Demand Studios + Healthcare

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Never thought I'd see this, but DS is going to be offering affordable insurance. Great, great news, check out Deb's post:

http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/2009/10/demand-studios-offers-afforable-healthcare-for-its-creators/

[downtherabbithole]

wowwweeee! this is amazing!!!

[stldenise]

Holy cow! I'm covered by my hubby, but this is cool news for all the independant freelancers out there. DS is really becoming an employer, rather than just a "content mill."

[tpridgen]

That's pretty cool! I'm covered by the hubs, but good to know there's an option.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

I know. My jaw literally dropped when I read the news. My hubby doesn't have health coverage with his job, so this is going to be great for us.

[mommyjo2]

Wow! We can't afford COBRA after husband lost his job, I'll have to look into this.

[C.T. Richmond]

Wow, what fabulous news! My husband and I rely on the Army for our health insurance (he's active-duty), but we've been wondering what we should do once he gets out in less than a year. Thanks for posting this!

[plaidearthworm]

Wow, I had to zoom over to DS and read more. They should be posting more details later today, but this would be so awesome. We've tried to do health insurance before, but it was just too expensive. I've got my fingers crossed for this plan!

[FreelanceKen]

Hey all,

I just wanted to duck in here real quick and just add my 2 cents. When I saw the thread here this morning and then popped over to Deb's, I almost fell out of my chair. Health care options for freelance writers? I was hitting my refresh button to Demand Studios waiting for something official I thought I wore it out. This is really great news.

The least expensive insurance I found so far was still over $600 a month. This news from Demand Studios comes as a very welcome and pleasant surprise.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

If you're the Ken I'm thinking of, it'll be a pleasure to have you contribute to AW!

And even if you're not- welcome!

[FreelanceKen]

It's the Ken your thinkin' of. I look forward to many converstions and thank you for the welcome.

[caromora]

As someone who is uninsured, this is the most awesome news I've heard in ages.

[FreelanceKen]

I couldn't agree more caromora. My wife just started freelancing the first of this month so the insurance we did have....gone. I started getting quotes to get some set up the first of November. The lowest quote I received was $600 per month. I am really looking forward to Demand Studios rolling this out.

[plaidearthworm]

I was feeling deprived since I didn't win a water bottle/journal combo a while back, but I think affordable health care beats that, LOL. And welcome, Ken! I've seen you over at DS, good to have you here at AW as well!

[Orientalist]

Wired on Demand Studios:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1

"It’s the online equivalent of day laborers waiting in front of Home Depot. Writers can typically select 10 articles at a time; videographers can hoard 40."

"So far, the company has paid out more than $17 million to Demand Studios workers; if the enterprise reaches Rosenblatt’s goal of producing 1 million pieces of content a month, the payouts could easily hit $200 million a year, less than a third of what The New York Times shells out in wages and benefits to produce its roughly 5,000 articles a month."

[FreelanceKen]

Orientalist -(peace offering of Hazelnut coffee prior to comment. :)

And the point to your post? I don't believe that anybody ever said that Demand Studios pays top dollar for articles. What they do however is offer freelance writers an opportunity to get paid to, well write. I make more than I did working FOR somebody else just six months ago. I gross more per month AND work less hours.

Another part of this article that I do not agree with:

"Nearly every freelancer scrambles to load their assignment queue with titles they can produce quickly and with the least amount of effort — because pay for individual stories is so lousy, only a high-speed, high-volume approach will work."

I write for 6 - 8 hours a day. And still I am bringing in more than any outside employer based opportunity.

I understand that writing web content for places like Demand Studios is not for everybody, but it is a great way for people to earn money from home. Plus for people breaking into freelance writing it is a fantastic way to pay the bills while you are sending query letters, waiting for submissions to be published so you can get paid, and chasing down those publishers that want to hold out on you as long as possible.

