Be careful: Content writing encourages bad prose

We all know that content writing isn't exactly art. The goal is to write as many stories as quickly as possible. The pay just isn't high enough to justify artfully written pieces.

(Some content writers might disagree. But let's be honest: The stuff we're writing isn't meant to be read. It's meant to get people to specific Web sites. If we write pure gibberish, but it brings in the traffic, we've done our jobs.)

Writers just have to be careful that they don't take their bad content-writing habits with them when they're working on legitimate magazine or newspaper writing.

When writing content stories, the goal is to get to that required word count. That leads writers to produce sentences that are far longer than they need to be. Here's an example from my own work, a content piece about shopping for big screen TVs: "Shopping for the right big screen TV can prove to be a challenging task."

Now, that sentence isn't great. But it has a good amount of words in it. That's all I wanted. If I was writing that same thought for a real magazine, though, it'd go something like "Shopping for big-screen TVs can be challenging."

The first sentence has 14 words. The second has eight. The second is also a better sentence: It gets to the point quickly. That's what we're supposed to do in journalism.

But content writing, of course, is not journalism. It's filling space. Just remember to change your approach when you're writing anything else.

How to get that freelance writing job

Do you have to be a good writer to make it as a freelance writer? Probably. But sometimes you can get that freelance writing job simply by being persistent.

There are a lot of writers out there who are merely serviceable when it comes to stringing together sentences and paragraphs. There is no poetry in what they write. But they're successful,and you see their byline all over the Web.

How do they do it? They probably bug their editors for story ideas all the time. Persistence is the real key to success in landing all those writing jobs.

Last week, I got a good freelance writing job through this approach. One of the trade magazines that I've long written for is going through tough times now thanks to the economy. Ad sales are down, so the space available for freelancers has shrunk.

I'd still been getting fairly regular assignments from my editor until 2009 rolled around. Suddenly, I was getting nothing.

So I went to work being a bit of a pain. I made sure to contact my editor at the magazine every other week. Sometimes it'd just be a quick reminder that I was interested in freelance stories if the editor had any to pass out. Other times, I'd pitch specific story ideas.

Things weren't going well with this approach until Friday. This time, I sent another specific story idea. And, wonders of wonders, my editor responded and said that she'd like to see the story.

Best of all, this isn't some rinky dink $12 content article. This is a real freelance assignment, one that requires interviews, research and critical thinking. And it pays $1,000. And that's $1,00 that I desperately need these days.

So there's an example of the power of persistence. I used to take silence from editors as "no." Today, though, I can no longer afford to do so. Today I keep banging away at my editors until I do finally get that "no." And sometimes, if I'm lucky, I get that "yes" instead.

Wrote about patio cushions today

Well, I am officially a hack.

Today I wrote about patio cushions.

Now, I don't care about patio cushions. I imagine you don't, either. They're something to sit on. That's all. Yet I wrote five stories on patio cushions: how they come in all sorts of colors, how to waterproof them, how to keep them looking good, even how to buy them cheaply.

Yes, it was content writing at its best.

I used to write about people who dress up like superheroes and patrol their streets, even though they can't stick to walls or fly at supersonic speeds. I used to write about people who are pressuring their state legislatures to pass laws protecting Bigfoot.

I used to write about real stuff. Fun stuff.

Not patio cushions. I mean, I like sitting on them, really. I just never thought the day would come when I wrote entire stories about them.

Really, is buying patio cushions a challenge? Is it difficult? Does anyone need to go to the Web and look up information on how to find them at good prices?

Is content writing insane?

So I'm giving content writing a try. It's an experiment. But I'm finding that it's an experiment that is slowly gobbling up all my writing time.

Here's the problem: I've been struggling for months to nab assignments from print magazines. Even my regular clients are stingy these days with the work. (Thanks, crappy economy.) The content-writing folks I've written for, though, love me. They're sending me more work than I can sanely handle.

It's little wonder why. These guys pay low. They, therefore, work with some of the worst "professional" writers around. One content-writing client sent me three stories written by another content writer, to see if I could save them. The stories he sent me looked like they were assembled by randomly hitting a keyboard. None of the sentences linked together. Each paragraph seemed like it belonged in a different story.

