The Scam of Online Blogs

I was once one of the naive little idiots who would google everything and anything that would come to my mind, in the hope that I would find an answer and to Google’s credit, it satisfied me lots. Until…

I, like many others was lured into the world of Content Writing. The contract was this, I was supposed to write on a cost-per-word basis, where I was given the Title, and some basic structure, and I was supposed to research,formulate and write the content alone. Although this may an okayish arrangement at first, it really made me question everything I knew about the internet, and its infinite wisdom. This model that a lot of blog/website owners employ is simply to rank higher on Google searches. However, it incentivizes low-quality content, because I was the be-all and end-all of all sources. While there was an editor between me and the publish button. There was absolutely nothing that would stop me from writing down absolute garbage. I could pull statement out of ass and it would be accepted as gospel truth, some naive soul somewhere would look up my article and take it for face-value.

To put it off, many of my clients would force us to write multiple pieces a day or not write at all. Again, this model incentivizes quantity over quality, there was little to no quality check, no citations or fact-checking required. All I was supposed to do, was scour the internet for articles, find out what they said, slightly change what they said, or use their words out of context to further my piece. Like, I could very well go to verywellmind.com, find all the articles that somehow mentioned grapefruit and list them down as the benefits of grapefruits on a blog somewhere, making grapefruit seem like the cure to cancer and all of world’s problem, the solution to the housing crisis and economic instability and poverty in Africa. All because some company wanted me to promote grapefruits. This is clearly hyperbole but you get the gist.

My point is, Internet Content is no longer as trust-able as it once was, the writers of these blogs are paid mere pennies, do lackluster work and flood the internet with useless shit, with no background whatsoever. Most of the time I was asked to write, neutral tones were discouraged, and I was treated like an advertiser, the point of the content was not to inform, not to spread awareness, not to publish honest findings, but rather just rank on Google, the bottom line at the end of the day were companies trying to make a few extra bucks. The internet is a shitshow, its the advertiser’s dream. A highly sophisticated tool to target only who you want. Online Blogs, once a refreshing presence are now slowly becoming a cancer for the online community.

This part of whatever this is, is dedicated solely to self-help based articles on the internet. There are countless blogs on the internet that will tell you actionable things to do to get your life on track, but obviously — these things are easier said than done. No 10 easy steps will help you bring discipline in to your life. At the end of the day, these blogs are also just a way to tap into your precious attention. Now I’m not saying its all bullshit, but these articles can often undermine the monumental task of self-improvement and the personal nature of it. Every person’s journey through their weaknesses is extremely personal and often requires navigating a complex maze of one’s own psyche and dealing with problems plaguing them secretly, so while it’s completely harmless to be reading these articles. UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR JOURNEY MIGHT LOOK DIFFERENT. The experience cannot be summed up in a single article. Use these articles as ideas, but that’s what they are, just ideas. A starting point. Something to experiment with, if it sticks, it sticks. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t work for you, try something else. I know easier said than done, but oh so important.

Let me just end this makeshift rant at this point — the internet is a wild and dangerous place that is difficult to navigate, do not trust anything you read on the internet, find writers you trust to put in the effort to have thoroughly researched and written content. People who can put their money where their mouth is. The only hurdle is — that kind of content doesn’t come for free, so you gotta ask yourself, do you think you’d pay a couple of extra bucks a month to save yourself from the endless bombardment of ads all over the internet.