Demand Media Drops eHow Writers Compensation Program
By Anna Johnson on April 18th, 2010eHow, the popular how-to information website owned by Demand Media, will no longer offer its Writers Compensation Program. Under this program, writers could contribute articles to eHow and share in ad revenue earned from those articles.
In producing content for eHow, Demand Media has, to date, offered two remuneration programs. Writers could sign up with Demand Media’s Demand Studio and choose set projects to work on, for which they would be paid a fixed fee and/or revenue share.
Alternatively, they could contribute their own articles in return an advertising revenue-sharing arrangement via the Writers Compensation Program. In this case, they would get a share of the ad revenue from the ads displayed alongside their articles.
In an interview with Web Pro News, eHow’s General Manager Greg Boudewijn indicated that the move to dump the Writers Compensation Program was designed to improve the quality and continuity of the content on eHow. Unlike writers who write articles for Demand Studios, the Writers Compensation Program didn’t require writers to submit their articles to any kind of quality review prior to publication.
Apart from quality considerations, I expect there’s a strong business case for the move as well.
Among the key criteria used by Demand Studios in selecting article topics are (a) what Internet users are searching for in the search engines and (b) the ad revenue potential of displaying content to match those searches. Demand Studios uses an algorithm that generates topics based on these and other considerations.
It’s foreseeable, then, that Demand Media has decided to drop the Writers Compensation Program because of its relatively low revenue potential compared with that of the Demand Studios model.
In the meantime, whilst shutting off the Writers Compensation Program to new writers, Demand Media will continue paying revenue shares to existing program participants. It should also be noted that the company is still offering revenue share opportunities to writers who contribute articles via Demand Studios.
Source: Chris Crum, “Demand Media Aims to Sort Out eHow Content Confusion,” Web Pro News, April 6, 2010
November 9th, 2010 at 9:06 am
I have been contributing articles at eHow.com for several years. At one point, I had over 120 articles published there, then eHow began their weeding out process. First, they eliminated all but 95 of my articles; then they changed their payment plan as you describe in this article. Initially, I did not meet their “cut-off” metrics (I used to write about a variety of things, some of which might not have been “How-to” enough for their liking–it’s ok, their call I guess). Fortunately, I had already signed up with Demand Studios (aka Demand Media) under different ID info, so I could continue to write at that site. However, because DS Terms of Use clearly explain that DS gets to keep all rights, payment for the articles is a one-time shot. At DS, “Tips” (up to 50 words) pay about $3.00, “Fact Sheets” (up to 200 words) pay about $7.50, and “How-To’s” (such as for eHow) pay about $15.00. There are still “Revenue Sharing” opportunities, which can pay more over a period of time, but the bottom line is still that DS gets all copyrights. That, in itself, is not a welcome change for me. I realize DS/DM is, as you allude to, making a ‘business decision’, but I’m guessing it’s based on greed mostly, plus it gives them the ability to reject articles their “Copy Editors” (also a paid position, though serious credentials are required) feel are not good enough.
Although I do still write at DS/DM, I am not nearly as “excited” about it as I was with the eHow.com “Writer’s Compensation” system. Clearly, the DS/DM writing opportunity is nowhere near as inviting now, and my guess is that they will experience many rejects and rewrites to get to the level of quality they seem to be seeking. Top quality writers will likely shy away from DS/
DM, because the earnings potential just is not lucrative enough.
I expect many other similar sites will follow suit, going forward…for a variety of reasons. And, perhaps doing so will help to clean up some of the “duplicate content” that is out there. But I am not convinced the quality of content is really going to get much better if sites are not willing to pay for it. Of course, there are many places across the globe where people are willing to work for much less than I might be willing for, and that might or might not prove to be a good thing. Time will tell, I guess. Meanwhile, I am disappointed with DS/DM; but I’m sure they don’t much care about what I think.
November 9th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Hi Charlie, thanks so much for your detailed comments, and for providing a writer’s perspective on the situation.