Attraction for Demand Studios?

They was what?

Have you tried suggesting titles, articles that you would want to write (but not too common or obvious)? I'm new to Demand, but it seems to me like you have to check the titles often, as the "good ones" get snatched up quickly. I'm trying out a system where I alternate between submitting a title suggestion and claiming a title that's already written. Suggesting titles count against your 10 claims, so hopefully while my suggested titles are being reviewed, I'm still cranking out a few articles (for which I'm earning).

For you Demand regulars, do I get first shot at claiming the title I suggested if it's approved?

Also, do you ever become trusted enough where you're allowed to claim more that 10 titles at a time?

Thanks.

nickncindy said:

Why do so many people advocate this site? I find that the articles they was have no interest to me.

How to become a dentest in France
How to fix a French drain


and so forth.

Nothing that is hard to research, but I need to have my imagination captured, not just write to earn a couple of bucks.

Am I the only weirdo here?

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I usually do a search for articles that interest me such as fitness and health. Usually I can find enough to make my quota for the day. As Lisake suggested, you can suggest titles. You are paid $5 instead of $15 for a suggested How To.

Lisake, you do get first shot at the suggested title but if it expires, you are unable to reclaim it as you could a regular article. They eventually wil raise your fixed fee limit to 15 once you have several approved assignments. I hope this helps.

Thanks, Stephanie. So if my suggested how-to title is accepted, I get $5. Then if I write the article and it's accepted, I get another $15, right? Please say YES.

lisake said:

Thanks, Stephanie. So if my suggested how-to title is accepted, I get $5. Then if I write the article and it's accepted, I get another $15, right? Please say YES.

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No

Once it's accepted and you write the article, you'll get the $5. DS rate for all suggested titles is$5.

Flip. That's what I was afraid of. But thanks for letting me know.

That's why I love this site. So great to have others out there helping us newbies learn the ropes.

Nickncindy: Try a keyword search for things you're interested in. I write a lot of gardening and pet topics, but with their squirrelly categorization software now you can't always go by category. Type in a couple keywords and the format or pay rate you want to look for and you should get some better topics.

nickncindy said:

I'm sorry, I don't undertand your reponse. If i had used the phrase, "they was....," I would be totally mortified. Did I, somewhere that i am overlooking?

rah roh, I just found it and will correct it. Thanks for pointing it out!

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:-D

I was in a goofball mood last night and had to poke fun.

By the way, you're not stuck at 10 articles. Just finish up some and claim more. You can have as many as you want under review.

I'm still new to it as well, but I write for DS for the side income, and I use my imagination for my stories. Needless to say, I've earned more writing boring stuff than I have with my imaginative stuff... and I get way more work accomplished with the boring writing than I do with the fun writing. ) I perceive one to be more like a part-time job and the other to be closer to a hobby, and unless you're well-established in a certain market, I think it's healthy to diversify your writing.

Categories are pretty useless, but keyword searches will always turn up something I can commit to; hopefully they'll help you too.

Good luck!

I'm like lonestarlibrarian. I have a full-time job and I've signed up to do DS just for some extra income. It could pay for gas, groceries, restaurants. And remember, Christmas is coming! I don't think I'd make enough if I tried doing it on a full-time basis. But if you compare writing articles in the comfort of your own home to a second job flipping burgers or retail....um, it wins hands down.

SouthernFriedJulie said:

By the way, you're not stuck at 10 articles. Just finish up some and claim more. You can have as many as you want under review.

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Hmmm, maybe because I'm new they'll only let me have 10 articles total, including those under review. E.g. right now I have 4 under review and 6 others claimed, and when I try to claim another title DS says I've exceeded my limit.

Also, what is a "good" rating? I have nine acceptances and no rewrites or rejections (YET, knock on wood), but my grammar and research scores are 4.2 and 4.3, respectively. I think I've been using too many passive verbs, and I've not been using enough citations in the text (geez, there goes that darned passive voice again).

I'm working on both of those shortcomings, but is there anything else I can do to improve my rating? No feedback from any CEs yet, so not sure what they didn't like.

Thanks again for all the great info and advice.

I think a 4 rating is pretty darn good at Demand because you never know how the CE's are rating you. I hover around 3.9 on grammar and 4.2 on research. The only thing I can think of that keeps my grammar from being "perfect" is that my sentence structure gets a little choppy when I'm writing for cheap. I wouldn't worry too much about improving your writing, unless it's costing you in rewrites. If they're not throwing the articles back at you, you're doing fine.

And if they really wanted to help us improve our writing, they'd let us know what they're marking us down for!

Once you're a little more established DS drops some of the limits on you. I can claim 20 titles, and claim more as soon as I turn them in for review. I've been there since last winter. I requested that my limit be bumped up after I worked there a few months. I don't hang out on their forums anymore (I've only got time to hang on this one) so I don't know what the current chatter is.

