{"id":6514,"date":"2015-10-20T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=6514"},"modified":"2015-10-16T12:36:04","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T17:36:04","slug":"why-writing-for-content-mills-isnt-as-bad-as-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=6514","title":{"rendered":"Why Writing for Content Mills Isn\u2019t as Bad as You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been writing for more than 20 years, and in that time I’ve seen some pretty crazy sales pitches. <\/span><\/p>\n

“This book will get you out of the rat race and into a hammock.” <\/span><\/p>\n

“These tips can turn an aspiring writer into a hammock-swinging success.” <\/span><\/p>\n

“Take my class and before you know it your novel will be earning hammock money!” The ones I see always feature hammocks for some reason, along with that tall glass of sweet tea. <\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve tried a few, avoided the majority, and am still working daily from a chair like some kind of failure, but one recent change has made a big difference. <\/span><\/p>\n

What if I was to tell you about a writing boot camp that boosts your speed, expands your focus and helps you get more organized than you’ve ever been? <\/span><\/p>\n

Sounds crazy, right? <\/span><\/p>\n

Now what if I told you this boot camp <\/b>pays you to join<\/i><\/b>?<\/b><\/p>\n

A lot of naysayers are going to tell you to walk on by, but this maligned corner of the freelance world has a lot to offer if you know how to approach it correctly. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the content mill, the P90X of freelancing.<\/p>\n

I know. Everyone hates content mills.<\/span><\/h2>\n

As you probably know, there are plenty of <\/span>downsides<\/span><\/a> to writing for word factories. The pay is atrocious, often as low as one to two cents per word. <\/span><\/p>\n

Anything you might do to game the system, like typing extra fast, comes back to drag your time down when you’re presented with a suite of complex edits to address. <\/span><\/p>\n

And there’s an assumption built into the structure of the job itself that writing doesn’t matter; it’s not treated as a skill of any value whatsoever. Your work is just another splat of fake dog doo passing by on the assembly line. <\/span><\/p>\n

This view can be disheartening, and the repetitive grind of the work doesn’t brighten the view at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Content mills can help you learn as you earn<\/span><\/h2>\n

And yet — here is where the techno music starts building softly in the background — <\/span>content mills have much to offer<\/b><\/a> seasoned pros and new writers alike<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most require a grammar test. Take it! You’ll probably ace it, but if you don’t, it will show you any blind spots that may be compromising your professionalism. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you get accepted, take the training as seriously as if you were in medical school. Take notes. Print, save, and reread information.<\/p>\n

If you’re new to writing, it\u2019s valuable practice for the day you’re juggling clients who all operate with different guidelines tied to different style guides.<\/b> Just laser-focus on what’s in front of you and keep circling back to it until the work is done. <\/span><\/p>\n

For an established writer, dealing with so many new particulars offers a chance to reset and refresh those muscles, and maybe to be humbled a bit. <\/span><\/p>\n

The content agency I recently signed up with offers outstanding training; the staff are comprehensive and unfailingly kind and supportive, even when middle-aged writers freak out about the terrible pay relative to the obsessively nit-picky level of detail they expect in 48 hours or less. <\/span><\/p>\n

I bristled at first. I think about quitting once a week. But I’ve kept at it, and the results are noteworthy.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I\u2019ve learned writing for a content mill<\/span><\/h2>\n

I’ve always been a fast writer, but now I’m an absolute monster. Six articles totalling 2,150 words in less than half a day? Not a problem! <\/span><\/p>\n

The work has to squeeze in between my regular assignments, running errands and occasionally sleeping for a minute, so there’s nothing to be gained by getting precious.<\/p>\n

I spend more time trying to claim and deliver the assignments, which always involves roughly 25 more steps than should be necessary, than I do writing them. The work is nevertheless high quality. I am definitely <\/span>more efficient<\/span><\/a> now.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m able to balance the workload because this new addition forced me to adopt an organization system.<\/b><\/p>\n

An online discussion thread led me to the <\/span>Bullet Journal<\/span><\/a> method, and it’s absolutely perfect for my needs; yours may vary. A dry-erase board above your work station may help, or a calendar nearby with deadlines posted may be all you need to stay focused. Whatever it takes, make it a priority. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another gift from this this ostensibly crappy job is the ability to write on any topic an editor could possibly come up with<\/b>, because that’s exactly what the work consists of. <\/span><\/p>\n

Granted, writing about facial exfoliation one minute, foreclosed homes the next, then pivoting to bang out a series of blog posts for a Unitarian church can induce a kind of mental whiplash, but you do it and get through it, like a series of reps on a leg press machine. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, the work is a grind, and I often look at the pay next to an assignment and spitefully calculate the rates of all my other clients in comparison (the absolute lowest pays <\/span>eight times<\/span><\/i> the highest rate available to me at the mill right now). <\/span><\/p>\n

But the <\/b>skills I\u2019ve gained<\/b><\/a> have changed my approach to work in ways that make it <\/b>more<\/i><\/b> lucrative, not less.<\/b><\/p>\n

Prior to my time as a word miller, I neglected to answer calls for submissions if the subject was something I didn’t know about. Today? I know <\/span>there’s nothing I can’t learn<\/span><\/a> and report back on, and my pitching reflects it. I’m more optimistic, which often helps <\/span>get a pitch to \u201cyes.\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

And it feels good to always have work! Searching for lucrative assignments can be discouraging, but plugging in quickly between paid assignments and committing to a <\/span>pitch goal<\/span><\/a> for the end of the week? <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s feeling the burn in the best way possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever written for a content mill? What did you learn from the experience?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Content mills get a bad rap for paying low wages. But they might be the boot camp you need to grow as a writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":6515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[410,409,408],"class_list":["post-6514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-freelancing","tag-content-farm","tag-content-mills","tag-content-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}