Last year, I took a $7 per hour writing job from a company I’d never heard of, and that I found through a random post on social media.
I ended up as a low-level ghostwriter and human content spinner, churning out blog posts on tight deadlines for way less than minimum wage.
At first glance, that makes no sense. I’m a professional photographer with a successful photo agency, as well as a portfolio of niche websites. When I consult, I charge up to $125 per hour.
So why did I take this lower-than-entry-level job? Like many niche site owners, I’ve hired content agencies to write articles for my blogs, paying as little as $25-$50 per article.
These agencies, I always assumed, must farm out my content requests to an army of low-paid freelancers. But I’ve always wondered, “Who are these people?” What is their day-to-day like? And is there anything we can learn from them and their employers’ processes?
To find out, I decided to dive in firsthand and accept the lowest-paid content writing job I could find. What I discovered surprised me — and destroyed my trust in web content.
Getting the Job
To find my $7 per hour writing job, I turned to a variety of online sources — LinkedIn, Upwork, and other popular gig work platforms.
I ended up finding my specific job through a social media post. It offered paid blogging work from a company I’d never heard of. I couldn’t find anything about the company online. There were few details about what the job would involve.