A few minutes ago I did a Google search on ‘content writing’ and was presented with 197 million sites. Here’s what one of them has to offer: “I will write 1,000 words for your blog, website or book – for five dollars!” (I added the exclamation mark myself).
Another (obviously more up-market) is offering 600 words for five dollars. Must be a Pulitzer Prize winner at that price.
Funny, because my clients are delighted to pay me $75 for a hundred words, so what’s going on?
There exists a huge industry, writing for the web, that can be a great revenue stream for copywriters. And it can be little better than slavery for others. In this and a series of following blogs, I intend to look at the market, where the real opportunities lie, and how to distance yourself from the sweatshops.
What is content writing?
The web is hungry for content, and savvy website owners are keen to pay for a service where specialists will…
Content writers, then, have saleable skills in both writing and in search engine optimisation (SEO). They know how to capture Google’s and Yahoo’s attention, then know how to really engage with the humans.
Avoiding the mucky end (and why it’s bad for clients as well as for providers)
I’m going to start at the bottom of the pile, and we will work our way up – so don’t be disheartened at the beginning.
Another (obviously more up-market) is offering 600 words for five dollars. Must be a Pulitzer Prize winner at that price.
Funny, because my clients are delighted to pay me $75 for a hundred words, so what’s going on?
There exists a huge industry, writing for the web, that can be a great revenue stream for copywriters. And it can be little better than slavery for others. In this and a series of following blogs, I intend to look at the market, where the real opportunities lie, and how to distance yourself from the sweatshops.
What is content writing?
The web is hungry for content, and savvy website owners are keen to pay for a service where specialists will…
- Help to identify suitable phrases most likely to be entered by users when searching the web
- Possibly perform research to identify suitable content
- Write compelling content, built around the best search phrases, to promote clients’ products, services and companies.
Content writers, then, have saleable skills in both writing and in search engine optimisation (SEO). They know how to capture Google’s and Yahoo’s attention, then know how to really engage with the humans.
Avoiding the mucky end (and why it’s bad for clients as well as for providers)
I’m going to start at the bottom of the pile, and we will work our way up – so don’t be disheartened at the beginning.
The big bag of poo
There is a great swathe of naïve business startups who suppose that all they have to do to gain wealth and glory is launch a website. They wait for the world to beat a path to their door. When that fails, they turn to unfeasibly low-cost content farms – don’t worry about the quality, just feel the width. To achieve such low cost, these suppliers are almost exclusively offshore and usually have very poor English language skills. This is a genuine example from an offshore service (honest):
"XXX (name removed) Service is immensely emerging company in the Indian IT market. We deliver the best of IT solutions in the field of SEO and SEM. Apart from the admirable SEO and SEM services offered by XXX Services, the company provides an exquisite service of Web Content Writing. The creative and unique writing done by the content writers at XXX Service, puts the company in the priority list of the clients to get content writing services for there business. The SEO services offered here are quite efficient and have always been up to the requirements of the client. The productive SEO, SEM services gives a global identification to the company."
To achieve impossibly low costs, they often plagiarise work from the web and re-sell their own work. Google is incredibly skilful at finding plagiarism (they call it ‘duplicate content’).
Self-imposed slavery
This is an interesting phenomenon. There are sites, like www.fiverr.com where freelance creatives offer their services at low cost. In this case, for $5. In fact, users normally end up paying a little more as ‘options’. Inevitably, many of the offerings are very poor quality but, I must confess, there are some talented people adopting a high-volume, low-return strategy (not one I would recommend, but if it works for them…).
As an example, I commissioned someone to create a short promo video for me and the result isn’t bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-RhEZOfYaY At $30, a fraction of a fraction of the cost a video company would charge.
Again, to test the water, I have just commissioned a blog entry on writing (I gave the supplier free rein when choosing the topic) for $5: this is the link: http://www.the-writers-guru.com/clarity-for-writers
In a wonderful example of initiative, one of my students has even published two Kindle books written for him entirely by Fiverr-type freelancers. The English wasn’t bad, they are available on Kindle UK and Kindle USA – and they are selling!
Lesson number one, if you really need volume of words cheaply, it is possible using such sites – you can always edit/revise yourself. Don’t expect any useful SEO expertise or much in the way of research.
Lesson number two – if you are a writer, don’t go anywhere near them. People have an expectation as to what they should pay and you need to be fishing in high expectation streams.
There is a great swathe of naïve business startups who suppose that all they have to do to gain wealth and glory is launch a website. They wait for the world to beat a path to their door. When that fails, they turn to unfeasibly low-cost content farms – don’t worry about the quality, just feel the width. To achieve such low cost, these suppliers are almost exclusively offshore and usually have very poor English language skills. This is a genuine example from an offshore service (honest):
"XXX (name removed) Service is immensely emerging company in the Indian IT market. We deliver the best of IT solutions in the field of SEO and SEM. Apart from the admirable SEO and SEM services offered by XXX Services, the company provides an exquisite service of Web Content Writing. The creative and unique writing done by the content writers at XXX Service, puts the company in the priority list of the clients to get content writing services for there business. The SEO services offered here are quite efficient and have always been up to the requirements of the client. The productive SEO, SEM services gives a global identification to the company."
