Content Writers - Now And Always
Content writers are the backbone of web success.
As my experience shows, there isn't any letting off of content's importance, whether in the past or now or perhaps ever in future.
There is a belief that such and such amount of content will suffice for a website.
It's a fallacy.
I suspect one reason blogging is today's darling is that it aids in adding contents with effortless ease.
Much water has flown down all major rivers of the world from the time website came to be recognized as must-have for any business worth the name.
To be sure, visual style and appearance of websites are constantly changing, what with rapid transformation from static to dynamic images, flash movies to streaming videos and what not.
Yet for all the brouhaha, what has remained stolidly unchanged is the need for contents.
It has to because what we converse, read, write, express, emote, submit, narrate are nothing but - you guessed right - contents.
There is no reason to believe why websites too wouldn't need contents - in fact plenty of it.
Which is why there'll always be a need for content provider.
When I first set out as a content writer, among the first I catered to was a site on Indian crafts.
As I do now, I did the same then.
Which is emphasizing on lots of contents.
The concept of targeted content to be built on key-phrases wasn't much in vogue then and therefore the idea was more to help visitors to understand what the site was all about and arousing their interests in its products.
This was about 8 years back when Yahoo! ruled the roost and Google just arriving on the scene.
Though top search engine ranking was relatively easy with not many contestants around, the site didn't do well.
This was mainly due to the fact that online payment mechanism wasn't that reliable then, and so in spite of impressive flow of visitors, conversion to sale was few and far between.
This prompted us to put heads together to explore if something could be done to improve sales, and predictably, I was given responsibility as the main content writer to weave words appealingly so that the tide could turn in our favor.
It didn't happen, and shortly the site folded up the idea of online selling.
The website however remained as-it-is with the hope that some day it might start afresh.
That however is yet to happen, though I must say selling online is lot easier now than ever before.
Meanwhile, the website, being content-rich, continues to draw traffic, and in fact has steadily maintained PR 5 all this long.
There are more backlinks to it than there were when it went to limbo 6 years back.
Despite crawlers' less frequent visits commensurate with Alexa ranking dipping beyond recognition, the website has over 800 visitors every month, about 15% of whom making repeat trips.
This begs the question, what still makes the website tick.
What honey do 15% repeat visitors get, and why for all the visible signs of its being abandoned, does the website still attract incoming links? The short answer is 'content'.
The bigger answer is 'lots of contents'.
I think here is a lesson for us, the web practitioners.
There is no alternative to building contents if you're here for the long haul.
Spending on ads is for the short term, piling up relevant contents is a longer-term planning.
No amount of ad dollars will forever fetch traffic unless backed by solid contents.
Content writers come and go, but contents remain.
It matters less whether or not you stick to the same content writer, or you build your expertise in-house after the initial period.
The bigger picture is always the same.
Which is to build targeted relevant content brick-by-brick today, tomorrow and on all the days to come.
You might say content is not a must for web success.
For example, isn't YouTube a big success without much content? Say that to one who is planning a travel website, or one who wishes to make a mark with juicy recipes.
Well, you can see there is no alternative to contents.
But YouTube? It's a technological wonder, as much as Skype is.
Once they catch fancy, there is no stopping them, content or no content.
Remember, for each YouTube or Skype succeeding phenomenally, there are millions of simple websites like yours and mine failing without contents.
Take your pick.
The bottomline is there is no life in web-world without content.
If you are with me, consider hiring a content writer without delay, or better perhaps, do it yourself.
As my experience shows, there isn't any letting off of content's importance, whether in the past or now or perhaps ever in future.
There is a belief that such and such amount of content will suffice for a website.
It's a fallacy.
I suspect one reason blogging is today's darling is that it aids in adding contents with effortless ease.
Much water has flown down all major rivers of the world from the time website came to be recognized as must-have for any business worth the name.
To be sure, visual style and appearance of websites are constantly changing, what with rapid transformation from static to dynamic images, flash movies to streaming videos and what not.
Yet for all the brouhaha, what has remained stolidly unchanged is the need for contents.
It has to because what we converse, read, write, express, emote, submit, narrate are nothing but - you guessed right - contents.
There is no reason to believe why websites too wouldn't need contents - in fact plenty of it.
Which is why there'll always be a need for content provider.
When I first set out as a content writer, among the first I catered to was a site on Indian crafts.
As I do now, I did the same then.
Which is emphasizing on lots of contents.
The concept of targeted content to be built on key-phrases wasn't much in vogue then and therefore the idea was more to help visitors to understand what the site was all about and arousing their interests in its products.
This was about 8 years back when Yahoo! ruled the roost and Google just arriving on the scene.
Though top search engine ranking was relatively easy with not many contestants around, the site didn't do well.
This was mainly due to the fact that online payment mechanism wasn't that reliable then, and so in spite of impressive flow of visitors, conversion to sale was few and far between.
This prompted us to put heads together to explore if something could be done to improve sales, and predictably, I was given responsibility as the main content writer to weave words appealingly so that the tide could turn in our favor.
It didn't happen, and shortly the site folded up the idea of online selling.
The website however remained as-it-is with the hope that some day it might start afresh.
That however is yet to happen, though I must say selling online is lot easier now than ever before.
Meanwhile, the website, being content-rich, continues to draw traffic, and in fact has steadily maintained PR 5 all this long.
There are more backlinks to it than there were when it went to limbo 6 years back.
Despite crawlers' less frequent visits commensurate with Alexa ranking dipping beyond recognition, the website has over 800 visitors every month, about 15% of whom making repeat trips.
This begs the question, what still makes the website tick.
What honey do 15% repeat visitors get, and why for all the visible signs of its being abandoned, does the website still attract incoming links? The short answer is 'content'.
The bigger answer is 'lots of contents'.
I think here is a lesson for us, the web practitioners.
There is no alternative to building contents if you're here for the long haul.
Spending on ads is for the short term, piling up relevant contents is a longer-term planning.
No amount of ad dollars will forever fetch traffic unless backed by solid contents.
Content writers come and go, but contents remain.
It matters less whether or not you stick to the same content writer, or you build your expertise in-house after the initial period.
The bigger picture is always the same.
Which is to build targeted relevant content brick-by-brick today, tomorrow and on all the days to come.
You might say content is not a must for web success.
For example, isn't YouTube a big success without much content? Say that to one who is planning a travel website, or one who wishes to make a mark with juicy recipes.
Well, you can see there is no alternative to contents.
But YouTube? It's a technological wonder, as much as Skype is.
Once they catch fancy, there is no stopping them, content or no content.
Remember, for each YouTube or Skype succeeding phenomenally, there are millions of simple websites like yours and mine failing without contents.
Take your pick.
The bottomline is there is no life in web-world without content.
If you are with me, consider hiring a content writer without delay, or better perhaps, do it yourself.