I don't know about the writer in the Philippines, however I was in a similar situation as the writer in Brooklyn earlier this year when I signed on with a conte

I don't know about the writer in the Philippines, however I was in a similar situation as the writer in Brooklyn earlier this year when I signed on with a content provider while I was in between gigs (not the same one that the writer in the article works for). After submitting my initial writing sample, I was given a writer grade (from 1-5, with 1 being too horrible to get any work and 5 being perfect). Your writer grade influenced what open gigs you could accept- higher number gigs were more technical, wanted better writing, and were more long-form. You could pick from gigs in an open marketplace setting, and gigs varied wildly. Some companies were obviously trying to set up a website for SEO bait with gigs rated at a 2 posting for thousands and thousands of 100-word blurbs with a different topic per blurb, typically paying about $.50 or less per blurb. Other companies actually wanted content like blog posts or a re-write of info that's already on the company website. Frequently writers using the service would set up relationships with clients directly instead of going through the marketplace, and there was a handful in the short time I was there who accepted gigs writing 100K-300K long form pieces for companies (technical manuals, training manuals, documentation, etc.) While there are definitely content farmers utilizing writing services such as the one that I worked for and the one mentioned in the article, it can also be a great way to contract out content creation for new companies or getting someone to re-write and update existing content. It's a lot easier and cheaper to go through a writing company to get a copywriter for a temp gig than it is to go out and hire one, or even go to a regular temp agency since good writing is such a specialized skill.