September 23, 2007 23:03
Category: Writing
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I've been looking at this interesting topic, 'How Many Words Do Content Creators Write Daily?'. The article takes off from a similarly titled forum discussion at Webmaster World. From the assorted responses - 52 so far as of this writing - what transpires is that there are few people who really do much writing.
Curiously, the discussion at Webmaster World is filed under the group head 'Google AdSense'. The reason is clear at the outset. AdSense sites need to be content-heavy that drives viewers who in turn click on the ads, and thus the circle completes.
I am not that prolific a writer, but given that I run 3 blogs all by myself in addition to writing assignments for other websites, I guess I am a content creator of close to 1000 words a day, even often surpassing it when situation demands. This however may be a prospect easier said than done for many.
Content Creator's Dilemma
For copywriters it is nearly always an uphill task of creating unique contents each day for days together. The creative juice doesn't flow equally well all the time. The peak form is not within reach always. Yet the need to write remains and that too within stipulated time if you're writing for someone else.
It will perhaps matter less if you're writing for yourself, for example your own website or blog. But strictly speaking that is not the case because what you write is for the consumption of the visitors who make rounds of your site in search of meaningful information. And if you are in the business of earning ad revenue from your site, you cannot afford to let go your viewers dissatisfied with your website content.
When you're writing for some other website or blog for which you get paid, the scope to err either by being late in submitting or presenting a piece not liked by the owner is even more restricted. You have less liberty to experiment with your writing, and have to give in to job-givers' wishes even if you feel otherwise.
It is thus not difficult to see that the content creators are mostly on their toes to generate contents that are not only relevant but also attractive. Why attractive? Because lay readers are more likely to prefer contents that have attributes like catchy headings and ready solutions rather than serious discussions.
A Comparative Study
Let me take the examples of 2 articles by Galen DeYoung at Search Engine Land. Both offer good insights but one is more 'reader-friendly' than the other. I conclude that from the number of comments each has received thus far.
In Organic Landing Pages, Galen does a little research on landing pages of 2 websites visitors arrive at from organic search results. It is an article written with care that surely has taken Galen some quality time to complete.
Building his case based on a May 17, 2007 report that says nearly 75% B2B searchers clicked on organic results, Galen proceeds to compare 2 B2B websites and explain the respective merits/demerits of their landing pages. It's a thought-provoking article written on July 18 but it still hasn't had a single visitor's comment.
Take the case of the other Galen article, titled Eleven Tips For Optimizing PDFs For Search Engines. The subject title is clearly understood, and the article is also well dealt upon. Little wonder that this article has already notched up 7 comments to its credit, though written recently on Sep 12.
Concept vs Tips
While Galen's first article is mainly a concept elaborated with examples, the second one is rich with useful tips. We know who the winner is in terms of visitors' liking.
Let me put down my thoughts as to what clicks more with average visitors:
- Most visitors look for quick solutions to their queries. This is evident from the length of time they spend on a page as recorded in the logs. This primarily happens for 2 reasons:
- Viewers are spoilt with choices. They know there are just too many pages out there that can address their queries satisfactorily. If a cursory glance of one page doesn't offer a ready answer, they quit it quickly to try another.
- Many viewers are not sufficiently skilled at narrow searching to fish out exactly what they want. Thus they get frustrated easily and leave a page when they do not find what they wanted.
- An attractive heading such as Galen's '11 tips' or 'How to..' appeals to viewers. It immediately conveys that there is something to gain from the content. It's another matter that this ploy has suffered a lot of abuse as well. Even then its attraction remains as Galen's Sep 12 shows.
- As shown by Galen, images play a strong role in making a webpage search engine friendly. Many visitors arrive through image search, and so it'll be a good idea to include relevant images within the descriptive text.
Whatever the new advents, the making of contents popular still follows the old basic rules. Which is to write what touches the minds and hearts of readers. The web has only added one more dimension in the content creator's quest to remain more relevant and targeted.
Part of Galen's article. The search result is in fact an image.
It's an example of using image in content creation.
