In the recent days since I wrote the post “A Little of This and a Little of That”, I’ve received emails and comments about my freelance writing for Demand Studios. So naturally, a post was born. Don’t worry there is still the post floating around in my brain about the “strange blue light” in my living room that I woke up to the other night — it’s just not writing the way I want it to. Anyway, back to Demand Studios.
Demand Studios owns EHow and the freelance articles that I write are published on EHow. I was already writing for EHow and was a bit skeptical at first because I had written EHows in the past and had made all of about $10 from them over a period of a year. Then an email came in asking why I wasn’t writing any more articles and that I could write for Demand Studio or continue as I had been doing. So I looked at the agreement for the freelance writer and thought about it for a few days. I came up with several pros and cons about writing for them.
Pros
1. They pay twice a week to a PayPal account. This sparked my interest. Twice a week could help my family’s situation out tremendously and could get the bills paid off that I want to pay off before The Frugal Hubby’s seasonal layoff.
2. They pay $15 per article. $15 for an Ehow article! This really sparked my interest. I doubt that any of the articles, which were not many, will ever make $15 during the entire time they are up on EHow. Six of them had only so far made me $10 in a YEAR!!!
3. My limit on articles that I can claim each time is 10. I wasn’t sure about this one until I really started thinking about it. If I could write 20 articles in a week, ten get in and approved before the Sunday deadline for Tuesday payment and ten get in and approved before the Tuesday deadline for Friday payment, then I could make $300 a week. This really sparked my interest. Now I haven’t written 20 in a week yet but it’s mainly because I haven’t pushed myself to write them and I got busy at my day job. The plan is for me to start writing more now that we’ve seen that they do pay as they say they will.
Cons
1. I would need to be an expert on each topic. I generally don’t take a topic that I don’t know anything about. If I don’t know very much on the subject, I Google it before taking the topic to see if there are any “reputable” sources that I can get information and learn about the subject. There has been one instance where I only used one reference but it was the IRS so I figured they are the final authority on everything so it would be ok. I don’t use anyone’s blog as a reference and they give you a list of the sites you can’t use.
2. They own the article after I write it. This was a biggy for me. The Frugal Hubby and I talked about it and looked at the topics that I’d be possibly writing. We decided that those topics are so generic and are step by steps that if I would not be writing that type of article on my business blog that is still in development. Seriously, I doubt that I’ll be giving a step by step on How to Register a Company Name in Texas on my business blog.
3. I would have to keep up with taxes on the payments. They don’t hold taxes out of the check and you will receive a 1099 at the end of the year for your tax return. If I write the amount of articles that I have planned, then I will have to set up some kind of account to put money in for the taxes at the end of the year. If we don’t need that money, then it will just go into savings for the next year.
4. Would they really pay every Tuesday and Friday? This was minor. I’d write a few articles and see if they really pay like they said they would. They have paid every Tuesday and Friday — sometimes it is after 3 in the afternoon but they’ve paid.
5. My ideas would be edited and I’d be losing a little of the article control that I once had. I wasn’t sure how I’d react to someone editing my articles. It’s gone ok. There is a space on the Workdesk that allows you to write you comments to the editor. One editor wanted me to take out a step in one of my articles and after writing to them and explaining why I couldn’t, it was ok’d to stay in. There are multiple editors and each one has a different style. Some pay more attention to the editing rules than others. Usually the articles get edited and approved quickly.
One more thing if you apply and are accepted (found out not everyone gets accepted, my daughter applied and was turned down!), you do have to go through a trial writing period of three articles in the beginning. You cannot claim your limit of articles until you have been approved for the first three. I suppose that during the three article period that they could decide you weren’t a good mix for them. I haven’t heard of any but I don’t go to their Forums that much. My plate is already full and I can’t visit the Forums that I would really like to visit. And you might have a bit of a problem with your Bio…seems this is where everyone has a problem. Oh and you do have to use the pictures that they have available on Demand Studio. You can’t import your own pictures.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are purely those of the writer. They are not to be taken as expert opinion and have been based on the writer’s
experience with Demand Studio. Every person experience may be different and the writer of this article is not responsible for any experiences you may
have if you start writing for Demand Studios. The writer has not any way been compensated for this post!)
Yes, I do have to add that dreaded but necessary disclaimer in there. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think! Look forward to hearing from you!
Till next time,
JT Locke
The Frugal Housewife
About The Frugal Housewife
I’ve written for Demand Studios and they aren’t bad gigs except for finding an article that you have some knowledge about. Most of the ones I see aren’t of interest to me or I have no knowledge of and thus have to do considerable research which makes that $15 not as appealing after many hours spent researching only allowed sites. But in a pinch it’s a nice thing to have access to. I’d also heard that getting accepted wasn’t easy but after fine tuning my writing resume, which I had to create for this specifically since I didn’t have one, they accepted me right away.
I don’t spend many hours researching and usually gather all the references for the entire batch that I’ll be writing in one trip around the Googlesphere. So far the ones that I’ve found I can relate to from when I worked at the law firm and I actually had to do the things that I’m writing about. On tap for this week are several articles about Word, Excel, and PDF’s. Also, if I can’t think how I’m going to write the article when I’m first considering the topic, then I usually pass on it.
Great detailed post–thanks for sharing!
I recently applied to write for Demand Studios and was turned down. Thanks for the detailed post.