In Which I Confront Content Mill Owners About Their Rates&%238230;In Person

This blog was born from my hatred of low-paying content mills and their habit of writer exploitation.

I thought if I could shine a light, and show writers there are real clients and professional pay rates elsewhere, mills might dry up and blow away.

Yes, I can hear you laughing from here.

This week, I was in a unique position in my quest for fair writer pay.

Slowly, it dawned: They were content mills.

Most weren&%238217;t big names (I gather Textbroker was lurking somewhere, but didn&%238217;t seem to have a booth.) But there they were.

Real, live content mill owners. I thought I&%238217;d go have a chat with them about their rates.

(The names of these mills have been omitted to avoid promoting in any way the very thing I aim to destroy.)

Content mill owners in the flesh

So I went to talk to them and find out what they charged, and how they felt about their rates. I got a couple of them to really talk to me and answer my questions.

You&%238217;ll be proud of me to know that I resisted the urge to shout and/or strangle anyone. Keepin&%238217; it pro, folks.

&%238220;Sure,&%238221; they invariably replied.

&%238220;What sort of rates do you pay writers?&%238221;

I got two basic responses from here:

Type %231: Unrepentant ripoff artist

One owner, a young Asian man, told me he was looking for web content writers. He&%238217;d pay, like, $100 for a multi-page website, he proudly related.

When I said I get three times that often for just one page, he looked baffled. &%238220;That&%238217;s way too much,&%238221; he asserted.

He was looking at me like I&%238217;d arrived from an alternative universe. I think he was right.

Maybe in the Phillippines those kind of rates work, bud, but it&%238217;s hard to live off that in the First World.

&%238220;We&%238217;re always looking for quality writers,&%238221; he told me.

At those rates, I just bet you are, I thought.

&%238220;Best of luck with it,&%238221; I said with a big smile.

Type %232 Even I&%238217;m embarrassed

The second mill had a couple of women owners.

&%238220;We have a staff of 22 writers we work with,&%238221; they told me proudly.

&%238220;And what do you pay per blog post?&%238221; I asked.

&%238220;Twelve dollars,&%238221; one responded.

And then it happened.

As she said that pay rate, she winced.

Even she knew that was a ridiculous, untenable rate. She couldn&%238217;t even say it to me with a straight face.

And in that moment, I realized mill owners know what they&%238217;re doing is unconscionable &%238212; at least some of them do, anyway.

They keep doing it because it keeps money in their pockets. They do it because they can.

Why? It&%238217;s simple &%238212; the desperation and low self-esteem of writers makes their business model possible.

Content mills aren&%238217;t going anywhere

So. There you have it.

After five years of fighting for better pay for writers, and after looking content-mill owners right in the eye, here&%238217;s what I&%238217;ve learned:

Content mills aren&%238217;t going away.

As long as there are suckers &%238212; and I gather there&%238217;s one born every minute, just like P.T. Barnum said &%238212; and entrepreneurs hoping to exploit them for low-cost labor, mills will continue.

They may not thrive &%238212; have you seen Demand Media&%238217;s stock lately? &%238212; but mills will be around.

As one dies, another is born. Bet on it.

What you can do about content mills

Given that it&%238217;s unlikely our outrage will crumble all content mills into pixel-dust, there&%238217;s only one question on the line: Are you willing to work for mills, or not?

Mill rates will always suck, because the mill business model is failing. SEO junk content put against ad clicks doesn&%238217;t bring in enough to pay writers a fair wage. That&%238217;s unlikely to change.

I&%238217;ve learned there are only two things you can do about content mills &%238212; vent uselessly as you continue to earn slave wages, or opt out. Refuse to play their game.

Think of mills as The Underworld of freelance writing. You don&%238217;t have to stay in that dark place, earning pennies.

Instead, do it the way all freelance writers did in the many decades before content mills were ever invented &%238212; market yourself and find clients that sell a real product or service.

These proven businesses have real money to pay writers. Content mills never will.

Well, I think I love you too! And all my readers. And I want you to have clients that pay you better.

I think some clients are educable and some will never care&%238230;and I advise not wasting too much tine trying to convince mill clients they should care about quality. You&%238217;ll get generally better results prospecting outside the mill world.

Every once in a while you will find business owners who&%238217;ve already had their bad mill experience and learned their lesson&%238230;but I&%238217;ll wait for them to find me.

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