Tag Archives: Content Writer

Is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers?

Can AI do content writing?

Last year, a Japanese AI wrote a novella and almost won a literary prize. Considering such developments, questions like, is artificial intelligence going to replace content writers are bound to be asked.

Artificial intelligence is already being used in chatbots where answers are provided to visitors according to the questions they ask, and the questions don’t have to match the exact string existing in the database. Some of the chat bots can even understand the context.

Google search already uses AI to know the intent of your search queries rather than simply focusing on words. As I wrote in my previous blog post on sentiment analysis and content writing, search engines already try to interpret what you really mean rather than the search terms that you are using, to give you the best possible answers to your queries.

If you have switched over to the new Gmail interface you must have noticed that when you open a message, there are options beneath it that allow you to send a quick reply based on the content of the email message. That’s context happening, powered by AI.

Artificial intelligence can even recognise what is present in an image, for example, if there is an image of a tiger hiding behind trees, artificial intelligence will tell you that there is a tiger hiding behind the trees in the photo. As you must already know, AI can recognise faces, as is the case with the tagging feature that Facebook has.

So, with all this intelligence, can AI also do the job of content writing? If AI can write novels and books, why not content?

Why would you be tempted to use an AI instead of a content writer?

Volume, coupled with quality, I would say.

A good thing about machines is that they never tire, and the performance is consistent.

What you want from a content writer? You want high quality content that can improve your conversion rate and your search engine rankings.

For conversion rate you need convincing content, conversational content, engaging content.

Can artificial intelligence achieve that?

Only when it thinks like humans.

We are not humans just because we are biologically alive and unlike animals, we are humans because we are more perceptive about our surroundings and we can think about thinking itself.

As René Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.”

A human being, a human life, is a collection of memories, experiences and bits of knowledge gathered throughout a life period.

Hence, the way a person writes, comes from all those memories, experiences and bits of knowledge that he or she has gathered through her entire existence.

Artificial intelligence may have data but at least in the near future, it is not going to have memories and experiences.

So, how can artificial intelligence be used for content writing? Can it really replace content writers?

I think AI will be able to create a framework of ideas, but a life can only be injected in that framework of ideas by a human content writer.

When it comes to generating 500-1000 articles or blog posts per day then may be, yes, artificial intelligence will definitely replace content writers, if not in the near future, then maybe in the coming 5 or 10 years.

But when it comes to turning visitors into customers and clients by establishing emotional connections, AI won’t be able to replace content writers, because only humans are capable of making those emotional connections.

Artificial intelligence will be able to generate quantity. Quality will only come from content writers.

How to find the right content writer for your content writing needs

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How to find the right content writer for your content writing needs?

This blog post will explain to you how to find the right content writer or the right content writing service for your business.

Once you know what sort of content you want to publish on your website or blog, the greatest dilemma that your content marketing campaign faces is, how to find the right talent for your content writing needs.

Typically, your search for a professional content writer may begin with the following activities:

Search on Google
Go through freelance websites
Search online forums
Mention the need on your website if it is a high-traffic website
Mention on your social media profiles that you are looking for a content writer
Look within your own organization
Put up an advertisement in the classifieds section

Why is it extremely crucial to find the right content writer?

The content that you publish on your website or blog is going to stay there for a long time. Whether you get 10 visitors or 1000 visitors or even 1 million visitors, they are all going to consume the very same content that has been written by your content writer.

Hence, it is very important to choose or find the right content writer for your content writing needs.

Your content writer is going to help you

Improve your search engine rankings
Improve your conversion rate
Enhance your brand presence on the Internet
Write case studies
Write white papers
Prepare social media updates
Prepare email campaigns
Write blog posts and guest blog post
Write informative articles for your website

It is through your content writing that people will recognize you and form an opinion about your business and ultimately, decide to do business with you, or with someone else. The right content writer can provide you high quality content on an ongoing basis.

High quality content means more business

So, high-quality content – good business; low-quality content – less business or worse, no business.

Personally I feel any web content writer with decent skills should be able to help you improve your search engine rankings provided you target the right keywords and you are ready to spend enough amount of money and time into regularly publishing unique content on your website or blog.

The problem is not SEO, the problem is the conversion rate.

The problem is often not search engine rankings.

The problem is your conversion rate. And the right content writer understands this.

How many people actually do business with you after coming to your website?

Although there are many factors that affect your conversion rate, content writing, or the copy on your website, is one of the most important factors.

A content writing service like Credible Content can give you content that can improve your conversion rate.

