Merry Bruns: Articles>Custom Content

"Your Guide to the Custom Original Content Opportunity Online."

(Interview with Merry Bruns-excerpt from ContentBiz.com Report.)

Who's going to make real money with original custom content?"

Merry Bruns, who's been producing content-rich Web sites for such clients as the NIH and many large associations since January 1995, says, "You're never going to get rich being a freelance writer for Web sites. There's a joke amongst freelancers: How can you make real money as a writer? Marry rich."

Bruns explains that writing content is only part of the opportunity, "Clients need a content strategist, a producer, as well as a writer. You have to sit down with the organization's leaders and discuss the drive and the focus of the company, and then what their audience's needs are. I explain the Web is different from their marketing brochures and traditional media—it's an audience driven medium.

" They look at me and nod their heads and I know they don't know what I'm talking about. Why should they? It's not their business! It's your job to know this, and to explain it to them so they can understand it ."

"So," she continues, "there's so much more than just saying 'I'm going to write content for your site.' You have to understand what the user is supposed to do when they arrive at this site. The strategizing goes on far ahead of putting pen to paper. But, a lot of writers just want to write.

"But even if a freelancer has that rare combination of talents—great marketing skills and the ability to act as an online content strategist—their opportunities are still limited due to time constraints. A single person can only take on so much business by himself or herself."