The WMF Archives: Why I Write for a Content Mill

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Why I Write for a Content Mill

6:00 AM

By Pam Houghton

If one loose definition of a content mill is to write frequent content for a website without editorial support, and get paid based on page views rather than cold hard cash, then I write for one: The Examiner, as the Detroit Working Moms Examiner.

Why did I start? Even though I was confident with my writing skills, had corporate writing experience and published magazine articles, I lacked social media experience. If I wanted to transition successfully from 20-plus years as a cubicle dweller to freelance writer, I considered writing for The Examiner a playful way to get acquainted with social networking.

As long as you frame your expectations realistically, you can learn things from a content mill that will help you as you move to better paying writing gigs. Here's how writing for a content site has helped me.

Exposure to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Linking articles through social networking sites helped me to understand how the sites behave, and in some cases, interact with one another. For instance, I didn't realize how easy it was to "tweet" articles (share them on Twitter) from other social networks, making it easy to get material out there for multiple views. Also, LinkedIn calculates page views, giving me a sense of how successful a headline is (or isn't), or how a topic connects with an audience. And - writing for a content site has given me an opportunity to add social networking to my arsenal of tools as I market myself to future clients.

Feedback through comments

I have received feedback through comments on both The Examiner site and LinkedIn. Comments let me know my writing was effective (or not!) or that it struck a nerve. This has been very helpful in calculating future writing topics, especially for publications that pay. It's always nice to hear good things from readers, but I've taken my fair share of shots as well! In one article, I briefly mentioned dropping kids off at daycare before work. One reader likened that to leaving children to languish in a Romanian orphanage. Oh, dear. You never know how someone will take something you've written and personalize it in a way you didn't expect.

I can sell these articles elsewhere...

After I stop writing for The Examiner, I'll have a long list of articles I can use as inspiration for spin-offs, or I can revise, tweak and polish ones I've published on The Examiner site, and send them out for publication. I'm confident many can be focused to regional parenting magazines, or newspapers and websites that focus on work/life balance issues. It's like my homework is done. Not a bad position to be in!

If you've written for a content site, what was your experience? Did you develop skills that helped you move to better writing gigs?

Labels: content mills, Content Mills Week, Pam Houghton

14 comments:

Cathy C. Hall said...: Pam, I think you've made some good points; I wrote for a few months with DS to hone article-writing skills I hadn't used in awhile. Web writing helped me tighten my focus, research quickly, and write well and fast to produce quick turn-around. By the time I ran out of topics I enjoyed writing about, I'd made about a thousand bucks and improved a few skill sets. Not bad for a few months work!; February 7, 2010 1:16 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Cathy - that was my experience exactly! Except for the thousand bucks part... :-); February 7, 2010 2:19 PM
Carol Tice said...: I like your grounded attitude about why you were on Examiner and what you expected to get out of it. Great ideas and strategies for how to reuse your content to make more later!

Carol Tice
Make a Living Writing blog: http://www.makealivingwriting.com; February 7, 2010 5:25 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Thanks Carol! :-); February 7, 2010 6:40 PM
AKM said...: As someone who is not social network savvy at all I appreciate your viewpoint. Great job!; February 8, 2010 7:48 AM
Ken Bingenheimer said...: I, too, write for Examiner.com, as their National Motorcycle Examiner. I have a newspaper background so the experience part of it didn't matter to me. However, the primary benefit I have received in writing for Examiner is that others have seen my work there and contacted me to write for them, at considerably more pay.

Introducing myself as being with Examiner also opens doors for me that would not otherwise open. It is for these reasons that I continue to write for Examiner, even though the pay is pitiful.; February 8, 2010 10:19 AM
Ariella said...: What I write for my Examiner page is directly related to the content I have or am developing for my print and web publication. Though I do have to edit differently for short posts and with a somewhat different audience in mind, it still helps me clarify the topics and to increase exposure for my own site.; February 8, 2010 10:34 AM
Sheila said...: I enjoyed this article, I just applied to be an examiner writer after a friend of mine applied and was accepted. I too am looking to hone my skills and use the experience to grow.; February 8, 2010 11:39 AM
Rebecca said...: I used to write for Examiner, but wasn't passionate about my topic. They wouldn't allow me to choose another topic so I stopped writing for them.; February 8, 2010 3:59 PM
Linda White said...: I write for Examiner and have found them easy to work with. I did not do it as a money-making scheme, though it does appear that soon (after, um, five months!) I will receive my first $25 payment. Yes, the pay is pitiful.
But it has given me a) the excuse to contact people in my field that I want to meet and b) keep a column going as a showcase to prove that I can build content and write well, while having some fresh online content to point people to. My previous online content was several years old, so this was one of the most important reasons. And I can keep it going minimally so that hopefully there will be a passive income stream down the road. They have recently revamped their payment model a little bit, so I am hopeful that soon I will receive something.
It helps that I am also passionate about my topic and I can build on the relationships and expertise in other ways. I am the Minneapolis Books Examiner.; February 9, 2010 1:02 PM
Shaun McLaughlin said...: Suite101.com is like Examiner in that you share ad revenue but you can write on any topic in their topic list once you are accepted. It is one of the few sites that have a history topic--that attracted me. I have a history blog (http://www.raidersandrebels.com) and I can craft Suite101 articles from stuff not quite suited to me blog.; February 13, 2010 12:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Some of these sites are unprofessional.
When I saw no experience was required on the examiner.com, I declined.

If you are not paid a living wage, then the answer is NO. If you don't own the copyright to your work, the answer is NO. If "raw" copy is going to be posted without the benefit of an experienced editor, the answer is NO.

If you are taking copy from somewhere else and using it, then you are plagiarizing.

I worked for more than 20 years and have 3,000 published clips from print pubs. There really isn't any reason for me to go on these sites.

Unfortunately, there are always people who care about the exposure, not the money, and they will be hired. It always been this way. If you are a professional writer, then you need to look elsewhere.; April 12, 2010 8:55 AM
Anonymous said...: Everybody thinks they are a writer and sites like Examiner run with it. They make money off of people writing for what amounts to free in many cases. Editors do help. It makes you a better writer sometimes. It makes you a better journalist. It makes you a better fact checker.

What we've created now with these content mills and even social sites, is a place where everybody writes unedited unchecked crap, and then when it's obvious they screwed up, it's wiped under the table like nothing happened.

But businesses get screwed, people get screwed, etc if you continually have unchecked errors and flat out lies. The media is even worse now. While things like this always existed, there were normally people out there backing up or checking facts.

Trash Magazines were thought of as a nice laugh. Now Trash magazines have become the standard for most anything written, read, or spoken about. And after reading many of these content mills, they really aren't that much different than trash magazines.

Sometimes there is a reason people don't get paid to write. They aren't that good.; November 6, 2010 12:38 PM
Pam Houghton said...: Anon - sure wish you would reveal your identity when you post here!; November 6, 2010 12:58 PM

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