Things You'll Learn While Writing for a Content Mill
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| Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash |
Necessary Skills
The good news is that you will gain experience as a writer, hopefully leading to landing better-paying gigs. Writing on your own blog is
much different than writing in “AP Style” and to a client’s specifications, but
those things are easier than they sound. Including the client’s requested
“keywords” in a natural way is pretty much a no brainer that I was nailing from
day one, so I won’t even go into that in this post. If you have good
grammar and punctuation skills and a knack for wording things, you’ll probably
just need to fine-tune a few weak areas.
Comma Rules
It was easy for me to adjust to not using the Oxford comma
when writing articles for Textbroker since I had read early on that they had
that preference. They just want you to leave off the final comma before the “and.”
in a series. That was easy enough, but when they gave me feedback on my first five articles, I
learned that I was making a few actual comma mistakes, which had to do with
coordinating conjunctions, subordinate conjunctions, adverbial clauses, and non-essential clauses.
Basically, I had a bad habit of not putting a comma before “so” and “which,” apparently both need one. The word “because” IS NOT preceded by a comma. The exception is when “because.”
is the first word of a dependent clause at the beginning of a sentence. In that
case, a comma IS used after the introductory clause. That’s it. I got feedback
on five articles that pretty much all said the same thing. And I’ve corrected
the problem.
Preferred Format for Articles
I have found that most clients prefer the same general
format for articles. They want an introduction, several “subheads,” and a
conclusion. I personally prefer to give my conclusion a title as if it was
another one of the subheadings. To me, labeling the conclusion with the word “conclusion” sounds
a little too academic for articles written in a more casual tone. But if you
don’t give the conclusion any subheading, it will look like it's part of the
previous point.
Edited to Add: Apparently, I was wrong about this. I got dinged by another company for using a subhead on my conclusion--another example of a lesson learned.
Edited to Add: Apparently, I was wrong about this. I got dinged by another company for using a subhead on my conclusion--another example of a lesson learned.
Research is Time Consuming
Although I can type around 60 w.p.m., it can sometimes take
me two hours to finish a 400-word document. I lose a lot of time toggling back
and forth to and from the source articles as I write. A possible solution for this would
be buying a dual-screen computer for my desk or using my phone or a second
laptop to reference my sources. I’ve also tried pasting the source information
into the top of the page and then delete it once I’m finished writing my
article below it. It doesn’t seem like anything works to speed me up, though, when I'm working on an article requiring extensive research.
When I write about a subject I’m already knowledgeable about,
I work a little faster. The information is flowing from my head, and I’m just
typing it. I go the fastest when I make each section longer than needed during the initial draft. It’s a lot easier to cut things out to make a paragraph
more concise than to try to come up with more information later to fluff it up.
I enjoy writing, and at a few more cents per word, any
necessary research wouldn't seem as grueling. I just want to feel like I
can take my time and produce quality work. Perhaps over time, I’ll get faster,
but I refuse to sacrifice quality for quantity.
Switching Gears Can Slow You Down
The assignments I’m doing are about random topics and
different clients have different specifications, so I’m constantly having to
mentally switch gears. Writing posts for the same client for an ongoing blog seems like
it would be easier as one could quickly get a feel for the client’s preferred
style and become an expert in a particular niche.
Writing for a content mill is a great way to get some
constructive criticism and learn more about the business of writing online
content. Don’t think of it as working for below minimum wage. Think of it as a free
education that will prepare you for bigger and better things—like writing guest
posts.
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