read content and knows current trends of writing.
- who can simplify the content.
- who has confident grip over linguistics.
- who knows how to check the performance of their content and follow up to achieve the goal.
- 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.
