Studio Blog
Welcome to the Demand Studios Blog – a resource for writers, contributors and freelancers alike! Come here for answers to your questions, Studio news, writing tips and more.
Studio Blog
Ever wonder what it's like to work for Demand Studios? We checked in with our community of freelance creators—writers, copy editors, filmmakers and titlers—and asked them to share their experiences. Hundreds of people chimed in about why Demand Media works for them. Tune in daily to read their firsthand accounts.
I'm Laurel Ziemann, a member of the QA Titling team. I am thankful for the opportunity to be part of the Demand Studios family. For the last 18 months, I have been editing several financial websites on a volunteer basis and am glad to have a paying position. I enjoy the electronic communication with team members while learning the production process and preferred style format. I'm also privileged to be working with an excellent caliber of people who respect language and each other. Although electronic, the culture is friendly and team-focused. I enjoy the flexibility of hours and being able to work in my jammies.
I'm Laurel Ziemann, a member of the QA Titling team. I am thankful for the opportunity to be part of the Demand Studios family. For the last 18 months, I have been editing several financial websites on a volunteer basis and am glad to have a paying position. I enjoy the electronic communication with team members while learning the production process and preferred style format. I'm also privileged to be working with an excellent caliber of people who respect language and each other. Although electronic, the culture is friendly and team-focused. I enjoy the flexibility of hours and being able to work in my jammies.
Ever wonder what it's like to work for Demand Studios? We checked in with our community of freelance creators—writers, copy editors, filmmakers and titlers—and asked them to share their experiences. Hundreds of people chimed in about why Demand Media works for them. Tune in daily to read their firsthand accounts.
My name is Kandra Sperling. I have 30 years’ experience in journalism and photography. My last job as community editor, writer and photographer for a major daily was a great job, but for personal reasons, I decided to "retire." A bad economy changed everything. My husband's work depends on a good real estate market, which is non-existent these days. Looking for work, I stumbled upon Demand Studios. The flexibility of working for Demand Studios takes away the stress of a full-time job. The ability to work from anywhere in the world gives me freedom, which is the greatest bonus for two photographers who love to travel.
My name is Kandra Sperling. I have 30 years’ experience in journalism and photography. My last job as community editor, writer and photographer for a major daily was a great job, but for personal reasons, I decided to "retire." A bad economy changed everything. My husband's work depends on a good real estate market, which is non-existent these days. Looking for work, I stumbled upon Demand Studios. The flexibility of working for Demand Studios takes away the stress of a full-time job. The ability to work from anywhere in the world gives me freedom, which is the greatest bonus for two photographers who love to travel.
Seeing that it's the beginning of a new year, we wanted to take this opportunity to review our plagiarism policies and practices with you. We are constantly on the lookout for content coming to the Studio that is not authentic. That is why we have our plagiarism checker that stands guard of our content like a TSA security scanner stand guard of carry-on luggage; not the body ones, we promise.
Once your article is submitted to the Studio, we run it through an online plagiarism checker to sort out work that may have duplicated or repurposed content in it. A handful of articles are flagged by this computer system, and a human (also known as an in-house Studio Editor) sorts it out. Very few articles of the articles flagged are found to be plagiarized.
Just as we do not want to be purchasing content that is a direct match to an already published article, we also do not want anyone taking or borrowing work we have purchased from you. To ensure no one is plagiarizing your content, we rerun all articles we have approved for the Studio through the plagiarism checker randomly throughout the year. This is to monitor content that has been taken from the Studio, and republished elsewhere on the web.
In our Terms of Use we clearly state in section 6.2, “…you may not reproduce, distribute, modify, publicly perform or display, or prepare derivative works of any Service Content, without prior written consent from Demand Studios or other third-party owner of the rights in that Service Content (if any). Demand Studios, its affiliates and licensors own all right, title and interest in and to the Service and the Service Content.”
Basically, you should not submit content with the intent to redistribute it elsewhere after publication.
However, if we do not approve your article, it is yours for the selling. In our Code of Ethics, we clearly state that any work that is not purchased from you by the Studio is yours to resell. Under the Title Ownership section (2.a), we state, “If your content has been rejected, you may republish your work on a different site, but you may not use our title. If we reject your work, the content you wrote belongs to you, but the title provided by Demand Studios is our intellectual property and may not be republished. “
If you have any questions on our plagiarism process you can check out our link here that goes through it in a more detailed way:
http://www.demandstudios.com/community/forum.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a2385d292-db38-4e0c-8199-ba98a40f2029Forum%3a5a3012ed-e3b5-41fd-8400-225d3d8fdcdfDiscussion%3a165ac7f9-b0fe-4b26-b1a0-e9bfaecb1f98
Once your article is submitted to the Studio, we run it through an online plagiarism checker to sort out work that may have duplicated or repurposed content in it. A handful of articles are flagged by this computer system, and a human (also known as an in-house Studio Editor) sorts it out. Very few articles of the articles flagged are found to be plagiarized.
