Back in the 90′s I worked in the photo industry in Seattle. I knew a lot of the photographers who shot for Microsoft, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Boeing, etc. Most of those folks shot “on assignment” and whatever images were left over from those photo shoots they would send to stock agencies. This provided a pretty sweet, secondary income stream. Life was good.

But things changed. The market for images became flooded by the thousands upon thousands of photographers pouring out of art schools and commercial photography programs. Even though assignment work and stock shooting are very, very hard work, it looked like a nice life and it was. Who wouldn’t want a life as an independent “stock shooter” traveling the world, shooting the most beautiful people and locations? Who wouldn’t want to shoot for the world’s coolest companies? So tons of people streamed into that profession.

And like locusts upon the plains, came the law of supply and demand.

Suddenly the value of any given image went down. WAY down. Too many images.

“Royalty free” images – low cost, mostly unrestricted terms of use – turned the world of photography upside down. The notion that you could buy images of the quality that you find everyday on istockphoto.com for less than the cost of lunch, seemed absurd. But it happened.

What happened to the commercial photography world in the 90′s with the shift in stock, and the introduction of digital, is far more complex than what I’ve outlined here. But there’s this eerie parallel that I see in terms of content.

There is so much content being produced right now around the world that is staggers the mind. How does the value of content – good or bad – hold up in an environment like this?

As an example, here’s a snippet that took me two seconds to find.

Top Writers Around the World will write for you outsourcing

“The content of your site tells a whole lot about your website. They will basically describe what your site is about and also tell people what your site has to offer. Articles and website content makes a whole lot of difference in your site because they can catch the attention of your website visitors and keep them in there.”

Don’t you love, “keep them in there”? It’s very important to LOCK DOWN your site visitors in case they get some crazy idea that they’d like to break out and ESCAPE.

Now it’s not exactly fair to use TWAW as an example as this site (I am desperately hoping) is the work of a young person probably in a developing country.

But it’s a harbinger of things to come already here.

A company in Maryland offered me a blogging gig. $18 a post. Eighteen dollars. For 300 word posts. About sunglasses. I should give them their due; they were DESIGNER sunglasses.

Purpose of this content? SEO. Not in any way shape or form is this content intended for your eyes or mine. Ever. This company has so much work they’re losing their minds. One of their current bloggers writes for the Washington Post.

With this kind of stuff going on how does good quality content continue to command good quality money? Is it just a matter of time before a 500 word case study is just another $12.00 “measuring your success” stock photo that shows a tape measure and a graph?

Why should content be immune to these kinds of pressures? What do you say?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with millions of people or even a few. Feel free to leave a comment. And thanks so much for reading. Will aim for brevity in the future.