The Demise of Demand

I'm still listed as active with them. I was never fired. But the automotive section has not had a retreads in articles in over 2 years that I can see. I'm also only limited to writing about detailing. And I'm a master mechanic for phuck's sake and the author of a best-selling repair book.

tri

tamijean said:

Hmm, that's interesting that Demand Studios has a new CEO. I wonder if there's a chance for those writers who got rejected to re-apply. My story is similar to a few of you who posted. I started writing on eHow when you could write about anything you wanted and then when Demand Studios decided to invite some of the eHow writers over to exclusively write for them I was completely flattered to be accepted because I was still new at writing articles, especially using the AP style & not having any journalism experience. I can't remember if that was when they bought out all of our articles for a lump sum. I think I wrote about 60-70 articles until they decided to ask some of the writers to reapply and write 3 good articles to continue writing with Demand. Knowing that there were published writers on that site, not to mention writers who had articles published in the Wall Street Journal, I did feel out of my element but even though I got 2 out of the 3 articles accepted, I felt honored I was in good company. My score was usually average, almost to proficient...lol. All in all, my experience writing for Demand Studios/eHow was good because I learned a lot, especially from the editors and it was fun seeing my stuff online. I just ran into one article I wrote that is currently on Match.com which is kinda of funny...check it out:
http://datingtips.match.com/attract-men-poor-social-skills-13197130.html
I think we earned $15 an article which was fine with me but toward the end I found that it was really hard to find good articles to write out of their queue because they'd be snatched up so fast and also it started to turn into a stressful job with the deadlines and edits which was prob due to my lack of experience. But after seeing some of my old articles, I'm kind of missing it. Has anyone ever tried to get re-hired? Just curious.

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From what I understand you can reapply after six months' absence.

triceretops said:

I'm still listed as active with them. I was never fired. But the automotive section has not had a retreads in articles in over 2 years that I can see. I'm also only limited to writing about detailing. And I'm a master mechanic for phuck's sake and the author of a best-selling repair book.

tri

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I'm surprised you had a tough time with finding the automotive articles to write about because that was all that I found when I was working there. I was thinking the writers who were mechanics were probably making a lot of money. Interesting how much Demand Media has changed.

Abderian said:

From what I understand you can reapply after six months' absence.

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Thanks! That's good to know.

tamijean said:

I'm surprised you had a tough time with finding the automotive articles to write about because that was all that I found when I was working there. I was thinking the writers who were mechanics were probably making a lot of money. Interesting how much Demand Media has changed.

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Oh, I'm not complaining about the amount of articles that were there when I first started. I also did a lot of home repair stuff for e-How. When the dust settled I'd made close to 16 grand--more than any other site on the web.

The end of my Demand

I started working for Demand and could submit any article and if they accepted it was paid $15 for them. That was great. I wrote on all types of stuff and did some recipes too. Then it changed and that was okay, there were plenty of topics to select from and I had a wide range of sources as well as knowledge. It was good reliable pay and I could make sure I had enough to make my bills in between other articles that paid more but not as quickly and were not on any consistent schedule. At the end, there were less and less topics to select from. I was making a lot less but was still making enough that it was worth my while.

I received an email that they were revamping the way they did things (shortly after they lost a big account... can't remember who it was but it was big) and the next three articles I submitted would be reviewed by one of their senior editors and evaluated. I had always had good ratings so I wasn't worried at all. I was a former full time as well as corresponding reporter, I had been writing professionally for years supporting my family through my writing. I happened to be dating a corporate pilot who had a nice big official title he had more than earned and there were some aviation articles. I had written many using him as a source before and never had any issues. The first article I wrote, there were no problems and I received praise from the editor. The second one, not so much. It was something to do with how to do something with flying. My boyfriend had also taught aviation at a university so he walked me through it and I did my research as well. The editor this time, said my information was wrong. Her husband was a pilot for Delta and he completely disagreed. Her husband was also correct however, I wrote the article to help the person who would be looking for an article on that subject. Someone who was thinking about and looking into becoming a pilot. Not a seasoned vet who knew how to fly and was a professional pilot already like her husband. What she said and the basis for her rejecting my article was that her husband said that was wrong. Even though it was completely accurate and what anyone who would have been reading that article would have needed who would not have access to the instruments he said would be used. Nor would they know how to read them. I wrote the article as any pilot learning would need. I had other sources that backed up my article as well, I believe we had to site three but it's been a few years so I could be wrong. But it didn't matter a Delta pilot who are known in the industry as being a-holes, said it wasn't so. She didn't do any other research or check my other resources either. I tried to appeal but didn't get anywhere.

I do hope it makes a comeback. For the amount of work and the time it took, I was able to make a nice steady income it was perfect for me. There were a lot of writer's who put it down but I liked it. At least in the beginning and up until just before the end, or my end with them. I loved it when they started offering the insurance. And I was able to use the rewards thing they started. I bought my boyfriend a Nook back when they were new and the big debate was which to go with Kindle or Nook. At that time Amazon let a pedophile publish a how to manuscript and sale it so a lot of writers were pulling their work and a boycott was beginning so the Nook was a perfect gift at the time.

I would work for them again if I could have the same stability it gave me before.

The Panda thing hose them. They never recovered from that, not in whole, anyway.

They eventually became known as an article mill--or spam huckster. They got more bad press than Mel Gibson.



tri

I wrote about 30 grand for them, then got phased out in their big purge about 4 years ago. I couldn't even visit the site because I refused to sign a statement that I wouldn't sue them.

However, recently, (I guess with the new CEO) they ceased blocking my site access and it looks like I could possibly re-apply to different writing categories. I haven't done so, but I am kind of curious how they are doing under new management.

HB

Yeah, it's kind of got my curiosity up too. I didn't know they had a new CEO. I'm still on their team too but haven't been to the site in three years.

tri