Content creation is not something everyone can do

...Those words are stuck in my ears and won't go away. (*By "content" here, I mean the blog updated on the company website.)

These were words spoken by a former supervisor in my previous department at work.
He was a man in his 70s, and I worked under him for about two years in that department.

He was a kind and capable person, but his only flaw was that his voice was incredibly loud, and everything said in conversation with him could be heard by everyone on the floor, which was just so embarrassing.

Since I transferred to my current department, the opportunities to interact with him have decreased significantly.
Since he doesn't see what I'm doing up close anymore, it might be understandable that he thinks "anyone can create content."

I had various thoughts about it.
But I didn't want to argue and ruin the atmosphere there.
Or rather, because this person has such a loud voice, I didn't want to complicate things and end up embarrassed.
There's always someone quietly eavesdropping, isn't there?

In the end, I just gave a bitter smile and said, "...Well, I suppose so."
Only a lingering, unpleasant aftertaste remained.

Is that really true? Is content something anyone can create?

I have been writing the company's helpful blog at a pace of about 2-3 posts a month for about two years now, and the number of articles has now exceeded 50.

At first, at the recommendation of the person in charge of the corporate site, I started writing blog posts with a senior colleague who was with me on the company website renewal project.

After that senior colleague dropped out along the way, I diligently wrote and accumulated articles by myself so that the updates wouldn't stop.

Since transferring to my current marketing department in April 2023, I have also started working on SEO in earnest for web traffic.
So that as many users as possible can read the articles I've put so much effort into writing.

To aim for the top search results for targeted keywords, I studied every single competitor's article that was already ranking high.

I firmly solidified the structure at the initial stage so that the development wouldn't fall apart halfway through.

I tried to avoid expressions that wouldn't make sense to the reader as much as possible.

I kept the length of each sentence to within three lines at most, and made sure not to pack too much information in at once.

I used bullet points for explanations that were likely to become long.

For parts I thought might be hard to understand with just text, I inserted diagrams created in PowerPoint and image captures.

I didn't use colors in the diagrams unnecessarily, and I was careful about the design and color scheme.

I created an eye-catching, original featured image.

I made sure to set alternative text (alt tags) for all images so they would show up in image searches.

I checked every time to ensure that the in-page links were functioning properly.

As a result, traffic increased dramatically, the number of document downloads grew, and inquiries started coming in, albeit only occasionally.

I don't know how many times I thought, 'Maybe I should just quit.'
Even so, I kept writing.

Is creating content something anyone can easily do?
There's no way that's true.

Do you have any idea how much ingenuity goes into publishing a single article of nearly 10,000 characters, or how many temptations I've had to resist to build up 50 articles on my own?

I don't want to be dismissed with such a flippant remark as, 'Anyone can create content.'

...And since I don't have the courage to directly argue with my former boss, I'll just secretly encourage myself in my heart.

Content is not something anyone can create.
It is something you finally build after thinking and thinking about the people who will read it,
and because it takes a very long time to see results, there is no point unless you continue.
It is definitely not something just anyone can do.

I should be more proud of myself for writing.