Just as we do not want to be purchasing content that is a direct match to an already published article, we also do not want anyone taking or borrowing work we have purchased from you. To ensure no one is plagiarizing your content, we rerun all articles we have approved for the Studio through the plagiarism checker randomly throughout the year. This is to monitor content that has been taken from the Studio, and republished elsewhere on the web.
In our Terms of Use we clearly state in section 6.2, “…you may not reproduce, distribute, modify, publicly perform or display, or prepare derivative works of any Service Content, without prior written consent from Demand Studios or other third-party owner of the rights in that Service Content (if any). Demand Studios, its affiliates and licensors own all right, title and interest in and to the Service and the Service Content.”
Basically, you should not submit content with the intent to redistribute it elsewhere after publication.
However, if we do not approve your article, it is yours for the selling. In our Code of Ethics, we clearly state that any work that is not purchased from you by the Studio is yours to resell. Under the Title Ownership section (2.a), we state, “If your content has been rejected, you may republish your work on a different site, but you may not use our title. If we reject your work, the content you wrote belongs to you, but the title provided by Demand Studios is our intellectual property and may not be republished. “
If you have any questions on our plagiarism process you can check out our link here that goes through it in a more detailed way:
http://www.demandstudios.com/community/forum.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a2385d292-db38-4e0c-8199-ba98a40f2029Forum%3a5a3012ed-e3b5-41fd-8400-225d3d8fdcdfDiscussion%3a165ac7f9-b0fe-4b26-b1a0-e9bfaecb1f98
"There is always something to be found if you look for it."
--Anonymous
When I talk to writers and filmmakers who work for Demand Studios—believe it or not, I run into them all the time…in fact, I’m related to one or two—one of the most common questions I’m asked is why the categories of titles are so confusing and often inaccurate.
The simplest explanation is to just say that it isn’t easy to categorize 60,000 titles a day, so our margin of error is a little bit higher than most. But I’ll step out of the way of my pride and admit it, our assignment categorization needs improvement.
Thankfully for those of you who are concerned enough to be reading this, help is on the way…but before I go into it, I would like to give a little explanation about the task in front of us.
The Essence of Taxonomy
In the Internet era, where entering information into search boxes has become the preferred method of locating information, you can be forgiven if you’ve taken for granted the ability to find what you want in seconds.
At Demand Studios, we need to pair up thousands of assignments with thousands of writers and do it quickly. This requires a comprehensive category taxonomy that is large enough to hold our content without being so big that it becomes a complete nuisance to writers and filmmakers looking to find work. (And btw, the word “taxonomy” has always terrified me. Just say it aloud a couple times and you’ll see what I mean.)
Every title we create, and if you’ve been reading this blog this week you know we’re talking about tens of thousands a day, then needs to be matched with the category that fits the best. Sounds simple, but let me ask, where would you categorize “How to Find a Divorce Lawyer?” In Law or Divorce?...See what I mean.
In truth, this doesn’t explain why you might find an assignment about marriage in the “Computers” category, but there are other complications at play. Namely that the assignments categorized correctly are found and claimed far more rapidly than those that aren’t, so there is an uneven ratio of miscategorized content that sticks around and piles up as the other stuff moves through the system.
A third and final problem with categorization is that in the past we’ve relied heavily on automated programs to choose categories for titles based on contextual semantic matching. What the heck is semantic contextual matching? Let’s just say matching words to other like words. And it’s obviously not perfect, which leads to lots of titles sitting in the wrong category.
Yeah, yeah, so I’m telling you what you already know—that there are flaws in categorization. But what are we doing about it?
The Future of Categorization
It’s taken a lot of time and effort to analyze our process and figure out where the loose ends are. In order to fix the problems, we first had to find out how wrong we were, which meant recategorizing a huge sample of assignments one by one using paid professionals.
From there, we overhauled our contextual matching program and built in a process by which the program can get smarter every time we find a category that is has missed. We’re putting this new program in place next week, and we expect an immediate 15% improvement on the categorization accuracy of all new assignments. Just trust us when we say this will be noticeable.
Next we’ve had to create a plan for using this new program to put a more precise categorization on the millions of titles we already have in our reserve. This is another step that we will undertake within the next 15-30 days, and again, we expect a very clear and noticeable improvement.
Finally, we’ve had to figure out a way to ensure a higher overall level of precision and accuracy in all the areas where there might be a potential loophole (i.e. the Law/Divorce example above). The best way to do this, we’ve determined, is to get more human eyeballs on our titles. We’ve relied heavily on a combo of humans and machines in other parts of the studio (we’ve even made Terminator analogies…ok, maybe that was just me). So now we’ve decided to incorporate a better human-computer blended approach to title categorization.
What does it all mean?
