Since eHow writers, past and present, now must submit their eHow articles using the Demand Studios platform, more and more writers who want to continue writing for Demand Media, must submit an application for Demand Studios and hope to be accepted. This has caused many complaints and mixed emotions for former eHow writers, especially since many of Demand Studios’ copy editors are increasingly strict when approving articles that are submitted. However, working for Demand Studios isn’t too bad. It can be stressful when submitting your first 30 articles only to have them sent back for changes and rewrites. I know that at some points I would have happily ripped out all of my hair in frustration. Luckily, I was able to refrain myself, as hard as it was to do so. But, like most things, you’ll get better as you practice and hone your writing skills. After a few months of working for Demand Studios, you’ll find that your articles are approved without rewrites a lot more than they were before. Yes, there might be an occasional rewrite request, but there will definitely be an improvement in regards to how many rewrites you’ll have to do.
Working for Demand Studios does have its positives. In fact, some people can earn full-time income working for Demand Studios – and they have! It all depends on how you budget your time and the speed with which you can write each article, while still maintaining quality. There will be some rough times when you’ll want to wring the copy editor’s neck. But there will also be moments of excitement and pride, like the moment when you notice an email from PayPal stating that you just got paid $225 from Demand Media. If you want to make it to the top working for Demand Studios, it does take hard work. But, like I always say, hard work does pay off. If you want to take a look at my past and present Demand Studios earnings, view the Demand Studios Payment Proofs page.
Table of Contents
You can apply for three different jobs when working for Demand Studios. If you’re a writer and have experience with writing, you can apply to be a writer, where you submit high quality articles and get paid for it. If you have copy editing experience, you can apply to become a copy editor and get paid to review the articles submitted by other writers. The other role is filmmaker, where you create groups of videos for pay.
Whichever role you pick, there are topics for everyone when working for Demand Studios, no matter the interests. If you’re a writer who focuses on nutrition and healthy eating habits, you can go to the Dieting and Nutrition section in the Health and Fitness category and find topics to write about there. If you like writing topics on computers, you can filter your topic search to anything from Building Computers to Virus and Spyware Protection. Copy editors can choose the topics they review as well and filmmakers can choose the topics they film. There’s literally something to do for everyone.
However, before working for Demand Studios, you’ll need to prove your expertise and you can do this by submitting a resume. Demand Studios, like all jobs and careers, prefers workers who have past experience in what they’re applying for. If you’re not experienced, you will get rejected. That’s why it’s so important to build up an article library if you’re applying for the writing position. This way, you have a few months to a year of writing on your belt and writing samples to prove it. Demand Studios wants the best of the best out there. If you can’t prove that you’re unique and if you can’t give a reason as to why Demand Studios should hire you, you will not be hired. You also will not receive another chance to be hired for a certain position (unless you’re clever like me, but I’ll explain more on that later), so you should spend a lot of time on that resume and make sure you have the experience before applying.
As I mentioned before, working for Demand Studios might be stressful and frustrating at first, but it will get better. This is especially the case if you applied to be a writer. Once you’ve shown Demand Studios, through your resume and writing samples, that you’re worthy enough to join their community, you’ll then have to prove to the world and each copy editor that reviews your new article submissions that you have what it takes to write high quality articles. This isn’t easy and sometimes you’ll receive outrageous requests from copy editors who don’t exactly know enough about the topic that they’re reviewing. Just don’t give up. Keep at it and, with practice, you’ll learn what is expected of you and what to expect from Demand Studios.
For writers, you’ll get paid every Tuesday and Friday for your approved articles. The amount of money you receive per article varies and depends on what format the articles are written in. Most How To articles, where you write about how to do something, are worth $15 each, while many Fact Sheet articles, where you write about what something is or why a thing does something, are worth $7.50 each. I personally prefer the How To format, mainly because I’m used to writing in that format from when I wrote for eHow. Copy editors get paid about $3.50 per article when working for Demand Studios and filmmakers get paid around $200-$300 per assignment.
When I first applied to work for Demand Studios a few years ago, I got rejected. I believe this was mainly because I just did not have the experience yet with freelance writing and my article library was pretty low. At the time of applying, I was just starting to get a feel for freelancing online. I had just started college and I had also just discovered eHow, an article directory where you get paid to write How To articles. I only had a few articles under my belt on eHow and had tested out Xomba a little when I found Demand Studios.