Yes, it was a mess.

I turn my stories in on time. And they're readable. That's more than what these content publishers are used to.

Problem is, I'm a sucker for kind words. Tell me you like my writing, and I'll take as much work from you as you can dish out, even if your pay rates stink.

So that's where I'm at now. I'm working late again, trying this time to finish three posts about liposculpture surgery, a procedure I know next to nothing about.

Yep, I can't wait for this recession to end. Come back to me, print-magazine clients!

The power of niche blogs

I spoke with an entrepreneur today who runs 40 niche blogs, blogs dedicated to such specific topics as martini glasses, electric fireplaces and the Kindle 2.

Her goal is to see these blogs each generate about $100 a month. That, of course, comes to a healthy $4,000 a month. Not bad for what the entrepreneur eventually hopes will be a passive income stream. Once the blogs are filled with content, the entrepreneur will just sit back and watch those $100-a-month payments trickle in.

She's equipping some of the blogs with Adsense, but has had better luck with affiliate programs run by Amazon.com and eBay.

It's an intriguing idea. The thought of filling all those blogs with enough content is a little intimidating. But the entrepreneur I interviewed must be doing well enough; She's hiring writers -- at about $12 a story -- to fill her sites with content.

Are writers spoiled?

Today I turned in 10 short blog posts -- 125 words each -- and earned $50 for it.

As I wrote the stories I wasn't all that happy. Up until this year, I wouldn't have considered this type of content writing acceptable. I wrote for print, and earned $500 or more for my feature stories.

The economy has changed all that, and I'm experimenting, taking on online content work to scrape together a solid freelance income until the economy turns around and print magazines start hiring freelance writers again.

So, I wasn't thrilled with writing so many words for such little pay. Until I did some thinking. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to write my posts. They didn't require interviews or much research, and it's amazing how quickly you can get to 125 words. So that's more than $40 an hour. That's not bad.

And, really, how hard is that work, really? I'm sitting at a desk. I have a can of pop next to me. I have the Internet to distract me when I'm bored. It's not like I'm a police man or a firefighter or a construction worker. I'm a writer, not exactly dangerous, sweat-inducing work.

Maybe us writers are a bit spoiled. So we're writing more for less money these days. Heck, if you spend eight hours writing content stories and earning about $40 an hour, that's not a bad day's work. Yes, it's a bit mind-numbing, but try to complaining to a factory worker. Don't think you'll get much sympathy.

The sometimes ugly realities of content writing

I've pretty much dove deep into the content-writing pool these days. It's a bit of a necessity. My best print-magazine client is struggling and, last week, told me to stop sending them my monthly quote of stories. From now on, I'd work on an as-needed basis for them, and it doesn't look like their need for me is as great as my need for work.

So, I've attempted to boost my monthly writing income with more online content writing. This week, for instance, I'll be writing a series of short, 125-word stories on topics such as martini glasses and electric fireplaces for one publisher. This will bring in $50, but the hope is that I'll be able to write the posts in as little as an hour-and-a-half, making my per-hour pay about $30. (Don't feel like doing the exact math right now.)

I'm also turning in a series of eight short blog posts -- on life insurance, auto insurance and weightlifting (one of these things isn't like the other) -- for $106, and am negotiating with another client to turn in a keyword-heavy 750-word story. I'm hoping to get about $40 for that post.

All told, these three assignments, all of which I grabbed yesterday, will pay me, hopefully, about $190. That's not much, but for a month of weeks like that, you're looking at $760. That's a bit of a boost to my regular writing jobs, which, of course, pay far, far more.

Today, though, writers have to take on a lot of jobs and do them all fairly quickly. In addition to my content-writing, I ghostwrite for three corporate blogs -- which, again, provides far more income than content-writing -- and rotate through about 10 (used to be a lot more) regular print-magazine clients for assignments each month. It's hectic, and more hectic now than it's ever been. I'm not sure how much I like it, but you have to do what pays the bills, right?