I never intended to be a content mill writer. In fact, I had no aspirations to be a writer at all. However, due to my physical limitations, I needed to find work I could do from home on my own schedule, and writing for a content mill fit the bill.
At first, I just wrote a few articles here and there. They were simple 300-word pieces that paid a penny and a half per word and existed solely to fit the client’s keyword and a link back to their site into the content.
I didn’t make much money at first, because I was meticulously careful about writing them, but it quickly became apparent that the expectation was to crank these things out at warp speed and that was the only way you could make any money doing it.
Eventually, I could produce three or four of these an hour, amounting to around $15-$18 per hour for my work. Not big money, but better than the $10 per hour I was making rating websites for Google.
Eventually, I got the chance to move up to higher level teams, though to be honest, while this work paid more per word, between 2.5 and 5 cents, it didn’t pay much more per hour because of the extra time needed to research the articles and follow the more complicated style guides. Some projects paid better than others, but I topped out at an average rate of $20 per hour.
My best year, there was more work available than I could keep up with and I made a decent salary. Unfortunately, because I racked up a lot of debt when I was barely pulling in enough to get by, almost all of it went to debt payments.
Then, ChatGPT came along. Suddenly, a lot of the companies who were paying human writers pennies to crank out SEO content decided they could just let AI crank out that content for free. The content mills started bleeding clients.
A few came crawling back when they realized that the AI just made stuff up and they needed humans to fact-check it and make it read better, but they all wanted to pay even less money than they were paying before. These projects sucked.
Using ChatGPT didn’t really make the work go any faster, and yet we were being paid even less to produce it than before on the theory that it did. However, the company did manage to pick up a few regular clients, enough to keep some money flowing into the coffers, but nothing like before.
The number of days or even weeks with no projects posted grew. My earnings dwindled to just barely enough to supplement assistance from my parents. I gave up on trying to pay my debt.
Then, right before the Memorial weekend holiday, the work stopped. I thought, perhaps it’s just slow because clients are vacationing.
A week went by with no assignments and no word from the company. Then two weeks. In the meantime, I received two additional assignments from one of my regular clients and I thought, well maybe it was just a slow period and more work will come soon.
The next day, I got a form letter from the CEO of the company informing me that they would no longer be working with independent contractors and while there might be a little work here and there, they expected the work to cease entirely in 30 to 60 days.
It wasn’t exactly shocking, but I can’t help but think they knew this was coming at least three weeks before they decided to tell us about it. They probably were afraid people wouldn’t pick up the last little dribble of work if they told us we were about to be fired.
So, today, I completed what may have been my last assignment for BKA Content. I suppose it’s possible they might dole out a few drips and dribbles and though I’m over working for them, I’ll probably take them if they do just because I don’t have any other regular income right now.
In a way, I’m relieved to finally have the push to move past this exploitative business model. However, after five years of cranking out content for this company, it feels weird knowing that it’s over.
So, now it’s time to find something else. I’m not sure what that something else will be.
I don’t know if my body can hold up to a regular job. I don’t know that my finances can hold out while I try to start a solo freelance writing business or simply wait to see if my disability application gets approved.
I’ve thought about returning to college to get a degree in something a bit more marketable than my very out-of-date computer information systems degree, but of course, I have no money to pay for that. I’m not sure what my future holds, but it looks like my days at the mill are over.
Wish me luck, or if you’re feeling generous, contribute to my GoFundMe. As always, please enjoy these wacky AI-generated images.