Demand Studios Analysis
Over this last year, I’ve noticed the growth in freelance writer job postings or Demand Studios. I’ve not written for them, but I’ve been interested in knowing more about them. However, reading their job listings left me with the uneasy feeling that they were just another writer mill designed to make writers grind out words in an effort to earn what probably amounted to a pittance. That seems to be the way most of these so-called opportunities pan out. Of course, I had no proof of this, just a gut feeling.
WritersWeekly.com
Fortunately, Angela Hoy must have been as curious as I because she posted an announcement asking for feedback from those who had, or were, writing for DS. I think she must have been inundated.
If you too have wondered if DS might be a worthwhile revenue source, be sure and read the results of Angela’s quest for information. Also, you can read what Erik Sherman had to say on the subject. Be sure and read the Comments to his post too.
Takeaway Truth
Writers need to analyze possible opportunities to see if the sound they hear is opportunity knocking or the sound of nails being pounded into the coffin where the golden goose lies cold and dead.
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32 Comments
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The Trouble With Love
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The Trouble With Love
Cheryl, my heart goes out to you because I know what a difficult situation you must be in to continue working for a client that allows writers to be treated as you described. We do what we have to do to make a living, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
I can’t imagine anyone with an advanced degree of any kind would exchange the time required to write a good article for even $25.00. Good writing is created by sound research and a mastery of specific skills, all filtered through each writer’s unique voice.
As to the insulting treatment by Copy Editors reported by many and the Rejection Appeal process as revealed by others, I can only say that some people take too much delight in wielding a little power. Good copy editors are equally good at relationship skills with writers, and they seek to help the writer to produce better copy.
Life is too short to be forced to deal with people who have some unresolved emotional baggage that they bring to the position of copy editor.
There are many DS apologists. If they truly see nothing wrong with the business model under which they labor, then I guess that’s good for them.
Words are important. What label is applied to a job has connotative and denotative meaning. I think by calling writers Content Creators they diminish the contribution made by a writer, i.e., that wonderful combination of skills and talents that allow one to articulately transform what’s inside the head to words to be read. (Rhyming unintentional but rather on target.)
Best wishes for a vast improvement in your fortunes. Please let me know how you do in the future.
Sincerely,
Joan Reeves
I’ve been writing for DS for a little while now. Am I happy there? Please. It amazes me whenever I hear someone say that DS “pays so well.” Yikes! $15 dollar an article is sweatshop wages. I decided to write for DS because I was laid off of my full-time job and I had to do something to pay the bills. I write for them full-time so you can imagine how long my days are just to make enough to support myself and my family. It is hard work. Very hard work. The work, the tedious “titles,” the automaton-like method of production, of cranking this garbage out, over and over and over is literally eating my soul.
Then, dealing with the content editors makes it all even more unpleasant. Most of them keep their mouths shut and do their jobs, but there are several, or maybe it’s the same person, that are just plain mean. And what recourse do the writers have? If you get a rejection, of which I have several, the folks in the forums will tell you to “send it up” on appeal. Right. Guess what happens when you do that? You raise a red flag as being a trouble maker, which I will get into more in a minute.
Someone in an earlier post mentioned that LiveStrong articles went up to $25 per article. He said that this may mean DS is “becoming a more lucrative place for freelancers to write.” Well, yeah, if you have a professional certificate or an advanced degree, because that is what is required of anyone that wishes to write for LiveStrong. The rest of us are stuck at the $15 rate and I don’t see that changing. Why should DS raise the rate when so many hobbyist “writers” think it’s fabulous that they can make anything for their writing? Do you have any idea how much DS is making off of our content? Lets put it down as “GOBS,” yet the very people that make it possible for them to make all this money are paid peanuts. Amazingly, or, sadly, so many DS writers actually say how “grateful” they are to DS for giving them the “opportunity” to get “paid” for their. . .I can’t even continue; that whole brown-nosing garbage that is currently going on in the forums makes me gag.