As tempting as it is, I don't know that I'd suggest titles anymore. Way back when they offered the same for your own titles as they did for craptastic ones. Five bucks is just way to cheap. $15 is bad enough, but most of us do it because it's reliable income and pretty easy work.

A tip for newbies: don't pick titles you need to do serious research for - it's just not worth your time and effort. If you need to, spend more time FINDING the good titles that are in your area of expertise and that you can write without brain strain. That's the only way you're going to make DS work for you. Use the keyword search, and try checking at various times of the day. Some people used to have great luck finding juicy titles in the middle of the night. I think this is either when they released the new stuff, or when titles would expire from other peoples ques and go back into the system.

stldenise said:

A tip for newbies: don't pick titles you need to do serious research for - it's just not worth your time and effort. If you need to, spend more time FINDING the good titles that are in your area of expertise and that you can write without brain strain. That's the only way you're going to make DS work for you. Use the keyword search, and try checking at various times of the day. Some people used to have great luck finding juicy titles in the middle of the night. I think this is either when they released the new stuff, or when titles would expire from other peoples ques and go back into the system.

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Great advice there. One thing I would add is that when you are doing the keyword search, do not click on categories. Allow the keyword search to run over everything. I have found lots of titles by just placing my keyword and found them in categories they had no business being in.

Thanks, Denise and Ken. That advice should really help. It sounds like DS offers nice perks for writers they're happy with, so I really want to get on their good side.

Definitely no more title suggesting for me. I assumed (I know, I know) that they would pay you for the title then pay you again for writing the article. Seems to me like suggesting the title then writing the article for that title is more work for 1/3 the money. I withdrew my two title suggestions (they were under review), but then I got a message that one of them was accepted, so now I'm stuck writing that baby for a measly $5. At least it's a topic I know well, so it should be a quickie.

I really appreciate everyone sharing so much information on these threads. I'm scared of the DS forums, and it sounds like I'll fare much better discussing DS here instead of there.

Dreamer76 said:

I don't think I'd make enough if I tried doing it on a full-time basis. But if you compare writing articles in the comfort of your own home to a second job flipping burgers or retail....um, it wins hands down.

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Ha! It's funny you say that--I'm getting ready to quit my retail day job and squeak by with Demand (and a few other small gigs) until I can build up more freelance work and/or find a better day job.

Demand is definitely way retail. I've actually had good luck lately finding titles--just got approved for Garden Guides, woo! I'm approved for Livestrong, too, and those articles pay $25.

Dreamer76 said:

But if you compare writing articles in the comfort of your own home to a second job flipping burgers or retail....um, it wins hands down.

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DS also works great with my schedule. I've got two little ones, so my research/writing time is usually confined to 5-7 a.m. and 8-10 p.m. When I was writing features for a newspaper, I found it quite difficult to set up interviews during those convenient (for me) hours.

Plus, I love working in my pajamas.

Haha. ) I like browsing for topics and pulling resources while I'm killing time on internet games. Once that's done, writing the articles themselves only takes about 10-20 minutes of focus. I know people sniff at whatever they calculate the hourly rate as, but I think it's awesome I can pull in $15 or $30 while waiting for my troops to march across the map... )

treehugger said:

Ha! It's funny you say that--I'm getting ready to quit my retail day job and squeak by with Demand (and a few other small gigs) until I can build up more freelance work and/or find a better day job.

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It can be done. If you remove what I take in from private clients and blogs, I still make a good living writing for Demand Studios...the key is keeping yourself motivated, saying you need the money will not do that. Just grab a hold of the mindset that YOU are a FREELANCE WRITER and writing is what you do.

lisake said:

Hmmm, maybe because I'm new they'll only let me have 10 articles total, including those under review. E.g. right now I have 4 under review and 6 others claimed, and when I try to claim another title DS says I've exceeded my limit.

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After your first ten are approved, that limit is lifted--you'll be able to claim a new article as soon as you submit one.

I've found a lot of articles that I enjoy writing on Demand. When I can't, I choose ones that are quick and easy. If you're serious about freelancing, you're not always going to be able to find work that is creatively fulfilling. Sometimes you have to take work that isn't glamorous or exciting. That's a hard fact.

It's just like any other job, IMO. There are good aspects to it, and there are parts that you might not necessarily care for. It's not always going to be something you enjoy--that's why it's work!

nickncindy said:

Writing an article about installing gutters, or putting in a new air conditioner, while easy enough to research, would just end up as regurgitation of material I found elsewhere. To me that's not writing.

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That regurgitation of material that you don't think is writing......makes me $200 a day