Can you write about subjects you are not familiar with?

Some people say that you should write about what you know. While I can see their point, it can't be that hard to research a topic, get a good list of points, and turn out articles, can it?

I know the difficulty would vary depending on how technical the subject is. It would be much harder to learn and write about advanced IT than it would be for, say, camping, supposing that you are equally inexperienced in both fields.

Thanks for your input.

 

It's really not that difficult. In fact there is quite a bit of material out there that is written by professional writers who have no previous knowledge of the subject they are witting on. It just takes good organization and an ability to get the gist of something and make sure to communicate it in a useful and to the point way.

 

If you are offering your service as a writer here at DP, you must be willing and prepared to write on varied topics. That's how it goes. One day you might be asked to do 'Hoodia pills' and the next day could be 'penis enlargement' articles.

First of all you have to be prepared for research. Sufficient info is available online. Just learn to be able to find info fast and assimilate it in your brain to be able to write about it.

Now its not just about your writing skills that matter when it comes to content writing for blogs/websites. You might be asked to write about topics you have a strong bias for. Just be professional, willing to research and improve in the whole process with each project.

My tuppence

 

This confirms what I've been thinking.

Tell me though, do you guys research manually or do you use some of the research-aid software out there. A mix of both might be best, I'd assume.

 

Honestly the best research tool out there is google.com There are all sorts of ways of finding scholarly articles and doing more hardcore research like infoseek or proquest. But really, if you are writing a blog entry there is no need to do a ton of research only to be able to present information in an organized and interesting manor.

 

I heard of some research software that is available for writers. Here is what I do. I get a topic and visit Wikipedia and Google. Then I'll spend a few minutes reading what I can. The key here is to leave enough time to put out at a minimum of 2 400-500 word article per hour.

But, using this article format you should be able to knock out articles pretty fast

First paragraph is making the points that you want in your article known.

Second to fourth paragraphs are going a little more in depth with each point.

Last paragraph make a closing statement about the information mentioned earlier.

Simple and yet it can be effective. Just make sure you use good information not just a bunch of filler crap.

Good Luck

 

No matter how much we explain our talent but the companies are still preferring a writer who is specializing in a field. thats not their problem but its our problem that the writing niche is too saturated

 

I am not sure that the writing niche is saturated. Not even sure if it is possible for it to get saturated. Of course what you could do is find a way to make money in the writing niche. There are different types (blogging, articles, technical papers, etc) Just find what you are good at and offer it as a service.

Good Luck!

 

If you buy an article on wine making from a wine maker it will probably be very good and have lots of new info that many people will read. It will also rank because it will put fresh info and new keywords into a subject area.

When some guy who doesn’t even know wine just goes through google and writes an article he is just scraping info already in the search engines shuffling it around and writing a unknowledgeable article = filler.
It probably won't rank because even robot can tell the difference between scraped info and fresh content. And if people start to read it will tell it is just filler written by an inexperience person who has no clue about the subject he is writing about.

When you write about a subject you can't under estimate your reader many of them will be very knowledgeable about the subject and they are looking for fresh knowledge and tips. You just spend a couple of hour studying something and then try to educate people with years of experience and knowledge? Not.

This is one of the reasons most content is cheap on DP it is usually fairly worthless. People always say "I can write on any niche" = filler.

I write filler sometimes just to get a site going but I try to stay with subjects that I know so I can add my own viewpoint and info that is worth something.

 

Most article writing is about data processing than original data creation. So I would presume that writing about unfamiliar subjects isn't such a big deal. There is plenty of scope to present existing information in a better way though (Funnier, shorter, clearer and so on).

In the ideal case scenario, the writer should be writing on a topic that interests him and one in which he has personal knowledge and experience in. That way, the articles are high quality and completely unique. If that were the case, I would presume that the writer would be unwilling to give those articles away for the average DP article rates. For example : I have a detailed step by step article on "How to install an SSL certificate on your website" that is a product of my personal experience. It's around 350 words (As of now), but if you offer to pay 10$ for it, I'll probably kick you where the sun don't shine.

 

Its fairly easy to write about something you have absolutely no idea about. You can research in a few minutes or you can just BS the whole thing.

 

I like the idea of researching. I, however, don't think that BS-ing will add to your credibility as a writer, though.

 

I agree here. BSing only works when you aren't held accountable. When I'm writing an article I know that I have a responsibility to give at least factual information because really the only secrete to good SEO is to make your site reverent and useful.

If i'm BSing, someone is going to find out, and believe me no amount of keyword placement can make up for a loss in credibility. At least if you are thinking in the long term.

 

You can't write an article about something you've just learned and pretend to be an expert, but you can study a couple of hours and write a basic article on that topic.

 

You can certainly write about things you don't know. Even writing about things I know a great deal about, I have to stop and do some fact-checking or look up certain elements to be sure I understand them explicitly. Granted, writing on a topic I've studied, worked with and could debate in my sleep is going to be deeper and much more meaningful and personalized than a carefully compiled collection of research, but it's possible to learn about subject and then create content or articles.

With that being said, there are certain topics I don't even mess with knowing I won't be able to justify my time spent adequately researching the field and won't produce the level of material I'm comfortable with. I refer those assignments to other writers who specialize in the area, but I often take on some of the more random or bizarre topics because I like to learn about them just because I'm interested and view the opportunity as a chance to learn new things.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes the allure of learning on an interesting subject is too much to resist. Getting paid while at it doesn't hurt either, though.

 

You can write on topics you don't know about but they won't compare to articles where the author has an in-depth knowledge. I have read researched articles where it is the small details that make it obvious that the author doesn't know the subject.
I will write on themes I am unfamilliar with as long as I am comfortable with them but there are some that I just won't go near like financial and political subjects.

 

I agree that it is possible to write about topics that you are unfamiliar with, but you do have to be able to merge what you're studying with anything and everything you've stored in the filing cabinet called a brain. That will often provide a fresh look at a topic and allow you to follow a trail of research that will enable you to write an article that is totally fresh and relevant.

You can't just read what others have written, and in fact, you have to be careful to find authoritative sources. If your sources are Wikipedia, ezinearticles or other sites where the content is written by writers like us, then there's no guarantee that the information is even correct.

JMHO

 

if you're a fast learner, just open your browser and searching for that topic, then build an article is not too hard to do..

 

You can actually write about anything without having the quality suffer as long as you've done a quick but thorough research. It is in the way you organize your words that matters.