tangor - 12:35 am on Jun 9, 2011 (gmt 0)

This thread has been sidetracked with a non-issue: income/fees to writers, their lives, country, etc.

The reason why all these article writers SEEM SO SIMILAR is (think about it: in 20 words or less describe your product: grape) there's only so many ways to write about anything (grape), or how to use it (grape), what it might smell like (grape), taste (grape), feel (grape), weigh (grape), exist at room temperature (grape), or last (grape), rhyme (grape), travel (grape), enter into finance (grape), get the drift? (grape... whoops, that was one grape too many!)

ARTICLES are what they are... product descriptions are generally NOT articles. Reviews (by definition) are not articles. Fiction and poetry also have nothing in common with articles. News reports, on the other hand, might be articles from time to time. Editorial opinion is almost always an article (short one). The stringing of words together in any language to convey an intelligence... that is writing. Some have a greater gift for gab than others... and others don't even bother, but are wiiling to pay someone else to do what they might... if they tried.

No disrespect to either paid writers or those who pay them, merely an observation of how it works and the LIMITATIONS on EXPECTATIONS for either side. If one really desires HIGH QUALITY RESULTS, expect to pay premium rates. If the bar is lowered, 1) I'll only pay this much or 2) minimum standards are all that's required, then that's the end product (writing) one obtains.

Me? I'm a webmaster who writes his own stuff... I also moonlight as a writer for other websites, and am also (ahem) an old time printed on dead tree novelist and occasional reviewer for a couple of national magazines in a variety (but limited to my knowledge and expertise) subjects. All of those hats are fun to wear, but I only wear them one at a time. :)