I Know Now What I Didn’t Know Then
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So it’s been over a year now since I began making my living exclusively from writing and I figured now would be as good a time as any to make some assessments. This is basically a summary of some of the most important facts I’ve learned the hard way.
I spent my first few months writing for Demand and a few other mills. Nothing new here, and it seems that a whole ton of would be freelancers start the same way. In that time, however, I did a great deal of research in order to better decide which route I wanted my freelancing to take. Writing for mills is not that route.
A couple things I determined
Writing for any of the content sites will make you very little money unless you invest massive amounts of time and energy in them. Even then, if you make enough to just get by, you will be investing so much time that the return will be incredibly lopsided against you. For the amount of time and effort needed, you would be much better served just developing your own site and product and promoting that instead for much larger returns. Yes, it’s THAT bad. Why work to drive thousands of visitors to your articles and get paid pennies, when that same traffic could make you hundreds per article on your own site?
None of these places are good for your portfolio. If you are hoping to grab some serious work, these places will have little beneficial effect on a potential client’s perception of you and can very possibly have a detrimental effect. Think of it as someone working for Burger King then applying for a job at the Four Seasons. Chances are, the management is not going to be impressed.
These places are good as a supplemental or extra source of income when you feel like producing content for them. I try not to tell folks not to write for them and I certainly do not attack anyone who does since I still do from time to time and understand all too well why folks do. Until you get some clients under your belt and some steady gigs, any money is welcome money. If you need to make an extra $300 one month, then Demand Studios can be useful. If you are going to rely on them for regular income, prepare to work 10 hours a day and make $400 a week if you’re lucky.
What I did though was shift my focus away from expecting ANY real returns or future from writing for mills and instead concentrated on constantly pitching potential clients, bidding on jobsites and only on postings that may have real potential (no posting on the $5.00 dollar an article jobs) and focusing on finding work through the traditional means. I set a real rate for myself and will not allow myself to be insulted by those who are only willing to pay $5.00 for 500 words. They are not serious; I am, so why work for them?
Within 4 months of changing focus and approaching freelancing this way, I landed some very good clients and have been swamped with work ever since that pays 3 times what I made at a regular job. Sure things were pretty lean and still are to a point, but had I kept plugging away at content mills, I’d be nowhere nearer my goal of a sustainable career and a better life.
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Writing for Content Mills might hurt you
Most of the mass produced content sites are viewed with a jaundiced eye. They are viewed as content mills where quality is sub-par and the writers willing to accept poor rates. This makes it possible that a potential client will see them listed on your portfolio and assume you are willing to produce, or only capable of, sub-standard work and since you are willing to write for those sites and accept $15 for an article, why should THEY pay you $100?
There’s no certainty to this happening, but I’ve seen it. I’ve learned, it is a matter of making those companies work for YOU, not the other way around and just plain outright using them like a tool while giving them as little benefit as possible in return. I write for them once in awhile and they get EXACTLY what they require and nothing more. If they want heavy research, creativity, and most importantly, heavy promotion to send traffic to a piece, then they should pay for it.
I think of it this way. If I write 500 words, work 5 hours to promote and send 5,000 hits to it, and they get even ten advertiser or affiliate sales totaling a few hundred bucks and pay me $5.00, who is really benefitting?
Recent Google algorithm changes were intended to target poor content and the content mills that were producing it to stop them from loading search results with spammy and poorly constructed content that had little value. Top among those hit by this change were Suite, E-Zine, AC and Examiner. This is something that should make anyone considering writing for a content farm stop and rethink their plans.
The bottom line on 6 months of Content Mills
How you market yourself and the value you place on your work is entirely up to you. If you find value in the long hours and weak returns that writing for these places holds, then it suits your individual needs and no one else needs to worry about it.
I believe, however, that those serious about freelancing are better served putting that kind of effort into locating work that pays real rates, building a portfolio of reputable work with no association to sites of questionable value and placing a higher value on themselves. Believe it or not, some of the best writers in the world found good work and built portfolios without writing for content mills.
As I have said earlier, I too wrote and still sometimes write for those sites. I will not, however, allow myself to fall into the trap of believing they hold any value beyond the poor compensation they offer. I only hope what I learn and share will encourage others to place a higher value on themselves and their work than those sites do.
Paul – thanks for this very insightful article, as I, too, make a living through words. I have not written for these sites and won’t because, as you say, it’s an insult. Who uses these articles? How much quality can really go into them? What people who are buying writing services need to understand that it’s not only the words that count. It’s the writer’s years of experience, knowledge of the subject/industry the research and the insights on a topic that go into the writing. What are the key messages you want to convey? What is your overriding point of view and what evidence do you include to support it? There should be a communications strategy for every article.
To me, the finished article is simply the culmination of the strategy behind it and ensuring that it supports the business goals of the organization you are writing for.
Thanks Jeannette. You’re absolutely right and it is the planning and thoughtful construction as a result of a clear goal that makes an article valuable.