Someone, somewhere once said that we at DS are “kool-aid drinkers.” At first I was offended, but you know what? He’s right. Especially since Angela’s expose on DS was published, reading the posts in the DS forum has become downright painful. There is a moderator that actually told everyone to watch what they say in the forums. This same moderator has also mentioned, several times in various posts, that we should all be careful what we say about DS. Actually censoring the forum! It’s scared the daylights out of the writers who depend on DS to make a living. Now, people are afraid to express how they really feel. If what they are posting about can even remotely be taken as a slight against DS they will qualify their posting with “this isn’t a rant,” or “I don’t mean any offense, it’s just that,” or “I love DS but.” Those poor souls that do attempt to complain or vent are told, in no polite terms, to shut up. To be grateful. It’s all so sickeningly syrupy and sweet it makes me want to puke. If I have to read one more “I LOVE DS” post or, even worse, “I LOVE the CE’s” post I think I will vomit.
Then there are the content editors that post in the writer’s forum. One, in particular had been hanging around there a lot lately posting his snide little jabs at the writers. Making fun of those of us that use “however,” under the guise that it’s a pet peeve of his. Or posting what he considered to be the “perfect overview” from a recent How To article he reviewed. I don’t know if the higher ups sent him into our forum or if he took it upon himself to invade our space, but he’s a jerk. How insulting.
I think what troubles me most about DS is that they don’t even refer to us as writers. Do you know what they call us? Are you ready for this? They call us “Content Creators.” Ain’t THAT a kick in the pants? Or is it the teeth?
Hey, thanks for letting me rant. Oh, wait, this isn’t a rant, I mean, I love DS and the CE’s are all so special and I’m so thankful for DS and DS is a dream come true andnowyouwon’tfiremecauseIsaysuchnicethingsaboutyoublablabla. . . .
However, you unwittingly give credence to the point that many of the pros expressed: someone just getting into freelance writing isn’t cognizant of what the professionals expect as proper wages.
I think it’s more entry level vs. experienced. When I was looking at entry level jobs for which I was qualified, the highest pay being offered was $10/hr. $15/hr. is double minimum wage. Maybe it’s different for people who have degrees in math or economics, but for my liberal arts graduate self, consistently making $15/hr. in essentially an entry-level position while technically starting my own business, all in a few short months, is pretty good, and I wouldn’t have gotten here if I’d demanded to be paid the same high wages that people with more experience expect.
Hello, Amy, and welcome to JSW. I’m glad DS is working out for you, and I hope it continues to do so. However, you unwittingly give credence to the point that many of the pros expressed: someone just getting into freelance writing isn’t cognizant of what the professionals expect as proper wages.
As I said earlier though, when you’re in need of cash flow – which you are with a husband out of work and with you seeking employment too – then every dollar counts. Quantity of dollars has a higher priority than quality of the employer.
You’re right about something else too. Texas, where I also live, is a bargain when it comes to cost of living. Relatively low sales tax, no state income tax, very low cost of owning your own home, higher than normal starting salaries in many career fields, etc.
Good luck to you and your husband in finding employment.
Best regards,
Joan Reeves
I’ve only been writing for Demand Studios for a few weeks, but for someone just starting out in freelance writing, the pay is a lot. I went from just a few dollars (or just ad revenue) per article, which brought me $300 in my fourth month, to making that much in just over two weeks. I am averaging at least $15/hr and going up with Demand Studios, and have gotten better at finding topics I know so I don’t have to do as much research.
It doesn’t give me the kind of freedom, exposure, and ability to write to my interests as the other sites I write for, but it’s given me the opportunity to balance writing about things that I enjoy and to which I am proud to see my name attached with the possibility of earning a living wage in an economy where I can’t find entry level jobs and my husband is out of work.
(I think LS is onto something; I live in Texas and our apartment costs less than $500/month, so anything over $1,000/month is just good enough to get by and $1,500 would be untold riches.)
Lisa, I visited your site, as I do each time someone posts a comment. Visiting a website is like taking a peek into someone’s environment. Since you are the mother of 6, I can only wonder if you’ve ever said to your children: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
I think it’s entirely possible to not like what someone writes without insulting them personally.
Sincerely,
Joan
Angela’s piece wasn’t unbiased, she was looking for victims. I have totally lost respect for the way she handled the situation, attacking the character of DS writers even. What a (insult deleted by JSW) is. She told outright lies.
Hello, Maggie, I feel your pain. I know of too many writers in this same leaky boat. Unfortunately, I know of too many experienced men and women of a certain age who are the first to go when the economy declines, and they’re the last to find a job. When they do find one, too often they end up with less salary than before.
I guess the hidden discrimination against older workers is a blog for another day though.
