WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Content Mills, Job Boards, and Freelance Sites, Oh My!
What’s the best way to find writing jobs?
The Freelance Ladder
The only way I’ve come up with to explain the differences between content mills, job boards, and freelance platform sites is to compare it to a ladder.
Even that isn’t exactly it, because every situation is different and one type of site for finding writing jobs isn’t always better (higher) than the other. But for the moment, let’s stick with the ladder analogy.
The bottom most rung, just off the ground, are the content mills. It’s easy to get to that first rung. It can be an easy way to get a little money coming in if you’re desperate. But you have very little control over your work and work for low rates.
Just up the ladder from the content mills — maybe two or three rungs, are the freelance platforms, like Upwork. Still low rates, depending on the client, but you have the option to bid on projects you want, so a little more control. These sites take a little more work to get money coming in but if you’re patient and work really hard, you can earn money consistently. You can find some gem projects but it takes patience and know-how.
