by Francis Jock

Created on: February 10, 2008   Last Updated: March 03, 2010

Communications, entertainment, and web-based information platforms have finally evolved to a level of sophistication where free web based content has overstayed its welcome. For a decade now, free content information has been an important component in the evolution of web-based services. In fact the Internet is strung together by countless numbers of websites that feature free information derived mostly from the labor of webmasters and article writers.

Those days are over. The end of the writer's strike has opened the gates to a new era, an era where a writer can, and should, be compensated for their work. Webmasters have struggled for years now to find content in the form of articles that generate interest and therefore, traffic as a way to earn money or deliver useful information. Now there is hope that the writer's domain has finally been expanded to include the open spaces of the Internet frontier.

Google can take a large share of responsibility for this when it created Adsense, those all too familiar and irksome "Ads by Google" that clutter up the precious reading space on most WebPages. Adsense and its companion have provided created websites with a way to earn money by clicking on a three line advertisement that will wisk you away to some other website of interest. Along the way, the website and Google exchange currency for clicks.

Website content is king, yet for years the writers that have created the content have had to settle for adding a byline with an invitation to visit their own particular website where they hope to earn a pittance from Google's scheme. The profits have been appalling at best. As is typical in a free market system, those with the tools earn the money, while the miners keep buying tools and moving tons of earth that yields only a few flakes of shiny stuff. Most writers have found that you can chase your dream on the internet, but you shouldn't quit your day job.

Blogs and social networking sites are the two of the latest examples digital communications evolution. On these sites everyone gets to express themselves, although most go unnoticed unless they contain some form of sex and rock & roll. A few interesting niches have peaked only to fade from the public eye after only a few months. Bloggers have been left to wonder if any of it is worthwhile, while being bombarded with new schemes and opportunities to get rich with another Search Engine Optimization tool or article spinning tool. But times, they are a changin'.

Writers are professional

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