appealing rejection on Demand Studios

Yes, you can.

I don't bother with appeals, though. You won't get paid for the work you did, just given another title that is similar. I reason- why do double the work for something that was determined to be correct in the first place?

You're welcome

I got rejected as a writer and as an editor at demand, which is more funny than sad to me. I've been employed as both, and made good money at both. I suppose there are folks out there who must need this more than I do, according to the universe.

dclary said:

I got rejected as a writer and as an editor at demand, which is more funny than sad to me. I've been employed as both, and made good money at both. I suppose there are folks out there who must need this more than I do, according to the universe.

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I know several people who've had the same thing happen. They're all qualified. DS can be a bit odd in their hiring process. I wouldn't sweat it too much - it's not exactly a dream job, though you'd never know it if you were to read their forums. I use it only to supplement and fill in the gaps.

I feel better reading the above- i was beggining to wonder if i'm a bad writer because they rejected me as well. (And yes, i do capitalize the personal pronoun in my articles )
I'm not sure DS is worth anybody's time. I dont remember what they pay but i remember it was very little especially since they say they want researched articles. When you consider the time you must spend to research, plus the time to write it, the pay is a joke.

Risa,

The one good thing about DS and the one and only reason I still bother to write anything for them at all is that they always have work available. However, I find 99% of the titles require way more research than is worth doing and or they are simply unwritable. While it's nice to have a place to fill in the gaps between real jobs, frankly you aren't missing much. I'm actively trying to increase my workload elsewhere so I can dump them completely.

Eric

I really like them. Lately they have had a ton of articles in the area I write, and they have been easy to research and write. Takes a few minutes time and I can make several hundred a month, which really helps pay some bills.

I did get my first rejection today though, and was a little annoyed. Supposedly I had accepted a bad title, one that couldn't be written. But I am still not sure why it was a bad title, as I was able to write it. But oh well, I still have ten more claimed to write and dozens more waiting if I can get to them before someone else does. Might not be the highest paying, but I think it is easy money.

Appeals? If what you've written is worth reading, sell it to a different, better paying market.

I've had no luck with appeals whatsoever. I've only had one rejection overturned (out of fifteen on about 1500 articles written) and all I got out of it was the guy's wrong but sorry there's nothing we can do.

A significant number of CE's over there IMO are arrogant and obnoxious with the belief that they're copy editors for the New York Times rather than peons at a content mill.

I stopped writing for them in April after I wrote an article, had it sent back for revision and then had the slimeball CE reject it anyway on the grounds that I did not fulfill the requirements of the title in question initially. The editorial staff refused to back me up or compensate me for what amounted to over an hour of my time.

I think they completely suck. I write for three reasons: passion, love of writing and to make money. DS only manages to meet one of those goals for me and even then I know of at least a dozen different ways to make money with far less stress not to mention actual overtime pay.

They want very high quality work and they want it for as little as possible.

The single worst job I've had since I worked minimum wage the summer I was sixteen were the travel articles project they put out for USA Today. The demands were insane on that one: literally between two and three hours of work per article for a lousy rotten twenty bucks. I had one rewrite sent back that had fifteen very detailed questions attached to it. The final tally on the article was nearly a thousand words. A thousand words for a prestigious publication that took over four hours of my time for not even five dollars per hour when it was all over.

Sick.

I'm still angry over that project. You want high quality work? Great! You'd better pay for it. They aren't and never will be.

I only plan to work for them again when I have nothing else to do.

The only way you can work for them, IMO, is to treat them like a job and write as quickly as you can for the easiest possible titles you can find. They're not prestigious or high paying and they most certainly do not deserve you to treat them with the sort of passion or respect you'd treat your dream writing project.

I was one of the eHowers who was lucky enough to be pre-selected for Demand. I've only written a couple of articles for them because I'm more into writing for the fun of it rather than spending hours of time researching topics I don't know, writing, rewriting, and making $15 for stressing out over a few hours.

I've only written a couple of articles and the senior editors seem nice and very helpful. I haven't met the real CE's yet, and as soon as I can find more topics to write in my expertise I'll be writing some more. I recently tried writing articles for the residual income portion of the site, but most of the titles were already taken.

