Content Farming Is for Pigs

As a writer and brand journalist, I’m vaguely familiar with Internet companies that pay a pittance per article (or less) in the drive to regurgitate “content” all over the Internet. The point is to get corporate money for fooling search engines.

I’ve stayed miles away from the practice, which may be the reason I had never heard the term “content farming” until recently. So this is what they call the wordsmith version of manufacturing sweatshops, is it? I mean, both are founded on the same principles of copyright infringement, exploitation of economically depressed people, and Industrial Age capitalism.

Incidentally, if you are a freelance writer, I strongly recommend reading the content farming Wikipedia entry. You’ll learn a lot about what not to do.

Content farming also illuminates the shenanigans of a major retailer (J.C.Penney), which got caught black-hat-handed earlier this week, thanks to excellent journalism by David Segal.