I don't understand why there are so few comments and questions on ehow when I search dp. Ehow seems like a good deal: they're in bed with Google and rank well. They give you a reasonable slice of the pie. And you can even send over a little traffic to your site. So why is (seemingly) ehow not popular? I'm asking because I was considering writing some articles to try it out but don't want to waste my time if you guys have had a lot of negative experiences or something.
Try doing a search off-site and you'll learn more about the content mill debate that has been raging for months and why professionals (including myself) actively encourage serious freelancers to stay away from eHow (which is Demand Studios / Demand Media). It's a hobby writer's dream. For pros, it's a joke. My personal issues: 1. $15 per article is pathetic. Yes, compared to what you see publicly advertised here it looks high, but in the "real world" it's insanely low, especially considering how much they expect of their writers. 2. Check out some of the horror stories and you'll see how editors often know nothing about the actual subject matter, so they make ridiculous requests for edits that don't make sense (and expect specialized experts to constantly cite less credible sources rather than appreciating the fact that experiences from experts are in fact sources themselves). 3. Demand's sites blatantly violate Google's quality guidelines. Personally, I'm anxiously awaiting the day Big G decides to undercut their whole business model, like they would with smaller sites doing the same thing. 4. Demand is notorious for pulling marketing stunts and exaggerations of what writers can expect in order to suck them in -- making the exceptions look like the rule. For example, they offered health insurance if writers completed 90 articles in their first 3 months. But when you look at their claims of the benefits, they don't jive with the actual insurance documents themselves. Read this post on my blog from Yolander Prinzel for an overview of that issue (not only is she a freelancer with experience with Demand, but she's also an insurance professional who knows what she's talking about, unlike a lot of other commenters elsewhere touting the benefits of their little publicity stunt). 5. They're unethical enough that they've approached bloggers offering sponsorship deals if the bloggers promise to only post positive things about them (rather than honest opinions either way). Another thing Google actively says companies shouldn't do (as per the whole pay-per-post debacle), so again it's a reason they're putting their own business model in jeopardy in the long run. Fortunately some bloggers approached have had enough self-respect and respect for their readers to turn those kinds of sponsorship offers down. 6. They recently were yammering on about how they're not trying to replace journalism (they don't like being called the "content mill" they are), yet their ads blatantly target journalists -- trying to suck in out of work journalists so they can profit off of them while giving them what really amounts to a very SMALL piece of the pie (not "reasonable" as you mention -- do some research on how much they earn versus how much they pay the content producers who are the backbone of their business). That's one person's perspective. Some are willing to sell their souls and advocate Demand's sites as one of the greatest things out there for writers. I won't. I'd tell you to act like the business owner you are and take responsibility for finding truly good gigs with private clients who respect you and don't undervalue your contribution. But that's just me....
The more I read about content mills, the more I realise that I've spent the first six months of my freelancing career practically giving away around $30 for every article I produce. In truth, I know that so many of the pieces I've sent to my main content mill client could have been a piece that should have been written in my own style for a market that would probably have appreciated it more. Although these articles have paid my bills and fed my children, I genuinely feel I could and should have be earning more. Over the last few days, I've visited some fantastic sites and blogs that I should have sourced a long time ago and I'm now following the advice of my peers by drawing up a list of potential clients that should be willing to pay me what I believe I'm actually worth. Plans for a new web site are underway and I'm changing my profile entirely to try and secure a better class of customer. On the flip side, I have to thank content mills for the experience they've given me, not only in terms of showing me how to write pieces like an emotionless drone, but also for putting me in good stead to truly appreciate good clients and worthwhile rates of pay when they finally materialise. Yes - I'm still having to complete my quota of $10 articles to survive but my determination to move away from these rates of pay make the late night researching, reading and sending out mail to pospective clients totally worthwhile. To finish, I'd like to present the important thing I've learned while trying to establish my own writing credentials - Always listen to those who are prepared to offer you good advice. It is much easier and cost-effective to learn from the mistakes of others than it is to learn from mistake that you make yourself.
As a professional writer, it seems like a complete waste of time even to write those $15 articles in my spare time. eHow isn't what I consider a go-to website for quality and accurate information so why would I contribute to something I don't have much respect for?
