WOW! And I Thought I Was a Writer!

550,000- Google global searches for kids crafts

6,342,000- Google global searches for makeup how tos

7,480,000- Google global searches for hairstyle how tos

13,600,000- Google global searches for cooking

37,200,000- Google global searches for recipes

Recently, I read several blog posts, sites, and forums suggesting that articles covering the above topics (and many, many more) were useless information. On several of these sites, I read that we should spend our times searching Google for things like sexual predators, the recession or cures for cancer instead of kids craft ideas or recipes. Let take a look at the results for the suggested searches.

165,000- Google global searches for cures for cancer

40,500- Google global searches for sexual predators

135,000- Google global searches for the recession

I'm not down playing the importance of the topics. I am simply showing the difference between the so called 'fluff" articles and the suggested search topics. Frankly, I am pissed off. Those of us supplying the articles that meet these search requests are being blamed on several sites for the recent dip in 'content farms' page views and revenue.



Those are just a few of the topics I write about. And those are the same topics I have recently seen being referred to as "fluff", "bad articles", "crap", etc. And the writers who are responsible for adding these types of articles are being called everything but writers. In fact, many people are saying we are not writers at all but simple minded individuals seeking to get in on the "fortune to be made in online writing."

What do you call Rachel Ray who has sold millions of recipe books? Or Martha Stewart who has made millions of dollars from crafts and recipes? Makeup and hair stylists who make a living by styling hair and applying makeup? Or to the millions of individuals unable to afford high priced salon visits but still want to look fabulous? What about the parents who are building memories every day with their children through crafts?

With all of these searches, there has to be writers to supply the information. Without writers like us, these searches would yield no results and leave millions of people unhappy that they could not find what they needed.

Like people, writers come in all shapes and sizes and covering an enormous variety of topics. There are journalists to cover current events, interviews and other worldly topics. There are fiction writers to supply the fuel for our imaginations. There are self help writers to help us understand and change specific aspects of our lives. There are instructional writers to give us the "how do you do _____"  instructions when we need or want something done. The list could take days to write out. But the end result is still the same. If there is a topic to be covered, then there needs to be people to cover it. Hence, WRITERS.

So, don't sit on your high horse pointing your finger around the World Wide Web making judgement calls like "writer, not a writer, writer, not a writer" in a "he loves me, he loves me not" format. There are not any judges in the freelance writing world to declare who is or who isn't a true writer, only critics. And for ever one critic I have, there are ten fans who love my craft ideas, easy recipes, simply makeup instructions, parenting tips and inexpensive hair styles.

I think those who are busy blaming us are just mad about the hit to earnings. And I understand that fully. I was hit pretty hard in the passive income area. I can also understand why these blogs and sites are also blaming writers who are simply spinning articles, plagerizing, publishing badly written pieces with massive amounts of grammical and spelling errors, or publishing inaccurate information because in all honestly, it does make the rest of the writers on the site look bad being grouped with these types of articles. But those of us providing articles on the above mentioned topics and other similar subject areas should not be grouped with these types of articles unless we are providing the same type of bad material. I will never claim to be a perfect writer but I am still very much a writer none the less.