If you write online this term; Content Farm, should cause you to tremble as if it were Haz Mat. Do a Google, (or Bing, or Duckduckgo--whatever Search Engine you like) to get this minutes list of Content Farms. And if you write there, I hope it is in a nickname you use nowhere else. 
Over a year and 1/2 ago, the Warnings went out; Google and the other Search Engines, (but mostly Google) were totally fed up with having to put Ads on a page of crap, and having to pay for hits to .Crap.
Many people are doing something, open another tab or window, pop in their search term, and go back, to what they are doing. Subsequently they give the list a glance, make a selection, and go back to what they were doing. That tab could be open long enough to make it seem you were reading every word, so when you finally get around to it and go 'meh' it's been open 8 minutes, long enough to be registered as an honest hit.
Many of those who know how to play Adsense know about Proxy Servers. They'll log on with a proxy so it seems they're coming from Romania and click on the ads on their page, and drive their bank balance wild.
Many of the top writers on Content Farms couldn't pass High School English. They don't write for people any way, they write for Search Engines. They know how to repeat a term over and over again so that the Search Engine is pleased. The reader is puking, Adsense is paying.
Due to the designation of a site as a Content Farm, Stumbleupon and the other Networks treat anything that emanates from there as Crap. This is why that article you Stumbled last year has one hit, you. Further, your friendly neighbourhood plagiarist will copy your article, post it on a blog somewhere and get all the hits that belong, rightfully to you. It doesn't matter if you have them remove it, they've already gotten all the $$ it can make.
I've seen articles 'spun' based on research I've done posted all about the 'Net. And they've all gotten to be top of the Google, while my article, written in 2010 is way at the back, I actually wrote a total piece of dreck about an Actor based on an imaginery interview. Every Blog and it's cousin has picked it up and put it out there, and my article is on page 5...(which is good in case of law suits).
Before you join a writing site, do your checks. Do you Searches, go to Compete.com, and see where most of th hits go, and how the site is ranked. If the others get 200k hits and the one you're using gets 70k and is declining, it's time to move your work. Further, you might need to start using another nick name as the one associated with the dreck on the Content Farm might have so ruined your good name that people won't read anything you write.
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