Have you ever paid an online company $50 or less for a blog post?

Or have you ever subscribed to an online writing service that offers a certain number of blogs for a freakishly affordable flat fee?

If you answered “yes” or “I honestly do not know” to either of these questions, you may have hired a content mill.

What’s a content mill?

A content mill is a marketing “agency” that sells writing services to companies at enticingly affordable rates.

Content mills are usually in the business, not because they care about the success of your company, but because they want to make money by churning out large volumes of content with little regard to quality.

Why content mills are popular ways to cut costs

Companies, especially those with small marketing budgets and no writers on staff, need content to stay competitive. When you have very little money to pour into content development, $50 a blog post is far more enticing than the $200 or more agencies or highly successful freelancers might charge.

Regardless of budget, if you’re a business that partners with content mills to save money (or because you have a quick turnaround writing project), you should take some time to determine whether or not it’s ethical or even a good investment in the long-term.

How Content mills Exploit writers

Lots of good writers get stuck working for content mills because they’re inexperienced, just starting out, or don’t yet have the connections to build enough solid freelance contracts to keep them going.

Regardless of how they get there or what their motivations are, writers who contract with content mills are paid at a rate that sometimes dips below the national minimum wage requirement.

From a business standpoint, some are rewarded for how much writing they can produce, leaving very little time to write a blog that has substance, value and can really move your marketing forward. Essentially, you get what you paid for.

What Really goes in to WRiting a great blog post

A well-research, well-written, well-executed, 700-word blog generally entails:

• Topic research - 30 minutes (depends on the topic complexity)

• Interviews - 30 minutes (between setting up calls, interviewing and transcribing)

• Writing - one hour (more or less, depending on the topic)

• Keywords/SEO - minimum 30 minutes (if done well)

• Headline optimization - 10 minutes

• Editing and fact-checking - 10 minutes

• Submitting for approval - 5 minutes

• Revisions - 15 minutes

• Proofreading - 5 minutes

• Final submission - 5 minutes

Let’s break that down into compensation

Total content creation time: 3 hours and 20 minutes

Total compensation for one 700-word blog at $.05/word: $35 (no taxes withheld)

Total hourly rate: $10.51/hr. gross; $8.95 net after 10% federal income tax withheld

As a point of contrast, Glassdoor reports a $10 average base pay for employees of Taco Bell.

Another issue to consider? If you paid the content company $50 for a post, that means they get $15 of the cut right off the top for doing little if anything other than process your credit card and email you when your order is done.

To be fair, any smart content mill writer would never spend 3 hours and 20 minutes on a blog post if she’s only getting paid five cents per word. At best, she’ll write your content in 45 minutes or less. Sure, that’s efficient, but what you’re not getting is fundamental to great marketing.

how content mills exploit their customers

In addition to exploiting the time and talents of good writers, most content mills do businesses harm by churning out content that excludes critical marketing components.

Strategy

Every good company has one. A content writer working for a mill will likely have zero context into your overall marketing strategy and how the content she’s supposed to produce should fit into it. In addition, she will just not have the time to do her due diligence as a professional writer and is likely to skip over:

• Researching

• Interviewing

• Keyword and SEO

• Writing on-brand

• Fact-checking

• Backlinking

• Proofreading

Quality

As Convince and Convert’s Jay Baer says, “Don’t create random acts of content.“

In other words, you should never create content for the sake of volume. If you are, the quality of that work will suffer greatly.

Since content mills operate on a quantity over quality premise, what you’ll get is often:

• A blog that may or may not be on topic

• Poor, unorganized sentences and style

• Bad references to research and facts - or worse - inadvertently referring or back-linking to one of your competitors

Business integrity

Mark Schaefer, author of Marketing Rebellion, says, “The most human company wins.” Although he’s referring to keeping your marketing strategy authentic, truthful and unique, I think being “the most human” also applies to the decisions businesses make just to save a few dollars.

Small business

I know this may seem odd, but I find there are very few justifications for shopping on Amazon. This may be personal preference, but it makes me feel really good when I can give local companies my business.

If you are the type of person who values small business and supports local professionals and artists in your area, hiring a content mill is throwing your money to companies that likely are not, nor will they ever be, invested in the community where you live, work and play.

Alternatives to content mills

I’ll keep this part simple.

Save yourself money, time (and honor your values) with these content mill alternatives:

• Contract with local freelancers

• Smaller, community-focused agencies like BRAVE

• Hire an internal writer who’s great at editing and ghostwriting

While these are more expensive alternatives, the value you bring to yourself, your company and your customers is worth paying a little more than $50 at the push of a button, don’t you think?