Thought Leadership on Thought Leadership: The Race to the Bottom

I started my writing career eight years ago, taking short assignments on a content mill and earning three (3) cents per word.

This is about as “entry-level” as it gets. Subject matter expertise? Zero. I wrote website copy about visiting countries I had never been to. Blog posts about what exercises to do while pregnant. (I have never been pregnant.) Articles about multi-level marketing products I had never used.

When I was getting started, I assumed this was just how it worked. The only way to make money was to write as quickly as possible and make it a volume game. I was in a race to the bottom with myself: how much content could I write at this rate in order to keep food on the table?

I was pleasantly surprised when a client on that content mill reached out to me and offered to pay me directly. The hourly rate was $15, and suddenly my income looked a lot more stable. If I was pleasantly surprised by $15, I was blown away when the first client agreed to pay me $60 per hour. Over time, I’ve been able to put together a comfortable living writing for companies willing to pay a healthy rate for exceptional, creative content.

But this article isn’t about my career journey. I want to think about this from the perspective of the buyer. In my experience climbing up the career ladder as a content writer, I’ve come across two specific types of companies:

1. Those who want to think strategically and invest in quality
2. Those who are in a race to the bottom, looking to create the greatest volume of content at the lowest price.

I’m reasonably confident that there will always be enough of the first type of company for people like me to make a living. But with the rise of generative AI and tools like ChatGPT, there’s reason for concern: not because it’s going to impact my career, but because it’s going to push more companies from Type 1 to Type 2.

The False Promise of Generative AI

For as long as companies have sought to cut costs, there have been content marketing firms undercutting each other in a battle for bottom-feeding supremacy. Look no further than content marketing agencies offering monthly packages with dozens of blog posts; platforms like Upwork and Fiverr where writers debase themselves for five-star ratings at five cents per word; and content mills that belch out anonymous, SEO-sodden web copy for a couple bucks.

I don’t fault writers for taking this approach to building a career. But these are the jobs and assignments that are most under threat from ChatGPT. If a company was already trying to build their reputation on a mountain of five-dollar blog posts, why wouldn’t they switch over to AI that offers them unlimited volume for the low monthly price of $20? In this race to the bottom, ChatGPT is the Holy Grail: fifty feet underground, teeming with keywords and giving off the fetid smell of false innovation.

No self-respecting enterprise would entrust their blog posts or web copy to a content mill like the one I started at. (Believe me, we were not getting handed the keys to the Berkshire Hathaway account.) Yet the idea of a new technology revolution — the glimmering promise of efficiency offered by AI — has executives across the world salivating at the chance to join the race to the bottom.

Quality and Creativity Will Always Win

Over the next two years, we’re going to see large, respectable companies place their bets on ChatGPT. They’re going to flood the internet with AI-generated content, and they’re going to reap the short-term cost savings of cutting back on comms staff and freelance writers.

But eventually, these companies are going to come back to the real thing. Not everyone is comfortable sprinting in the race to the bottom.

When everyone is spewing out the same characterless AI content, the only way to stand out — to achieve a competitive advantage — is by doubling down on creativity and quality. Good writing costs money, but if you plan it properly, it will pay off many times over. No matter how much chum you throw into a bottom-feeding content strategy, it’s never going to give you back anything of value.

If you’re reading this and planning your content strategy, let me save you the time and frustration: don’t be tempted by the race to the bottom. Invest in quality and creativity, and focus on what makes your company unique.