Difficulty in article writing

Thank you for the input, but I disagree. I see the comparison as being right on target.

People like Steven Spielberg do in fact take an active role in writing their books and making movies. The same goes for Stan Lee and marvel comic books and now Marvel movies like Iron Man and Spider man. Stephen King has been in several of his movies.

But lets move past this bickering.

As a website owner, and a possible customer I am telling you and the rest of the writers what I want. I want options. This is something that the majority of writers do not offer.

When I go to a writers landing page, they all look the same. There are examples of their work, references, experience, maybe some prices - but the pages are mostly the same.

If a customer tells the writer that they want "this" - the writer should give the customer want they want. The worst thing you can do is argue with someone that has the money in hand. If a writer is not willing to give the customer what they want, the customer will go somewhere else.

 

No, then you are saying that all restaraunts have a "full menu" which consists of all different nationalities of foods? That's just horrendous...

You probably would never be a client of mine (in the future) because that's not how I work. You don't "tell me what you want," I will tell you what I can do and you will decide whether I am skilled enough to be hired by you.

The bottom line is...I can go and make you a video but it would be terribly made. Steven Spielberg isn't going to go and do make up for the actors and actresses in his movies...is he??? The owner of a Wal-Mart isn't going to go wash the bathrooms...is he???

I'm sorry, what you are saying is just stubborn. A writer is a writer, that's all. If someone is experienced in a variety of fields, his main field may not be writing. A professional writer will write the content, you shouldn't expect them to do EVERYTHING for you.

Anyways, forget it. I'm sure most people here will agree that a writer specializes in writing, an SEO expert specializes in SEO, a photographer specializes in taking photos, and you (as a webmaster) will specialize in making websites. Just because you can do everything, don't expect everyone to be able to.

No one is going to go to University for every different field...they pick one specific field. People make a career out of one specific field...and so on.

 

Well spoken, and I understand your point.

Keep in mind, those that are not willing to adapt to a changing environment will die off. This is the way it is in real life - species that do not adapt become extinct. And that is the way it is in the real world. Businesses that can not keep up with the competition will go under.

For those people that can not sale their articles, maybe its time to offer something that their competition can not or will not offer.

If a writers business strategy is not working (no sales), there comes a time when its time to change that strategy.

 

The thing is that you'll get better results by choosing from a 'menu' of different writers who specialize in different fields of writing rather than a single writer who claims he/she can deliver every type of writing you need.

Yes, everyone can write, but if you want it done right, you need a writer who specializes in a certain field of writing. If you want great press releases, for example, hire a PR writer. You'll get better results than the jack-of-all-trades type.

 

If a writer cannot sell his articles, he is just marketing them the wrong way or is not really a good writer. There is a differen't between a professional writer and a freelance writer. A lot ofreelance writers are probably willing to go video tape something but a professional writer will not.

You can't say that professional writers will become extinct because they are not offering a variety of services. Their service is writing and they do good at it so there is no need to widen what they offer. The only people that do that are people that aren't actually skilled in that particular field.

cd928 has it right...there may be some people that can do mediocre at everything you need and you can get average content but if you want high quality content, you will have to find a specialist in each field. You got your blue bin (recycling) and green bin (compost) for a reason. You will have to have a diversity because each one does something important which will work together. If you put everything in the black bin, it will get the job done but the results are not as positive as it would be to go with the specialized bin - terrible analogy, sorry.

 

A professional writer is like a professional hunter. Take a look at the lion, or the wolf. Those species have survived for tens of thousands of years by doing something and doing it well.

Its the average or below average writer that might need to diversify more then the professional.

It seems to me that this thread has grouped all writers together, and this can not be so. Just as all doctors are not the same and all lawyers are not the same, not all writers are the same.

 

This is the main point here I think.

What you're asking for might apply to someone in the low-priced content writing field, having no choice but to diversify or get out of that market. In that case, they may very well choose to keep their market and try to offer more services (like video). As long as the buyers are willing to accept "amateur-level" work (which a lot of that writing is anyway, but which would certainly be true if they have no experience in photography or creating videos), then that might be fine for everyone.

For professionals however, that is extremely unlikely to happen for a few reasons. Most importantly, it wouldn't be an effective way to earn a living (it would be stupid for them to waste extra time on a project shooting an amateur video for some extra money, when they would probably make significantly more sticking solely to writing and picking up an extra client). On top of that, those professionals already likely have a solid client base, have established themselves in their market where they don't need to add extra services, and know how to adapt by altering their target before altering what they're offering.

If anything, the group of writers you want would probably fall mostly under the "hobby writer" category, where I imagine they'd be more likely to have those other "hobbies" in photography and video - maybe they dabble in all. If you want professional-quality work though, I still say your best bet is to look for a firm that contracts several people to work on the project at a higher level than one could.

For the record (since someone mentioned this) "professionals" and "freelancers" aren't two different classifications of writers - there are a lot of professionals who work on a freelance basis.

 

Well, when doctors start feeling the need to operate on wolves in the interest of diversifying, then maybe writers will become videographers.

I'm married to a multi-media specialists who has shot and edited award-winning videos. It's not the same as being a writer and I can't even imagine why this came up. What hubby knows about composing a shot, following a moving target, editing video to be edgy rather than craptastic, fixing audio, keying, and all that other stuff he talks about while I pretend to listen is amazing. It doesn't come naturally to me, and is not something I do well - even when I try.