Re the emails you sent about the gravatar issue. . . I have a solution. I’ll try to get a blog post up about it next week. It will show you how to make sure the gravatar displayed is always one of your choosing.
I wish you well for renewed success in your writing career. Email me again and let me know if things have improved.
Best wishes,
Joan Reeves
Joan,
Thank you so much for sticking up for us professional writers who’ve been laid off and just plain need money. Thanks for writing this: “I know professional writers who have been forced into survival mode. They’re not amateurs, and they’re not ignorant of professional standards. They have good clients, but even that isn’t enough. Sometimes a steady cash flow of five buck jobs helps them keep their respective heads above water.”
I used to work for a high-end lifestyle magazine that folded because of the current state of the economy. No one is hiring. My local newspapers and small magazines are either folding or laying off dozens of staff members. Why would they hire me now? Regardless of my quality of work, they just can’t afford me. I get offered internships instead. Trust me, I don’t need the experience, but I wonder if I should take them because they might hire me after a few months if I do a good job. This is what it’s come to. It’s a difficult time and as the saying goes, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Hello, Howard. If what you say is true, and comes to pass, perhaps the reviews as well as the discord among many present and former DS writers is having a transforming effect.
Sincerely,
Joan Reeves
Interestingly, just today I hear that DS is going to start offering health plans to their writers. And payment for LiveStrong articles is going up to $25 per article.
I may be wrong but it seems as though they are moving upwards and are becoming a more lucrative place for freelancers to write.
I know another poster felt that working from home was not that big of a deal, but it really is for some writers.
The quality of writing seems to be increasing at DS and I know that might mean that some writers get the ax and that’s too bad. But they are working towards a higher reputation and someday, it might be very hard to get hired at DS.
It sure is interesting to watch at any rate.
Here’s the link to the health plan news:
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091021005445&newsLang=en
Kara, thanks for weighing in. You have some excellent ideas. DS would do well to heed all these comments and take action if they really want to live up to their publicity.
Lori, thanks for commenting. You make valid points with which I agree for the most part. However, I don’t think one can make a blanket statement about those who choose to write for DS and other low-paying jobs. With some of these writers, there’s a dirty little economic factor to be considered. Some writers are so desperately in need of cold hard cash that they must write for whoever has a large quantity of work available.
If you are your sole support, then you may take any, and every job that comes your way because you can’t afford to be picky. You can’t afford to wait for the better jobs or you do the crappy jobs along with the better jobs because every nickel counts.
I know professional writers who have been forced into survival mode. They’re not amateurs, and they’re not ignorant of professional standards. They have good clients, but even that isn’t enough. Sometimes a steady cash flow of five buck jobs helps them keep their respective heads above water.
Like I’ve said before, everyone has their own reasons for accepting the jobs they write. The best thing established professional writers can do is diplomatically point out, without making personal judgment, what accepted standards are.
Best regards,
Joan
Hello Joan,
As someone who has written for Demand Studios but rarely write for them anyone, I would like to add my “two cents”. I used to be one of those writers who frowned every time I read a negative comment about Demand Studios, but after writing for them for a while, I can understand where some of these people are coming from. I am not here to thrash Demand Studios, just to give my opinion.
I have to give them some credit. They pay on time and accurately; they have a few editors who actually know their stuff; and work is always available (even though some of the titles are questionable). The problem is, their system is seriously flawed–the copyeditors are inconsistent and communication is poor. The writers rarely have a voice; only occasionally are they ever truly heard. When I first started with DS, it was quite easy to earn $400 or $500 every week with them. Now, their demands are getting ridiculous, rewrites are often being requested for stupid reasons, and they want all this research. Even with all this, it’s possible your article may still not get approved.
DS needs to streamline their system, and stop hiring so many writers and editors. They need to devise an effective strategy that focuses on keeping the good writers and editors they currently have. They can easily do this by ceasing to hire so many writers and assigning one writer to one editor. They also need to pay more for all the work they demand. For example, they raised the fact sheet rate to $7.50, but since then editors have been requiring writers to pack facts sheets with more information than is necessary. A fact sheet is supposed to be 150-200 words; I’ve had editors require me to increase mine to almost 300 words. So now that we are being paid $2.50 more, they are also asking for more work. As for the $15 articles, something tells me that should they have the heart to pay writers say $30 or $40 per article, the word count would increase from 400-500 to maybe 700-800…see where I’m going?
