You get what you’re paid for ;-)

Lee Gomes, technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, does a bit of investigative journalism on one of the more charming opportunities brought to us via the world wide web.

That’s a sarcastic “charming” btw.

The opportunity: writers wanted. “To generate original content for websites. ”

Why? So the sites will rank high on search engines, earning ad dollars for their owners.

Gomes’ article focuses on the clutter aspect. “Legitimate information . . . risks being crowded out by junky, spammy imitations.”

What bothers me a lot more is that these people are scamming writers. The guy Gomes talked to, for instance, offers $100 for fifty 500-word articles. Cheap s.o.b.

25,000 words later — I bet you’d never even see your money.

4 thoughts on “You get what you’re paid for ;-)

  1. Yeah, well, that’s what they’ll tell you!!!

    RESUME

    Work experience:

    * Cobbled together 25,000 words’ worth of bogus website copy emphasizing keyword density over grammar or factual accuracy.

    * Scribbled original limericks on the walls of public toilets through the Northeastern United States. If they were funny, they were mine, I swear it.

  2. Hmmm — like, “The Duke of Earle’s Collected Original Website Copy, Brought to You Exclusively By Amazon”?

    :-D

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