Showing posts with label content writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label content writing. Show all posts

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Content Writing Price War– The Rise of “Made In China” Culture


In India, you need to write around 10, 000 words daily in order to survive as a freelance writer, given the extremely low rates that the industry offers here. In this article, you'll discover the ways you can achieve this monstrous target.

In the West, there is no concept of mass production of “quality” without maintaining the price they charge that is justified by the R&D, branding, marketing, and value of the product as against China that first copies the technology, adopts a system, and then starts mass producing products and services.

Our Mantra is ---  Get almost the same quality as iPhone at 25% price - Go for Redmi!

Get almost the same quality as Danielle Steele, Stephen King or JK Rowling at less than 2% of what they charge.... :)  This is the marketing tagline of Indian freelance writers.




Quality vs. price
This is a disturbing situation for people who work hard to manufacturer products and services. When market requires them to produce it at cheaper prices than the competition, it could be a nightmare for many and extremely difficult for others. To achieve this, you need to employ a strategy that works and adopt a specific system and procedures to produce volumes that too, on a consistent basis.                   

Content writing concentration camps
I found the same issue with content writing. In India you are asked to mass produce content, however you need to maintain high quality because these are the third party vendors that get projects from Western clients and then they ask you to do it at lowest possible rates. However, as a writer you are supposed to maintain top quality so that they can make maximum money. But, when you work at lowest prices, you subconsciously tend to product poor quality content. The vice versa is also true.

Imagine, they need the same quality as James Patterson or Stephen King, but they are ready to offer just $4 for a 500 word article, sometimes even less than that. No wonder writers from Bangladesh or Vietnam can only do it in that price range.   

Situation in India
In India, neither there is any legal framework to question such malpractices, nor are the citizens conscious enough to unite against such industrial exploitation. On the other hand people are extremely selfish and eager to go to lowest levels of cut throat competition.

They snatch projects from others so that they can do it cheaper than others. No hue and cry is made in the market for this because this satisfies the market equations of demand and supply. Indian marketplace is a lethal two edged sword, which not only forces you to do things cheaply but on the other hand makes you incapable of even raising your voice. 

The way China does it
China has mastered this art they have somehow blended technology with low cost. However, it comes with its own side effects. For example, Chinese products/technology aren’t so reliable even though they work fine normally and that is what the market needs and that is how China is winning everywhere.

Similar to Chinese strategy, content writers in India should also start producing high quality content with certain benchmarks being strictly followed and then mass produced it.



Western writers will not understand it
Most of the Westerners would not be able to understand me because they are never used to such kind of practices but the Chinese and Indians will definitely understand me better. I mean I need to produce bench-marked quality content without investing too much of thought into it and then produce it at mass level. This is the only way to survive in India in China. 

If you study any of these marketplaces deeply you will find how accurate I am in my claim. It includes the following points:

·
  Read the best quality articles on the web. Benchmark some of their features such as openings, quotes, data, examples, flow and information.  
·
 Write articles following these patterns and do it quickly to produce massive content

You are now a successful writer in India and China and you can support your family with a decent income. All you need to do is to produce 10,000 words (yes, you read it right 10, 000 words) of “quality content” daily and you’ll never complain that writers in India are paid poorly or that they can’t support their families.    

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

How to Write More Than 11,000 Words per Day?

