A content farm is known for developing moderate-quality, semi-engaging, and somewhat creative content across publishing platforms. If you are looking to formulate a solid brand story, using a content farm or content mill would not be advisable. Finding a content farm or content mill can also be rare.
The phrase “content farm” has been used to describe websites that produce many low-quality, interchangeable content. The term was coined relatively recently and only came into common usage around five years ago – many very popular websites now have used this method for their content production and have seen success in numbers but not much success in their reputation.
For many years, content farms have been a popular way for websites to generate traffic and advertising revenue. The idea behind this type of website is that you post low-quality articles on your site, to garner more traffic, thus drawing attention from Google. Eventually, because of the likelihood of being discovered, Google will rank the publisher higher due to the sheer number of keywords that the website is ranking for.
Content Farm or Mill
If you are considering using a content farm or mill, you should be aware that the content produced may not be up to your standards or meeting search intent at all. Now with the rise of artifical intelligence in writing applications, similar to the GPT-3 technology, content farms and mills may be more likely to exist.
Content mills can be used for different kinds of projects like producing content for social media marketing and for publishing platforms like WordPress, to publish more content that can help rank for certain keywords.
With Content mills, a publisher will produce more content for their platform and can leverage their time and resources to create a better marketing strategy overall. Although, using a content mill will run the chance of producing low-quality content that will need a lot of revision. Some writers that write content may not even know that they are writing for a content mill.
A “content farm”, similarly to a content mill, is an organization that produces articles and other published works using numerous writers. The process of creating these pieces follows strict guidelines, so they are often repetitive or boring to read—especially if your brand has been known to have published creative pieces of content.
What is Content Mills?
Content mills are enterprises that generate or distribute a large amount of material, such as blog entries and articles. These online publications rely heavily on volume as they pay very small to writers, so their rates can be low while still making a profit from publishing lots more than other sites do without sacrificing quality control by hiring many different authors at once. This way, there’s always someone ready when someone is on break!
Content mills are the forgettable, low-quality products of the industry. They pay poor wages and don’t care enough about quality so long as there is lots to pour onto pages for them to make money at your expense.
The “content mill” production method, does not differentiate itself from others often because of its quality. Written material that can include articles or blog posts and anything else like marketing materials – is written with less focus and clarity then competitors who produce content with quality content agencies. The cost of content mills have considerably lower prices through lower costs/hourly rates while still producing content in high quantities.
Why are content mills necessary? Because there is a need for material on the internet. If you perform a Google search, thousands of related results will appear. The content industry is big business, as evidenced by the fact that it constantly tries to satisfy the demand for new and unique information.
Individual websites employ many freelancers to produce content. Both agencies that offer book creation copywriting and ghostwriting services and sites where they link writers with solo online publishers are known as content mills.
Writing for a Content Mill
So, you want to be a freelance writer? Sounds great! But not all of us can write whatever we please and expect our work will appear on the internet, especially if you are writing for a content mill.
You need some experience under your belt before applying for these kinds of jobs at content mills – places where there is work in volume and the potential to make some money working from home. But beware – you may experience long hours before you see some good income generated from writing for a content mill.
Content mill writing can be paid out to as little as 1-2 cents per word. This averages out to about $10 – $20 per article (assuming you have an article for 1,000 words to write). The typical rate for freelance writers that are native English speakers should be around $35 – $55 an article. For seasoned freelance writers, rates can go to as high as $60 an article and up.
Writing for a content mill will also pass a majority of your work, by way of a pseudonym (sort of showing up as someone elses work). So if you want to be compensated for what’s on display, consider who you plan on working for before getting started.
A content mill is a publishing machine, but it’s not always good for the writers or owners. The main problems with these sites are that they produce low-quality work and can be costly to maintain over time.
Make Your Writing Job Easy With Frase
The frustrating part of success online is that it often means working hard to generate organic traffic. This can be time-consuming and difficult, but there are ways you could make your life easier! One way would involve using Frase, a content optimization tool proven to improve your rankings for articles. You can use Frase to help optimize content for search engines by measuring up to the existing SERP results, analyzing the minimum requirements, and improving the on-page SEO performance. If you do this correctly, be prepared to start raking in the traffic from the first page of google.
Fraze is an AI-powered SEO tool that helps you improve your content’s rankings in Google and communicate about your topic more as you write (it isn’t a keyword research tool). It’s never been simpler to create optimized blog entries for your website.
Consider if the material you’re working on is optimized for search engines. It would rank higher, create more traffic, and be simpler to share! With Frase’s AI technology, you may have this level of performance – without spending any additional time or money creating high-quality articles that will stick out from the crowd at just what they need.
Content Mill List
To find content mills you can just do a simple google search, but you will mostly find negative reviews about the quality of work these mills produce and how working for one of these agencies may be unfavorable.
Most content mills write at an affordable price, thus making it an alluring bargain for publishers. The list here will help guide your search for quality mills that deliver on their promises.
For content writers, if your English writing skills are top tier, your words can make some serious money very quickly. Whether or not your articles will be valued at top-tier quality will depend on many subjective factors but one measurable indication is the use of proper grammar.
Content Mill Jobs
Searching for writing jobs can feel like pulling teeth these days, with content mills paying freelance writers pitiful rates. It’s not good news if you are a working pro wanting to make ends meet or even get started on that next body of work!
It can be a burden to search for writing work these days, as content mills pay freelance writers nominal fees.
In summary, the only way you’ll make enough money to pay your bills is by searching for the right content agency or building your own with your own clientele.
To learn more about content production, visit our section on content creation.