What DS needs to do is to pay more, period. It’s okay to expect quality articles, but to expect writers to meet all these additional requirements without proper compensation is just not right. I hardly write for them anymore, not because I hate them, but because I am just not inspired anymore. If you have a rejected article, when you log into your workdesk, it’s sitting there staring at you. Come on, who needs to be reminded of a rejection? Many writers have expressed their concerns over these issues, and they go unanswered.
I have private clients who pay me much more than DS. I only resort to writing for DS when I am desperate for cash, but again, it is an uninspiring experience. If DS wants to be perceived as the above-average content mill they claim to be, they need to project that in their actions. Shame, because they do have potential.
Hi Joan! Thanks for leaving a link on my site to this post. For me, the issue has always been about price. It comes down to a delineation between a hobby and a professional career. I argue that hobbyists take the insanely low-paying jobs. Frankly, they can have them. It takes a bit more effort to put together a credible career with much-higher-paying results.
In essence, sites like Demand are making hay off writers’ work but not paying them a fair wage for that work. And no, in my universe, $5 to $20 an article is NOT fair. It’s ridiculous and it doesn’t even measure up to minimum wage standards, which makes me wonder why people don’t just take a minimum wage mall job?
I write resumes regularly for clients. What I see stemming from a content mill site is a credibilty issue. These are by no stretch of the imagination credible jobs. Come on, if they were, why wouldn’t they pay credible rates? I’ve often suggested writers instead opt to work for local newspapers. This is a better choice as there is editorial oversight, an established, credible audience, the chance for your story to hit the wire services, and in the past, a chance to be brought on staff. Mind you, the pay was low when I started out, but I can still use that experience on my resume. You can’t use a content mill as proof you’re “published.” You’re not. You’re used and underpaid. Content mills fail to provide consistent (if any) editorial oversight, and they certainly don’t supply clips that future employers want to see.
I’d much rather write for ten cents a word for a small magazine. At least that looks better than chumming up dozens of general articles that teach you nothing about the business of writing or improving your craft other than speed.
Good afternoon! I’m a bit late today. Sunday is my day to be slow. I don’t get to the blog comments and emails until after church and Sunday lunch which is always a prolonged meal.
Deb, welcome to JSW. Thank you for commenting. I’m sorry that your long comment didn’t post immediately. It was held for moderation since it contained 2 links (even though those were email links) which triggered the hold. (I get so much spam comments that I am forced to place settings that throw anything with 2 or more links into Pending.)
I must gently remonstrate that I did not say the quality of your job postings had decreased. Though I have visited your blog occasionally, I don’t follow your job postings so I wouldn’t be able to ascertain their quality in the past as opposed to the present.
This is what I said in response to a comment from Jodee, who I gather is a past or current employee of yours: “Actually, that may explain the comments on other blogs I’ve read about how the job leads on the site were excellent in the past, but that situation changed which led to all the various commenters avoiding Ms. Ng’s site.”
To reiterate, I was not stating what I believe. I was reporting what others had said in the comment section of other blogs.
Deb and Jodee, I appreciate your efforts to present your sides in this discussion.
Maintaining a public presence on the Internet can bring personal satisfaction when one helps others, but, inevitably, it can also bring conflict because not everyone is going to like everything you do all the time.
Sometimes I think the Internet is like a gigantic high school from hell with everyone jockeying for popularity positions.
Deb, I think perhaps the crux of the present problem is the fact that you have DS as an advertising client thus others do not view you as impartial in your defense of them. It seems apparent that people think a conflict of interest exists.
Of course, the simplistic solution would be not to speak in defense of DS if you maintain them as an advertiser because no one will view what you say as objective. I must say this whole situation has made me think about the advertisers on my website and to come up with a policy should I be embroiled in a similar situation.
In closing, let me say that I always take the position that anyone who is giving writing advice, helpful tips, market or job postings is doing so out of a sincere desire to help others. I’d rather give people the benefit of the doubt than question their motives in what they do.
I grant you that same courtesy, Deb. I think you try to help other writers. Just as I believe Angela Hoy is doing the same. You both have different ways of doing that because you are different people just like you’re different writers with different voices.
Good luck with resolving this situation. I hope it doesn’t continue escalating.
Sincerely,
Joan Reeves
Hmmm….my earlier comment didn’t post?
