Introduced 2013

Secondhand WritingUsed Words At A Discount

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1.2 TRILLION WORDS The World Wide Web contains 3.14 billion pages. In 1995, web pages had an average of 75 words. By 2010, pages had 250 to 500 words. Now top-ranking pages have more than 1,000 words. !

In other words, the Internet would not exist without writers.!

Sources: Worldwide Web Size, Pingdom

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There Are 862,050 Writers In The U.S.This includes authors, editors, journalists, public relations specialists, copywriters, jingle writers, screenplay writers, magazine writers, and technical writers.!!Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics!

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Writing Jobs Pay WellThe average salary for a U.S. writer is $68,420. In contrast, the majority of jobs are in food service, retail, customer service, and healthcare support. These jobs pay between $18,000 and $34,000 a year.!

!Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

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But Most Writers Are Unemployed

Two-thirds of full-time writers don’t have jobs. They work for themselves. !

The average book writer makes less than $1,000 a year. Most bloggers make less than $1,000 a year. Out of 280,000+ freelance writers on eLance, the top dog made $28,561.!

!Sources: Bureau of Labor of Labor Statistics, Digital Book World Survey, Technorati

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Don’t Kid Yourself, Hemingway

The Internet is not about great writing. It is about great content. Content is great if it brings traffic and gets shared. In 2013, the most popular story on the NY Times website was not a story; it was a dialect quiz. The most viewed content was the PSY’s Gangnam Style video on YouTube.!

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Sources: NY Times, YouTube

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If Publishers Valued Content, They Would Pay For ItAll big publishing sites rely on guest writers who work for free to get exposure. The problem is, exposure means very little when no one is paying.!

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Don’t Take It Personally

Online publishers depend on Google display ads, which depend on page views. A page view on Huffington Post might be worth 6/10 of a cent. Most articles get under 500 page views, making them worth $3 max. A top post might get 27,000 views and be worth less than $175.!

Source: Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight, NY Times, 2011

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And Don’t Be So SeriousHalf of all traffic to news websites comes from Google searches. But half comes from people who share links on Facebook. Content has to be searchable and shareable. Serious writing no longer works, except in niches.!

Source: Pew Research Journalism Project

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A Penny For Your Thoughts

The going rate for web content is a penny a word. If you’re lucky. Frankly, my dear, software can do your job, even in a post-Panda world. Just ask Automated Insights and Content Mango. Yeah, they spin content but they do it really well. And common ideas, not original ones, pay off in the end.

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Someone Somewhere Wants Your Ice Fishing Article. You can sell your mass market mentality articles on Contently. But what about your truly unique and original content? Out of the 644 million active websites, surely at least one wants your insightful and authoritative content on niche topics such as peak oil, divining for water, and particle physics. Right?

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Who Are You Kidding?Maybe writers can’t change reality. But they can complain about it. Secondhand Writing takes the reality faced by writers to an absurd level. The sad part is a big buyer of content was annoyed the shopping cart didn’t work. !

You can visit it at secondhandwriting.com