Here’s a headline from Fast Company that made the polish come right off my pedicure: “Yahoo Buys Associated Content, Scores 380,000 Freelancers and Boatloads of Cheap Content.” Is this what content has come down to now? A commodity that can be bought “by the boatload” and scored cheap cheap cheap? Like t-shirts? I see visions of content with Wal-mart “roll back” price signs. Good grief, is this seriously where we’re heading? Are we really this desperate for “boatloads of cheap content”?
Some of these articles can be bought for five bucks. Yes, you heard right! You can now buy a well-researched, well-thought out, comprehensive article for a little more than a hamburger Happy Meal (according to this Answers.com article, it might be $5.50 if you upgrade to chicken nuggets and a shake) and a little less than a cute pair of flip-flops. I can’t even get a pedicure to look good in the flip-flops for five bucks, I’d have to pay $40 for that. I could get a cheap bottle of nail polish for five bucks or less and do it myself.
Recently, a spate of LinkedIn group discussions have sparked this debate about content mills like Demand Studios which pay, oh, let’s see, as low as five bucks an article. Inevitably you get the content mill writers defending content mills: but we get our work out there! We get “exposure!” Many of us are unemployed journalists! We’re just testing the waters! They give us detailed manuals of writing guidelines!
Here are my counterpoints to those arguments: your work is getting “out there” but at what price? Exposure to what, exactly? People who consume content like candy so someone else can make money off of you? And how is this helping you? How long do you think you can survive writing articles at five bucks a pop? I think “exploited” is the correct word choice. And regarding those style guides, yes, we already have those and they are called the Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style Guide.
On the other side are the rest of us. The writers who actually look at writing as a craft, not a whim. Writers who want to make a living, not just a Happy Meal. Those of us who spent a lot of money on college degrees and a lot of years writing extensively to hone our craft. Writers who have families to support and careers they want to nurture. Writing articles for five dollars is not a career. It’s career suicide.
But it begs the question: is an article that’s been written for around the price of a mediocre bottle of nail polish something you really want to read? What is the quality of the writing? Is it reliable? Objective? Has it been fact checked? Or is it like Chinese food–it tasted good, but 15 minutes later, you’re hungry again?
Of course, one could argue that I am writing for a content mill for free–I am writing for this blog and no one is paying me anything, let alone 5 bucks. I share this information freely in the spirit of disclosure because that’s how I roll. It’s true: I spend my own time and money to write this blog and pay for the images because I love to write, I love to explore ideas and start conversations. I would do this for free, and obviously I do, because, well, here I am writing it and here you are reading it.
But I’m not undercutting other writers by doing so. I’m not bringing down the rate that writers can be paid because I’m writing for my own blog–no one is getting rich off of me. Including me! Oh, right, but I’m doing this for love, not money. 
The thing is, I make my living writing–the act of stringing words across the page in compelling combinations that inform you, persuade you, move you to act/think/feel. My words pay the bills. My words drive headlines which drive sales which drive my paycheck. I get cranky when people mess with my paycheck.
I’ve heard talk about a shift to premium content someday–where you can access five-dollar articles for free but you have to pay for the “good stuff,” whatever someone defines as “good.” That may save the writing industry. I think there are a lot of writers out there feeling solidarity with workers whose jobs were outsourced to China, India or anywhere else but here in the U.S. But it until that happens, I’m fearful for what this “boatloads of cheap content” trend means for writing professionals.
If you write for a content mill, I’d love to hear your side of the story. Make me understand what would make you want to give your words away. If you are even thinking about writing for a content mill, tell me why. If you are a writer who gets itchy feet just thinking about content mills, I want to hear from you, too.
Speaking of itchy feet, I leave you with this headline: “Wal-Mart Flip Flops Cause Skin Rash.” Remember: cheaper isn’t always better.
Web designers face similar issues. There are tools and template sites that give the impression that anyone can design a website and that it can be done cheaply.
I don’t worry too much about it, and you shouldn’t worry about the content mills. The prevalence of low quality content only serves to make good content look better.
