Writing professionally

I just read a blog post about writing online as a great career. Don’t get me wrong – I think writing is a great career! But I did not like this blog post.

However, the author of that  particular post (and I won’t link to it as I don’t want to been seen as supporting their site!) wrote about how the only writing worth doing is online writing (not business writing mind you, although he also referred to business writing being good) and that anyone can do it.

The standard of writing in the post itself was not particularly high and he was offering writing work to others even if you hate writing essays and just know a few advertising principles.

In response, I want to say that writing is a great career but not everyone has the language skills and knowledge to do it. It also requires some business ability in order to get enough clients and succeed.

As a professional in any industry, why would anyone downgrade the skills of that industry? By saying ‘anyone can write’ he is downgrading his own employees and business – and is not building up a trust in their abilities for prospective clients. And downgrading the industry in that way could also decrease accepted price ranges for the industry, too, therefore he is not helping his employees either.

As a blog writer, the other lesson from this person’s post is – don’t make your blog posts ads. There is no useful information in his post – it effectively says (in 5 or 6 paragraphs) that writing online is a great job so apply with him now.

Reading an ad instead of an informative post is not going to entice many people back to read another post. People want ads they can go anywhere – blogs are for information of some sort.