When I started writing using Dragon Dictation software early in 2012, I was a complete novice and not very smart at using a dictation software program. That was probably the reason I was never as productive as I wanted to be. But, now that I have come a long way, dictation software programs have become some of the best tools in my writing armory.
As Michael Shreeve puts it in his article, “How To Write 10,000 Words Per Day: “The software itself doesn’t help me get words on the screen faster. I type almost as fast as I speak. What DNS does is free my mind, to be honest. It removes one more layer of tension between thought and ink-on-the-screen.”
I didn’t realize it at that time but now I know what needs to be done in order to take things further and use your dictation software for maximum productivity. You need to become a chatterbox and a speaking machine, so whatever thoughts randomly flow through your mind can be transcribed using the dictation software.
However, to become so spontaneous, you must have a plan and a blueprint ready in your mind for your topic. The rest of the things become a game. As a famous writer Rachel Aaron, discloses her secrets to writing 10,000 words daily, in her guest post, “How I Went from Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day” — Vicky Teinaki made a graphic of the writing metric, which is in the form of a triangle and its three elements are:
A. Knowledge
 B. Time
 C. Enthusiasm
In order to increase your speed of writing, you can proportionately amplify the above elements.
According to her, knowledge is the weapon. You should know what you are going to write. So, a general plot outline and a little bit of research will always help in writing an article with the lightning’s speed.
Hoard Your Ideas
Keep a journal and hoard ideas. The more ideas you have, the faster you’ll be as a writer. Note down everything you observe or read in your journal.
You can produce huge content using this technique as it takes the burden off your mind and makes the process autopilot.
Which dictation software to use
Let’s discuss which dictation software to use.
I researched and found three software programs that fit the bill.
  1. Dragon Naturally Speaking
  2. Google Docs Voice to Text
  3. Dictation.io
  4. Windows Speech Recognition Program
Each of these three dictation software programs has its own merits and drawbacks.
Let’s discuss these one-by-one.
  1. Dragon Naturally Speaking
The program created by Nuance comes as the most advanced, accurate and user-friendly dictation software. No pause is needed while speaking in order to keep it working. You can keep on speaking spontaneously and it will keep on transcribing long after you are finished speaking. DNS 13 Premium (available at $199)comes with the feature of recorded voice to text, which means that you can record your voice using a recording device such as Philips Voice Recorder while on the go and once you are back to your office or home, you can plug it into your laptop and allow DNS 13 to transcribe. You can create a lot of content this way.
Dragon Dictation App is also available for Android and iOS, where you can pay a small monthly fee and use it whenever you need it. DNS 13.0 Premium is available at $85 at Amazon (shipping is extra).
2. Dictation.io
If you need some free software, https://dictation.io/ can be the best online dictation software. Over the past couple years its accuracy has improved a ton, maybe because the developers are working hard to make it popular. As far as the accuracy is concerned I am sure that dictation.io is way ahead of Windows Speech Recognition Program. It’s even better than “Google Docs Voice to Text”. I am very happy that I have found this online dictation software which works smoothly and helps me in maximizing my productivity. Furthermore, it comes free of cost. All you need is Internet connectivity to run it. It runs only on Google Chrome.
The results it produced were largely satisfactory for me but its only drawback comes from the fact that “dictation.io” takes a pause after four or five lines and it almost freezes, so we have no option but to click the stop button and hit the “start dictation” button again.
The best part is you will soon get used to this problem of freezing and you can use it to put your mind to work in the meantime. So, the mind gets a break and you get time to collect and organize your thoughts and start all over again. It also gives you the opportunity to check whether your content is flowing in the right direction or not.
It’s an intelligent software program as compared to other online dictation software programs available the market. When you use it frequently, you become even more efficient using it. It’s quite accurate but not as accurate as Dragon Dictate. However, it offers an accuracy of more than 80% in the beginning, which is quite a big deal.
3. Google Docs Voice to Text
The best part of Google Docs Voice to Text Program is its intuitive approach. It auto corrects the sentences according to the context, which makes it much faster and accurate. However, it’s not as fast as Dragon Dictate. Its accuracy levels also vary frequently. One more glitch in the program is the voice recognition button, which stops working all of a sudden and it takes a little while before you can start dictating again.
As a free software program, it may be a good option for writers.
4. Windows Speech Recognition Program
It comes inbuilt with Windows. The program is free and can be used offline, but the major cons include speed and accuracy. The text created using Windows speech recognition program needs a lot of editing and proofreading.
So, choose the right dictation software, spend some time thinking and planning and put in lots of enthusiasm and you will be able to write more than 9, 000 words that too in just eight or nine hours.