Content and Writing and Money? Is There a Difference between Content and Writing?

I was asked this a few days ago, and here it is:  What is more important: the content, or the writing or the money in terms of a blog? A blog is something that is a bit time consuming, and can make you money, but a blog can also showcase your work to others.

I was willing to say (before thinking about it!) that content and writing are the same thing… then I thought for a moment and realized that really they are not.  Anyone with a keyboard and a few hours can write a blog post, which may or may not make them money.  A blog can and should be something that all writers do, and yes it is something that can be considered self-publishing at a low cost.

So for the record my view:

Writing:  This is when you press buttons on the keyboard and you are more worried about, things such as Google Page rank or traffic or keywords or whatever makes you money.  This to me means that while you will make money at some point, the words you write are not the greatest.

Content:  This is when you care about being useful and about what others find useful about your writing.  This is a sort of creative spark and you enjoy what you do.  The content is the value of what you write and what you give to your readers.  You care about making money but you also care about value.

Money: You can make money with writing and content, but in my mind if you have great content, the meat of what you are writing, then you will make money long term.  You find that people will come to you because you offer them a lot more of “something” (whatever the topic) than some one who is simply writing to make money fast.