Content Mills and Content Farms are Dying Due to ChatGPT, and this Writer Couldn’t be Happier

We have all been there, or at least most of us have. With stars in our eyes, and desperately desiring a career in writing, which we love, we made the ultimate sacrifice of both our time and money, just to get our proverbial feet in the door. Was it worth it? Many claim it was, just to get the experience needed to tackle bigger and better writing jobs. That must have been nice for other writers. I made do with the idea because I had absolutely no confidence for years, and didn’t really think that I could do any better.

What am I speaking about, you may ask? I’m talking about the professional content writers’ personal purgatory, otherwise known as a content farm or a content mill. To me, it was more like a content hamster wheel.

For those of you lucky enough not to know what a content mill is, it is basically a business that partners with other companies that need content for their websites, such as articles, landing pages, blog posts, and regular sales copy. Content mills made their bread and butter by taking the guesswork out of finding clients for freelance writers. They were right there, on the mill’s platform, begging for talent, and they were paying customers! It was sold as a win-win for everyone, and since many starving artists, like myself at the time, didn’t know how to market themselves to leverage their copywriting businesses, it saved us a lot of time, and embarrassment, to boot.

Working with these platforms, however, also meant that you would have to be comfortable taking exactly what they were willing to pay you. You were basically sacrificing the prospect of making a decent living for the convenience that they were providing you. Now, this is why many well-seasoned writers stay far, far away from these entities, but newbies really aren’t as informed when they first dip their toes into the industry. Many writers spend YEARS on these platforms completely unaware of how undervalued and underpaid they are. As a matter of fact, without naming names, these websites pay writers as little as < 1 cent per word, and no more than 6 cents per word.

You may say, “Well, the platform has to make money, too, and they must charge a finders’ fee.” Okay, that is true. But, the prices that they offer to their clients are still far below the market average. Most mills charge 8 cents a word or less, and the clients that need content just eat it right out of their hands, challenging the decent rates that expert writers charge by drastically undercutting them.

And, why was this proliferation of content so important to businesses in the first place? Well, because of SEO, of course! SEO, or search engine optimization, is nothing more than a method, thought up by marketers, to trick the algorithm set forth by Google and other internet search engines, to get the websites of their clients listed on the first page of results for a given search. And, the higher up on said page, the better!

For a while, that meant hiring as many underpaid scribes as possible to write word salad by the page, featuring these key search words and phrases, for as long as it would take to accomplish such a vapid goal. So, while the pay was indeed questionable, the work was steady. There was always more to be done. So, if you felt like giving up on producing Shakespeare-level copy, or even creating something along the lines of E. L. James’ “talent,” and conceded to pumping out thousands of pages of barely intelligible rubbish, you always had to pay work. That said, in order to make a living, you had to write 10–12 hours a day, with no breaks for coffee, meals, or even to use the bathroom.

Did the businesses getting the first space on Google for a given search actually gain more leads and make more conversions? I’m not sure. It seemed like a decent strategy at the time, and I had a guaranteed income stream, so I didn’t care. Then Google, the giant among all other search engines, realized what these companies were doing. There were several duplicates of useless articles, that were far from helpful, that became indexed as a part of their system. This ruined the product for everyone trying to use it. Google then forbade the publication of this type of junk by punishing those that tried. How? Well, the new algorithm would no longer acknowledge that such content even existed.

Now, the farms and mills seemed scared and desperate. Who would purchase their bargain basement content now? Well, fortunately for them and their spammy clients, the content was still needed, for the same reasons, however, it needed to be more refined for Google’s “taste.” That meant that content had to be useful to anyone reading it. It had to be informative, educational, or entertaining. That meant a lot more work and attention to detail on the part of the writers. But, did the going rates increase? Of course not! So, we writers chugged along, naive, overworked, and hungry, not realizing our worth until a friend, co-worker, or a friendly contributor on Reddit let us know that we were being seriously exploited.

By now, you probably have figured out why these platforms are referred to as farms or mills. Both farms and mills provide innumerable amounts of the same product, and usually run on 3 shifts, 24 hours a day, to make insane quotas. Both mills, many times referred to as sweat shops, and farms rely on the backbreaking labor of dedicated employees that make next to no profit, while their work lines the pockets of the already rich and powerful. And, while I know writers’ work certainly isn’t as physical, my aching back and swollen fingers, back then, may have disagreed with you.

So, why are these unethical employers falling apart now, after successfully living off of their commissions for so long? ChatGPT, baby! As a professional writer, I have to say that it couldn’t have happened to a better business model. Welcome to our nightmare, Textbroker, Writer Access, iWriter, Content Writers, Word Agents, Crowd Content, and all your little friends. Bwahahahaha. How does it feel to lose everything overnight? You didn’t care when we couldn’t pay our rent or mortgages. You weren’t affected when we had to play a quick iteration of “Let’s Make a Deal” with the local electric companies. What you have done to your talent pool, AI is now doing to you. And, I’m going to sit back, laugh, and enjoy the moment.

ChatGPT ruined the fun for these guys because it can produce articles faster than even the most prolific writers in their employ. It may not be the best quality work, but it sure is passable for kitschy content marketing use. It may put many writers on the platform out of work, as well, and I am sincerely sorry about that, but, as I have been saying, the best, most capable writers will rise to the top, and content written by humans will always be in demand somewhere. But, when it comes to the wares peddled by content farms and mills, the demand is no longer there. Another advantage the stingy companies looking for cheap copy will soon realize is, ChatGPT, as of the time of this writing, is completely free!

ChatGPT also lit a fire under Google’s, um, posterior, once again. The search engine realized that interpolating AI into search seems like the next logical step. This means that, not unlike the current “blurb” model, all inquiries on Google will be answered comprehensively by an AI language model, so there will be no need to click on websites or landing pages to resolve questions at all. So, strike two, content mills! Take me out to the ballgame!

I can’t feel sorry for these businesses that build their house on sand and the blood, sweat, and tears of talented writers with dwindling self-esteem. However, my heart does break for those that lost their only income for buying groceries and paying the bills. Just remember, you were always better than mill and farm rates, and if you could complete the work they gave you, you can do the same work for someone that will appreciate you and pay you what you are worth. Good luck with your future endeavors.

And, good riddance to writer exploitation!