Writing 101: Quality or Quantity?

Quality or quantity?

As an online reviewer at various sites, I have tried – not always successfully – to strike a balance between being prolific and giving readers well-written, honest and balanced reviews.

Because how much I earn – which is not a heck of a lot of money – depends on how much material I produce, there is always a temptation to try to write as many reviews as possible within a month’s time. It does not matter if I am paid a fixed rate per article at one site or if I have to hope I have written about "hot" (i.e., popular) products which will bring in some income share at another site. If I do not write over 15 reviews a month, I simply will not earn enough money to make it worth my while.

The logical assumption is that it is acceptable, even preferable, to write as many reviews as possible within a particular span of time (a month, say). Some people actually do try to write two, three, or even four reviews in one day and keep up this pace for a month or even longer. Some are good writers with great typing skills and even sharper editing abilities – due perhaps to training as journalists or professional writers.

However, quite a few of the prolific reviewers in some sites (Amazon comes easily to mind) are not interested in quality. In the case of Amazon (which pays nothing to its customer reviewers), the impetus for writing tons of reviews is a semi-Quixotic quest for virtual bragging rights as to who is the site’s No. 1 Reviewer. (In the “classic” ranking system at Amazon, the No. 1 Reviewer was Harriet Klausner, who cranks out an average of 10 reviews a day.)

The problem with being overly prolific is that – as in Klausner’s case – quality is shoved unceremoniously to one side in favor of quantity.

While I am sympathetic to a writer’s need to earn as much as possible by writing as much as humanly possible, I am a firm believer in giving my sites – whether it’s Epinions, Viewpoints, or wherever else I contribute – quality copy. That takes a great deal of hard work, since good writing is not just a matter of being clever, funny, informative or fair-minded. It is also about the craft itself – choosing the right words, making sure a point is made clearly and deftly, and (of course) revising, revising, revising.

As someone once remarked about how to avoid burnout when doing the online review “thing,” you have to think of it as a marathon rather than a sprint, and always keep in mind that readers – even online ones – do appreciate quality writing. Or, at the very least, the site owners will remember your contributions and reward them in some fashion.

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