I promised to talk about the trustworthiness of web articles and here it is. I mentioned this in the relation between paying for ads and the quality of the product/service your clients get when they click on these ads. The conclusion was that no matter how much you spend on ads, if your product is not good enough, it’s just not worth it. The same goes for content writing and with this blog, I’m releasing the burden that was bothering me for some time…
The Internet Is NOT a Trustworthy Place
Even High-Traffic Websites May Be Misleading
Are you familiar with the story of the unfortunate Major Walter Summerford? I have seen dozens of articles revealing how this man was struck by a lightning 3 times in his lifetime and when everyone thought he was finally at peace, his gravestone was hit by lightning again… There’s even a YouTube video.
So, why is this doubtful even though there are so many sources?
Well, it’s the many sources that make it a problem. A story about a man hit by single lighting is clickable enough. When you’re looking for traffic and you see material about a man that was hit not once but 3 times during his lifetime, and then his gravestone one more time, is just gold mine for clicks.
When there are no decent sources, the content writers just spin the previously published articles. It’s fake news spreading over and over again. There is even a picture of a cracked gravestone with this man’s name on it.
Isn’t that trustworthy enough?
Well, normally it would have been. The problem here is that in every article it stated that this Walter fellow died in 1932. And no matter how cracked the gravestone is, nor how pixelized the picture is, it clearly reads that the man lying beneath that stone died in 1912.
People believe in what they want to believe. Give them a misleading photo proof and they won’t even think twice. This is how free stock pictures work and as content writers, we are quite familiar with those.
It’s all about producing an aesthetically pleasing content, with relative pictures and a clickable title.
But it shouldn’t be all about this. Even if you have a traffic-oriented blog, posting false information is never good for your business. It’s like yellow journalism 2.0.
And if you are actually trying to build a business, being honest with your clients/readers should be your number one priority. Your content should be a unique, well-researched piece of copy that is not misleading your potential customers in any way.
So why are there so many successful businesses that are basically established on this misleading principle?
Because the mass user simply doesn’t care. And there will always be the right mass for your business that won’t mind being misled. With the Internet being used as a source for pretty much anything these days, this is a major issue nowadays people are facing.
I would never tolerate such articles and if you are building a business with the old-school, personalized approach to every single customer, you shouldn’t tolerate this either. This is not a promotional blog post about 411Writers’ honest content writing, this is an article with the purpose of bringing awareness.
But seriously, if you are looking for content writing services, written by people who actually care and will do proper research, you are in the right place!
PS: Here’s a Wikipedia article about a man named Roy Sullivan who was struck by lighting not 3, not 4 but 7 times. Is Wiki trustworthy? I’ll cover this in another blog article…
