“Word whore” or cog?
I’m trying to come to peace with the term “content mill.” It always sounds so negative. Mainly, I don’t care. The people who insult Demand Studios writers often don’t tell the whole story. They talk about the “pathetic pay” which, in my experience, is $40-$80 an hour. What’s so pathetic about that, considering I have no commute time, I invent my own hours and schedule and I don’t even have to get dressed?
As a long-time advocate of self-employment, the idea of being a factory cog has always been unattractive to me, and that’s what the term “content mill” implies. However, I see other writers embracing it, which is probably a better idea. Maryann from OnText actually uses it in the title of her “how to write online and make money” eBook, called “Writing for Content Mills.”
So am I the only one who has an aversion to the negative connotation behind the term “content mill?” Is it just me?
I can dissect the phrase. Mills grind wheat into flour. So we must be the wheat, right? Or perhaps we’re the farmer that delivers the wheat. There’s no shame in that, right? Maybe we ARE the wheat? Not that that’s a bad thing. I hate analogies. The simple fact is, words are free. But I sell them. And it pays the bills. So why does it matter what it’s called? If anything, perhaps an ugly name will scare away other applicants.
Perhaps we can call them “Article Pimps” which would, of course make us all word whores. Maybe that’s not such a good idea. Although I do most of my work lying in bed with my laptop.
One thing is for sure, I know I’m making more than a fiction bookwriter. Author Jamie Lee Hansen breaks it down in her blog. For a $7 book, the government gets 57 cents and the author gets 56 cents. Wow.
Hey! Thanks for the mention of my Ontext site and latest ebook about writing for content mills. I think the term is not very positive, but, for me, the experience was not all together positive. Those who read the book will find that I developed a system to make your time work for you and to create residual income from these sites, which allows you, after a time, to quit churning out the articles, move on to better pastures, but still collect income each month. $40-$80 per hour? Excellent work! I’m a skilled, prolific writer with 20 years’ experience and I couldn’t get to that rate on content mills. I sell my work to publications that don’t expect me to work quite that hard, but hats off to you!
Your blog is well-done, you obviously know about writing, and I encourage you to set up those revenue streams (read my book for the how-to!) and get your work out there to publications that value the skills of professional writers.
Maryan Pelland
OnText and WomenDaybyDay
I’m also noticing that the term “content mill” isn’t SEO-friendly because I’m getting ads for coffee mills on this page. Amusing- since the people who use this term generally don’t recognize the importance of SEO anyway.
So you wrote an ebook on something you weren’t successful with? Yeah, that will sell. And your title insults the people who are interested in it? Good luck with that. I learn enough for free from this website (and others like this) that I can make a living. I think Lisa is writing $20 titles at DS. Some people have access to $25 titles. I, however, am stuck at $15 articles and I can write 2-3 an hour if I pick good titles.
LOL Too funny!! Great blog!