When you are starting out in freelance writing, it can be easy to get swept away with the promise of easy money. Content mills are like that hot guy (or girl) that whispers all the right things into your ear. You know it’s bullshit, but you still fall for it.
Make money while working from home…in your pajamas
Be your own boss!
E-Z money
The truth is content mills are a blight on the world of freelancing. Many of these companies will do everything to exploit the work of their writers. Don’t think for a second that they won’t cut you loose for another writer either. There are plenty of people willing to write for a penny per word as you turn your nose up at these petty jobs. These companies hurt the writing industry as a whole with their subpar content and laughable writers’ pay.
You may have fantasies of working from home, but it’s a hard life working from dawn to dusk just to write for minimum wage.
I’m not coming at you like I was better than this. Oh no, I busted my fingers to bone writing drivel that ended up on some half-assed website overseas. If you are lucky, you might even see your work end up on an “influencer” blog taking credit for your work. But that’s the break in the dog-eat-dog content mill world. Your hard work is sold for the highest bidder with you only receiving a pittance for your skills.
Clients on these sites tend to demand the world for less than minimum wage. They want a Pulitzer-winning article but bitch about spending more than $5. You do your best, but it is never good enough. Even the content mills themselves expect high-quality at slave labor rates. Your work must be on-point with every comma and semicolon or expect a demoting in your rating. I’m looking at you, Textbroker!
The truth is, that sometimes you need that money “right now.” It is great to build up a clientele. But when the electric bill is due, what are you going to do? Content mills are that “right now” money. Don’t ever let yourself fall into the mindset that this is as good as it gets.
There are better clients and jobs out there!
Writing for a mill is fine… as long as you keep it temporary. You need $200 by Friday, then write that amount and get the hell out of there. You don’t want to make it a full-time gig.
Hater alert: Those who make content mills their life tend to have a pretty bizarre outlook on freelancing. Just read their company forums or a Reddit sub.
I actually read on a message board that this writer was “happy to take less money because the content mill did all the hard work by finding clients.” That is a fucked up way to view your career. Two cents a word is a shitty way to write.
You will hate yourself and writing. I started to feel like that after a year of content mill writing. I began to feel that maybe this was not the job for me. It completely messed me up in the head. Honestly, the longer you stay at a content mill, the more you lose your will to find better ways to write.
All these places are races to the bottom. I’m thankful I had money for bills, but it was a frustrating way to live. If you keep the right mindset, you can churn out a few extra dollars. Don’t let it become your writing livelihood. Think about content mills like this:
It’s a cheeseburger. While the cheeseburger is good every once and a while, you never want to make a steady diet of it. Treat the mills like a cheeseburger.
You should never settle for less than your worth.
Let me know in the comments about your experience with content mills. Do you work them for the short-term or make a career of it?