Hence, even if your online content writer is not able to improve your search engine rankings, if he or she can improve your conversion rate, that’s what you need.

You can get targeted traffic to your website in multiple ways, but if the traffic does not convert, nothing matters.

I don’t mean to say you should settle for a website content writer who is unable to improve your search engine rankings. In fact, an experienced and capable content writer should be able to achieve both for you:

Improve your SEO
Improve your conversion rate

It’s all about finding the right talent. How do you do it?

Jot down the following to settle on the right talent for your content writing needs:

How are the communication skills of the website content writer you are evaluating?

Communication skills of your content writer

Communication skills of your website content writer

Writing, after all, is all about communication. The ability to communicate the right message at the right time is more so important during online content writing.

Can your website writer communicate convincingly?

Of course, if you are not sure what exactly is communicative writing, it will be difficult for you to judge your writer, but go with your gut feeling.

How do his or her emails sound? Does he or she take care that there are no spelling and grammar mistakes in the emails he or she writes to you?

Does he or she articulate in clear sentences without unnecessarily using words?

Is he or she too pushy?

Does he or she seem to be agreeing to every possible condition just to get the job?

Is his or her writing style conversational?

Is there a consistency in the manner in which he or she has written his or her profile on the website and the way he or she writes emails to you?

Does he or she understand your business needs?

Does your content writer understand your business needs?

It may be important, or it may not be important whether a writer has some sort of expertise in your business field. Still, a professional, established content writing service can be invaluable to your business.

I get to write a lot on technology – web design, server management, programming protocols and Cloud technology.

So, you can say that I’m comfortable writing on technology-related topics and my clients don’t have to spend lots of time explaining the specifics to me. Even when I don’t understand certain concepts, I know how to look them up on Google and then write about them in my own language. You can say that if you want an experienced tech writer for your business, I’m the right content writer for you.

I’m the right content writer for you also because I have been writing content for websites since 2007 and in all these years I have written for different businesses, from fashion to real estate to cooking to advertising and marketing to healthcare business to network marketing to accounting to financial consulting to house maintenance, and more.

Nonetheless, recently a client approached me who needed some knowledge of finance for his content writer. Although I told him that I can easily write on financial matters, he was reluctant because he needed a writer who has been writing financial articles for a while. I forwarded his message to another writer.

As a professional content writer with lots of experience, I know when I am the right content writer for you or not. I’m not here to get your work by hook or by crook. If I feel I’m not the right match, I will either let you know that you should look for the right content writer for your business somewhere else, or I will try to find one for you among my own group of writers.

Go for someone who you think can deliver your content for your business need.

Can he or she write search engine friendly content?

SEO-friendly content writing

There are many ways you can do business on the web without minding much about Google and Bing, and in fact, I advise my clients not to put all their eggs in the search engine basket. But, a big source of targeted traffic to your website are going to be the search engines.

Your search engine rankings are based on the following:

The age of your domain.
The number of genuine incoming links to your website.
The quality and the authority-factor of the websites linking to you.
The quality of your content.
The formatting of your content.
The relevance of your content.
How easy it is to access your content.
The frequency with which you publish fresh content and update existing content.
The timeliness of your content.
The sort of buzz your content creates on social media platforms.

As you notice, after the first three factors, it is all about your content, and in fact, without your content, the search engines have nothing to rank.

Your content writer should be able to write search engine-friendly content.

Don’t confuse search engine-friendly content with stuffing keywords into your writing senselessly. This is counter-productive. More than doing good, keyword-stuffing can bring you irreparable harm. The search engines can ban you for life.

Think it this way: there is a reason Google is called “the search engine giant”.

The company uses innumerable brains to make sure that you cannot trick the search engine into ranking your content higher even if your content actually does not deserve to be ranked higher.

Once I read that at a particular time, 240 math PhDs are constantly tweaking the Google search algorithm so that only quality content comes up when people use the search engine.

Too many people spend lots of time and money on trying to “trick” Google.

Even if they spend half of that time and money on publishing high-quality content on their websites, they will get better results.

Anyway, find out if your website writer can write search engine-friendly content and your content writing service can improve your SEO.

What is search engine-friendly content?

Keywords must be strategically used in the title and the body.
Keywords must be a part of the overall content rather than being forced here and there just for the sake of using them.
Content must be authoritative: as much information should be packed as possible in a single link.
The content is formatted so that it is easier for the search engine crawlers to analyze the content: various parts of the content should be arranged under the appropriate headlines and with bulleted points to make it “scannable” and understandable.
Various sections of your website should be interlinked strategically. No need to repeat the same content again and again if it can simply be linked to (within your website).
The sentences must be very simple, straightforward and clearly-formed. A 6th standard student should be able to understand what has been written.