To achieve impossibly low costs, they often plagiarise work from the web and re-sell their own work. Google is incredibly skilful at finding plagiarism (they call it ‘duplicate content’).
Self-imposed slavery
This is an interesting phenomenon. There are sites, like www.fiverr.com where freelance creatives offer their services at low cost. In this case, for $5. In fact, users normally end up paying a little more as ‘options’. Inevitably, many of the offerings are very poor quality but, I must confess, there are some talented people adopting a high-volume, low-return strategy (not one I would recommend, but if it works for them…).
As an example, I commissioned someone to create a short promo video for me and the result isn’t bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-RhEZOfYaY At $30, a fraction of a fraction of the cost a video company would charge.
Again, to test the water, I have just commissioned a blog entry on writing (I gave the supplier free rein when choosing the topic) for $5: this is the link: http://www.the-writers-guru.com/clarity-for-writers
In a wonderful example of initiative, one of my students has even published two Kindle books written for him entirely by Fiverr-type freelancers. The English wasn’t bad, they are available on Kindle UK and Kindle USA – and they are selling!
Lesson number one, if you really need volume of words cheaply, it is possible using such sites – you can always edit/revise yourself. Don’t expect any useful SEO expertise or much in the way of research.
Lesson number two – if you are a writer, don’t go anywhere near them. People have an expectation as to what they should pay and you need to be fishing in high expectation streams.
Product Description mills
Some e-commerce companies have literally thousands of products for sale, each needing unique content. They will usually approach large content writing agencies, who in turn ‘employ’ a pool of freelancers that they have grown to trust. Others will go direct to copywriters.
Most fulltime freelance copywriters turn this work away, for obvious reasons. Such work can be repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. Typically, we are talking around 70 words per product, conveying the features and benefits, complete with SEO. Imagine doing that a thousand times.
For freelancers working part time, simply seeking a second income with flexible working time and conditions, this could, however, be attractive. They could work in their own right, or as part of the ‘pool’ of part time writers employed by the product description mills.
Freelance copywriters – the waters you should be fishing
Ideally, this is where you should be positioning yourself. Potential clients using content writers as a search term will be seeking low cost. Those searching for copywriters, however, are already disposed towards a comprehensive, quality service. They will expect someone who can engage with readers, research the best search phrases and weave those phrases seamlessly into the text. They expect a proactive service and they are willing to pay a significant premium for such skills.
They tend to want to develop a long term relationship, rather than just a one-off transaction. Their website content work often extends into sales brochures, articles, case studies, scripts and so on.
Projects can be interesting as well as ‘meaty’ – often worth around six thousand dollars each.
What next? That was our first meander around the subject. I hope you found it interesting. Over the coming weeks I will explore the content writing market further. Possible topics might include:
Let me know if you have any suggestions for suitable topics.
Some e-commerce companies have literally thousands of products for sale, each needing unique content. They will usually approach large content writing agencies, who in turn ‘employ’ a pool of freelancers that they have grown to trust. Others will go direct to copywriters.
Most fulltime freelance copywriters turn this work away, for obvious reasons. Such work can be repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. Typically, we are talking around 70 words per product, conveying the features and benefits, complete with SEO. Imagine doing that a thousand times.
For freelancers working part time, simply seeking a second income with flexible working time and conditions, this could, however, be attractive. They could work in their own right, or as part of the ‘pool’ of part time writers employed by the product description mills.
Freelance copywriters – the waters you should be fishing
Ideally, this is where you should be positioning yourself. Potential clients using content writers as a search term will be seeking low cost. Those searching for copywriters, however, are already disposed towards a comprehensive, quality service. They will expect someone who can engage with readers, research the best search phrases and weave those phrases seamlessly into the text. They expect a proactive service and they are willing to pay a significant premium for such skills.
They tend to want to develop a long term relationship, rather than just a one-off transaction. Their website content work often extends into sales brochures, articles, case studies, scripts and so on.
Projects can be interesting as well as ‘meaty’ – often worth around six thousand dollars each.
What next? That was our first meander around the subject. I hope you found it interesting. Over the coming weeks I will explore the content writing market further. Possible topics might include:
- How to find potential clients
- How to research topics quickly
- How to get fresh ideas
- How to turn one-off projects into an income stream
- How to ensure you have not plagiarised
- How to differentiate yourself
- How to find suitable websites
Let me know if you have any suggestions for suitable topics.