Writers can diversify by offering copy services and article writing or maybe web content as well as novel ghostwriting, but let's at least try to keep it in the ballpark

 

I am not grouping writers together. I am diversifying the writers who would say "cannot" or "can't" and the writers that say "can not" in my posts. I am talking about writers who make a living from that - not freelance writers. There is obviously a major difference between a (career writer?) and just a freelance writer. Maybe the "grammeticly incherent writrs" will need to widen the variety of services that they offer but a professional writer will never need to do that.

With that being said, you have to figure out what classifies a professional writer. Some may say that a professional writer is someone who is a published author, whether it be a novel or magazine, but others may say that some DP writers can be considered as professional writers.

You won't (for a reasonable price) find a "jack of all trades" that can provide you high quality in every field you want - that is just impossible. That's like asking Hulk Hogan to return and do some of the moves that Rey Mysterio does - a big guy doing flips (high flying) is obviously not going to make sense.

People stick with what they are good at or learn more about other stuff and become good at that. There is no reason for anyone to try to accept every job they see if they are not capable of doing it.


@ Prinzel -- Exactly. You can't expect a writer to be a photographer, director, artist, and whatever else. If you expect anything of at least decent quality, you will have to find people that mainly deal in each field. There are a lot of fields within writing that a writer can adapt to.


As far as a diversion of professional and freelance writers goes, it is all about what you consider a professional writer to be. In a sense, most people are freelancers. What would you word it then? I wouldn't say a hobby writer because a hobby writer could be a freelancer as well so is there no term to go with people that are not professional writers? If they are not professional writers, does that mean that they don't have experience? If so, does that mean that all writers are professional writers?

 

A professional writer is one who makes a living from writing. The title of 'freelancer' has nothing to do with that, it simply differentiates between salaried writers and those who are independent. When I wrote exclusively for one company as a salaried writer F/T, I was not freelancing. When I pick and choose my gigs and work for myself on a variety of different writing jobs, I am a freelancer. Either way, I am a professional.

 

I get that, and I obviously know what a freelancer is but the point is that there is no diversion. Not everyone is a professional writer. Can you say that a professional writer has a piece of paper (from school courses) to back up their knowledge? Is there a real distinction between a professional and non-professional writer? Does it even make sense for there to be the latter?

 

I would say that money makes the difference- professional make money, amateurs don't. That does not speak to quality though. There are plenty of craptastic writers around who get paid for their crapfests. Oh well, I don't like McDonalds, but some people do. I would write more but this professional writer has a cat laying down on her hands and keyboard, making it impossible to properly communicate.

 

Y.L. Prinzel hit the nail on the head - being a "freelancer" simply means you're a self-employed writer You can be a professional freelancer, a FT freelancer, PT freelancer, hobby writer / amateur freelancer. If you get paid to be a writer, but you're not officially "employed" by a company (meaning they're not paying worker's comp insurance, a portion of the taxes, withholding your taxes for you, etc.), then you're a freelance writer no matter how often you do it or how much you make.

Everyone's idea of a "professional" is different. Some call you a professional if you get paid at all. I don't. To me it's about how serious of a pursuit it is - if you're earning a full-time living at it, I'd call you a professional writer (as one example). I'd also call a published author a professional writer, as well as some part-time writers (again, depending on how seriously they treat it). I guess to put it as simply as possible, I'd say it depends on whether or not they take their writing seriously as a business - if they treat it as such, I'd consider them more professional than someone who just churns out a few articles to get some money in Paypal once in a while.

 

I think this is why I usually stay out of this section. One little post usually turns into a large conversation and I usually spend more time talking here then I should be on my work.

We fell a little off topic from the OP wondering why it's so hard to sell content lately. I think you might be right that a professional writer would be based on the salary but my opinion of a professional writer has always been a novelist, journalist, news columnist, and similar. However, there are a lot of people that would fit under that category and still be freelance writers.

I'm just going to stop contradicting myself now, I need to sleep, badly!

Have a good night guys.

Edit: Just have to throw in this one extra opinion. Someone who is writing articles that are keyword-based and not even very informative shouldn't be deemed as a professional writer. If it's something as simple as rewriting articles or keyword stuffing, even if they do it F/T and make a lot of money, it wouldn't make sense. There are also a lot of people that don't have English as their main language and produce poor content (in English) but still make a decent living off of it (full time) and I wouldn't want to call them professional writers either.

 

I totally get where you're coming from- and within some meanings of the word you are correct. In general though, one who makes a living at something is a 'professional that thing'. Whether they are good at it and act businesslike or not. Does that mean they are an expert? No. That they are learned, good or professional in behavior and presentation? Yeah....No. But, they are still a professional.

Oh and OP, I would try to list them on Constant Content.

 

Okay, well this would make sense then: "A professional writer is someone whose profession involves writing."

If you were to go through each part of the termonology, you would agree that a professional is someone that has a fair amount of experience in a certain profession. Therefore, most (paid) writers would be considered as professional writers.

Does that make sense?

 

Content buyers are still out there - it's all about knowing where to find them. If you're finding it difficult to strike up new client relationships, be proactive - get in touch with your previous clients and ask if they've any other projects needing done.

If it's becoming difficult to find clients, you've simply got to up your game. There are loads of content writers thriving out there, and it's up to you to go out of your way to become one of them.

 

wow. good topic guys, learned a lot! thanks!

 

Don't become too focus on word count mate !, The important is it must have certain keyword proximity and density...

 

I have not seen much of a change in prices that I receive for my articles, but sometimes the topics get annoying. I like to learn about different things, and pounding articles out over and over about the same topics can get kind of old. I typically sell my articles though, and usually do not submit to sites like Associated Content because the upfront payment is low.