The never-ending saga of to write or not to write for content mills rages on. Wired took on the issue, and, as always, kind of over-covered the story. But for writers of any experience level, Wired gives a lot of information about content mills, in particular, about Demand Studios. That mill is pretty representative of all of them.
Consider this – Wired says Demand’s CEO Richard Rosenblatt will be publishing 1 million items per month soon. That’s an intimidating number and I can’t see how there could be any quality in a publishing endeavor that aims for such quantity. Read this very telling synopsis of the writer’s place in this mire, then read the article at Wired and make up your own mind.
“That’s not to say there isn’t any room for humans in Demand’s process. They just aren’t worth very much. First, a crowd-sourced team of freelance “title proofers” turn the algorithm’s often awkward or nonsensical phrases into something people will understand: “How to make a church-pew breakfast nook,” for example, becomes “How to make a breakfast nook out of a church pew.” Approved headlines get fed into a password-protected section of Demand’s Web site called Demand Studios, where any Demand freelancer can see what jobs are available. It’s the online equivalent of day laborers waiting in front of Home Depot.”
My take on all this is that Rosenblatt is the entrepreneurial world’s version of a guy like Dexter. He starts businesses to right some sort of wrong – particularly the wrongs in his bank account…then either gets fired, folds his tent and runs, or just lets it peter out. What I see for sure is that most writers are not going to be the winners at the end of the game, only those who develop a strong system for personal gain and work it, will gain anything at all.
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If you’d like to make some real, consistent money, read this ebook.
Your take on Rosenblatt seems applicable to every single entrepreneur in the world… He wants to turn a dime. If an effort doesn’t succeed, he cuts his losses and calls it a day. Time to move on to the next idea in an effort to find a winner.
I’m not really interested in fighting the DS wars today. I will say that the money people can generate via affiliations with so-called content mills aren’t quite as bad as Wired or you might suggest. I notice you’re promoting an ebook about writing for the residual income content mills. I’m willing to bet that for *most* people, DS does better than the shared advertising revenue model.
He starts businesses to right some sort of wrong – particularly the wrongs in his bank account…then either gets fired, folds his tent and runs, or just lets it peter out.
You’re likely right about the entrepreneurs — my point is, this man is not in business to make writers wealthy. As for money that can be generated – my years of experience have shown me that working with traditional publications, in print or digital will net a writer a larger return than the content mills, but that’s just me. The shared revenue model only works if you put up a ton of content, and collect residuals — of course then there’s Examiner, which stops residuals if you stop cranking out content. To each her own…
mkp
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