I have had the good fortune to have hundreds of loyal readers who actively participate in the Demand Studio Secrets forum. They make this far more than just an e-book. It is a community of engaged professionals who took control of their lives and do things on their own schedule. Many of those loyal community members were kind enough to write me letters of support. I whittled them down to three to demonstrate different ways Demand Studio Secrets can change your life. I identify some of them by their forum usernames at their request. I always keep the identities of forum users anonymous so there can be no retribution from Demand Media Studios. These letters are all reprinted with the permission of their authors.
The first letter is from the writer known as Sweet0903 on the Demand Studio Secrets forum. The numbers in her username indicate the date she quit her day job to work for Demand Media Studios full time.
First, a confession. My life was quite literally a case of “What the hell happened here?’” before Demand Media Studios came along.
Now, the good news: Demand Media Studios came along.
As a bit of background, after publishing several novels and establishing a solid writing career, I found myself a mother. I sat in a courtroom, annulling the marriage, and I loftily told the judge that I did not require child support. I had published maybe 12 books by that point in my life. Obviously, I could support my own child. Silly judge.
But then traditional print publishing entered its slow, painful death throes. A year went by, then two, then three. My royalties shrunk. The day I found myself desperately pawing through my mailbox for a piddling royalty statement on books reprinted in Australia, I realized that it was time to change things up.
Unfortunately, Demand Media did not yet exist at that time. The Internet was burgeoning, but it was still a little green behind the ears. I gave up writing for a while and went into law instead, lured by the steady paycheck.
Many years later, miserable and beyond desperate, I Googled the words “writer wanted.” That’s when I found Demand. I’m not sure if Kent Ninomiya was publishing his Demand Studios Secrets ebooks at that time. If he was, I didn’t know about it. So I jumped into Demand blind.
It didn’t turn out badly, actually. Demand accepted me without a fuss, probably because I had a strong writing resume. I didn’t give them much else to base it on. I honestly looked at the whole thing as something of a lark, a shot in the dark. To say that I was skeptical is putting it mildly. My thoughts ran along the lines of, “Hey, maybe I can pick up a few extra bucks. It will be fun. What the hell? It’s writing. At least it’s not law.”
I wrote a few articles and they were accepted, so I wrote some more. Sometime during those early months, I began thinking in terms of what Demand could buy me, a single mom who’d been taking it in the teeth as print media kept dying and dying, then dying some more. I started saving the extra money – okay, I hoarded it – and at some point, I realized that it was really beginning to add up. After about six months, something started twitching and itching at the back of my brain. I started wondering if I dared to switch to Demand full time.
I started Googling again, not necessarily looking for inspiration, but for someone to tell me that I was out of my mind. After all, I still have a child to support. My second Google search produced one of Kent Ninomiya’s earlier versions of Demand Studios Secrets. I bought it with the intention of printing the ebook to a hard copy and reading it eventually in my spare time.
The book never made it to a printed-out hard copy. I started reading it on the computer monitor and I read it to the end. The word “epiphany” comes to mind, but that implies that I realized something on my own. Not true. Kent reached out from somewhere in Cyberville and smacked me upside the head.
I’d made good money with Demand those first months, but I was writing the same way I’d written my books and legal briefs for judges over the years. I was pouring over every article again and again, preparing questions and arguments for my eventual editor or that judge. I felt compelled to tell my readers every single thing there was to know about the title I was writing. I was writing 700- and 800-word articles, then spending an inordinate amount of time whittling the article back to Demand-size. I was wasting a huge amount of time.
The greatest thing Kent and his ebooks gave me was a concept of his pay-time ratio. Once I grasped the concept of that, I knew that writing full-time with Demand was definitely a possibility.
I’d like to say I jumped in with both feet, but I am not that brave. For one thing, anything that seems too good to be true usually is. I sent an inquisitive email to Kent, sniffing at the possibility. Can I do this? If I get this P/T ratio business straightened out, is it possible to pay all my bills by working for Demand? Kent assured me that it was. So I did it. And Kent was right.
For one thing, I did get my P/T ratios straightened out. I taught myself to write differently when I write for Demand. I no longer feel compelled to tell a reader every single blessed thing I know about a given topic. I give the basics, which is just about all 400 to 500 words will allow. But I’ve carried some things with me from the old days, the last time I wrote full time for a living. Discipline is my mantra. I schedule a little block of morning hours, a little block of afternoon hours and a little block of early evening hours for Demand writing. I don’t deviate from that any more than I would have called in sick on a whim back in the days when I was writing on a court-ordered 72-hour deadline with someone’s life at stake. But I never submit what I write the same day. That comes from all the years I’ve written books. Beyond a doubt, if I go back to something the next day and look at it fresh, something jumps out at me as being way wrong. I’m still submitting my quota of articles each day; I’m just submitting them a day after I’ve written them and they’re better for that.
I’ve also developed a support network, thanks to Kent and his Demand Studios Secret Forum. Working in a void is not impossible, but it can be frustrating. The Forum includes contributions from those who are much more knowledgeable about Demand than I am, as well as writers just starting out with Demand. Both have given invaluable contributions.