Guys, Thx so much for the advice from the professional writing perspective. You sent me down rabbit trails that I should have investigated much thoroughly. I'm not really a marketer and am quite pathetic at it actually. What I really love is writing, influencing, persuading and so on. I don't really want to support a business that is trying to squeeze out the pros like yourself, but I was looking at it a little differently. In my case I was looking at it strictly from a marketing perspective. In my case I think that I can material already on my blog and reorganize/rewrite it very quickly - probably 45 min per piece - and put it on eHow. I don't really need to do a lot of research for the most part, because I've already done all that. So basically I can crank out a piece, or so my theory goes, and get a decent income stream for a year or so afterward. More importantly in my case, I should get some hits on my blog, something I desperately need. But what you have told me about their business practices is very distrubing and certainly taken the enthusiasm that I had for trying it out... Btw, I'm curious about something: are you guys opposed to article submission such ezine, etc.?
It doesn't matter if you know the topic inside and out. They still require you to cite sources when you write for Demand, so you'll still have to do research -- even if it's just to have someone else confirm what you already know if you're already an authority in your niche. You also have to contend with edit requests. If you want to use a site solely for article marketing but still make a few bucks, I'd say AssociatedContent is a better option (pay is residual, and I don't support the site for serious writers, but it works better as an article directory than most article directories do).
I have TONS of references on my site, so I can self-cite or pull studies off of my existing pages. However, I get your point and will definitely investigate AssociatedContent. The only thing about Associated is that I've never seen them rank, whereas eHow ranks quite often and quite well. And thank you very much for the excellent responses. You really gave me a lot to think about - more than you might imagine...
I doubt they'll let you use your own site as a source, because it's not supposed to be about self-promotion. One writer I know was specifically told to cite Wikipedia (worst source ever). eHow basically scams the system by breaking the rules others have to follow if they want to rank, so I wouldn't count on that being a long-term plan marketing-wise. I've seen AC content rank though. I guess it just depends on what you're searching for. If you already have more authoritative studies you can pull from, it might be worth it, but I still wouldn't personally ever lend that company support. And keep in mind that when you associate your name with a mill like them, your name could be attached to them for as long as they're around, even if it ultimately hurts your reputation down the road (believe me... speaking from experience of still being attached to sites I wish I'd never gotten involved with).
I don't think I'm going to mess with them. I did some research and noticed that they've already used all the keywords in my category. It probably won't surprise you to know that the articles on those keywords are much worse than I could write myself. I got ill just looking at it. In fact, if I'm honest, I find the whole eHow format and layout to be quite juvenile and useless. I have never read an eHow article where I felt it was an impressive, helpful piece of work - quite the opposite. All of this has made me resolve not to be a "traffic slut" or "link whore". I'm just going to keep posting great content and if my site flies, it flies and if it sinks, it sinks. I've got some standards still and one of them is that I am not going to perform unnatural acts just for money...
I've found eHow ok, but don't regularly post directly on the site any more (still pays a decent bit each month). As far as writing for Demand Media directly...if you're a part-timer who needs money now and not net+30 after you've taken 3-6 months to build authority on your own website (or more), then you can't beat the twice weekly paydays (no one else does that I've seen for content production), and since last December (08) there's been plenty of work. My personal goal is to eventually free myself of doing work for them, but the bi-weekly paydays come in handy right now. As with any writing gig, I try to not let the things that @jhmattern mentions bother me with eHow or Demand, but others may not be able to do so. Best of luck! Cheers, James
You can definitely do better than twice weekly pay days. Like I mentioned, for hobby writers who aren't serious about a career, they might be fine. But for serious writers, they're not only pathetic, but they can hurt your reputation with private clients as well. If you know what you're doing (and if someone doesn't, they're not equipped to freelance full-time anyway) they can get far better pay without waiting 30+ days for payment. 5-10 times more pay is better any way you cut it. Most people buying content these days do not have long wait periods for payments either (a misconception commonly spread by people advocating content networks). My own buyers generally pay up front before work starts. I'm far from the only one. Most of my colleagues writing for the Web get paid immediately after delivery or part up front and part on delivery -- no long waits. If you want to justify using Demand for yourself, you can tell yourself whatever you want. But when it comes to passing misinformation along to others who might let it influence their own decisions, I have to correct it. Happy that you're happy with them and all, but we have a lot of folks here who are serious about doing better, and I'm tired of them being misled into believing places like Demand are the norm or in any way better than it. That would be like saying the norm is penny per word gigs just because the BST section here is full of them -- equally false.
