[mcguire]

"...people willing to write for free to stroke their ego..."

Or to get exposure, which is a requirement for making a living in any creative endeavour.

Note: Huffington exposure isn't worth much, but neither is exposure from writing articles in most journalism outlets. That doesn't prevent every last writer from having a list of "published in Time, Newsweek, Mr. Peabody's Literary Conglomeration,...and the Washington Post" in their brag paragraph.