The experts tell me the difference between copywriter and a we content writer.
There may be some very slight nuances, but I would consider the two phrases to be interchangeable.
Agreed.
Probably the only difference may be that a “web content writer” is more “experienced” with SEO and keywords.
Copywriter’s are generally limited to sales content. As defined at dictionary.com a copywriter is one who writes copy for advertisements or “publicity” releases. On the Web they might write squeeze pages, product pages, home pages… but generally just for a business that is selling either a product or a service.
As you can see by threads in this forum, web content also includes items such as articles and white papers. A web content writer may also be tasked with writing a bio for a business owner or a company profile for a business. So, although it is a small one, there is a difference.
As per my knowledge, both are same as far as a webmaster is concerned. Their ultimate duty would be to prepare a content on a topic specified by the webmaster.
both are same as far as a webmaster is concerned. Their ultimate duty would be to prepare a content on a topic specified by the webmaster.
Yes. They are the same as far a a webmaster is concerned.
No. They are not the same.
As far a a web master is concerned, content is content. Sales don’t matter. Traffic – yes. Sales – that is outside the webmaster’s concern.
The ultimate duty of a content writer is to keep the webmaster’s DIVs from collapsing …once the Lorem ipsum placeholder text is removed. And to the vast, vast majority of webmasters out there the only difference from Lorem ipsum and content writing is the keywords.
Copywriters get readers to take action: A Copywriter’s Ultimate Duty is [I]Sales[/I]. Filling out a form. Some specific action leading directly to a sale. Copywriters test different versions continuously to up the response. Few content writers run A/B split run tests – loads of copywriters will test a new version against a control version.
Another way to put it is content writers concern themselves with traffic. Copywriter concern themselves with conversions. They are different mindsets.
Both value SEO. Both understand the importance of conversions. But there is a big difference in approach. If you get traffic you keep your content writer. If all you get is traffic, you fire your copywriter. In the first and final analysis, a copywriter takes responsibility producing business results. Many could care less about Google, and produce sales at rates high enough their only concern is driving traffic through paid ads.
To many in the content writer universe, running a site through nothing but paid ads is impossible. They may have heard it happens …then just can’t conceive of any way to achieve it. Some content writers can be content to up your backlinks; without a single solitary human reader ever visiting that article. ( You and I both know that’s true )
Business results. Not SERP rank. Not brand value. Bankable, spendable, results. And to that end, many standard webmaster best practices get in the way of business results. Because the concern of most webmasters is selling websites. Not client results. Oh, they’ll take the credit alright – they just won’t take the responsibility. …Or else they’d call themselves salesmasters or commercemasters.
Many copywriters consider themselves sales people. Hardly any content writers, if asked, would describe themselves as sales people.
Run – don’t walk – from any webmaster who can’t tell the difference and isn’t concerned with the difference between a content writer and copywriter. To them content is just an alphanumeric text string for Google to parse. Return on investment for a web site is purely and unequivocally on the client’s shoulders alone.
Related:
Why Your Site Doesn’t Need to be Pretty explains testing reveals looks matter, just not in the way webmasters want it to.
Then it’s time you beefed up your knowledge. Be sure to read both my post (above) and DCrux’s. (I’ve quoted it below to make it easy for you.)
I think your view is rather jaded. There are a lot of very good web developers and business owners who understand the value of and necessity for good web content whether it’s for an article on their website, a press release, their newsletter, or their product/service pages.
In general (or maybe even in specific) the problem is mostly with those who purport to be copy or content writers that are clueless about how writing works, both on the web and off of it.
I’ve joined several “copywriter” forums during my ten years in business and I no longer attend a single one. I got tired of reading threads about sales letters and squeeze pages, which are what, I think, most web “copywriters” believe to be the only type of content that matters on the web. So I came back to SitePoint and lobbied hard for this forum because it is all about web development.
The goal of content writer wannabees is to become rich over night. The goal of good web content writers is to build a stronger Internet, one website at a time. At least that’s my goal.
I’m sorry, I thought you were going to say you’re on speed dial on several webmasters’ cell phones.
There is every bit of regular writing on the web to be repulsed by. Copywriting need not hold any special place.
We’ve just been over this topic with vapid web tutorials. Emphasis on vapid web. Another is the “I am not going to be responsible for content” thread, so cherished by webmasters. Information value is just as stomach churning a topic as sales.
Some times the alternate pronunciation for jaded is accurate.
Jaded i.e. world-weary, disenchanted. That’s what I meant
In a nutshell, a copywriter is someone who does the editing for several areas, i.e. books, sales letters, ebooks, and even in newspapers (it’s actually where the term originated) and their primary purpose is to check articles’ flaw and make them as perfect as it can be. Content writers on the other hand may have the same tasks in mind but are more motivated in “where to put what”. For example, they are always into content placement, the use of CSS, HTML, etc. Basically, they are copywriters who are more focused on placement. Does that make you confused? That is Stevie D is right.
DCrux is absolutely correct.
I was a advertising copywriter for 15 years in an agency environment, I was writing web content before it had a title, and I do a lot of technical writing. The more you have to do with a subject, the more finicky you get. All have to do with words, and putting the 26 letters of the alphabet in the right order.