You're not a bad writer if you receive a rejection from Demand. I used to write for a newspaper and I've written articles for organizations such as Madison Square Garden Entertainment and Youth Vote Overseas. Frankly, Demand wants high quality work in a certain format. If you don't fit the format then you will receive a rewrite then a rejection if you fail to get it right the second time. I haven't received a rejection yet (*fingers crossed*) but I also heard that the CE's can sometimes be impossible to work with and even contradictory on occasion.

If you have fun researching new topics or if you are an expert at cars then I can see how Demand could become a good job. If you can remain detached from your work and not take it personally, then Demand is good as well. If you just write for fun then you may not have as much fun at Demand. It's pretty cool receiving an exact amount of money right away, but if you're just writing for fun then you may want to take your time with Demand.

I just started copy editing for DS (sorry in advance)...the extra money is nice, and frankly, looking at the demands they place on writers, I figured editing was the safer route.

I have no doubt that some of the CEs are pains in the arse. With that said, some of the writers aren't too rosy, either. I've received some snippy comments already in response to my very nice requests to make a minor change or clarification here or there. CEs need to get through a certain amount of articles per week, and some of the writing is just horrendous - "You're paying me WHAT to fix this? And I have to do it in ten minutes?"

They demand (heh) a lot of writers and editors. I just look at it as a side gig where I can make some money and keep my mind relatively sharp. It's my first toe into the big lake of freelancing. There are folks who make their living off it - not sure I'd embrace it to that extent, but it is what it is.

Anastacia: It's a little reassuring to hear that somebody else is as frustrated with DS as I am. Like you, I quit writing for them a few months ago when they started demanding a lot more work for the same amount of pay, but recently I thought maybe I could write for them again, just an article or two a day, for a little extra cash. So I wrote and submitted a health-related article, and in it I talked about avoiding caffeine and specifically mentioned coffee, tea and chocolate. Well, the CE sent it back to me for a rewrite, and among the myriad of fiddly and stupid corrections requested, he actually told me that chocolate does not contain caffeine (!!) and to back him up he cited... Wise Geek! A blacklisted site! So, I can't use Wise Geek as a source for writing my articles, but the CEs can use it for making inane rewrite requests? To hell with that. Last year I quit a job in retail to write full time, but I would so totally rather go back to retail than write for DS ever again.

treehugger said:

Anastacia: It's a little reassuring to hear that somebody else is as frustrated with DS as I am. Like you, I quit writing for them a few months ago when they started demanding a lot more work for the same amount of pay, but recently I thought maybe I could write for them again, just an article or two a day, for a little extra cash. So I wrote and submitted a health-related article, and in it I talked about avoiding caffeine and specifically mentioned coffee, tea and chocolate. Well, the CE sent it back to me for a rewrite, and among the myriad of fiddly and stupid corrections requested, he actually told me that chocolate does not contain caffeine (!!) and to back him up he cited... Wise Geek! A blacklisted site! So, I can't use Wise Geek as a source for writing my articles, but the CEs can use it for making inane rewrite requests? To hell with that. Last year I quit a job in retail to write full time, but I would so totally rather go back to retail than write for DS ever again.

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That's somewhere between horrifying and hysterically funny.

I've had so many contradictory CE requests I could spent hours writing about them.

CE no. 1 says I can't use the word casual to describe restaurants because that's a value judgement. CE no. 2 actually puts the word casual in the finished copy. CE no. 1 says I should use X source. CE no. 2 says I can't that very same source.

I believe the only way to stay sane when writing for them is FETAMMWQ or Find Easy Titles And Make Money Writing Quickly. Oh and never appeal a rejection or a rewrite. The editorial staff never sides with writers. You could be the Pope and they'd still somehow find a way to make you prove you're Catholic.

I wrote about three articles this week just to pick up some quick cash but I swear I sat there checking the website a dozen times a day until they took them. Nothing is worse than the dreaded "Edits Needed on Your Assignment" email.

dclary said:

I got rejected as a writer and as an editor at demand, which is more funny than sad to me. I've been employed as both, and made good money at both. I suppose there are folks out there who must need this more than I do, according to the universe.

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Angie said:

I know several people who've had the same thing happen. They're all qualified. DS can be a bit odd in their hiring process.

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Risa Attrell said:

I feel better reading the above- i was beggining to wonder if i'm a bad writer because they rejected me as well.

