New Forum for Web Content Writers

Jan 24, 2005

This weekend I set up a discussion forum for web content writers. Web content writing is a rapidly evolving field, as more and more webmasters are recognizing the importance and the implication of good relevant content. A good thing about web content writing is that it is a specialized field. You cannot develop or purchase software to write good content — it has to be written. It’s not a “click and be done with” job. You need to sit, think, and write. You need to be a good writer.
In fact this is why (“why” is just an expression — I’ve always wanted to be a writer) I’m gradually shifting away from web development and focussing more on content writing. There are far too many web designers and developers who use lousy GUIs to create layouts and copy/paste code that is abundantly available on the Internet, and they do this work in pittance as if they have vowed to live in perpetual penury. They not only make their lives miserable (believe me, I have seen such people), they make life difficult for genuine web developers too.
You cannot copy/paste content, at least legally. Plagiarizing is easily detectable on the Internet.
As we all know, not everybody is comfortable writing. Companies and small businesses are going to require qualified content writers. They’ll need compelling copies to sell their products and services, they’ll need well-written profiles of their companies, they’ll need convincing case studies and they’ll need captivating online tutorials.
Besides, all major search engines attach weight to relevant, topic-centric content, and penalize those websites that employ “tricks” to achieve high rankings. This makes things difficult but forces the webmasters to have relevant content rather than useless graphics and animations.
With the emergence of blogs, more and more companies are going to make them an integral part of their PR and awareness campaigns. According to a recent study conducted by Technorati almost 23000 blogs are being created everyday. Although they are not all serious blogs but it shows how blogging is evolving into a completely new medium of expression. There is so much traffic being generated by blogs that BURST! Media recently launched a blog ad channel to sell advertising space on more than 20 high-traffic blogs.
As with content writing, not everybody can write regularly on blogs. Companies and individuals are going to require professional bloggers (some bloggers are already writing for blogs of other companies).
So the forum mentioned above deals with all these topics.