Content Mills Don‘t Work — Here’s Why
Content mills: the corner of the internet where everyone’s promised the moon, but most people are left in the dark.
Writers are offered an opportunity to be nurtured by editors, build their writing skills, and develop a professional portfolio. Companies are promised quality work that’s delivered quickly for a minimal investment.
I don’t think anyone comes out a winner in 90% of these arrangements. I know I lost when I wrote for a content mill ten years ago. Now with a freelance writing career and a book deal to my name, I see my time writing for content mills as a hazing period meant to induct me into the industry.
Do quality content mills exist? Theoretically, yes (though it‘s hard to find good reviews to back any single company up). Let’s examine content mills from the perspective of both the content mill writers and the companies looking to buy these articles. You’ll probably be surprised at what you find.
Table of Contents
What are content mills?
Content mills, or content farms, are businesses that hire a large team of freelance writers and pay them generally low wages to produce an enormous amount of content for clients.
Businesses sometimes order hundreds of articles at once, and content quality varies greatly. The demand for content mills has decreased greatly with AI writing and marketing tools.
Content Mill vs. Content Marketing Agency
Content mills may sound similar to content marketing agencies, but there are key differences.
Payment
Writers are often paid very low wages by content mills because of the quantity-over-quality approach. Agencies tend to value writers and compensate them better and see writers as team members instead of simply a way to fill up their marketing calendar for the year.
Learning Opportunity
Content mills target inexperienced writers, tempting them with the dream of being paid to write and shaped by professional editors. I found my job listing on Craigslist and received no training. Agencies don’t want to churn and burn through their contractor and instead want to build long-term relationships.
Specialization
Agencies often specialize in a specific niche, allowing them to hire editors and freelancers who have expertise (or receive training) in the industry they’re writing about. Reputation is everything to these specialists, and the opportunity for industry specialization is enormous.
Here’s a real-world example: Kat Smith is the founder of several popular travel websites, as well as being the content manager at a digital marketing agency BuildUp Bookings that specializes in the vacation rental industry.
She manages a large team of freelance writers and editors. Based on her expertise in the travel industry, she’s developed a rigorous system for assigning articles and creating vacation content. Kat even shared …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
