Why Cheap Content is Killing Your Business

Did you know cheap content is driving your business to the ground?

There you are on the internet searching for an economical way to brand your business.

After browsing through an hour of content mills and freelancing sites, you’ve uncovered a host of offers such as

• $5 for 500 words
• Hire me at $10 for 10 hours
• I’ll write your article for the lowest prices

Your eyes widen at the sight of these mind-blowing deals.

Surely, you’re making a killing at the content bazaar with the value that puts a Black Friday sale to shame.

Think it over.

At Drifting Words, we’ll demonstrate how cheap or substandard content hurts your brand more than you know.

 

Cheap Content Affects SEO Rankings

The only ones that work for peanuts are monkeys. After all, monkeys love peanuts!

No writer half their worth trudges through hours of research and utilizes the highest SEO methods to promote your brand.

What really happens when you hire an unqualified writer that doesn’t care about your brand?

Well, that’s easy. You receive content that acts as a wrecking ball to your search rankings.

In fact, take any profession or product.

The fancy luxurious restaurant that offers pool dining doesn’t come cheap.

Similarly, you don’t search for a low-cost doctor to treat you when you’re sick. Nor do you buy cheap nutrition to support your body.

So why settle for mediocre content when branding?

Here are 4 ways to demonstrate how cheap content services ruin your search results.

 

1. Keyword Stuffing

Here’s a fine example of keyword stuffing for the keyword phrase ‘T-shirts’.

“Welcome to GreaseStain T-shirts, we are a t-shirt branding company that makes t-shirts for the finest t-shirt lovers around the world and our t-shirts are of the finest quality.”

The above phrase is used a total of 5 times in a sentence. Keyword stuffing is popularly used by low-cost writers to generate a quick burst of SEO.

Unfortunately, Google performs exactly the opposite. Your brand is tagged as ‘webspam’ and is penalized temporarily.

Repeated keyword spamming leads to permanent bans and is considered a serious offense on major search engines.

 

2. Article Spinning

Many low-cost content writers don’t write original content. Instead, they practice article spinning.

What’s article spinning you ask? Allow us to explain.

Let’s assume you order low-priced content for the topic of ‘Asteroids’.

The budget writer then utilizes an application to search for existing articles with the term – ‘Asteroid’.

The application then utilizes a sequence of combinations to weave together various sentences found on the internet.

At first, the content may make sense due to the sentences being acquired through numerous articles that have been strung together.

Ultimately, it’s easy to distinguish an article that has been spun from a quality one.

Spinning requires a few minutes to generate an article of any desired word-count.

Most low-cost writers employ these black hat SEO practices to put your brand in harm’s way.

The cost? – your brand sinking under search results.

 

3. Mediocre Grammar and Spelling

One identifying trait among low-cost writers is their string of spelling errors and grammatical blunders.

We don’t mean that top writers are the epitome of perfection. But quality writers employ proofreading and editing techniques to ensure their content is free of mistakes.

There’s nothing worse than seeing an article that misplaces the words you’re and your.

Correction software such as Grammarly exist to automate spell-check. However, the software isn’t 100% flawless and still requires manual verification.

That’s where a quality writer differs from a poor one.

Unless you’re prepared to hire an editor/proofreader to tackle the numerous spelling errors, a low-cost writer is best avoided.

 

4. Cheap Content Leads to Lack of User Engagement

Reading an article is an entertaining experience. After all, there’s no point spending valuable time skimming through half the article before you realize there’s no value.

Inferior content acts as a barrier between your brand and your audience. Writers that don’t write well don’t connect with new readers and clearly, this affects your business in generating traffic.

Ask yourself a critical question – If someone worth $5 an hour writes your article; would they really spend their time understanding your audience?

We think not. In fact, we know not.

Experience costs money. Therefore, with experience comes value.

If your budget is $100, it’s sensible to buy 2 well-researched articles at $50 each, rather than buy 20 for $5.

The 2 quality articles are likely to attract a hefty readership when compared to the 20 non-engaging ones.

Always quality over quantity.

 

Are All Low-cost Writers Bad Hires?

Of course, not. Some budget writers are definitely invaluable and are victims of low rate pricing.

This is typically true with freelancing sites. In order to gain contracts and launch their careers, quality writers’ price their rates at throwaway prices.

But unfortunately, the price they pay is too steep. Most low-cost high-profile writers lose their passion along the way and end up switching careers.

The ones that continue to write, do so with excessive financial distress.

Ultimately, the quality of content suffers from one of the two reasons.

Either the writer’s skill is poor or a quality writer ends up too poor to write.

It’s critical for change to be introduced in content writing services.

Hiring a quality writer attaches a unique voice to your brand.

While it’s true that most low-cost writers come from third world countries. It’s a false fact that every third world writer is a low-cost writer.

Eventually, it doesn’t matter where the writer is from – Africa, America, Europe, Asia, or Australia.

A writer’s worth isn’t measured by their regional location but by their ability to stick to their writing standards. Therefore, never bow to lowball pricing.

 

Conclusion

In retrospect, writing is a career that builds brands or topples them. It’s important for businesses to hire quality writing based on their performances and never fall prey to inferior pricing.

No one wins this battle. The brand suffers from negative practices and the writers themselves never seek to improve past their low-cost motives.

Make your move.

Did your business suffer from poor content? Were you a writer that was forced to price your services below the market value? We want to know! Share your experiences in the comments.