Several months after my rejection, I talked with a friend of mine, who also happened to be a fellow eHow writer. He was sharing with me his Demand Studio earnings and how he made about $900 so far in the few months he’s been a member. This inspired me to submit another application to Demand Studios, and this time I had a rather large article library with over 110 eHow articles to use as writing samples. I fixed up my resume and resubmitted my application using my Yahoo email address, rather than my Gmail email, since the Gmail email address was already taken when I got rejected the first time. A few days after resubmitting my application, I was delighted to receive an acceptance letter in my Yahoo inbox. I remember the day well, since I was literally hopping around the room in excitement. I had made a huge leap in my writing career and I was ecstatic over it.
Within my first few weeks of writing 3 articles a day for Demand Studios (while taking a few breaks here and there), I made $300. It was hard at first to keep up with all the rewrites I had to do, but I made it and I’m proud of my accomplishments. Working for Demand Studios has been, above all, a learning experience. I could spend less time writing each article than I could before, and I received fewer rewrites to do over time. Instead of getting paid $15 an hour, I was able to start earning $30 for writing 2 articles an hour rather than 1.
If you’re considering working for Demand Studios, I suggest to build up your current article library first so that you have a better chance of getting accepted into their community. Once you feel as though you have a large selection of writing samples, spend some time working on your resume. Once your resume is as perfect as it can be, submit an application and wait for that acceptance letter to be sent to your inbox. Then you can start working for Demand Studios! Don’t forget to let us know how it goes.
Tags: Demand Studios, Review, Writing
Insightful read. You are right the longer you write for DS the more you get used to it and the faster you are able to write an article. I have been writing for DS for 11 months and one can make money either full time or work for DS for supplemental income. I am glad you got through the learning curve and look forward to your future postings.
Hi Alicia,
It’s great to know there are other DS writers out there. Demand Studios has its positives and negatives, but definitely can turn out to be some pretty good full-time income. Right now I’m treating it as a part-time job until I have more time on my hands.
Christina
This doesn’t make any sense. If you wrote 3 articles a day and earned $300, that would mean you earned around $3.33 per article, NOT $15. 30 days in a month times 3 articles per day = 90 articles. $300/90… NOT $15.
This is sweatshop labor. People at WalMart make more than this.
Thanks for pointing out this typo.
I didn’t write 3 articles a day for the whole month straight. I took a few breaks here and there. 3 articles a day is what I strived for. I was also approximating the $300 I earned from the entire month.
You can better follow my progress in the Demand Studios Payment Proofs section of this blog.
I’ll clear up the section questioned. The majority of article titles to choose from on Demand Studios pay $15 per article and these are mainly the How To articles.
Christina
I’ve written for Demand Studios at varying levels for about 8 months now. My general opinion is that it is a very good starting point for freelance writers who want to go full time, a great place for writers who are only looking for part time income, and and a solid place to always pick up some supplemental work. I’ve made as much as $2,000 in one month on Demand Studios, and while there are many copy editors I wanted to strangle for sheer stupidity or arrogance, if you’re going to let a few bad apples push you off a writing career, you don’t have a chance. While I could make a full time income here (and where I live $24k is more than enough to live very comfortably – go Midwest!) I do believe that there are a lot of headaches even once you are really well versed with writing for DS and if you can use it for a spring board to bigger and better things, then that’s exactly what you should do. So that’s my two cents for whatever they’re worth
Master Dayton´s last blog ..Xomba Freelance Writing Review- How I Use Xomba
Hi Master Dayton,
Demand Studios is definitely an excellent starting point for freelance writers and can net you some pretty good part-time income. I currently use Demand Studios for part-time income and whenever I’m in a tight financial situation.
During my Demand Studios Work Challenge, I did notice that there were fewer copy editor headaches if you spend more time on your articles in the beginning until you can write articles on the same subjects without doing much research, since more articles generally go through without rewrites. Writing for Demand Studios is especially easier if you write on the same or similar topics each article. In the beginning, I would pick just categories I was interested in. These same categories became the main subjects of every article I write for the company.
Thanks for sharing and I hope your writing goes well. I checked out your blog, by the way. I like how you put everything together.
Christina
hello,
i read your whole story and i liked it.
i saw some payment proofs also.
i am already doing job as content writer and i will try demand studios as writer. but i would write only 2 articles a day..
so what my question is..
how much they are paying for each article..
and what is the word count for the article!!?
if i write 400 words article then what will be the payout?
please let me know…
Yamcha.
yamcha potter´s last blog ..Bankruptcy Forms – Having The Right Ones
Hi Yamcha,
Demand Studios generally pays $15 per article, though there are some articles worth less. The majority is $15 though for a 350-500 word article. Articles that are around 100-200 words are usually around $5-10.
