Why I quit writing for content mills

Being able to write articles for people had always been my dream. Wellbeing able to write something that people would read had always been my dream, articles were part of my dream, to a very small degree. That's when I heard from a friend about the world of content mills. Sites where you'd write an article and you'd get paid for it.

Getting paid for writing, doesn't that sound exciting?

I only wish I wasn't that stupid and fell for my friend's piece of advice that went along with her explanation of content mills. She told me it could be a starting point if I really wanted it to be, but it's not a good idea to get caught up in it. I'll explain why I quit doing it and why I'm sticking to blogging and writing my first novel for right now.

Very little pay for tons of work with very little time
One of the first articles I was to write as an 800-word article for only $2.50 and that was putting it nicely. I had only two days do it and two other articles to write. The topic was something that I had no clue about, which meant I'd have to research, research, research and hope that I understood the topic well enough to write an article that made sense.

Writing about a certain topic is tough
I don't know if it's just me or other people who write. If you're forced to write about something you know nothing about, it's obvious when you write an article or talk about something. I can write about something I know little about, but it's obvious when you read through my article I wasn't well versed on the topic. My verbiage may be a bit choppy, and the article isn't as in-depth as I would go if it were a topic that I knew about.

People are rude
This goes along with the last topic and the next topic altogether. It's actually why I quit writing for content mills. My last article was about robotics or something along those lines. I knew nothing and i was to push out an article in 24 hours. I wrote what I knew just to be told that it was obvious that I didn't know how to write in English and that English wasn't my native language.

I get it, I understand people aren't always going to be nice and I'm going to get that person that doesn't like what I wrote, but when writing is my livelihood, the way the person wrote it was mind-bogglingly crazy. It really made think, "Do I not have the concept of the English language?"

The customer service sucks
I was stupid the day that that happened and messaged the customer service lady. Mainly because I didn't know if with a comment like his if she'd like me to retake the English portion of the entrance exam that I took to get in the content mill (I passed with flying colors). Just to be told that she could understand why the person said what he did and that my writing was horrendous and to quit being a f*** baby about it. Her words, not mine.

The last straw
At the time that I was having all of these issues, I was in the middle of my health diagnosis. I wasn't sure what auto-immune disorder I had, or if I had any. With that, it ended up causing my fibromyalgia to flare so badly, and my brain fog to get so bad, that I couldn't write a coherent sentence even if someone made me write something.

Do I miss content mills and making a few dollars writing about stuff I could care nothing about? Not one bit. I like being able to express myself on my own accord, even if I don't make money doing it. Money isn't why I got into writing anyway. I wanted to write and allow other people to read my writing because it's what makes me happy.