Oh and PS? I never, ever offered anyone $5 an hour.
Hi Joan,
I’m so sorry you feel the quality of leads have gone down. I take 3 hours of out my day to hand pick the leads – and do my best to weed out all the scams and low payers. We’ve always had a policy not to allow any jobs paying under $10. Plus we don’t allow scammers, jobs where someone has to pay out money, term paper mills and anything that doesn’t look right. I do admit that sometimes an undesirable job gets through, but for the most part I try and weed them out. I’ll do my best to be more diligent in the future. It’s a lot of work to run a blog network and sometimes I’m a little rushed in the job lead hunt.
Joan, I’d like to clarify something else. You see, Angela Hoy didn’t say anything about ME that was lie – but her delivery and facts were a little off. Indeed I did post to the DS forum and on FWJ that Angela Hoy was looking for experiences from DS writers. However, this is what I first posted in the DS forum:
and this is what I said at FWJ:
I hope you have a great day and wish you luck in all your future endeavors.
Thank you for your kind comment.
I don’t know at what the other commenters are referring to when they said the quality of leads went down. I do know that the same level of care has always been used to find and post quality leads. FWJ is a free service and people who don’t find what they are looking for are free to move on.
I must take exception when people choose to post comments that contain information that is incorrect. I trust that you will understand and appreciate where I am coming from.
Hi, Jodee! Welcome to JSW. Thanks for letting us know that. Actually, that may explain the comments on other blogs I’ve read about how the job leads on the site were excellent in the past, but that situation changed which led to all the various commenters avoiding Ms. Ng’s site.
I guess that means when you did that job, you did it very well.
Hi Joan,
I wanted to take a minute to respond to this statement you made in comments: “I don’t think anyone that posts job feeds checks each listing to see what the details of the writing op are.” For a year or more, it was my job to find and post job leads at Deb Ng’s site.I made a point of checking the leads before they went up on the site. Some stinkers (non-paying or lower than our threshold of $10) did slip through, but our readers are very good about letting us know when that happened so that we could remove them.
Wendy, thanks for visiting. You make excellent points about the wage/hour scenario. What one produces in an hour varies widely just as the resulting quality from writer to writer varies too. I must agree that I also believe if someone is trying to generate income by spewing out so many articles per hour then the writing suffers.
I’ve been a writer for an unimaginable number of years. I write fast. For something that’s not fact-based, I can write 4-6 articles per hour. However, I’m talking entertaining, articulate content that’s drawn from my depth of knowledge about a subject or personal experience or opinion piece.
If I’m asked to write about financial derivatives or a website that caters to an esoteric area of the IT business, then even a short article takes time because of research. I simply won’t write about a subject, product, service, or website without doing my own research. For many topics, research needs to be conducted with independent sources, not just Wikipedia or some other info site which is hour many writers work.
Have a great weekend!
Joan
Thanks, LS, for dropping by and presenting your experience. Your point about a wage meaning more or less depending on where one lives coincides with my opinion. For someone on either coast, an hourly wage must be significantly higher than for a writer in the Midwest. (I don’t personally judge a writing opportunity by how that breaks down by the hour because there are too many variables. A price per project is more accurate imho.)
Unfortunately, low wage earners in other countries have made a huge impact on the freelance writing community in North America. Clients think they want the writer who can churn out 500 articles for 100 bucks. Fortunately, many clients then realize there’s more to good writing than being able to write in English. I must point out that there are exceptions because there are many excellent writers with an idiomatic command of English who produce credible work.
Have a great weekend!
Joan
Personally, I don’t think that anyone should look at the pay rate as making $30-$40 an hour. For someone who is thinking about applying with them, they should simply know that it’s $15-$20 an article. A person could then decide if that’s okay with them. One person might be able to write 2-3 articles an hour, but not everyone can. When you present the opportunity as one where you could make $30-$40 an hour, it sounds more like hype.
I also think I’m going to scream the next time I see someone say, “I love the job, because I get to work from home!” While, I feel it’s nice to be able to work from your home, it shouldn’t be seen as a huge benefit to the job. Working from your home is simply a location that you get to write from. This particular statement sounds like you would work for any rate and under any conditions just as long as you got to do it from your home.