[wyntermoon]

Well said, Ken; welcome to the Cooler! :)

Great post, Julie! Freelancing is hard enough on a budget, health care will help a lot of families breathe easier~~~~

[wombat]

Orientalist, thanks for that link, very very interesting.

I wrote for Demand quite a while ago when they basically took what you offered them - never had a title turned down and it was the easiest few hundred dollars I ever made writing. But these days when I check in on the available titles, they sound like stuff that Martians made up. Now I understand why. More power to those of you who can figure out how to write "how to take the battery out of a case skid steer" and "how to get rid of flat warts on your lips" and get health insurance out of it, but yeah, it is definitely not for everybody.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Just so you guys know- I didn't write that, Deb did!

[SouthernFriedJulie]

1. I don't care what Wired says.
2. I don't 'scramble' for anyone.
3. No one has the right to tell me or anyone else what to accept.

Now, this post isn't aimed at anyone personally- this is a general 'get over it'.

I have held my tongue and posted mostly polite rebuttals to all of the people who have a problem with DS. I did make a not-so-nice post towards a fellow freelancer in the comments on Lori Widmer's blog-I apologized for it. Reason for nastiness? I was too hasty and assumed someone was the troll we had here and you all know how nasty that got. The troll also used my words from here, but I don't really care now.

Why? Because even he/she has a right to make a buck. I'm not going to tell him/her to not put up Adsense or sell advertising space on his or her blog- because if they need that dollar, so be it. There are other ways to go about it- such as scrambling at DS to fill a queue ;-) - but who am I to tell that blogger that they have no write to post their opinion?

What I wrote here was in a public forum. The forum posts from DS- that's another matter.

Still- I don't care who does what to make their living. I wish everyone else would stay out of my pocket. Go harp on some place like About.com: they make writers go through 2 weeks or so in a competition for a job with other people, all without pay. Sure, maybe those articles can be sold afterwards, but that's 2 weeks without pay for a lot of work. It's a set rate, plus rev share. It's a content mill. Older than DS- so why aren't those writers getting the sharp end of the stick?

What about BellaOnline? That's no pay at all.

What about AC? Very low pay, no pay, and all sorts of junk can be placed. The only reason I leave my old crap there is to see if a penny or two ends up in my PayPal every few months.

Why not look into the newer FireHow? Supposedly the same as eHow, but gods, the tools? UGH. And there's no checking up on the content, either.

Xoomba?

HubPages?


And on and on and on....

I haven't even posted about this on my own blog because, as much revenue as could be made from the traffic, it isn't even a debate anymore. It is people being busy-bodies. It is people trying to lynch Deb Ng because she has DS as a sponsor. Heck, Lori Widmer accidentally left Deb's contact info on her post and Deb began getting nasty Skype messages. {lori took it off as soon as she was notified and told the idiots doing it off]

What gave them the right to do that? I don't give a damn who you are, unless YOU are the one paying me, get off my back. Demand is not a way of life for me and hopefully 90% of the others there- it's just a way to fill in gaps. Sorry if we don't feel like going on welfare while we wait for 60-90 days after publication payments. Or while we're re-sending invoices to clients that accidentally 'forgot' to take care of them. Or when we get a postcard that a magazine is no longer running- sorry {this happened to me a while back, nice-huh?}

Let the forum drama guy/girl make their revenue. Let me make my money. And if you don't like where it comes from- ignore it and get back to work on your own projects.

END RANT

[FreelanceKen]

:scared:


Ummmmm.......so I hear Demand is going to be offering health insurance..

[SouthernFriedJulie]

:scared:


Ummmmm.......so I hear Demand is going to be offering health insurance..

Sorry, the thread hijack ticked me off. How 'bout them Bills?

[Medievalist]

I'd like to gently interject a reminder here.

No one is forcing anyone to write for DS. I don't have what it takes, frankly, but I say more power to those who can and do.

There's a great deal to be said for a company that pays reliably, on time, and what they've agreed to pay. A very great deal.