Laura, that’s true–I hadn’t thought about that from a designer’s perspective. Reminds me of that commercial where the couple is sitting there with all these web design books open and the husband is like, “We’re designing our own website!” and the wife looks like she wants to kill him.
And in terms of low quality content making good content look better, well, I like the way you think!
Wow, do I ever get itchy feet! The first instance of “itch” occurred a couple of years ago at a networking event when a guy informed me gleefully that he had hired a “gal” in Florida to crank out SEO Web content at $4 a page. I consoled myself that he was a total geek and unemployed to boot, but my toes began to tingle.
Just lately, I ran into a woman who’s employed by one of the technology giants. The CEO’s mantra is “save money,” and “good enough” is o.k., so copy writing is getting outsourced to India at a horrifying rate. Along with layout, design, and Web development.
Call me an ostrich, but I’m going to continue to create great copy, network my butt off, ask for referrals from loyal clients — I still have ‘em — and try not to worry.
By the way, I’d be honored if you’d check out my blog at http://www.writtenright.com.
Oh, Susan, $4 a page??? Wow. I know you can’t say what technology giant that is, but we can all probably tell by looking at their materials. Which is why no one is looking at those materials. I started a Q&A on this on LinkedIN and a wise commenter said that the bad content will make the good content look even better. Looking at the bright side, my feet do feel a bit less itchy! Still–4 bucks a page. Wow. And you’re no ostrich–you go, girl! The world needs good–not just ‘good enough’-content!
BTW, loved your blog, Susan!
It’s all just part of the slippery 21st century slope of everyone devaluing their worth. I used to think that photographers were the last line of ‘credit where credit is due and you’ll pay for it’ with their mandatory copyright line and extraordinary fees. They regularly made more than I did for putting their images into the layout. Not any more. Now no one gets recognition or paid. The advent of super cheap and relatively good stock photos by photographers means we’re all drinking the Walmart Price Rollback Kool-aid. The creative industry is just the last on the list adopter as usual. $20 logos, $30 websites so $5 content fits. Look at other professions to see how we may or may not survive. Lawyers have Legal Zoom and advocacy groups that put all that know-how online, which, if you read the fine print, are not populated with lawyers. Doctors have Minute Clinics and Teladoc convenient but not for the truly sick. Accountants have H&R Block and Turbo Tax to blame. If you’ve used any of those services you too are part of the devalued services problem. The solution is real jobs for real wages that don’t disappear with every economic downturn. The number of people creating real jobs in the creative industry is far to few. With the industrial revolution, before machine lathes, if you wanted fancy turned banisters and cabinets, you had to go to an artisan who specialized in them by hand. Once machines got on the job, “fancy” designs were everywhere and on everything. Each one exactly perfect and each one cheaper than the last. It got so entrenched that if you wanted plain cabinet fronts they were more expensive than ones that had raised details. We were brainwashed to think that all that ornamentation equaled quality too. That less was just less. There was a brief time when the machines and the people got along better (not perfectly) when organized labor was part of the fabric. But it too has seen its day. The turnaround for this probably won’t happen in our work-life lifetime.
Great points, Susan. It’s all sad but true. “Survival of the fittest” kept popping into my head as I was reading your comment. Someone else pointed out to me that there are different “tiers” of service. Some people want a $5 article or image, and that’s enough for them. But there are others who appreciate quality and are willing to pay for it. But when that pool grows smaller and smaller, it’s hard to stay positive! Maybe it will force us all to think about new ways of approaching this or getting ahead of it. I don’t need to be rich, but I do need to make a living, like everyone!
Yahoo does not care an iota about the quality of its content. It’s hired more and more “journalists” recently who turn out some of the worst writing on the Web every day. The purchase of Associated Content just means I’ll have more to write about on Terribly Write — a blog devoted to the mistakes made by Yahoo’s paid professionals. As it is, I can’t keep up with all the misspellings, typos, grammatical gaffes and out-and-out factual errors. — Laura (at http://terriblywrite.wordpress.com)
Laura, thanks for your feedback. Sounds like you’ll be very busy!!!