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When Writers Become Content Providers

By Jo Ann LeQuang

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Published: 02Jun2007
Word count: 834
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Writers who seek freelance assignments on the Internet soon find themselves no longer writers at all. Websites devour huge amounts of content and those that furnish this consumable substance are now content providers. Some writers regard it almost as identity theft. The Internet has taken the noble and glorious profession of writing and made it into something utilitarian and vulgar.

A lot of writers struggle to cope. Traditional publishing opportunities are drying up at the same time that Internet writing assignments, though plentiful, are paying even less than the peanuts writers used to earn.

Some writers give up, others move on to different careers, and a few others hack their way as best they can through the new jungle of low-paying, fast turnaround gigs.

This might sound glum, and, indeed, many writers have taken it so. But rather than seeing the new content provider role as a demotion, what if writers peeked behind the curtain? The fact is that the world, for writers at least, has changed.

Not since Johannes Gutenberg has it been so important to be a writer. The change is something that even Marshall McLuhan could never have predicted.

The shift is that writers who are willing to think a bit differently about writing can now supercharge their careers both in terms of income and opportunity.

The Internet has allowed virtually anyone with a computer, a few bucks, and some basic skills to do business globally. Not so very long ago, there were a lot of barriers to entry for even simple businesses: you needed a storefront, some employees, products. If you were in the publishing business, you had to pay to print your magazine and get it distributed. If you sold ceiling fans, you had to have inventory, a retail establishment, employees, and probably a delivery truck.

Now you need a website.

This is not to minimize the work that is involved. And there are numerous Internet business models, many of which do require a significant investment, inventory, and distribution. But it is still not like it used to be.

Some websites function more like magazines, with highly focused information for a special keyword set. Those are the modern-day equivalent of magazines. In the old days, a magazine had to be printed on paper, delivered to newsstands and super markets, and sold. Publishers also pounded the pavement to sell advertising. Now a website conveys the same information, but there are no printing or distribution costs.

Those sites make money by selling advertising. They can do it individually (by working out deals with related businesses) or they can sign up for a program like Google AdSense and just paste some code in their website. Google sells the ads, so the Internet publisher does not even have to worry about that.

Many lucrative websites today do not sell physical products, but rather sell information. Information products can range from online courses to e-books to reports or physical CDs and DVDs. Whether you want to learn how to raise llamas, homeschool your children, or understand the commodities market, there are information products for you.

That's where writers come in. So far, most of the people who have understood this tremendous shift in business models have been geeks, Internet guys, or dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneurs. With only a few exceptions, they are not people who know how to write.

They tend to want to out-source their information products. Think of that! They build a site about how set up a home-based business importing from China and then hire somebody to write about importing from China and hire another person to write a book on the subject, and hire yet another to write some articles that get strung together as an online course. They then start selling that stuff and move on to another niche topic.

These Internet entrepreneurs have realized that experienced writers, even very good ones, are often willing to work for low pay and new writers have no choice. They pick up bargains by buying writers' "content" at bargain basement prices.

But what if a writer suddenly stopped being a writer and instead considered his or her output as potential information products rather than work-for-hire articles? What if that same writer got a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and launched a website rather than tried to scare up some jobs for articles?

Writers who once wanted to get assignments writing about race cars or horse dressage or traveling to Hawaii can now launch websites on the subject. Of course, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. Despite what some folks will tell you, starting and maintaining any successful business requires a lot of hard work, perseverance, and some sense of the marketplace. Writers can't just transform themselves overnight into millionaires.

On the other hand, the time has never been better for writers who want to venture onto the Internet as business people to use their writing skills to outstanding financial advantage.

Jo Ann LeQuang is a writer who works for both traditional business clients and her own Internet based businesses. To learn more about how writers can get the inside track on information marketing on the web, click http://www.workingonlinewriter.com .

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