And let's also, please, not assume that pay rate = value of person.

If you don't want to write for them, then don't. But civility is mandatory here.

[Maggie_H]

I'd like to gently interject a reminder here.

No one is forcing anyone to write for DS. I don't have what it takes, frankly, but I say more power to those who can and do.

There's a great deal to be said for a company that pays reliably, on time, and what they've agreed to pay. A very great deal.

And let's also, please, not assume that pay rate = value of person.

If you don't want to write for them, then don't. But civility is mandatory here.

Amen to that!

[Angie]

Wow, perfect timing on this as I'm about to lose my health coverage when my current job comes to an end. Writing 30 articles a month for DS is worth it to me if their health coverage rates are better than the ones I've found -- which shouldn't be difficult.

[gjerdej]

Holy cow Ken. $600!? I don't know where your located, but in California you can get pretty decent individual coverage for $200 or less (Thank the lord for blue states, eh?).

Anyhow, I'm a little wary of this DS health insurance. It seems like they're offering it at a group rate like Freelancer's Union, not necessarily subsidized by the company (I may be wrong though). I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[FreelanceKen]

Yea $600 for me and the wife. Welcome to the Commonwealth of Virginia...hahahaha

[mommyjo2]

We are not getting COBRA because it's outrageous. We were paying $400 every two weeks for employer sponsored family coverage (well, that included dental but not vision.)

[Angie]

Anyhow, I'm a little wary of this DS health insurance. It seems like they're offering it at a group rate like Freelancer's Union, not necessarily subsidized by the company (I may be wrong though). I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Someone on the DS forum said something that made me hesitate, too, and I hope he's wrong: that this could be some sort of discount plan instead of an actual insurance plan. I really, really hope that's not the case, since a lot of people (including me) are really in need of affordable insurance, and a lot of people are getting their hopes way up over this.

I really hope it's an actual insurance plan, but until they give some more detail I'm trying to be a little more reserved in my enthusiasm for the news...

[DTNg]

I know we'll receive more details in another week or so, but I did ask for clarification and was told, DS writers will have "access to affordable healthcare insurance".

[Angie]

...And someone on the DS forum just directly asked "is it insurance or a discount plan"? and was told that it is, indeed, insurance. I'm excited again. ;)

[Orientalist]

Re the Wired article--Didn't intend it as a hijack, but it seemed that the other Demand thread had been shut down because of spam.

I don't care what others do either. If people have figured out a way to make a decent hourly rate, more power to them. That wasn't the thrust of this article. It's news, not an opinion column. Julie, did you read it?

I thought it was an interesting look inside the company, into its whole income model. Not everything has to be from the potential or current DS writer's point of view, does it? Might be interesting to see the income models for the other sites, but I bet this one was selected because so much is leveraged around those search terms. It's a very Wired story: is this the shape of the future?

And, boy, how fast those videographers have to work! Maybe it's not news to others, but I didn't know that so much YouTube stuff originated this way.

Finally, it's a story that took a lot of time and research to write. I'm sure the Demand honchos would readily agree that's not the kind of thing their company is geared to produce. As more magazines close down and newspapers like WSJ shrink, we're seeing less of this. There's a lot less money around to pay for real reporting.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

I did read it. I also read the Writer's Weekly that was passed off as 'real unbiased reporting'.

Unless you actually do a job- any job- no amount of research is going to show you the real story. One person's experience is not another's.

And yes, it was a hijack. We're talking healthcare, not media coverage. Popping into a thread and posting a link that has nothing to do with the subject at hand is a hijack or derail. I'd suggest opening a new thread to avoid future irritation from an OP and a subsequent rant.

[Button]

It's news, not an opinion column.




"It’s the online equivalent of day laborers waiting in front of Home Depot."



Don't know about you, but it looked like an awful strong opinion from where I'm sitting.

This message I am posting is a sidetracked opinion and has no value to this thread about Demand Studios or the health care option.