A year and a half later, Demand has been everything Kent said it would be. It is reliable. Since I’m still a single mom, I love the paychecks twice a week. It does wonders for cash flow. It is predictable. Demand wants certain things, and if you give those things without getting fancy, you can generate consistent, accepted work. And it is easy. Really, what it comes down to is sitting at the keyboard and answering somebody’s question in 500 words or less six to eight times a day or so. Beat that with any day job.
Sweet0903
The next letter comes from Christine Reifeiss. She is an aspiring writer building her own Internet empire.
It was 7am on a Saturday morning when my husband stumbled out of bed, gazed at me for a long moment, and proclaimed, "you're really developed that disheveled writer look."
It was true: I'd bounded out of bed early, skipped my hair and teeth brushing routine and settled in front of the computer in a fuzzy pink bathrobe with a cup of steaming coffee. Hair and makeup be damned: I had an article to write.
One month previously, I'd caught up with an old friend via Facebook. We'd been journalism majors in college, but our paths diverged when I changed my major to dietetics. In the 20 years since I'd seen Erick, he'd carved out a successful career in journalism while I'd tried to satisfy my festering urge to write with occasional nutrition column for my hometown newspaper.
Very casually, I typed into the Facebook chatbox, "So if I wanted to...say....get back into writing, where would I start?" I may have sounded casual in my question, but I was buzzing with excitement.
The chatbox came alive as Erick fired back suggestions. I grabbed the closest thing I could write on -- a stack of Post-It notes -- and scribbled his plethora of ideas. After several frantic minutes of scribbling, I was surrounded by a sea of yellow sticky notes, unintelligible directions about press associations and syndicated columns, and the sinking sense that maybe I wasn't cut out for the journalism game.
That's why I didn't think Demand Media was for legitimate writers when I stumbled upon the site while searching for my state's press association information. It was supposed to be work to get a gig in journalism according to Erick. Another search pulled up somone by the name of Kent Ninomiya insisting that Demand Studios was for real. With a shrug, I threw together a writing resume and submitted it.
The next morning, I was accepted to write for Livestrong. Ever seen someone dance for joy with a laptop in hand? I did.
Despite my exuberance, I felt a little like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as I navigated Demand Studios over the days to come. It seemed as if I was bargaining with an all-powerful being in cyberspace as I submitted my first article: DS could fulfill my wish to become a real writer, but it had the potential to crush my dream.
That's when I purchased Demand Studio Secrets and joined the online DSS community. It was like purchasing a GPS in a foreign country. Should I use offline resources? Was it bad to go over the word count? Every question was answered -- almost immediately -- by Kent and other experienced DSS writers. When my questions became more technical, Kent and the DSS community were just as helpful. What were the best titles to select if I wanted to establish myelf as a writer beyond health and nutrition topics? How could I build a strong portfolio? The advice I received not only saved me a lot of floundering, it served as a morale boost.
If I wasn't part of the DSS community I'd have no idea how to go about getting promoted at DS. Thanks to Kent, I know exactly where I want to go, what types of articles I want to write one day, and what I must do if I really want to succeed...even if that means bounding out of bed at 7am on a Saturday morning because I've claimed a title that's itching to be written.
Christine Reifeiss
The next letter is from the writer known as Isla Bonita on the Demand Studio Secrets forum. She writes from her beach house in Mexico.
I was surfing the web at three in the morning looking for work. I submitted several applications online to various companies; when I stumbled upon Demand Studios, to be honest I had never even heard of them. I was so tired that morning that I didn’t remember applying to Demand Studios; it all felt like a blur. Then I received a notice from Demand Studios that my application had been accepted. I did a little research on Demand Studios. I was so happy to have been given the opportunity to work for Demand Studios, yet a little apprehensive at first, because I was going to be telecommuting for a company I knew little about. I was scared; I wasn’t even sure if I was going to get paid for my work. When I received my first paycheck, I was relieved.
When I prepared to write my first article for Demand Studios I was excited, yet immediately I felt overwhelmed and lost. When I logged into the Demand Studios website for training, I felt as though I had entered a black-hole -- there was so much information. After I read all of the Demand Studios resource materials, I became even more confused; I felt like Alice in Wonderland. When my first assignment was accepted, the copy editor was nice enough to leave me a helpful note in the comments section; I appreciated the copy editors input. Then came the dreadful day when I received a rewrite request from a copy editor who was extremely rude, made a long list of ridiculous requests, clearly knew nothing about the subject I had written and was unprofessional. I have no problem with constructive criticism; in fact I want it, my goal is to produce high quality content for Demand Studios and to learn as much as I can from a seasoned copy editor.
