Writing with Integrity — The Dying Art of Creating Quality Content

There has never been a time in human history when so much was written on so frequent a basis. No other era even comes remotely close. We are, as a species, flooded with words. All day, all night, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.

An increasing amount of it is utter garbage.

Or rather, more and more of it is low-quality, money-grabbing babble disguised as useful content. I suspect that this may sound like a controversial opinion to share, but is it really?

If I asked you right now how you would describe the majority of blog posts, influencer-based social media content, or cheap ebooks, what would your answer be?

I rest my case. And before my fellow writers, authors, and bloggers get heated, I must clarify that I am not criticizing the frequent production of content or the quest to make an income. That would be very hypocritical of me. What I am questioning is the long term effect of thousands of new content creators whose sole focus is marketing and profit, but who attempt to convince the wider world (and often themselves) that their motives are more than that.

According to Oberlo.com, there are approximately 31.7 million active bloggers in the USA alone. In the marketing world, 86% of content marketers (read: advertisers) use blog posts as a part of their marketing strategy. And while these statistics aren’t problematic in and of themselves, it forms the backbone of an increasingly noticeable trend of purely profit-focused writing masquerading as quality content.

Integrity becomes confused, as does the ability of truly quality-driven creators to be heard or to build sustainable careers. The balance is tipping from genuine career writing to “anyone can make a heaping load of cash by pumping out ebooks and blogs.” Many of us are beginning to question the ability of such a muddled market to stay afloat.

There are of course many, many writers who have the best intentions. And there are plenty of amateur bloggers who start out with a genuine desire to share information or insight with an…