It’s time to get something off my chest. Since the intersection of the Great Recession and web revolution, the value of writing (and writers themselves), took a nosedive. For those whose passion is writing, and whom expect to be paid decently for this talent, it has been a frustrating half-decade.
Many companies, in an effort to cut spending due to recessionary budgets, turned to overseas content writers. Myself and many writers (out of work, as the first departments cut are always marketing, advertising, and public relations) figured, hey — I’ll just freelance until the next job comes along.
Then reality hit. Freelance rates were at levels that an American could simple not survive on. When someone is offering to write a 200-page book for $20, how does one compete? Or worse, before Google began to crack down on lousy content, link farms and spam sites had foreign writers churning out barely-legible copy for 50 cents a page, or less.
Although the online community heard since 1996 that “content is king,” (see Craig Bailey’s post http://www.craigbailey.net/content-is-king-by-bill-gates/ ) many professional writers were replaced by folks from other professions such as web designers, programmers, analysts, and the like, due to cuts in budgets and downsizing. The absence of professional writers and editors became more and more apparent. The evidence for this is all around — thousands of posts on the most basic elements of proper English and writing styles.
And it’s not that professionals with expertise in other fields should not write! Indeed, the digital age has, for better or worse, cleared away the so-called gatekeepers and allowed people from all walks to life to opine and write about their knowledge, experience and feelings. This can be a very good thing.
But there is a vast difference between a professional American writing about his subject expertise, and someone thousands of miles away simply expected to “churn” content.
Fortunately, times are changing. Google’s new algorithms and a rising awareness that lousy copy equates to poor conversions (and thus sales) is changing perceptions. Corporate leaders who simply must get their message out amongst the flotsam and jetsam need folks who can write clearly and cleanly.
Yes, you can still hire folks in Russia, India, or Bangladesh for pennies per hour. And they will quickly bang out copy about your product or service. But their writing will reflect that English is not necessarily their first language, and that they don’t know American culture, our colloquialisms and euphemisms, or — most importantly — your audience and what their needs are.
In the end, you get the content you pay for. If you want to be cheap, you will look cheap.
And that’s just embarrassing.
For additional information, see the Content is King infographic.