Confessions of a content farm writer

Hi. My name is Christine, and I write for a content farm.

It started back in 2008. At first, I didn’t tell many people about it. I would deny it, or talk poorly about it to others if the subject came up. I kept the secret, because when you feel like you’re whoring out your writing abilities, it screws with your confidence.

In the beginning, I did it for fun, because the extra cash was nice. Those articles paid for many Christmas and birthday presents, and lots of shoes. For those reasons, I didn’t mind writing about topics I had no interest in, like ball bearings or the art of differentiating Range Rover models.

Then, we put our son in daycare, and essentially had to come up with another rent payment each month. That’s when writing for a content farm got added to the list of stuff I’m truly thankful for.

I’ve read numerous articles about the content farm backlash. As a content farm writer, one might assume I don’t like what Google is doing. But frankly, I don’t mind. Nor do I regret the work I’ve done (finally). Here’s why:

1. I need the income, so 99.9 percent of the time, I write for flat fees instead of revenue shares. As I’m sure many other content farm writers can attest, I’m currently not in a position to write revenue share articles and hope people get click-happy.  So, I choose the more secure revenue stream, because it’s not worth it to me to write revenue share articles on topics I don’t love. For example, I’m intensely interested in social media, so I wrote a revenue share article about social media strategy, based on my own thought process and research I actually wanted to do. I don’t care if the article never makes a dime, because I had fun writing it, and learned a thing or two in the process.

2. It’s only fair that bad articles go to the bottom of the pile. Content farms probably make much more SEO revenue on my articles than the flat fees I accepted. So, this is one instance where you should get what you pay for. If the article is crap, it shouldn’t get found so easily. But if content farms paid a fair price, their content quality would likely go through the roof and deserve top spots on Google search lists. And who knows? They might make even more money. 

 3. It’s actually kind of fun trying to butter the stale, dry pieces of toast that are some of these article topics. Come on, do you know anyone who actually wants to read about french stunt kites, or Toyota Previa repairs? But a writer who can weave a beautiful web of words about trailer siding deserves to be proud, not to mention read. Good writing is good writing, no matter the topic.

4. I get to write at home instead of working somewhere else. I accept the fact that some of the stuff I’ve written for content farms is total crap. More articles still might have been decent if not for the SEO ringer. But when I put it into perspective, I’m still writing. And for this, I am proud. There are so many worse things I could be doing for less pay that would require me to spend time away from my family. So as I work to better the situation, I will play with my son, and then stay up late to work instead of working somewhere else and not getting to spend time with my son at all.

I must note that I’m not looking for sympathy. I felt the need to share my perspective plainly and honestly, because I’m tired of people bashing content farms and their writers when they don’t know the stories behind the stories. So until the situation changes — whether that means making the same money in fewer articles and hours, or being privileged enough to be paid handsomely to write what I love — I will continue to do my best. No matter the topic, no matter the Google search ranking.