Is There Any Future of Content Writers?

Note: Oddseo was primarily running on Worpress platform. But, when I tried to upgrade to WP 2.5, something strange happened and I lost everything. Here are two posts (compiled into one) that I retrieved from backup.

Aji Says, “Content writers will die off soon, they don’t have a future”.

But Aji, you did not clarify few things here:

Whom do you categorize as a content writer? Do you mean - whoever writes content by profession is a content writer?

What do you mean by the word “future”! Does it mean a regular and sustainable income – job or business?

Anyways, here is how I look at the situation:

There are basically two types of content writers.

One set of writers are meant to produce or generate content as fast as possible. There are hundreds of so called SEO companies that do so and there are hundreds of content writers who do not know that they are doing nothing. Just take a look at Get a Freelancer – how much the clients are paying for 500 words! Do you think any great job is possible within that budget and timeline? And there are at least 2 to 3 middle-man taking their shares.

As long as we are in the HTTP protocol, commercial websites would need links and content. And as long as there would be a need of content – I see a future for everyone. And at the end of the day future is how you define it – how do you set you goal!

There is another set of content writers - those who do not write but make the content presentable. You can also think about the copywriters in an advertising agency – what do they do? They have a brief from the client to prepare an advertisement. Do they have huge knowledge on the subject? But they have the expertise in “The art of Presentation”.

For example, I would prefer a job where the client would provide me the primary content and I would work to develop it according to the target market. I would work on the presentation of the content which may take months to complete. I would take care of the minute details like “come or go”, “Buy it or Get it” etc. I would look to make things easier for the visitor depending on analytics data and conversion rate etc.

Do I have a future? Yes I have.

Now when you say, subject specific knowledge is important, can you say that, a great knowledge over the subject would be enough to communicate? A good educationist is not always a good teacher – but a good teacher is inevitably a good communicator. If you are not a good communicator (a great sales man), you cannot be a good content writer (content that sells). It is not just the simplicity of presentation – there are more elements in it.

The future of content writers / writers / copy writers:

As long as there is business, you would need content to express it. Don’t you need a content writer to do that? Or do you think the business owner is good enough to write the business literature / ad copy / brochure / webpage content? Or do you think that every business niche can generate a great writer – who would be reachable to everyone!

SEO and Content Writing:

As far as SEO and content writing goes – they work hand in hand. Knowledge is bad only when it is misused – and if you misuse it, you will not last long.
Content of a page would help people if and only if the target group can reach your page. And you need SEO to get people to your website unless you have 1 million members in your site and they are your target readers alone. You must know how your target readers are reaching your page and why they are here.

Please let me know if I am wrong somewhere:

Here is Aji's Reply: Why content writers have no future?

Here is My reply to Aji's Reply:

Hey Aji, I also don’t want to fight with you because there is nothing to fight. You are not a content writer and I am not a programmer (and trust me; I would never say programmers have no future).

My comment on your acid test:

Web Content writing is never about having an opinion – it is just the opposite – you are not supposed to have an opinion. There are lots of differences between writing a blog post and content for a commercial website. Just think about a news story writer and an editorial writer and an advertorial writer in a newspaper – do they all have an opinion? Will it be good if they showed an opinion directly or indirectly?

Why do you call content writers to be spammers? Who spam - content writers or marketers? Just think twice…please. Journalists have some grudges on bloggers and that’s why they call blogs to be parasitic medium. What’s your point?

And sorry Aji, you could not prove why content writers do not have a future.