Lashing out at all my University of California, San Diego writing professors (and journalists worldwide) lamenting the decline of the paid writer, I had shunned financial independence and turned to the Web. I wanted to survive on freelancing, even if it meant only eating rice and hot sauce and creating a permanent ass imprint on my couch.

Little did I know that I was well on my way to become an online sweatshop worker.

I had joined what Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at NYU, and other critics have been calling “content farms,” such as emerging Web behemoth Demand Media, and this may be the future of the paid writer. We don’t have to like it, but content writing is being outsourced to the poor and the desperate.

Off to Work We Go

In early November, I signed up for Demand Studios, the factory of parent Demand Media, which pays between $7.50 and $20 per article and provides a ready-made list of titles. In the month of November, I made $407.50 writing articles like “African Restaurants in San Diego,” “How to Identify Inedible Plants in Oregon,” and “How to Find a Wife in Bulgaria.” In December, I wrote about drug tests, checking accounts, flight regulations and kilts. In January, I narrowed my focus to hotels and restaurants, scouring obscure Web pages, reading hundreds of reviews and wandering the streets of distant cities using Google maps.

I branched out in January as well. I signed up for Odesk and Freelancer.com, which connect freelancers to clients that pay various rates, usually about $3 for every 400-500 word article — often less. One client was asking for 100 articles on Christmas traditions worldwide and the average bid was between $200 and $300. The best paying job was for a photographic step-by-step Kama Sutra. They wanted 350-400 shots of an attractive couple and were willing to pay up to $3,000, but I didn’t know anyone willing to model.

I was accepted at Suite 101 and Life 123, where providers are paid based on readership and ad revenue, but promoting my articles at social-networking sites like digg, stumbleupon, mixx, and reddit proved to be more work than actually writing an article. I was hired at WiseGeek, a site with set rates like Demand Studios, but I still haven’t managed to tackle the heavy research needed to write such technical titles as “What is an Isometric Contraction?” and “What is Follicular Unit Transplantation?” They want around 500 words and pay $10 an article. They pride themselves on assigning writers a “personal” editor.

Pay it Forward

Notes in my weekly planner show that I made roughly $3 per hour in the month of January, and after putting myself through hell trying to make a living, while keeping the standard of my work up (I would still never use any of my Demand Content as a writing sample), I am exhausted.

It’s not exactly working in an impersonal factory, as some critics have come to characterize these online content-providers; my couch is really nice. But there were times I was searching for references, came across a Demand Media piece, and cringed at the thought that some of my work might be equally as trite, or worse, poorly written. It’s easy to lose focus when you’re plugging out 10 unrelated pieces a day for less than $100, and the titles rush by on the conveyor belt of search-driven content.

After a month of eating rice and hot sauce and hardly finding time to distract myself by youtubing Lady Gaga videos, I was almost ready to try something more lucrative than writing, like selling crack to middle school kids — or worse — working in public relations.

I made $937 in January. Some of that I spent on food, less of it on whiskey. I am starting February — the shortest month — poorer than I was at the beginning of the year.

But I’m still looking for jobs, and while I dislike working in an online writing factory, where I can’t meet or even have dialogue with my “careful” editors or fellow writers, I don’t have a lot of other options.

I mean, to be honest, I don’t even know where to buy crack in San Diego, let alone where any of the middle school kids hang out.

(For a great profile of Demand media, check out Daniel Roth’s article in Wired magazine.)

Aitamurto is researching the way crowd funding and crowd sourcing change the journalistic process, and as both an intern and reporter for Spot.Us, I wanted to share my experience. First, I want to make one very important disclaimer:  I’m a young reporter with little experience in the “traditional journalism” field. As such, I don’t have much to compare Spot.Us with. I also have a unique set of interests (i.e. getting my piece published in print because for some reason that still seems to matter in the job world) which a more established journalist may  not worry about. I think the Spot.Us experience is different for each reporter, but here are the things I discovered along the way:

Transparency

Spot.Us was built out of founder David Cohn‘s desire to pitch stories to the world and get the public more involved in journalism, rather than have the whole process occur behind closed doors between a reporter and editor. With this goal comes transparency, where every thing from pitching, to fundraising, to investigative research happens in public domain. Cohn often echoes the sentiment of David Weinberger when he says “transparency is the new objectivity,” helping news organizations gain trust and credibility in the “age of links.”

Transparency also leads to another one of Cohn’s motos: “journalism is a process, not a product.” While media outlets have traditionally tried to cram all relevant information into one finished piece, web technology like comments and blogging  allow for continuous reporting that exposes facts and perspectives as they come to light, creating a more complete picture of a story than say one article with a limited word count can produce.

Collaboration

Another strength of the Spot.Us model is the potential for collaboration. Spot.Us strives to be a platform to connect reporters, news organizations and the public in a symbiotic relationship, where the community can help source information and fund stories they care about, the reporter can sift through facts and breaks down issues, and the news organization can score a quality investigative article with the help of public funds. While I didn’t witness a whole lot of collaboration with my story in particular, all one needs to do is look at the long list of donors and read the thread of comments on the investigation into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to see Spot.Us’ potential to galvanize the public around an issue of interest.

Personal Benefits for a Young Reporter

Some of you may be thinking that transparency and collaboration are all fine and dandy, but how does Spot.Us help freelancers in today’s tough economy? First, I think it’s easier to get an “in” with Spot.Us than with a traditional media outlet. While Spot.Us still has some editorial control about pitches they accept, the organization tries not to be exclusive and will take chances on good ideas, even if you’re young or your credentials are not entirely in line. Some may argue that this is a weakness, but it definitely helps young, ambitious reporters get a foot in the door, and through transparency, reporters will be held accountable.

The pay’s not bad either. If you can last the time it takes to fundraise, you will be rewarded with competitive freelance rates. I also didn’t have to go through the sometimes grueling pitching process! Cohn pretty much single-handedly promoted my story and used his connections to get it placed in a paper. I question whether I could have been published if I would have pitched the story on my own.

Room for Improvement

In the spirit of transparency, let me also share a few areas I think could use some improvement.

Outreach

As it stands, fundraising through Spot.Us is usually a pretty slow process only suitable for long-term investigations rather than more “news worthy” issues. There are often many communities and nonprofit organizations interested in the issues at hand, but due to limited staffing, these groups are not always taken advantage of.

News organizations are also hesitant to make partnerships with Spot.Us, possibly out of discomfort with being transparent since they’ve historically been concerned about being “scooped” or beaten to a story by a competing news organization. I think other news outlets see Spot.Us as an unnecessary middle man between the reporter and editor without seeing the added value of transparency and collaboration that Spot.Us can create.

Editorial Oversight

I think one of Spot.Us’ greatest challenges is its nonprofit status and subsequent lack of adequate staffing. While I think Cohn, with the help of Kara Andrade and others, has done an incredible job creating the organization from scratch, things like editorial oversight and fact-checking can be left up to “peer editors” or no one at all if a news organizations does not step in, which could compromise the accuracy of a story and the credibility of the organization.

Organizational Structure

Lastly, I think more emphasis needs to be placed on creating a more streamlined organizational structure through a defined business-development plan. It seems like stories are often tackled on a case-by-case basis in terms of fundraising, promotion, publication, and distribution rather than undergoing a consistent process from pitch to publication. I was initially wary about Spot.Us’ recent expansion to Los Angeles without all the organization ducks in a row; however, I think working with the USC Annenberg School of Journalism will be a great opportunity to bring more staff and student volunteers into the fold and hopefully help Spot.Us create a more sustainable structure the any city can replicate in the future.