On the other side of it, I don’t like it when someone trash talks the company without giving any explanations. To say something like, “They’re idiots. I hated that job. Don’t work for them.” isn’t a good enough argument. Give your reasons why you had a bad experience. When you don’t say why, you simply look like someone who screwed up and blame the company for it.
My stance on DS is that I don’t like them. I choose not to apply, because I don’t think the pay rate is fair for someone who puts a lot of time and effort into a quality article. I also don’t like the fact that they’re continually hiring new people. The more they take on, the more excuses they have for the lower pay rate.
They way they market their job opportunity leaves a lot to be desired, in my eyes. Based on what I’ve seen in ads from them, they promote themselves as a business where you can write your own choice of topics, write as little or as much as you want and write from anywhere you want. In my experience when someone uses those as the main benefits for working for them; they have something to hide.
I don’t think that the newsletter article was all that bad, but I do agree that there could’ve been some more of the positive experiences to equally balance out the good and bad sides. I’m assuming Deb asked for the positive experiences, because she already knew there were going to be negative ones and just wanted to present a fair case for both sides. I still question why she took it upon herself to do it in the first place, but that just stems from my own personal beef with her. For the most part, though, I agree with Angela.
I disagree with some of her report and agree with other parts. I agree that they are asking too much for the pay right now, but it wasn’t always so. Even with all the new demands they are putting on their writers, it’s still possible to bring in $20-25 per hour with them. I once made a very consistent $30-40 an hour from them, and the price per article is really irrelevant at that point. With these content companies, an “article” isn’t the same thing as a magazine or newspaper article. There are no interviews and no long planning or editing sessions. You gather, write, repeat.
I think a lot of the “pittance” that people talk about comes from simply living in an area that has a very high cost of living. I recently talked to my cousin who lives in New Jersey and was truly shocked at the cost of living up there. It finally made sense to me why people called this kind of wage a pittance. In my area, you can live well making $30 an hour. So, isn’t it up to me to decide what a pittance is?
I pretty rarely write for DS now because I have higher-paying work, but if any of it falls through it’s nice to have steady content work to rely on, even if it’s a huge hassle. Freelancers should always have diverse work as well as back-up work for slow times.
Hi, Kenneth, I’m a bit late this morning, but I got today’s post up finally.
I agree to disagree too, and may I say how pleasant it is to find someone who doesn’t want to gut and rend me for having a different opinion. The Internet can be a vicious place sometimes. *g*
We’re all thinking, intelligent people who are bundles of attitudes created by everything we’ve experienced in life. Is it any wonder we’re all different? That doesn’t make any of us right or wrong, just different people with different attitudes and expectations.
I hope you’ll visit often.
Happy Friday,
Joan
Good morning,
I appreciate very much the response and I think this is one area where people will agree to disagree. I do value my work as well as you value yours. You made an excellent point when you say,
“The test of a good writer is the work produced. How much the writer was paid for the work should not have a bearing on the quality of the work. However, writers need to be cognizant of sound business principles in conducting their writing business.”
I believe that many good writers are struggling to get assignments based on their experience. I think that is where the disagreements come between established writers versus new comers and those in the process of building their business.
I will say however that it is refreshing to disagree in a manner that is neither hateful or stepping on someones toes. I thank you for that Joan. I respect you as a writer and as someone who, although I may not agree with, will take the time to express their view without resorting to negative feedback.
Thank you again
Good morning, Kenneth,
Thank you for visiting and commenting though I’m afraid I must respectfully disagree with you. It seems almost as if you, Kelly, and I are discussing different reports. I see Angela’s piece as unbiased because she presented writers who listed pros and cons to writing for DS, just as you did on a recent blog post. However, I realize that, since you write for DS, you do have more of a personal bias when reading the recent report.
True, her summation was an expression of her personal feelings. I hate to tell you this, but longtime, successful freelance writers will agree with her summation. We all earn much more for the kinds of pieces for which DS pays no more than $20.00, and we think other writers should earn that well too.
I think the point of her piece was to, well, point this out to writers so that they will aim higher. I truly don’t think it was meant to insult those who choose to write for DS or any of the other sites that use writers in this same manner.
In my blog post this morning, I state a frequent theme of mine. Paraphrased it’s this: writers must make their own choices based upon their respective situations. That doesn’t mean a writer who takes $3.50 for an article is less of a writer than one who gets $20.00 for the same. It just means that the first writer may be more desperate and may have less options.
