My Thoughts on Content Mills--and Getting Paid What You're Worth

I've been seeing a lot of posts on blogs I read regularly regarding content mills. Over at Writer's Weekly, there's a big expose on Demand Studios, a content mill that owns and supplies content to eHow and some other content sites. Web Writing Info and Words on the Page have both added to the discussion as well.

If this is a new term for you, content mills are websites that pay writers very low sums of money for articles, which are then either resold or used to boost search engine rankings for the site. Typically the only benefits the writers get are the low paychecks ($5 or so on the low end; $20 or so on the high end)--they don't get links or resale rights. Often the writers' pay depends on traffic, and sometimes the writers are expected to help drive traffic to their own articles.

Like many others, I see content mills as borderline-to-obviously exploitive of writers. But I also do believe that writers need to be responsible in choosing their own opportunities and developing business sense, and one of the major problems here is general preciousness-about-writing--a topic I've written about before. In a world where so many people love to write but have never been able to make a career of it, getting paid anything can be addictive validation.

They're also easy--and a lot of writers tend to be self-promotion-phobic introverts. The argument goes that content mills provide easy work with no need to promote yourself or even talk to clients--a perfect situation for a writer who's not confident in her own abilities and doesn't feel comfortable acquiring or dealing with real clients.

Let me tell you--I've been there. I don't love promoting myself either. But if you want real validation, there's nothing quite so addictive as conquering your fears--and getting paid what you're really worth. And I've said most of this stuff before, but this is for the content mill writers on how to get out of that rut and have a REAL writing career.

You need a mind shift. Stop thinking of your writing as a hobby and think of it as a job. You are a breed of freelance writer, whether you believe it or not--and you need to start thinking like a businessperson. $20 an hour (assuming it takes you an hour to write a simple 500 word article, which is about what it takes for me) might be a decent wage for a full-time employee, but for you it WON'T suffice. Why? Simple: because as a sole proprietor (which you are unless you incorporate--and if you've incorporated recently, you'd know) you pay twice the Social Security taxes, additional business taxes and registration fees, and your own health insurance. $20 an hour doesn't begin to cover those expenses. You should be getting $60 or $70 an hour as a rock bottom price. I charge more than that.

You shouldn't be bragging about fast. I've heard some content mill writers justify their payment by saying things like "well, I may be getting paid $5 an article, but I can crank out 10 articles an hour--so I get paid a decent hourly wage." Really? 10 articles an hour? And does that allow for time for decent research, checking sources, gathering quotes, and other things that go into producing a good article? Does it even allow you time to run Spell-Check? Cranking out content fast isn't something you should brag about. Do you think W.S. Merwin brags about cranking out 10 poems an hour? You think Shakespeare spit out a play a day? No. Good writing takes time. It takes multiple drafts. One sure sign you're being exploited is that the actual quality of your writing isn't valued--just that you can spit words out on a page in a short amount of time. You're working a sweatshop, not an actual job.

Ask for what you're worth. Instead of working for a content mill, sign up for Freelance Daily. It's a list of freelance writing and editing jobs delivered daily into your inbox. It's free for a week or so, then you pay about $4 per month for the service. Apply for a few jobs, and ask for what you're worth. (HINT: it's more than $20 per hour.) Trust me--some people really are looking for professionals who know what they're doing and charge a fair wage.

If you write for content mills, you could do better. Develop your commercial writing skills--get The Well-Fed Writer and The Copywriter's Handbook--those two books should provide you with everything you need to get started, in terms of both commercial writing skill and marketing ideas. If you're going to do this, don't be exploited--develop your own career, on your own terms.