Demand Studios is great for just getting your foot in the door. They also offer residual income, where you get paid depending on ad clicks and how many visitors you receive to the article.
Christina
Well I really don’t know where to start. I write articles for Associated Content, Seed and did write for Demand Media. I started about a year ago for Demand and recently have gotten a lot of flack from them including a letter nothing like yours. It seems after doing a vast amount of articles for them and having fairly good responses and only 7 rejections in one year’s time, I have been sent a letter stating they do not require my services anymore. That is because I had trouble with one particular editor and wrote two grievance letters stating so. Needless to say I was scolded and told I would be put on limited account status while they did a review, however the review seemed to be unfair because after over a month time they have decided to let me go as a writer citing no specific issues just that they have decided that I am not right for their site. I was allowed to finish my work and all of them was processed without rewrites, as about 80% of my total work for them. I have learned something very valuable about this whole situation if you write for DS don’t send in a grievance you will get black-balled.
I have been trying to reach Mr. Rosenblatt about the situation because I really loved writing for DS but my emails have not been responded to so I have decided to leave information about the incident on the net see any one of the various sites I work for and type in my name and demand studios rejection.
I am a featured health and wellness writer for Associated Content and make very good money for both Associated Content, Constant Content and Seed.com.
KIMBERLY CUMMINGS´s last blog ..Well today is FRIDAY YIPPEE
Hi Kimberly,
Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry that you had trouble. Copy editors for Demand Studios have been really cracking down lately, as Demand Media staff are getting increasingly strict about which content they’ll allow and which articles get published.
I’m glad you were able to find other means of income. Like that old saying: When one door closes, another door will open. Since you are doing so well with Associated Content, I would say just stick with them for now. Becoming a featured writer for any content website is a huge accomplishment. Wear it with pride.
Christina
I thought I’d read that some Demand Studios writing assignments paying more than $15. Is that true?
I understand that published articles pay $15 but I am curious if there is a higher pay scale once someone is a more established DM writing.
Hey,
It is true, once you become a more established Demand Studios writer. Becoming established may take a while, for Demand Studios will have to notice you first in order to give you a pay raise. Higher paying articles will also take longer to write and will be more complex than the $15 articles, so you’ll have to keep track of how long it takes you to complete a higher paying article to make sure that you are making more per hour. Sometimes, writing $15 articles might be better for this reason.
For example, if you can write two $15 articles an hour and it takes you 2 hours to write a $50 article, you’d be making more with the two $15 articles per hour. However, if you don’t work well under pressure and can easily lose motivation, the $50 article might work better for you because you’ll be less likely to experience writer’s block with one article rather than four.
Some writers who experience promotion even have access to $100 articles, though Demand Studios will demand more from you with these articles. Your copy will also be more strictly reviewed. You’re almost guaranteed to receive a rewrite on a $100 article, mainly because these articles have more weight and are usually for top clients.
Christina
Hi Christina,
Even though I work for Examiner.com and have almost 160 articles there, I was one of those that got turned down by Demand Studios. I am experienced with writing resumes and also made reference to some of my blogs, some of which have been around a while. It was all still a “no go”. I am not sure where I went wrong, but I have been writing online for quite sometime now. It would have been great to work for Demand Studios, especially since Ehow didn’t quite yield the best pay out, lol. I’m glad to see you out and about and please let me know what you are up to. Do you have any blogs on blogger?
Dawn Gagnon´s last blog ..Dreamfields Pasta product review – Columbia home and living
Hi Dawn,
Thanks for sharing. I’m sorry that you’re having trouble. Did you make sure all of your writing samples were in active voice? How about the content? Can you make the content clearer? If you want me to critique your writing samples, I’ll be happy to do so. Just send an attachment to Christina@cashcampfire.com. Demand Studios has strict guidelines, but don’t be discouraged. They rejected me the first time as well.
As for how I’m doing, I’m doing very well. Thanks for asking! I used to have blogs over at Blogger, but I moved them to their own hosting server. Purchasing my own hosting just gives me more control over my blogs. I’m happy that you’re doing well on Examiner. I’ve never experimented with them, as I was more occupied with eHow and Demand Studios. Now I mainly focus on blogging.
Let me know if you have any more questions, and stay in touch!
Christina