I respect your views, and yes I do find your writing style engaging and effective, something we would like young writers who are steel weening their teeth to have a look at. That’s why I am relating to you.

Contrary to popular belief, many of us who lead our group have had only passing relations with content mills and do not write for them.

Our group is designed to attract newcomers who are at present working for content mills, and then once they are in, we show them better ways to work. We also show them how to use the mills more effectively to better themselves, and treat their work just as exercises.

However, to do what we intend to do, we need writers who do not work for content mills and have experience in alternative avenues, as well as those who have done it for some time, so that the youngsters are not misled and do not continue the life of exploited proletariat.

To do that effectively, we first have to instill into their minds that mill work is not bad or demeaning.

If a young writer fee;s that way while being in a situation to work for mills, then he/she would lose confidence and may well spiral into depression. Forget about elevating to other ways ever.

They come for help, and find it. We do not hate them, nor demean them, but understand that in the scammy world of internet business and work-from-home hypes, they have somehow got embroiled in situations hard to get out of.

It was clear that you do not write for mills. That is why I invited you to join the group, so that sharing your experiences can benefit those who are in current predicaments of working for mills.

Mill work does not make them less than who they are. There are many among us who earn ten times more than they used to while writing for mills, but recognize that it was good practice.

I did not spend my time here to convince you to write for content mills, far from it. Make a search with my name on any freelance board or content mill, you’d never find me having bid for any work anywhere. But I do register myself to find out what traps they lay for the unsuspecting. Personally I do not work for content mills, but as a writer I feel for those who do, and we gather them together in one place, share their worries, and help them out.

I do not know whether what my friends or I are doing is despicable, but I do know helping others gives meaning to my life.

That’s why we run the group for Freelance Writers Working for Internet Content Mills.

And again, if I am spending my time on your blog, which is valuable to me, I am doing that because of the great value I see in your person, and the help that your experiences could have brought to young writers.
I am not convincing you to write for content mills, I was trying to convince you to join our group and help others by sharing your experiences and style.

That’s all. That discretion is obviously yours, for the time of each person on Earth has the utmost value, and you decide what you do with your time.

For me, I like to help writers who are down and out, than try to fan the egos of those who are already successful.

Regards
Surajit

My comments may run counter to your opinions, but consider another side of the debate. Webmasters and people with a message/mission often cannot express themselves very well with the written word. Content writers/ghostwriters exist for the benefit of these people who need services that traditional writers either find mundane or don’t understand.

I would never refer to myself as a writer for the content mills, especially because I won’t write for “pennies” and I nurture and fertilize every article that I write. I write for article farms or content farms. As a traditional writer, you have the opportunity to “craft” or “electrify” your readers. You have the where-with-all to draw your reader into the article to experience the picture you have painted.

Writing for the web is different. We are expected to avoid the adjectives and adverbs and present the facts … just the facts … in short (less than 500 words) sentences and short paragraphs. Our readers are accessing the information highway to find something specific with a short, concise explanation. Writers who write for article farms are providing a service and earning a living just like the traditional writer.

Please try to understand that our writing jobs are not competing with your writing. The two are completely different and used for different reasons.

Some things I like there: whole roasted unsalted cashews (for my parrot), sugar-free dark chocolate (for when I go on my low-carb binges), and those star cookies they sell at Christmastime. I used to like other things, but now they’re not quite the same. So I limit purchases to things I need and can’t get elsewhere. Or the occasional half-gallon of milk or dozen eggs when we run low.

May be you lost the response because it was willed so.

I hope you’re not referring to “destiny” or some higher being. You won’t get any traction here with that idea.

We will never agree on this. If you have real writing skills — which it seems to me that you do — why would you waste so much time and energy working for pennies writing SEO-friendly “content” when you could be paid more for work you could be more proud of?

I’m not sure why you’re spending your time here on my personal blog. I like to think that it’s because I have some content you’d like to read, content that you find valuable in some way. I hope it’s not to continue a dialog about why it’s okay for a skilled, professional writer to manufacture text for a content mill. That would certainly be a waste of time.

Sorry.

Writers are emotional by nature, they have to be, and spontaneous reactions sometimes make us do regrettable things.

I agree with you that content mills devalue writing, but the snobs among us devalue writers.

The name of our group was designed specifically so that people with pretensions keep themselves out by their own choice, rather than the group feeling uncomfortable with their presence.

I have no doubt you are a good writer, and you have interesting and likable approaches to things that pique your interest.

I would say only this, humility is the mark of those of us who claim to be truly educated. That is what we learn, from culture and lineage, and that is what is embodied in Aristotlean sophrosyne.

We are all a little bit crazy, otherwise what am I doing here spending time on your personal blog?

Just having a conversation across geographic and cultural boundaries.

People who are members of our group are mostly highly established writers, not like me that they are referred only here and there in Universities and published books by other authors in the US.

There are times when we have no other recourse but to write for mills, for we are writers and know little of other professions. And also we love writing, and would continue to use every avenue at our discretion.

Your post has value to us only because it does not talk of mill writing, but of what we learnt and practiced, and were valued for, until writing became content and rules of SEO began to override rules of grammar and style.

Regards

The gist of what I’d written is this: content mills are causing the devaluation of writing skills. The more writers who write for them, the less money they’ll offer. Sure, they get what they pay for, but all they want are words and phases that Google well. It’s a sign of the times. And it’s getting harder than ever for old-school professional writers like me to make the good living we once did.

I blame content mills, in part, for that. I’d rather quit writing than add to the problem by writing for a content mill.

We have accepted the reality and find that whatever might we think of ourselves, and whatever be our levels of learning, to the world of internet business we are just resources to be used, and if they could have substituted writers with computer programs, they would have done so.

The identity of a ‘writer’ exists only in personal endeavors, or where we have the luck to find a human client who still respects learning.

Look around the freelance boards and job boards, people offering $1 for 100-500 words.

They get what they pay for, and we know that when we are doing such work, it is ‘mill’ work required to put food on the table. Nothing more, and nothing less.

There’s more mechanical application of parameters to such work than the display of finesse. Doesn’t matter whether you are Shelley or Shakespeare, if the keyword is not there in the title, then your article is scrapped. So, it is mill work.

It’s better to look reality in the face and distinguish the use of time and resources into their right categories.

BTW our group has close to a thousand members mostly from US, UK, and Australia.

As for your group, I’m rather amazed that you use the term “mill” in its name. The term mill conjures up an image of a factory where thing are churned out, often in huge volume, by workers who perform repetitive, mundane tasks at an hourly rate. It’s a term I’d be loathe to apply to the way I work or the people I work for.

And then there’s “puppy mill,” which can’t possibly have positive connotations for anyone.

I suspect the term “mill” in your group name is turning off a lot of people who might otherwise join. Or maybe I’m just missing some sort of inside joke.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to comment. Best of luck with your writing endeavors.

I would be posting a link to this article there.

Our group is Freelance Writers for Internet Content Mills. You’d find us on LinkedIn, and I would not post our link here, for that seems like spamming. You can check us out on LinkedIn, and we’d be happy if you join us and share your experiences.