Soon I realized that if a writer behaved this way, they would be fired, yet a copy editor for some reason was allowed to act this way. I got the same copy editor again; it was obvious by his disrespectful condescending tone. Writers don’t get paid for rewrites let alone rejections, yet the copy editor still gets paid, even if she makes an error. I thought, if I abandon the rewrite it will reflect poorly on my scorecard; however, the rewrite demands of the copy editor were more work than if I had just claimed a new title. I was angry; I knew I was not going to get paid for all of my hard work or for the rewrite and there were no guarantees that the article would be approved. To add insult to injury -- I was being talked down to by this copy editor who was treating me like I was the village idiot. Demand Studios at the time was using what I perceived to be writer scare tactics; cracking down on everyone. I quickly became discouraged. I began to doubt my abilities as a writer. I started to wonder how I ever graduated from college.
When I first considered purchasing Demand Studios Secrets, I was ready to leave Demand Studios. I was frustrated and unhappy with Demand Studios; I hated the pay rate. I did not know if it was even worth it to continue writing for them. I began to look elsewhere for work, and was happily accepted and producing work for other projects. I was ready to jump ship. Then one day I came across the Demand Studios Secrets forum; I realized I was not alone. There was a world out there, where there were other writers who felt the exact same way I did. I felt like I had found a Demand Studios therapy group or Demand Studios rehabilitation. Everyone, especially Kent, was kind, offered excellent advice and instead of writers being competitive with one another, they genuinely wanted to see each other work through our toughest writing obstacles. It was obvious everyone respected Kent, but most importantly they trusted him, yet they lacked trust for Demand Studios.
Soon thereafter, I purchased Demand Studios Secrets. This was the best money I have ever spent on a book. Not only did I get Demand Studios Secrets, Kent seemed to come along with the book. He would invest his own personal time on the Demand Studios Secrets forum and would respond to numerous private e-mails -- helping many (as indicated on the Demand Studios Secrets forum) and believe me a lot of us had ships that were sinking at the time. I don’t know of any other author who does that. Even if I had left Demand Studios, I was still planning on purchasing Demand Studios Secrets, because I knew (based on all of the rave reviews) that it would help me become a stronger writer, and assist me with my other writing gigs, as it has.
Demand Studios Secrets gave me the direction and guidance I was unable to gain from Demand Studios. Demand Studios Secrets helped me to learn how to be a better writer, how to think differently and how to have a good relationship with Demand Studios staff, especially their copy editors. Demand Studios Secrets taught me to have a good attitude, high work ethic and most importantly not to take anything personal from Demand Studios copy editors. Demand Studios Secrets helped me to move on from any discouraging issues that I had with a bad copy editor. The book assisted me and motivated me to produce more work. Demand Studios Secrets showed me how to manage my time. I learned how to effectively schedule my writing assignments, to never write when I was upset, to not waste time and to limit my distractions. It provided me with excellent strategies for writing and making money. Demand Studios Secrets and Kent’s forum reduced my stress level and worries. Thank you Kent for all of the help that you have given to us writers; you are honest, generous, a mentor and an inspiration to all writers! I just wish Demand Studios would put Kent in charge of all of the writers, and especially the copy editors.
Just as I have great admiration and respect for Kent, I think he’s a genius. I also think the co-founders of Demand Studios, Richard Rosenblatt and Shawn Colo are brilliant. I really look up to them. They have managed to successfully change and shape the production of online content. In this tough economy and competitive market, anyone who is able to provide freelancers with work, is making a huge contribution to America. Additionally, the best thing any company can do for the environment is to offer telecommuting jobs, just as Demand Studios has. Demand Studios freelancers can go green, no need to drive to work, spend money on gas, no wear and tear on your vehicle, no vehicle needed, no parking fees, no cost to purchase a corporate wardrobe (I can write in my pajamas if I want to) and no valuable time is wasted on a commute. That’s one less car on the road for every writer and copy editor. If you have kids, pets, are disabled or caring for someone elderly or disabled, you can care for others while writing content for Demand Studios. You get the best of both worlds; working while spending quality time at home with your loved ones, and most importantly you don’t ever have worry about hiring anyone to take care of your family (pets included) while you’re at work, because your work is at home. The flexibility of Demand Studios assignments is perfect for full-time college students. If you love to travel, you can work for Demand Studios as you travel the world. The sky is the limit. It doesn’t get any better than that.
I just moved to a place on the beach in Mexico; I love it here. As I was writing an article for Demand Studios, I looked out to the ocean to collect my thoughts; I saw the tail of a gray whale come out of the water. Then I saw four bottlenose dolphins rise vertically out of the water, as they swam side by side from each other. I then saw the whale shoot up a mist of white spray from its spout as it breached. Watching dolphins and whales is an amazing experience. Mexico is such an inspirational place to write. I quickly realized I had to stay focused and continue writing; you can so easily get distracted in paradise.
Isla Bonita
If Demand Studio Secrets has made an impact on your life, I would love to hear about it.
Please write me an email at info@demandstudiosecrets.com or post your comments on the Demand Studio Secrets forum. Please also tell me if I have your permission to reprint your comments and what name you wish to use with it.
Thanks,
Kent Ninomiya