How active your content writer is on the Internet?

Is your content writer active on the Internet?

No, I don’t mean that you should check out whether your content writer regularly posts cute cat videos on Facebook or the pics of his or her breakfast on Instagram. You don’t want a content writer who whiles away his or her time like that.

What I mean is, is he or she actively contributing to his or her field through constantly publishing high quality blog posts, articles and social media updates?

This is not a necessity: maybe you have come across a content writer who is so busy that he or she only gets enough time to write for his or her clients and he or she never gets time to write otherwise. That’s fine. There are always exceptions.

My personal experience is, content writers who only want to write for their clients are generally not good content writers. Many writers who approach me for work are very stingy about publishing content to showcase their services. They just want paid assignments. This makes them desperate and this has a direct impact on their writing quality.

Again, this has been my personal experience because I am often working with other content writers too.

Content writers who don’t blog often, who don’t write articles and blog posts on different topics, even non-paying topics, aren’t very interesting writers. They are lazy writers. Even greedy. They won’t write a single extra paragraph just for the love of the craft.

The case scenario can be opposite too. Is your writer so busy working on his or her own stuff that he doesn’t turn in your assignments on time?

There must be some balance. When you search for your writer on Google, you should be able to find lots of blog posts, articles and social media updates from the writer telling you that he or she actively participates in discussions relevant to his or her field. This shows that he or she proactively tries to grow his or her skill and he or she is also communicative and interactive.

How are his or her writing skills?

How are the writing skills of your content writer?

The most important quality to have for a writer or a content writer – writing skill.

Although there might be different styles of writing and different writers follow different writing guidelines, there is wrong writing and there is right writing, and your writer must be able to distinguish.

The following must be impeccable:

Sentence formation
Spelling
Grammar
Flow
Vocabulary

If the language in which you want the content writer to write is not a strong point for you, initially you will need to get the writing reviewed by someone you can trust (someone who knows the language well).

When looking for the right service provider for your business, keep in mind that good writing abilities are very essential to being a good content writer.

When the writing is well, proficient and error-free, you seem professional and you show respect for your visitors. It matters what image they form of you and hence, it shows that you pay attention to every word that you publish on your website or blog.

Is your content writer going to stick around for your ongoing content writing needs?

Is your content writer going to stick around?

The more your content writer writes for you, the better he or she gets. This has been my personal experience.

Organizations and individuals don’t want to let go of me once I have been writing content for them for a few months (provided they need quality content on an ongoing basis).

Comfort level develops.

Your writer knows more about your business after a while. You also begin to trust him or her. Your website or blog begins to adopt his or her writing style.

Although one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your content writing needs to a content writer or a content writing agency is that it is very easy to change your content writer, make sure that you settle with a writer who is going to stick with you for a long time.

How do you know that your content writer is going to stick around?

Frankly, there are no guarantees in life. But there are some signs that you can pick to make sure that the content writer you are hiring is going to write for you for a long time. Some of them are:

If you contact your content writer from a freelancing website go through his or her profile and see for how long he or she has been writing content.
If you are contracting a content writing agency like Credible Content, just check for how long the person or the group of people have been providing content writing and content marketing services.
As mentioned above, check if your content writer is serious about his or her profession and if he or she continuously writes articles, blog posts and social media updates about his or her profession (that is, content writing).

Again, there is no guarantee. A company can go down no matter how impressive its website is, and a lone freelancer providing his or her content writing services from a freelance website may go on providing content writing services for years.

Conclusion

Whether right now you believe it or not, quality content is as important for your website as the web design itself.

Most of the entrepreneurs don’t realize that due to lack of quality content their websites don’t convert well and after a few months or after a couple of years, they have to wrap up their businesses. They think their idea was not good or people didn’t understand what they were trying to deliver.

The problem, more than 99% of the cases, is with content. They either underestimate the value of a good content writer or they don’t even realize that they need high quality content for their websites.

Note: Most of the images above are from https://unsplash.com

When should you spend money on a content writer?

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Or when you shouldn’t. It depends on what you want. The problem with people’s attitude is that since content writing is mostly writing, they think it should either be free but it should be available at a very low cost. So low that one doesn’t even feel it. So, the moment it comes to paying a content writer, people start wondering, why should I pay for a content writer?

