I’m looking into getting into web content. I have searched the forum for an hour and could’t find an answer to my specific question, just little bits and pieces of info so thought i’d post. What i’m finding hard to figure out is how web content jobs work.
Do people employ web content developers and web designer/developers separately? Would the web content developer work with the web designer in updating the site, what I mean by this is does the web designer just make the site, hand all the details to the content developer, and then the content developer fills it with the content? Or does the content writer have a hand in the design and development of the site and would need a basic knowledge of HTML?
Any help is appreciated as this is an industry i’m keen to get into. I have a background in advertising and basic copy writing with qualifications in photo image capture, and started a writing course to strengthen my writing, this job seems a very interesting step for me.
While there could be varying takes on the definition of a person who works as a web content developer, to me it means someone who is a writer. Yes they would work with a developer but only in the sense that they are handing over a file with content in it for the developer to place on the site. It generally works this way in large profitable organizations.
In smaller businesses or ones with less marketing support, a developer may very well generate content or vis versa although this is more rare.
If you are thinking of getting into web content, you probably will not need to know HTML.
If you just want to do the writing there is no need for you to learn web design, HTML or anything similar. Writers just send the content over then it is dealt with at the other end. For example, the web designer or master may update the site with your content or if a smaller company the owner may add it if they are using a CMS such as WordPress.
Thanks for your comments both of you, they definitely helped broaden the picture for me.
A question along the same line I do have though, is it true the web content doesn’t always have to mean the written word? Yes a lot of it would be written copy, but would a web content developers job also include illustrations, photos and info-graphics for the site? This would all fall into content, specific to the interest of the site and users and therefore needs the knowledge and background of the site subject that a developer may not necessarily be hired to complete?
If i’m crossing wires somewhere please let me know!
Completely agree with HarrieB.
All smart (and large) companies I’ve dealt with have separate people for content writing, visuals making, and web design.
Moreover, it’s not rare when you see two different people who write content for corporate website and social media.
The only exclusion that I’ve seen is regarding landing pages - because volume of content is pretty small and heavily based on visuals, web designer and content writer usually work together on it.
It depends if static site then content need to build first and then site developed based on the content for cms content should be update later after development.
If you are looking for content writing job, then it is not necessary to have knowledge of CSS and Html as these are separate from content writing. Basically content writing is related to creativity of your mind. You should have good command over English and you will be able to write unique and informative content.
Well usually this job is done with the help of marketing dept or more likely search engine optimizers do that since they know well that what should be the content like if you want the website to get good ranking in the search engine ranking. A content that is not optimized according to the search engines is nearly worthless, no matter who writes it a content developer or a writer. So more importantly you need to know what is the proper way to write the content as well.
It’s better to hire a company and give job to them as they have different peoples for each kind of job like designing website they have seperate person, for writing content they have separate person and for seo they have specific group of peoples.
i honestly did it all by myself , when i got a site , i learnt two things :
there’s nothing called FRIENDS online, the last person would love to get his hands to your pockets and you’ll be shocked how much they charge you for an hour,like mine ,i helped a dude promoting his site for like days then when it came to my site he wanted to charge me 20 bucks per hour,thanks god i didnt pay him , in fact,he removed and blocked me on facebook ,anyway later i found out that himself was suffering from not getting g alot of traffic and now i beat his site and my site is away better from his site on getting traffic ,my point is
if you do have enough time , you can do it all by yourself but here i mean simple things not a very complicated work
wish you best luck and more success on your site
Tarek
