Content Mills For Beginning Writers: Yay or Nay

[cherryalakei]

OnlineBookClub has been great for restarting my writing. I've always been a writer, but my interest in it always seemed to take a backseat to my artistic endeavors. I recently started looking into freelancing, and writing as a side gig from home, and in my searches I've come across a few references to content mills. I seem to get a mixed review on this, with some people saying it's great for people starting out freelancing, and is a good way to build your skills. Others have completely knocked it saying they don't pay enough and it's a never-ending trap that cheapens your abilities.

So, I thought I'd pose the question here: Has anyone here ever used a content mill? Which one? Are you for or against the idea? Why? Discuss.

[K-McD]

I primarily work as a freelancer. I mostly do editing and transcription/captioning nowadays, but I used to do a lot more article writing, and I did sign up with a service (Textbroker) before I found better options for making money. However, that was after I was somewhat established on other sites and I didn't end up doing much work on it.

In terms of making money, sure. It would be a good place to start, since content mills let you jump right in instead of letting you fight over jobs against more experienced freelancers. You might be able to make an extra hundred or so a month. If you're looking to hone your writing skills, though, it's not a good idea. Content mills generally focus on turnaround time more than quality, and some of them will just put out anything that fits the bill, even if it's a grammatical mess. I mean, if you've ever seen an article which is basically just meant to contain as many keywords as possible so it can redirect you to some other service, that probably came from a content mill. It's more about the wordcount than the content. If you're just looking to write a certain number of words a day and get paid for it, fair enough, but it isn't likely to improve your skills as much as writing your own stories would.

But, on the plus side, you don't have to deal with clients. Content mills work as buffers between the freelancer and the client, and their rates are set and inflexible. That means you don't have to deal with people who are trying to get an expert-level article of 10,000 words written in one day and think everyone is terrible for wanting more than ten dollars for it. Or people who, after you've sent them the finished work, decide that they don't need to pay you what the two of you agreed on because other people charge less. Most people are fairly reasonable, though.

I guess content mills would be a good option for someone who's just trying to get into the habit of writing something every day, wants to make a few extra bucks a week but doesn't expect anything more than side income, and doesn't want to worry about reputation or clients or dealing with a lot of competition (there's still some on content mills, but not to the same extent). If you plan to eventually make a living off of freelancing, it might be a good way to earn money while building yourself up on other sites, but content mills shouldn't be your primary source of income. Still, it's probably a good way to see if freelance writing is something you'd enjoy (or tolerate) without investing a lot of time in it.

[AliceofX]

Tried to, but just for the sake of earning some extra coin. Didn't really work out for me. Since K-McD already wrote such a good and insightful comment I would just like to add that I found the subreddit WorkOnline to be a great source of sites and advice, and if anyone is seriously thinking about freelancing online it's a good place to start.

[classicaltwist]

Content mills gave me the experience that I needed since I had no background in professional writing. I've gotten some private clients through content mills as well.

I primarily used Constant Content, Article Bunny, Crowd Content, and Zerys.

[Rebecca Henderson]

Very good question! I've often wondered the same myself. The advice I've heard has always been that there is work more readily available on content mills, but that it is much like waiter/waitress work: anyone can do it (arguably), but there are few that do it well. I'm currently on Upwork and I've done one writing task for a client, but otherwise I just do transcription. I think in some cases the work isn't what you'd brag about necessarily, but it's a steady side income if you can get yourself established.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

if you want money, freelancing might not be a great start. but your wish is to write and money is just a side kick, then freelancing is not a bad idea since your main aim is writing