The test of a good writer is the work produced. How much the writer was paid for the work should not have a bearing on the quality of the work. However, writers need to be cognizant of sound business principles in conducting their writing business.
Best wishes,
JLAR
Hello Joan,
In reference to Angela Hoy and her recent article about Demand Studios, it was not an unbiased piece. Let’s be real here for a minute. First, I am a writer and I do contribute to DS. Is it the greatest pay in the world? No, but it pays bills and allows me to do what I love…write.
The article itself was not fully researched and seemed to be written prior to her even putting a call out for any contributions from former or existing DS writers. If she really wanted to give her readers the full story she probably should have actually interviewed folks instead of compiling what she could find on the internet.
From the article, “Last week, I issued a call for writers who write, or have written, for Demand Studios / DemandStudios.com.” then a few paragraphs later she adds, “Like I said, I issued a call to our readers asking if anyone writes, or has written, for Demand Studios. ” Who exactly was she asking for input from? DS writers both former and present or only DS writers favorable to her view? C’mon, it smells.
One final thought I want to leave you with is this. We as writers no matter where or who we write for consider ourselves to be professional. You, me and every other writer are the professionals in the writing industry. How professional is the postscript remark that Angela felt obligated to place on the article? In case you don’t remember here it is:
“I have a personal message for writers who lack the self-respect to demand fair pay for their hard work. If you’re happy to write for $5-$15 per article, there are plenty of places like Demand Studios that are happy to pay you a pittance for your hard work. Don’t expect writers like me to try to butter it up and make it look like it’s a better deal than it is. Five to fifteen dollars for a well-researched, well-written article, with references and illustrations, is pathetic. Claiming it isn’t makes you a laughingstock in the industry. Everybody’s just afraid to say it to your face. I’m not.”
Does that sound like an unbiased author of an unbiased article?
Hello, Kelly. Thank you for visiting and for commenting.
Actually, I read both the pieces I referenced, and I must disagree with you on the subject of bias. Ms. Hoy’s piece seemed balanced to me in that she published comments from Demand Studio users, many of whom presented the pros and cons of writing for Demand.
That was the purpose of the analysis so that writers could make up their own minds about whether to write for DS.
If you read her introduction, you’ll recall that she didn’t post to the forum in a search for DS users. Deborah Ng did.
As to Ms. Hoy posting jobs on her website that pay $15.00 or less, so does Ms. Ng and so do all the other websites that publish writing job feeds. I don’t think anyone that posts job feeds checks each listing to see what the details of the writing op are. That’s the writer’s job. You see a listing; you do the research to ascertain whether it’s a job you want to undertake. I don’t discredit Ms. Ng for not vetting the offers therefore I don’t discredit Ms. Hoy or anyone else who posts jobs.
I don’t know either Ms. Ng or Ms. Hoy personally so I make no judgment about their moral fiber nor do I question their motives in what they publish on their websites. I like to attribute higher motives to everyone so I think each, in her own way, is trying to offer information to writers. Whether that information is of value, only the individual can say.
I think you are a DS writer who feels personally maligned by the negative publicity DS is receiving. I’ve been in this business an awfully long time so please take my advice, Kelly. Don’t take it personally. Watchdogs exist for many industries. It’s good that writing has a few.
You have your own reasons for writing for DS. If you’re happy, then be happy. Don’t feel compelled to defend them because the truth is that they could pay their writers more and they could make sure their copy editors treat writers with respect. I think the respect issue is as important as the money issue. No one should treat others rudely.
Let other writers read the pros and cons and judge for themselves and make their own decision whether to write for them or pass them by. I wish you continued success with DS.
Best wishes,
Joan Reeves
Angela’s piece wasn’t fair at all though. She didn’t present the facts, she presented negative letters from people who don’t work from DS or people who are pissed because articles were rejected or sent back for rewrites. She encouraged writers to betray confidentiality and trust. She posted private forum conversations and encouraged writers to send screenshots of private conversations. To do that and reprint without permission is highly unethical. Angela Hoy also regularly posts jobs to her website paying $15 or less. I guess she’s the only one allowed to do this? I used to think Angela Hoy was the God of writing. After seeing how she handled this piece and knowing she left out some very important information (on purpose) and knowing she encouraged other writers to repeat and provide private conversations for her own self-serving interests I can no longer trust her to be an authority.