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I have been a writer, a CE and an editor for about 15 years now, and I have written for all kinds of newspapers, mags and websites. As an editor I have rejected tons of writers and CEs with otherwise great credentials, simply, because they couldn't adapt the writing/editing style required. Just because you're a good writer/CE elsewhere doesn't make you a good fit at this specific publication. I am amazed time and time again how many writers and CEs are stuck with just one or two styles of writing/editing and are unable to deliver suitable copy for different formats, but that's just how it is. So what I am saying is: This is not a Demand Media oddity, but these rejections happen to decent writers and decent CEs everywhere all the time. And those rejections don't say that the publication in question doesn't think you're a good writer or CE, but they say that they don't think you're a good fit for them. That might hurt a writer's or CE's pride, but chances are that more often than not those assessments are correct. Don't let it annoy you, just shake it off and move on to a different publication.

Risa Attrell said:

I'm not sure DS is worth anybody's time. I dont remember what they pay but i remember it was very little especially since they say they want researched articles. When you consider the time you must spend to research, plus the time to write it, the pay is a joke.

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This joke is paying me between 240 and 320 bucks a day based on 8 hours of work. 240 when I am having lazy-ass days, 320 when I am working more focused. May I ask how much you make elsewhere if that kind of pay is such a joke?
Obviously, those 240 to 320 a day minus taxes, ss and so on isn't going to turn me into Rockefeller any time soon, but it pays the bills when I don't have better-paying assignments, and I am not considering this kind of payment a joke. Am I being too modest and underselling myself?

eric11210 said:

The one good thing about DS and the one and only reason I still bother to write anything for them at all is that they always have work available. However, I find 99% of the titles require way more research than is worth doing and or they are simply unwritable. While it's nice to have a place to fill in the gaps between real jobs, frankly you aren't missing much. I'm actively trying to increase my workload elsewhere so I can dump them completely.

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How much you can make on DS is mostly a matter of smart title claiming, I think. When I pick my articles, I make sure that I choose articles from the same "group" that I can all base on the same research material. For instance, if you're claiming Livestrong Lifestyle articles, claim articles from an area you know well personally, and claim several titles covering the same region - that way you can get all of your research done in very little time and write a number of articles without having to go back to research over and over again. I can easily crank out two well-written articles per hour this way, and have enough references and resources to back up my writing with one research session for all of them.

Now, if you pick titles that require fundamental individual research that get you stuck for several hours, the pay will obviously be lousy, and I understand that you don't want that. I wouldn't want that either. So if you claimed a title that requires very time-consuming in-depth research, ditch the article and claim a new title before investing too much time.

Anastacia said:

That's somewhere between horrifying and hysterically funny.

I've had so many contradictory CE requests I could spent hours writing about them.

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I've had those too, but I just shake it off and move on. I am mostly writing for Livestrong, and I find that the Livestrong CEs seem to be more consistent (and possibly better trained guideline-wise and tonality-wise) than the eHow CEs, but there's always the occasional slip here or there. I don't really care about that, though, and I don't argue with the CEs. If I find their request idiotic, I don't do the rewrite, if I can live with the requests, I make the changes. I think it's key not to attach oneself emotionally to this kind of content writing. In the end, these are not in-depth magazine articles that consumed two weeks of my time, but this is 400 to 500 word content generating with little to no journalistic approach that I can do in 30 to 45 minutes.

I believe the only way to stay sane when writing for them is FETAMMWQ or Find Easy Titles And Make Money Writing Quickly.

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I totally, whole-heartedly agree with that. Just stay away from difficult-to-research, hard-to-write kind of titles, and life on Demand Media isn't too shabby. At least for me it isn't.

I know someone who appealed and one. The article wasn’t published but she was paid and didn’t have to rewrite it in any fashion.

DS is about making money and keeping it moving to the next title. Never spend more than 30 mins. Never appeal - you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting your $ in the end. Never visit the forums - too much crazy. Just set a timer, pick stuff that you know, find a source that fits it, and press send.

does anyone know when the increase the claims? i hate having just three.

I recently appealed a (really foolish) rejection and won. I don't know whether the article was published but I got paid for it. For me it was the principle of the matter - my work was sound and the basis for the rejection was incorrect. I wanted to make sure the CE knew that.