Paying for content...

As we all know one of the most important elements of running a successful website and continuing to build traffic is to add content of a good quality that is unique to your site on a regular basis.

I have often wondered how many people who don't have huge budgets - eg small businesses - write the content themselves and how many pay for it. Judging by the quality of much of the content I see on websites I have come to the conclusion that most people write their own content!

Do you write your own, or pay for content?

Tim

Re : Paying for content

I have wondered the same sort of thing.

I have a feeling that most people try to cobble together content for their site themselves rather than pay someone else (I'm talking about one man band companies)... paying for content is a luxury though, like anything else, it could be a worthwhile investment if you manage to find someone who is good at it.

A bit like web designers, many people present themselves as copywriters, but how can you tell who knows what they are talking about and who is just a failed journalist who couldn't keep a job at the local rag?

Re : Paying for content

I guess the advice generally would be like most things online - when looking to hire a copywriter, ask for samples of their past work. Read through it, and see if it is clear, concise, syntactically correct and also if it aids your understanding of the product / service.

If their copy ticks all of those boxes, then you should be pretty assured that they will be able to produce good copy for you too.

Dan
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Web Design

Re : Paying for content

I have mixed feelings on this one.

One part of me thinks that only the creator of the website etc really knows their products in depth. However, they are often not the best to write about them.

Therefore what is really needs is a collaboration between the two: the owner, in other words, needs to provide sufficient information and enough steer to the copywriter for them to be able to do their job correctly, particularly with technical products and so on.

Chris

Re : Paying for content

Thanks for the contributions guys (and lady)

Re : Paying for content

I think with a site you don't need too much content to get decent traffic, so you might as well spend a little more to get decent copy.
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