Photo by churlI write for Demand Studios. I have been writing for them since July 4, 2009. I was accepted as a writer long before then, but it was in July that my financial situation hit dire straits. I can’t remember what articles I sent them as samples, but I am almost certain that they were unremarkable. I half expected to be easily accepted and half expected them to be somewhat of a scam.

When I received my acceptance, it was nice since I had just lost my job. At least I had *something*. I hesitated to submit my first article after reading their strict and tedious guidelines. I thought, “I’ll never remember everything.” I started out writing Strategy articles. A Strategy article back then was almost like a tutorial. My first article was approved with a rewrite that only required a couple small edits. That gave me the confidence I needed to continue. I branched out and wrote a couple of other different kinds of articles: About and Fact Sheets.

I continued having success submitting articles and eventually fell in love with How To pieces. I write them almost exclusively now. The problem that I’ve had with Demand Studios is that I’ve had a really hard time meeting my financial goals writing for them. I know I can do it. It shouldn’t be that hard to write 40 articles and make $600 in a week…but it is. There are many variables that must be in sync when it comes to having a successful week with Demand such as:

• Writable titles
• New titles
• Figuring out when Demand uploads new titles
• Beating other writers to the good titles
• Exercising self discipline
• Keeping a schedule
• Maintaining a strong focus

Demand Studios has more than 160,000 titles available for claiming as of this writing. You would think that with such a large number of titles to choose from, it would be easy to find 40 to write. The truth as of late is that it takes HOURS to find just a few titles that are actually writable. I define writable as something that is possible to write, fits within my realm of knowledge and research, and is properly categorized. While you can search for any keyword you like, you may or may not find viable titles pertaining to your keyword choice. One of my favorite keyword searches is “photoshop”. As of late, there is less than a page of titles on Photoshop available. A few of these titles don’t make sense…they are not writable. A few of them specify that the article be about Photoshop Elements which is a completely different piece of software. These variables eliminate those titles as writable. Demand does have a category search, but it has been out of whack for months.

I don’t spend much time in the forums at Demand Studios, because hello! I need to be writing. The forums seem to be wrought with a lot of complaints regarding the copy editors and issues surrounding the writing and approval process. I’m not sure if not participating in the forums is to my detriment or not. Perhaps there’s something that I am missing. Supposedly, there is a set time each day that Demand uploads new titles, and if you are in the know about when this is, you have a chance to grab all the good titles. I don’t know when this moment happens, and the last couple weeks has proven that to me with a vengeance. It’s frustrating when you spend 2-3 hours searching for titles and end up with four.

Photo by Frederic PoirotThe rate of pay is also up for debate. Until last week, the most you could make on a Demand Studios article was $15. That is tough to swallow when there are freelancers out there who claim to be commanding $50+ per article. So where I need write 8 articles per day with Demand, at that rate, I could get by with three. It saps one’s motivation. When I first started at Demand, all the writers were basically on the same level. Now they’ve launched a Premium program where they hand-picked writers who are eligible to write articles that pay as high as $75. Yours truly was not selected. I’m trying not to be bitter.

When you get down to it…I’ve been writing for Demand for 8 months and I still can only claim 10 articles at a time with consistent scores well above average. I have had 76% of my articles approved without a rewrite, and I can’t even get my queue increased 5 more articles. Speaking of consistency, the copy editors are not…in the least bit consistent. I won’t elaborate because I don’t want this post to become an outright bitchfest…and yeah, they *score* you. They score you based on grammar and research. Both things where it is easy to let one’s personal pet peeves take over.

Pros

• Demand Studios pays twice a week
• Payment is consistent and on time
• Large pool of titles
• Writers must be native English speakers
• Guidelines are well outlined

Cons

• Title to writable title ratio is opposite what it should be
• Recently expanding writer pool to the UK and Canada
• There are no briefings for articles
• Interpretation of the title is left up to the writer’s discretion
• Copy editors are inconsistent
• Huge pool of writers

If you are thinking about applying for Demand Studios, think about it. I won’t tell you not to do it because they have been a viable source of income for me and I’m not sure what I would have done without the opportunity. My best advice is to keep your options open, and you can do that while writing for Demand Studios. If you want to write for Demand or you already do, drop me line, I really like to network with my colleagues.