Copywriters do focus on sales, but their background is more likely to be the world of advertising where “shorter is better”. Copywriters are traditionally the people who come up with the cretive advertising strategy, and deal with the psychology of consumers and how they buy. Copywriters are snobs and think that other writers lack discipline. The often get paid best so other writers hate them. Especially when they usually write less than 30 words a day and appear unproductive. However, they are the 30 words that get the product sold.
Web content is often about volume. More is better. Often what is required is that they produce a lot of text that is only meant to be read by a search engine so they will say the same thing 4 different ways using as many keywords as possible. Web content and PR writing is similar - wordy is good. The writing is rarely original, and copy-and-paste is common.
Web writers and PR writers (together with journalists) are the worst paid professional writers. A lot of youngsters start here, having picked up experience writing blogs. But it can pay the bills, there are more jobs available. A good content writer with a clear understanding of structure AND content AND the topic and SEO is worth his//her weight in gold. As DCrux says, most clients can’t tell the difference between a copy-and-paste artist in India who gets paid $2 per A4 page, from a real content writer.
Technical writing is similar to content writing, but the person has a credible background in a technical topic like IT, mining, finance etc. It’s not creative, but it requires the discipline of a copywriter and the ability to make complex concepts simple for the layman. It’s often dull work but can be incredibly well paid in the right industry.
An equally interesting (and probably irrelevant to 95% of the world) is the distinction between graphic designers, layout artists and web designers. I am driven crazy by guys who design business cards and print brochures suddenly coming up with a web design for the client. I think some of these Mac guys have never looked at the internet?
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Many sites have photo galleries which are integral to describing their products, services, and/or location. Although these galleries are not “infographics” they are viable and important content, just as are other content areas such as videos and podcasts.
As DCrux says, most clients can’t tell the difference between a copy-and-paste artist in India who gets paid $2 per A4 page, from a real content writer.
A small fact that is the lynchpin of the web development field. And why anyone can say “webmaster” with a straight face.
I mean, come on, that’s right out of Dungeons and Dragons. There is being proud of the fourteen-year-old mentality that has discovered something more than kicking over a crate and selling lemonade, and then there’s waving it in everyone’s face.
With all due apologies to YouTube, the web is a technical delivery system for writing. Not gimicks. Not decorative special effects. Not fads. Not typing. Writing. A master of the web should, as any apocryphal Eskimo would, have fifty (five and oh) words for writing. Actual webmasters can be credited with their not even being one. The term content being an avoidance of anything having to do with writing – meaning graphics, markup, video, audio, and anything else filling a DIV.
Content has just about devolved to a slight against writing.
An equally interesting (and probably irrelevant to 95% of the world) is the distinction between graphic designers, layout artists and web designers.
I am stretching with this, but you could say copywriting is to content writing as interaction design is to graphic art. Heavy on what’s called human factors.
In a nutshell, a copywriter is someone who does the editing for several areas, i.e. books, sales letters, ebooks, and even in newspapers (it’s actually where the term originated) and their primary purpose is to check articles’ flaw and make them as perfect as it can be.
That might be historically accurate. But that hasn’t been the case in common usage of the term copywriting for a half century or more. And I am not sure of the historical accuracy.
Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing (as in the body of a newspaper article or book), the term copywriter is generally limited to promotional situations, regardless of the medium (as advertisements for print, television, radio or other media). The word copywriting is regularly used as a noun or gerund.
The purpose of marketing copy, or promotional text, is to persuade the reader, listener or viewer to act—for example, to buy a product or subscribe to a certain viewpoint.
– Source: Wikipedia
You can’t get more common than Wikipedia.
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Were talking schism like the Morlocks and Eloi here.
I came to read this thread becuz somebody mentioned “copywrite” in our conversation yesterday and i had no idea what that was. So thank you so much for this long explanation.
“copywrite”
And here we go. What they probably said was copyright. Totally different thing from what a scarce few understand we’re talking about here.
Copyright is where you – either the author or someone the author transfers the rights to, like a client – secures publishing rights. A whole other bone of contention. Legal rather than method or job description.
i had no idea what that was
Yes. Of course. And that’s yet another thread we’ve discussed here. Spreken zie torrent …cut-and-paste? (forget about me, I’m jaded and cynical)
Nobody, or just about none, would call themselves a copyrighter. Rather people in advertising would say they write copy – with securing of copyrights a very small part of the process.
In a nutshell, what you have described is a proof-reader and/or an editor. In other words, your description is wrong. Look it up. See for yourself.
As someone who started writing as a radio copywriter back in 1975, you can trust me… I know my business.
OMG DCrux… you wrote something that actually made me LOL!!! 
OMG DCrux… you wrote something that actually made me LOL!!!
Have you seen some of these guys? Comb Your Hair. Wear A Suit.
And, I can’t believe as I write this newest point it’s twenty degrees out now …wear long pants. Is a loin cloth and glow-in-the-dark eyes really far off?
I couldn’t video the stuff I’ve seen and conversations I’ve had …nobody would believe it wasn’t scripted and staged. Yeah, we’re going to put our web presence in the hands of guys who look like they trick out surfboards (or snowboards) for a living. Yeah.
Ok. here’s the thing, I for sure know what copyright is, as i worked as an editor in a publishing firm.
Here’s the thing, when you write it copywrite without any context, it’s a natural assumption.
Most refer to copywriting, or a copywriter when talking about ad copy. Almost never to “copywrite.”
publishing firm.
Ah yes. Understandable.