Everybody can write, right? You write emails. You write Facebook posts. You post updates on Twitter and LinkedIn. So how difficult would it be to quickly write a blog post or a webpage or an article?

Mostly two types of people hire me for their content writing needs and eagerly pay me:

Those who are not comfortable writing business-critical copy and content. Although they have basic writing skills they’re not confident that their writing skills will be able to get them business. They want impeccable writing. They want a writing style that engages their visitors. Most of them want the writing to be casual, but error-free.
Those who are, although, comfortable writing business-critical copy and content, cannot do it consistently over a long time. They want someone who can create great content on an ongoing basis. They are looking for a content writer they can rely on. Once they have assigned topics, they want to be rest assured that content will be delivered on time and according to their guidelines.

You should spend money on a content writer if you really want to use your content as an asset. You value your content. You recognize its importance. You know that your content can take your business places. You realise that quality content writing improves your conversion rate and if search engine rankings matter to you, it improves your search engine rankings.

There is a gentleman in Itarsi, a very small industrial town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. His business doesn’t have a website. He uses my services for his official correspondence. Though, you can write in Hindi, he cannot write in English. So he jots down whatever he wants to say on a paper, and clicks a photo with his camera and then sends the image to me on WhatsApp and within a few minutes, I send him back a professionally written communication in English. So yes, although he doesn’t have a website, he pays for my content writing services because he values what I deliver.

Looking for good content marketing writers? Here is what you should do

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The success of your content marketing depends on your writers whether you intend to use text content, video content or image content. Ultimately it is the written word that gets the message across and if you are unable to get the message across, your entire content marketing fails.

When pursuing content marketing both quality and quantity matter. Quantity matters because your competitors are continuously publishing tons of content and you are constantly in danger of getting drowned in the din.

Quality because, well, there is no content marketing without quality content. By the end of the day, your content needs to convert. It needs to make an impact. It should be well-written. It should be conversational. It should be able to reach out to your target audience and consequently, your target audience should feel like reaching out to you after getting exposed to your content. Your content should be so well-written and so well-produced that people should feel like sharing it without you having to prompt them to share it. How does this happen? This happens when you have good, experienced and creative content writers in your team.

This blog post at NewsCred lists the following ways you can find yourself good content writers:

Use your LinkedIn network:
Many professionals list themselves on LinkedIn and this includes content writers. In fact, these days I am extensively promoting myself on LinkedIn (I have also upgraded my account to Premium) but I mostly try to find clients. It is also a good place to look out for competent writers because as my work increases, I will need more writers.
Find good content writers among your own employees: You will be surprised to know that many of your employees have this hidden talent. Without putting extra pressure on them you can encourage some of your employees to come up with good blog post regarding your business. Even if they are unable to churn out complete blog posts and articles, they can create outlines using Google Docs or OneDrive and later on these outlines can be turned into full-fledged pieces of content.
Work with freelance content marketing writers: This might be one of the best options available to you because when you work with freelance content marketing writers, you enjoy unprecedented freedom. First of all you are not stuck with the writers that you have hired. They don’t use your office resources because most of the freelance content marketing writers work from their own respective locations. It is extremely easy to change the writers because all you have to do is approach someone else in case you don’t like the writers you are currently working with.

Of course it doesn’t just stop at finding good content marketing writers and working with them. As the article rightly mentions, you will need to vet these writers to make sure that you work only with the best. Initially you will need to hire and fire repeatedly and you may feel disenchanted but once you are working with the writers your content marketing strategy really needs, there will be no looking back.

I sometimes prefer that my client has already worked with another content writer

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“Dear Amrit, the content writer that I hired before contacting you totally botched up the project and I haven’t just ended up with lousy content my website launch has also been delayed by a full month because my web designer was waiting for the content writer to complete his job. I so wish I had found your website before hiring this content writer. By merely going through a few pages of your website I’m damn sure you are the content writer I need, and should have sought.”

It may seem like a self-boast, but I actually got this message recently from a new client and this is not a new phenomena. I mean, not all emails are so praising, but the message is more or less the same, that they have had a very bad experience with the previous content writer, they’re looking for a new content writer and they hope I can undo the damage to some extent.

I prefer such clients. I don’t mean to say that I cherish the fact that they have been shortchanged, that they have lost time, that someone did a lousy job, no, what I like is, by the time they come to me, they’re pretty sure what they want and what they don’t want and since they have already had a bad experience with their choice, they are more open to my suggestions. It makes easier for me to work on their projects. This doesn’t happen with great regularity, but I get at least 5-6 projects like these in a year.