It's no secret- this economy's sluggish and content sites like Demand Studios appear to be profiting exponentially. The job sites and job boards have seen an increase in ads promising untold riches and money making schemes for freelance writers. Demand Studios' ads for freelance writer jobs are scattered all over the internet on sites such as Career Builder and Craig's List. Just today, in fact, they launched another cattle call and posted this ad for freelance writers and editors:
'Demand Studios – the main content production studio for such premium online destinations as USAToday.com, LIVESTRONG.com, and eHow.com – is looking for experienced writers to join our vibrant community of freelancers.'
The ad continues, 'Singularly focused on creating high-quality, engaging and helpful content for the millions of dedicated followers of our sites, we are in need of talented writers to meet the ever-increasing demand for new articles. With a flexible schedule and freedom to write on topics based on writer knowledge and interest, this is an opportunity to build online visibility and gain financial compensation in a supportive and interesting environment.'
What the ad doesn't say is that Demand Studios is one of the largest content mills on the face of the virtual planet. How do I know? I wrote for them for over a year.
I was originally lured in by an advertisement for freelance writers for Livestrong.com. I'm a big fan of the brand and an avid athlete myself, so I was keen to jump on the proverbial bandwagon. I applied and was approved, but not as a 'healthy living writer' as I had wanted, but simply as a general 'content creator.' Since the economy is tepid at best for everyone- even for a word maven like me- I thought that I'd give it a go.
How did it work out? At first, it wasn't so bad. However, it only took a few weeks of writing sporadically for them to realise that their interests weren't geared toward creating a 'supportive and interesting environment,' as their most recent ad claims. Rather, I figured out pretty darn quickly that 1. writers were underpaid and 2. Demand Studios didn't seem to care one iota about the well-being of their minions.
The deal is this: they claim to offer writers the opportunity to 'build online visibility with bylines,' 'earn $15-$25 per hour' and to 'receive expert feedback from [their] professional editors.' From my experience, this is marketing spiel at its best. Here's the real deal: they are quickly developing a poor reputation in the writing world (see Wired's article, "The Answer Factory"); they offer $15.00 per 500 word article and there is no guarantee that it will be accepted (I did $150.00 worth of articles once and they were all killed); and their editors, for the most part, are laughable (one actually began her comments with, "Well, duh!"; others were just downright rude or offered feedback contradictory to the writers' published guidelines). And the work 'environment?' It consists of a forum that is best avoided, unless you are looking for technical help. Granted, there are some very interesting and genuine personalities there, but the bulk of the support they give to one another is geared towards how to produce more work so they can make rent with the pittance they earn.
The final verdict? Look for real writing gigs and proper clients. Work for editors who are capable of spell-checking their own comments and avoid the sweat shop of the content mills. If not, at least make sure you use a pseudonym for your byline. It'll save you professional embarrassment in the long-run.
