Since we’re in the verge of celebrating 3 years of Freelance Writing Jobs I thought it would be fun if I went through the archives. Many of you many not know this, but the Freelance Writing Jobs blog you see now is sort of two blogs merged together. FWJ and Finding the Right Words. When I started including articles on this blog in addition to job leads, I gave up FTRW as I felt it redundant.
In February 2007, I gave up my last keyword writing content gig. I was making good money but wanted to transition to professional blogging. The last straw for me when a client wanted me to write keyword articles for an automotive website and a website selling pallet racks. I didn’t know anything about either topic and my client still encouraged me to give it a go. The money was so good I couldn’t refuse. So I wrote the articles and at the end of the project I was so burned out I quit writing keyword articles for good. I give you…
Stick a Fork in Me
I’m done. I’m keyworded out. I understand the basics of SEO, but honestly, can we think things through before throwing them out for assignment? I’m burned out. I don’t want to count any more phrases or have to worry about density. Get it? I’m done. I won’t leave with out making some noise. I want to throw a few things out there for those who rely on keywords to bring in traffic.
1. Certain phrases aren’t meant to be a part of an article, they’re meant to assist in a search. That’s it. If John Doe is searching for "cheap automotive supplies" he’s looking to comparison shop. He’s not looking for an 800 word manifesto. To expect me to write 800 words around this key phrase is a bit of a stretch. To expect me to write 500 words around this phrase is a stretch. Just because a phrase is popular doesn’t make it content worthy.
2. When picking a topic for a website, please make sure it’s actually worthy of 500 articles. Certain topics, diabetes for instance, warrant hundreds of well-researched articles. When the topic is pallet racks however, there’s only so much a girl can say.
3. Two wrongs don’t make a right. A misspelled word isn’t a keyword. Expecting someone to write articles around misspelled words only makes you look like an idiot. I won’t purposely misspell articles. No self-respecting writer would.
Do I sound disgruntled? That’s because I am. For three years I’ve been writing for people who care more about getting their ads clicked than what makes good content. People who tell me they want their sites to be set apart from others because they have good writers. You know what? Even the best writers in the world can’t write a 1000 word essay around "find cheap refrigerators."
I’m done trying.
I love this post! I haven’t stopped laughing since I began reading it. I have felt that way many times, but I haven’t had the guts to actually post how I felt. Bravo!
Thanks for making my day!
Boo-ya. That sounds like my former job. I had much of the same problem with this idea if churning out articles that were more about keywords than quality.
The real kicker is that at the beginning of the job, my boss had me do tons and tons of research on what constituted successful search engine marketing. I quickly learned why his approach was flawed and it kind of made me feel a little cheap. So I know how you feel. (Or felt, rather)
I feel you…keyword articles can make a person lose their sanity.
What a total blast from the past! Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I remember how much this post inspired me to look for bigger and better things!
LOL, that was funny.
I’m relatively new to the freelancing buisness having lost my job several months ago at exactly the position you describe! I wrote keyword articles all day, had the misspelled words and everything.
I remember having 25 keywords for a 300 word article! How crazy is that? Every other word was a keyword and the articles were stilted and ridiculous!
Good for you, Deb! I completely agree, whether agree and completely are proper keywords or no!
Deb, you’re braver than I am to write keyword articles that long. I took one assignment writing keyword articles about loans, and I just about lost my mind. It didn’t feel like writing at all because all the creativity and spontaneity I love about writing was gone. There was none of that feeling of adventure you get when you see what words will find their way to the page. I quit the job after a few months.
Totally agree! Love this post… content and key words are all well and good in their place, but seriously.
Hehehe. I still think one of my favorite jobs was where I had to create a humorous SEO article with the keywords “penile prostate pain”. As a woman, that was definitely one of the weirdest and most entertaining jobs I’ve done.
That’s hilarious.
I’ve had jobs like that where all you want to do is run the other way. One in particular was an article in which I could talk with ONLY the advertisers and use ONLY their products in the article. That’s not an article – that’s a long-arsed advertisement! Gave that job up the minute the check cleared.
Ann G.- You just made my day!
I’ve been on the keyword trail too. I only used the gig as a temporary measure. The pay wasn’t very good either.
Occasionally, you will stumble upon a well paid gig but then you have to do the maths and work out whether writing 50 articles on the most mundane topic is well worth the time and effort.
Quite often I will see ads for 200 plus articles on a topic that would be stretched to make 500 words. Now that is plain ridiculous!
Well said! I agree 100%. Now if only the webmasters would listen!
I agree with your sentiments exactly. I ask people how I can generate readers to my site, so I can make a name for myself, and they say to write what people want to read, even if I don’t care about it. But I write because I DO CARE, not because I want fame. Journalists do not write for the fame and fortune, they write for the love of the language, and it is up to us to not lose that passion.
Funny post, Deb, even if it was at the expense of your breaking point! I appreciate the reminder of hellish jobs — it helps me appreciate the enjoyable and tolerable ones!
As a woman, that was definitely one of the weirdest and most entertaining jobs I’ve done.
Well, Ann, I certainly hope you researched everything thoroughly.
Even traditional journalism is moving more into the keyword area. Advertising is going that way, and someone has to pay the bills.
Remember the saying from the NY Times: “All the news that fits, we print.”
Phil — I agree it’s moving in that direction sadly. Corporate ownership has squelched a lot of the substance. And it seems journalists are more concerned with maintaining relationships with sources rather than objective reporting.
The Times mantra was actually a slight at the other NY papers that weren’t substantive:
“All The News That’s Fit To Print”
Laurel,
I know the Times mantra, but the way I wrote it was basically what happens, even before keywords. Ads determine the amount of pages, and therefore, what articles (and length) that can be run. Think it was an old J-prof I first heard that from.
True, Phil. Content seems to be always compromised for profit.
Yep, I nearly killed myself writing around keywords/keyword phrases for almost two years for a guy that promised me an “eventual monetary potential of 50k a year!” I fell for the old flattery B.S. he routinely dished out until I finally got it that he was the only one making any kind of money worth mentioning. Good riddance to bad rubbish. I still do some writing for clients using keywords in a normal, make-sense way, but never again will I subject myself to that kind of ridiculous pressure and even more ridiculous payment schedule.