Sure. You can always do better online. Since I started breaking 3-4K a month on Demand, I've devoted 20% of my time for development of my own sites and projects. I'm not there yet, but getting there every month. (My net + 30 was in reference to those who think their own blogs will pay any bills in the first 3-4 months as newbies). Are there problems with Demand? Sure. There are problems with all employers. I ignore them most of the time. I HAD to go with them to pay bills (I work a full time job in the day too). Many I run into are in the same position. Not professional writers, college educated, most of the time with Masters degrees. Where do you point this type of person to for starting writing and making measurable money? I figure probably 9 in 10 will not persist with writing or online work, but that 1 in 10 will. I quit doing 98% of my private work after getting burned on one big project (and lost about $1K worth of time) and just not enjoying the solicitation aspect of it. The norm I have seen, is most make nothing online and go get a 2nd or 3rd job paying minimum wage instead of leveraging their talent online. I don't see what mis-information I've passed here. We all have our own opinion of what works, and its up to the potential writers to decide what works for them. Anyway, appreciate your feedback and would love alternative places to guide folks to for getting started writing if you have them. Cheers, James
The best place for writer is still Constant-Content. You can charge $80 to $100 for a 400-words article. After the commission of 33%, the rate is still better than other writing sites. The only problem is that you have to give up the rights to the articles.
Mine did. Then again, I know I'm the exception and not the rule, which is why I don't advocate it as a plan to most new writers (just like you're an exception and not the rule with Demand based on the earnings you mention and a recent interview where Demand's CEO mentioned what average writers there make). The "misinformation" I was referring to was the mention of not being able to beat the twice weekly paydays, when in fact that's very easy to beat -- and that it doesn't make up for earning 5-10 times less than someone could be.
I have to unashamedly state that I am a writer with Demand. Simply put, it was the first place that paid more than $.01 per word where I applied following my lay off as a technical writer. I was hired and have been earning a living from them ever since. I have bills to pay that cannot wait for me to fumble through setting up websites and blogs the *right* way. Although I have searched endlessly, I have yet to find the magic power that you seem to have, Jenn, for finding clients who can and will pay the amounts you command. There are limited resources out there for writers who don't have a lot of time to sink into figuring out where and how to find those clients and quite frankly, it's not the sort of information that *anyone* seems to want to offer up for free. That being said, I am not blaming those in the know for protecting what they know whether that's by just not sharing a step by step or by putting it in a course, e-book, etc. to pull in additional revenue. I'd do the same thing. In the meantime, I'm playing catch-up with myself...fighting to stay above water the best way that I can right now. Demand is a guaranteed paycheck that I depend on once or twice a week since I've only managed to find part-time work since my lay off. I guess if I had arrived and had something better going, I could be like LaToya and say they're not worth my time, but I haven't. My livelihood currently depends on these small opportunities. While your advice is helpful...you're not really offering any alternative ideas. Links? I'm certainly not above reading and researching.
EHow is slowly but surely phasing out their writing program. They've been doing sweeps where they delete thousands of articles at a time and replace them with articles written by Demand Studios writers (DS owns EHow).
I wondered. I noticed a lot of market saturation in the keywords related to my niche. I wondered how they would handle that...
Waxing... just because the information isn't what you want to hear (read: jobs or leads handed to you) it doesn't mean people aren't giving the information. It's out there, from me and from many others. It does not take a long time to get clients coming to you if you work at it aggressively up front. And if you don't want to, use that time to pitch private clients directly (writer's markets are hardly a new concept -- they're a tried and true method for a reason). The only thing that forces a writer to take $15 jobs or less is a lack of effort to do better. It's not a lack of information. You can build a platform and visibility, you can pitch companies and publications, or you can settle for whatever low-pay gigs are tossed your way. The only one who decides which option you choose is you. I've offered plenty of alternative ideas over the years, from how to build your own profitable sites and blogs to supplement freelance income to creating your own information products like e-books to being active within your network (if you're not, you won't be the writer people think of when they have referrals to pass along). All it takes is a bit of searching to find it. The same is true for other writers. In your personal case, I'd use DP as an example. Your profile says you write Web content, but then also says you're a technical writer. Does that mean you're a technical writer, that you write Web content on technology, or that you're both a technical writer and a general Web content writer? I'd clarify that so potential clients here know what you do. I'd also put your signature to better use if possible. Even if you only keep a single link, you can include a bit of marketing copy to note what you do. This way potential clients seeing you interact with them in the community know to contact you if they need technical writing work done. While you have the link where they can learn more about you, you're not really telling them why they should click it. If you want to sell something, you have to tell them what's in it for them if you want to get their attention. And be as active as you can be with your fellow writers. We constantly pass gig leads around to each other (4 colleagues were recently hired by one of my own clients on my referral for example for pretty lucrative blogging gigs, and I shot off a referral just this morning for a potential long term gig with great pay for big projects for a technical audience -- if I'd have been more aware of you, you would have come to mind and been in the referral email). While you certainly don't have to focus on DP, those are just a few things you could change in this single place that could lead to a difference.