Writing is Less Important

I'm infuriated by a web site I came across today while following an ad posted on an otherwise reputable writing site for women.

Called Six Figure Freelancer, the site gives the back story for a down-on-his-luck twenty-something who turned it all around and got rich writing content for websites.

But consider a few quotes from his site - I hope they infuriate you as much as they disturb me.

My writing skills were poor, and to make matters worse… I’m a slow writer.

Unfortunately, this young man's writing skills have not improved at all while he has developed his content writing career. The entire site is very poorly written.

Think you need to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer to earn a 6-figure income online? Writing skills are less important than other skills. The average person only reads at a 6th grade level. To be a good online content writer you only need to write in a basic conversational tone… like you talk.

So it's a good thing that many people only read at a 6th grade level? To me, that's horrifying. No wonder most websites are filled with pure and utter trash.

It's important to understand that what I've described to you is not a fantasy or magic. It is the regular day in the life of a successful freelance writer.

I would argue that success is not defined by the stupidity of people willing to pay you to produce crap for their websites. Success is defined by actual proficiency in what you undertake. I don't make six figures freelancing, but I do make just as much on a weekly basis as my full time job, and the work I produce would stand up to any English teacher's red pen. I won't prostitute myself to make a few extra bucks and tarnish my image as a proficient writer.

With proven strategies, and step-by-step methods , you could easily be making 2, 3 or even 9 thousand dollars per month in no time flat.

In addition to the other writing skills he lacks, he didn't learn about proper number usage in sentences. Let's be impressed.

There is huge variety of assignments you could choose from..writing small articles, ebooks, editing , article rewriting and much more. And don’t worry, if you can write at a basic ninth-grade level, this would be a piece of cake for you.

So we've been promoted from sixth grade to ninth grade?

Discover the best way to neutralize the competition… page 59 will teach you this one simple tactic!

Write professionally? Oh, right. We don't need to know how to do that.

You’re the kind of person that is looking for an honest, honorable and reliable way to start a freelance writing business… and looking for proven strategies and tactics to score all the writing assignments you can handle… then this is the package you’ve been looking for.

I don't think it's "honorable" to sell material that you know to be crap.

Like most people who hang out their eBooks to sell, David offers no concrete details about his actual background or experience. In fact, when I searched for him on Google, all links pointed back to the site hawking his $37 book.

David, I wish you well in your future endeavors. Luckily for you, there are apparently enough ignorant people in society who enjoy perpetrating their ignorance by paying you to spew crap. But for those of us who take pride in the work we produce, we'll look elsewhere for opportunities and advice.