Update Archive

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Demand Studios is implementing a new "hide" feature in the assignment list. This tiny button has the potential to save DS writers hours of time over the course of a year. When you see a title that you know you would never write, you can click the "hide" button next to the title and it will never appear in your assignment list again. This is extremely useful if you search for specific subjects consistently. If you hide the titles you don't want to write, you wont have to go through them again the next time you search for that topic. The problem with Demand Studios assignments is that there are too many. Hours of time are wasted scrolling through lists of unwanted titles. I highly recommend making ample use of the "hide" feature. Saved time means more money.

The new word counter is a wonderful addition to Demand Studios. Since their inception they have been very strict with word counts. It only makes sense to let writers know how many words are in the article while they write. Back in September 2009, I recommended a word counter to Demand Studios editors at their first ever creator conference in Santa Monica. I am not taking credit for the new feature but I did suggest it. I also suggested the page selection links at both the top and bottom of the Find Assignments menus, and allowing phrase searches by using quotes. Again, I am not taking credit for these upgrades but I did suggest them to the people who ultimately implemented them. Demand Studios deserves praise for constantly improving the ergonomics of their site. They should. At the same time they are adding more requirements that make the process more challenging.

One of my readers just sent me an email saying he was accepted by Demand Studios only to later be told that his acceptance was an accident. Here is the text of the email he received from Demand Studios:

Hello friend,

You recently submitted an application to Demand Studios and, subsequently, received a welcome email from us, inviting to write for the Studio. Regretfully, we must inform you that we had a technical issue which sent out that email to you in error. We did review your application, but, unfortunately, we did not feel that your writing background and style met with our needs and goals. We apologize for the miscommunication.

We thank you for your interest in Demand Studios and wish you well in all your freelancing endeavors.

Regards,

The Demand Studios Team

This is extremely odd. It took Demand Studios nearly two weeks after the acceptance to send this email. During that time the writer received two emails enticing him to write and set up his account. If this was indeed a computer error, then many other people must have experienced the same thing. If this happened to you, please email me at info@demandstudiosecrets.com.

This particular writer might have been targeted because he did not write any articles in the two weeks since he was supposedly accepted. If he had, Demand Studios might have reconsidered. It is important to start writing articles immediately after you are accepted. Try to write at least 30 per month. This makes you an "active" creator and qualifies you for health benefits if you want them.

Demand Studios quietly launched a new search feature for finding assignments. It allows you to put a phrase in quotes and search potential assignments for a specific combination of words. It was launched quietly without an announcement because it was an embarrassment not to have this feature in the first place. Everyone knows that Google searches for phrases using quotes. Why wouldn't the search engine of Demand Studios have this same basic feature? Until now, when you entered more than one word you got search results for both words individually. This was very annoying. A search for the phrase "pressure points" would elicit results ranging from "blood pressure" to "power point presentations." The new phrase in quotes search tool will help tremendously. See the Find Assignment Strategy chapter of the Demand Studio Secrets book for tips on how to maximize your search efficiency.

Today, LiveStrong.com announced a $30,000 bonus for LiveStrong.com writers for articles written in June. However, the bonus is saturated with catches. In order to get any bonus you must write at least 30 LiveStrong articles in June. The total number or articles written in June by all writers must at least 30,000. That means at least 1,000 writers must participate and meet their quotas. That's a pretty big number!

LiveStrong admits that they don't typically publish 30,000 articles per month, but they don't say how many they actually do. Writers have no idea if the goal is realistically attainable. This reminds me of 2009 when Demand Media (LiveStrong's parent company) was pushing its staff to produce 1,000,000 pieces of content within one year. They were nowhere near 1,000,000 pieces of content. After a short time they realized that the goal was impossible and abandoned the rallying cry. Could the LiveStrong bonus be a similar "pie in the sky" unattainable goal? Could this be a way for LiveStrong to squeeze more work out of writers and squelch on the bonus later? That is possible, but LiveStrong would be playing a very dangerous game if that is the plan. They would seriously piss off and alienate their best writers if they did not pony up the bonus. They would also never get anyone to participate in one of these schemes again if they didn't pay out.

I have to think that LiveStrong believes that can reach the goal. My recommendation to LiveStrong writers is to write one LiveStrong article per day while monitoring the situation. LiveStrong says they will keep writers apprised of their progress. If they are getting at least 1,000 articles per day, then continue your quest for the bonus. There is one more thing to realize. If 1,000 writers produce exactly 30,000 articles in June, the average bonus for each writer will be $30. If more articles are written, the bonus will be lower. Ask yourself if it is really worth the effort to possibly get a bonus of about $1 per day.


A few hours later, LiveStrong announced that their original announcement was incorrect. The bonus is for work in the month of May not June. HOW EMBARRASSING! You would think they had editors over at Demand Studios that could catch major errors like that before it was released to every LiveStrong writer. It just goes to show you that ANYONE can make a mistake. Perhaps copy editors should be a bit more forgiving. On a side note, this twist makes the bonus incentive even less likely. Since today is May 4, there are three fewer days to reach the goal. Remember, it is not just about your production but also about the production of 1,000 other writers. If 30,000 LiveStrong articles are not written in May, no bonus will be paid.

