If you’re going to write online, it’s a good idea to be an online writer

Don’t tell me that title doesn’t make sense, because it does. It’s all the fault of Web 2.0 of course – they say – but there are so many people who write on the internet who can’t write effectively and … don’t understand the internet. Truly. Think of other walks of life. Can you be a doctor, a plumber, a pilot or a beautician without some sort of training? Nope.

So don’t you think it’s curious that people think they can write on the internet without any training? ‘No’ you say ‘ everyone can write’. To which I say ‘everyone can drive a car but not everyone can do it properly and successfully.’

Now there’s nothing wrong with Web 2.0. There’s nothing wrong with user-generated content. There’s nothing wrong with systems that allow everyone to write on the web. So what am I ranting about?

Write on the web by all means. I love it that the internet today allows anyone who can type to express themselves on their own blogs. I do. Anyone today can rant on the web. Cool, no problem. But what is a problem is when people complain.

There are a lot of platforms online that allow people with no experience to write. Mostly these are free of charge. In fact, in most cases they allow affiliate links or even have a profit-sharing system so people can get paid to rant. Of course I love the idea of being paid to rant. But learn your craft and don’t complain when you fail.

For example, writers’ platforms change their rules and their systems all the time. They have to, largely because search engines do, so they have to change and adapt accordingly. What happens then is that the ‘writers’ suddenly realize that there are such things as keyword density, that duplicate content filters really do exist and that the stuff they’ve written just doesn’t do the job anymore.

That’s not really the time to complain …  and complain that ‘I don’t understand this stuff’ is it, now?

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