So you want to be a writer.

Well, have I got a deal for you. Join Patch, and write for free for a multibillion-dollar company run by millionaires.

The exposure is great, I can assure you, dahling.

In a continuation of one of the more, um, unusual media stories in recent memory, AOL is asking the editors of Patch to recruit 8,000 people to write for free on Patch’s various hyperlocal news sites.

The push for free labor comes ahead of the launch of Patch’s new “platform” May 4. In recent days, Patch honcho Brian Farnham has sent a series of memos directing Patch editors to line up the new “Local Voices” bloggers — within the next eight days, Forbes reported.

“Anyone may apply,” Greenfield Patch editor David Cotey wrote in a post on Wednesday. “Parents, grandparents, favorite aunties, crafters, shopkeepers, baristas, hobbyists, nonprofit organizers, and government officials — here’s a chance to share your expertise and your voice.”

“Patch bloggers are not paid and will own their blogs,” Cotey continued, “so if you are already blogging and want to share with our readers, too, let us know.”

It’s very important that Patch bloggers are not paid — in order to maintain their independence, according to New Lenox Patch editor Michael Sewall.

“To ensure independence, bloggers who join ‘Local Voices’ are not paid by Patch and will not be assigned stories,” Sewall wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

I reached out to representatives at AOL and The Huffington Post, which now controls AOL’s content business, including Patch, for clarification on whether “own their blogs” means that any revenue generated by Patch bloggers will flow to the bloggers.

A spokesperson for The Huffington Post said that “own,” in this case, means that a Patch blogger’s “blog” may not be reposted elsewhere without the blogger’s permission.

A Patch spokesperson added: “The benefit of blogging on the Patch platform is reaching the local audience that comes to Patch for the most important professional news and information as well as other local voices through the blogs. It’s for people in our communities who have something to say and want a broader platform from which to say it, where more people will see it.”

Arianna Huffington was hit with a $105 million class action lawsuit earlier this month, accusing her of “unjust enrichment” and “deceptive business practices.”

In February, Huffington sold her website to AOL for $315 million, and assumed control of the company’s content properties. She then proceeded to lay off hundreds of editorial staffers and freelancers at sites like PoliticsDaily, WalletPop and DailyFinance (where this author worked prior to joining Wired.com five months ago).

So apply to blog on Patch today, but be forewarned, “You might get fame, but not fortune, from your Patch blog,” as Wayne Patch editor Daniel Hubbard wrote Wednesday.

Photo: Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery, London. (andytoots/Flickr)