I have been with Demand Studios for a long time. Long enough to notice a significant shift in the way copy editors handle submissions. My copy editor friends and contacts within Demand Studios confirm this. Demand Studios is demanding a higher caliber of work. This is commendable but there is an unfortunate side effect.

Copy editors are afraid to pass along too many articles without sending a few back. They fear this will make them look lazy. It's like cops with an unofficial quota for traffic tickets. The result is more submissions being returned for rewrites even though they are soundly written. Most of these are nuisance rewrites. A quick change of a caption, reference or sentence is all that is required. This is a waste of your time since the copy editor could have done it.

The best way to handle this is to not allow it to bother you. Just make the change and send it back without comment. Getting upset and being rude in the comments section wont help you but it could harm you. There is nothing worse than a pissed off CE who is eager to get you the next time around. Understand why these nuisance rewrites are being dished out. Don't take it personally. Everyone's rewrite numbers are up over the past few months.

Finding appropriate references is always a challenge when writing an article for Demand Studios. What seems like a reasonable reference to you could be a deal breaker to a copy editor. See the list of suggested reference sites in Demand Studio Secrets. These are sites that are deemed as legitimate by Demand Studios. However, be warned that there are always exceptions. Some specific publishers do not like specific sites because they are seen as competition. These same sites are perfectly acceptable for other publishers within Demand Studios. See the Demand Studio Secrets book for specific format tips. Also keep in mind that a site does not have to be on this list to be legitimate. See the Reference and Resource Strategy chapter in the book for specific tips.

Demand Studios is cracking down in in-text referencing. They have commanded their copy editors to send back articles that do not include at least a few token in-text references. Examples of these are: "according to..." and "so and so says..." It does not matter if all your content is supported by the sources sited in your references. Demand Studios now wants you to mention the sources at least two or three times in the text of your articles.

This is a commonly used technique for journalists and Demand Studios is working hard to be the new content provider for journalism outlets everywhere. They already work with USA Today and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Can the New York Times and Wall Street Journal be far behind? Demand Studios is literally reinventing the journalism model. Conditioning their army of content producers to write this way is part of their master plan to rule the world.

Adding these in-text references is no big deal, so get used to adding them while you write. If you don't do it, expect to have your articles sent back by copy editors. This eat up your time with rewrites and reduce your P/T Ratio. (See the P/T Ratio chapter in the Demand Studio Secrets eBook) Remember all the tips in the Strategy chapters to keep rewrites to a minimum and your revenues high.

LIveStrong.com and LiveStrong.com Nutrition have stocked the assignment list with thousands of assignments at a new $25 rate. These are spread across the How To, About, How Does and List formats. These titles require the exact same amount of work as $20 article, you just get paid more. If you follow the steps in the book, you can easily finish one in less than an hour. If you enjoy writing for LiveStrong.com or LiveStrong.com Nutrition, filter your title search by publisher and rate. (See the Assignment Strategy chapter of the book) All these titles will pop up. Demand Studios is paying more for these titles because they want them done faster. They will be snatched up quicker, so if you like them check the cue often.

Citing good references are essential for getting an article approved quickly so you can be paid. Finding quality references can be difficult when Google searches produce a bunch of commercial junk and blogs. Commercial sites and blogs are not allowed as references. Many .com sites are OK, if their primary purpose is to provide information. However you must be careful not to use competitors to Demand Studios like About.com, Yahoo! Answers, or Wikipedia.

The best references are .gov and .edu sites. Here is how to narrow your Google search to just those sites. In a Google search, type in "site:.edu" then your search term. You can put the term in quotes if you want specific word combinations. Replace the ".edu" with ".gov" to look for government sites. By using this tip you can reduce your rewrites and increase your P/T Ratio. That means more money for you! See that chapter in the Demand Studio Secrets book.

In response to intense international demand, Demand Studios has finally opened up assignments to writers who are not US citizens. For now it is only Canada and the United Kingdom, but others might follow later. I know that writers in India are eager to join Demand Studios.

Canada and the United Kingdom were chosen because the people there speak and write similar to Americans. Similar but not exactly. Make no mistake, the Demand Studios content is intended for the American market. They are happy when others around the world read it, but most of the money is made in the USA.

Demand Studios is warning Canadian and UK writers that they have to write in American. That means writing flavor instead of flavour. It means using miles instead of kilometers. It means listing the day before the month and the time in AM/PM.

Upon closer examination it becomes apparent that American English is a bit different than Canadian English, eh, and much different from British English, blimey. Words like flat, boot, pissed, lift and jumper have completely different meanings. Writers from Canada and the UK will need to take a crash course in American speak if they want to write for Demand Studios.