I not too long ago met Jono Alderson, former head of web optimization at Yoast, at Advertising Competition in Brno. He gave a captivating discuss on the state of content material advertising.
A number of of his observations resonated with me, together with the insularity of utilizing the identical SEO checklists as everybody else as a place to begin to create something.
The result’s a pool of lookalike articles, written for serps, not written for folks. The precise writing is usually handled as an afterthought.
As Jono put it in an interview not too long ago:
“You might be recursively optimizing a really small corpus until it’s all simply phrase soup.”
Now that content material advertising is turbocharged with AI, the phrase soup is countless. And as LLMs digest the present phrase soup as supply materials, the long run phrase soup is much more of the identical.
That jogs my memory of Ian Whitworth’s description of AI-generated content material as “infinite phrases no one needs.”
Jono additionally shared that the clock is ticking on this race to the underside, as serps reinvent themselves with AI to offer solutions to folks, somewhat than countless search outcomes. He urged folks to recollect who the actual viewers is, and the issues you possibly can assist them clear up.
I don’t understand how the way forward for content material advertising will look (and I’ve really by no means actually been that loopy in regards to the time period “content material”). However I nonetheless suppose that the misplaced artwork of writing is vital in speaking with others. It may be aided by AI instruments. However the path of least resistance is to show it throughout to AI. And that appears like a race to the underside to me.
Every time I’m wondering in regards to the state of writing, I flip to Ann Handley (who kindly wrote the foreword to my final e-book). She has an insightful and refreshing publication on writing and advertising known as “Complete Annarchy.”
Ann has just a few strategies on how you can incorporate AI as a device that will help you write extra effectively, like asking ChatGPT what’s lacking out of your piece. However finally, she recommends AI is a device, not a alternative, for nice writing.
Ann’s newest recommendation was refreshingly analog: “Begin with Pen + Paper.”
As she explains:
“Don’t fear about “writing.” You’re welding the scaffolding for concepts that may turn out to be writing.
“Why this works:
“You write slower than you kind. Working with analog instruments slows you down. Your high-speed locomotive mind isn’t screaming forward to get to Subsequent Sentence Depot. It has to attend patiently to your fingers to catch up, like a automobile driver at a railroad crossing ready for the practice’s caboose.
“That sluggish tempo finally delivers higher insights.”
And, finally, writing with out higher insights actually doesn’t have a lot of a cause for being.
Listed below are just a few associated cartoons I’ve drawn through the years:
“Work is extra enjoyable with framed marketoons in your wall”