Friday, February 25, 2005

Speaking of Keywords--Drop the "Writer"

I've decided, over a glass of California syrah, that "writer" is the whole problem. Yes, that's it. Anyone with a job title with the word "writer" attached to it is in serious trouble, I've concluded.

I set out to write in this blogsite about what I was learning on the topic of writing web content. In one of my earlier postings I said I had clumsily stumbled into the realm of search engine optimization. Well, I've been poking about. A lot. Very interesting stuff. I'm losing sleep at night over such issues as link popularity and keyword lists. Geez, I was just a copywriter a few weeks ago.
Ah... But that's not really what businesses want anymore.
I have extensive knowledge of this because I have become an online job-posting junkie, slave to the likes of Monster, CareerBuilder and Craigslist, to name just a few of the online job services whose doorsteps I darken daily. My particular favs are businesses on Craigslist, especially, who want "copywriters." Not really. They just want to pay what they think any old lowly "writer" would gladly take-- $7-$10 per hour. EXCEPT their expectations for such a position are--besides the requirement that this person be an experienced writer-- that such a writer will, of course, have search engine optimization experience, knowledge of search engines as a marketing tool, and knowledge of web design and development "is a plus." So, since I was a 'copywriter' a couple weeks ago, I have since found out I need to have this whole new toolbox of things. Plus be willing to be paid pathetically for the service.

"Agonizing over all there is to learn." Like I said, but now it means so much more.

Thank GOD it's Friday.

  • LITTLE EXTRAS:
Peggy Noonan at The Wall Street Journal with an article on the current state of blogs vs. mainstream media, http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/ .

I signed up for a counter -- from Shiny Stat. I had actually signed up for a couple of others and decided against them. A counter from Branica had HTML code that came with a nasty little ad bundled in with it, so I never pasted it into my template. Another counter from Web-Counter was easy to sign up for, but the counter itself was not a quality graphic, so I took it off the site.

posted by jrotman @ 3:27 PM