Thankfully, we expect an immediate, drastic improvement in the category accuracy of new assignments in the next 10 days. By end of February, we expect that same uptick to be replicated on older assignments that have been available in the tools for a while now. And by the end of March, once humans are fully integrated, we expect that less than 1 in 25 assignments in the tools will be miscategorized.
I want to personally thank all of the contributors to Demand Studios for their patience as we’ve worked our way through myriad new frontiers of online content creation—most of all those of you who’ve managed to suffer the frustration of spending your valuable time trying to find assignments in our tools, rather than on doing what you do best, executing them. The categorization issue has been a tough nut to crack, from top to bottom, and we do realize how it impacts everyone. We hope the solutions we’ve come up with will start making your jobs easier in the next week or two.
And I’d also like to add a special thanks to the titling team for all the great information posted on the blog this week. We wanted to make sure the creator community was aware that there is a whole crew of us working hard every day to make sure there are ample assignments and hence money to be made. My hope is that we shed some light on what was previously not understood. And if we didn’t, of course, you can always contact us directly at TitlingTeam@demandstudios.com.
--Anonymous
When I talk to writers and filmmakers who work for Demand Studios—believe it or not, I run into them all the time…in fact, I’m related to one or two—one of the most common questions I’m asked is why the categories of titles are so confusing and often inaccurate.
The simplest explanation is to just say that it isn’t easy to categorize 60,000 titles a day, so our margin of error is a little bit higher than most. But I’ll step out of the way of my pride and admit it, our assignment categorization needs improvement.
Thankfully for those of you who are concerned enough to be reading this, help is on the way…but before I go into it, I would like to give a little explanation about the task in front of us.
The Essence of Taxonomy
In the Internet era, where entering information into search boxes has become the preferred method of locating information, you can be forgiven if you’ve taken for granted the ability to find what you want in seconds.
At Demand Studios, we need to pair up thousands of assignments with thousands of writers and do it quickly. This requires a comprehensive category taxonomy that is large enough to hold our content without being so big that it becomes a complete nuisance to writers and filmmakers looking to find work. (And btw, the word “taxonomy” has always terrified me. Just say it aloud a couple times and you’ll see what I mean.)
Every title we create, and if you’ve been reading this blog this week you know we’re talking about tens of thousands a day, then needs to be matched with the category that fits the best. Sounds simple, but let me ask, where would you categorize “How to Find a Divorce Lawyer?” In Law or Divorce?...See what I mean.
In truth, this doesn’t explain why you might find an assignment about marriage in the “Computers” category, but there are other complications at play. Namely that the assignments categorized correctly are found and claimed far more rapidly than those that aren’t, so there is an uneven ratio of miscategorized content that sticks around and piles up as the other stuff moves through the system.
A third and final problem with categorization is that in the past we’ve relied heavily on automated programs to choose categories for titles based on contextual semantic matching. What the heck is semantic contextual matching? Let’s just say matching words to other like words. And it’s obviously not perfect, which leads to lots of titles sitting in the wrong category.
Yeah, yeah, so I’m telling you what you already know—that there are flaws in categorization. But what are we doing about it?
The Future of Categorization
It’s taken a lot of time and effort to analyze our process and figure out where the loose ends are. In order to fix the problems, we first had to find out how wrong we were, which meant recategorizing a huge sample of assignments one by one using paid professionals.
From there, we overhauled our contextual matching program and built in a process by which the program can get smarter every time we find a category that is has missed. We’re putting this new program in place next week, and we expect an immediate 15% improvement on the categorization accuracy of all new assignments. Just trust us when we say this will be noticeable.
Next we’ve had to create a plan for using this new program to put a more precise categorization on the millions of titles we already have in our reserve. This is another step that we will undertake within the next 15-30 days, and again, we expect a very clear and noticeable improvement.
Finally, we’ve had to figure out a way to ensure a higher overall level of precision and accuracy in all the areas where there might be a potential loophole (i.e. the Law/Divorce example above). The best way to do this, we’ve determined, is to get more human eyeballs on our titles. We’ve relied heavily on a combo of humans and machines in other parts of the studio (we’ve even made Terminator analogies…ok, maybe that was just me). So now we’ve decided to incorporate a better human-computer blended approach to title categorization.
What does it all mean?
Thankfully, we expect an immediate, drastic improvement in the category accuracy of new assignments in the next 10 days. By end of February, we expect that same uptick to be replicated on older assignments that have been available in the tools for a while now. And by the end of March, once humans are fully integrated, we expect that less than 1 in 25 assignments in the tools will be miscategorized.
I want to personally thank all of the contributors to Demand Studios for their patience as we’ve worked our way through myriad new frontiers of online content creation—most of all those of you who’ve managed to suffer the frustration of spending your valuable time trying to find assignments in our tools, rather than on doing what you do best, executing them. The categorization issue has been a tough nut to crack, from top to bottom, and we do realize how it impacts everyone. We hope the solutions we’ve come up with will start making your jobs easier in the next week or two.
And I’d also like to add a special thanks to the titling team for all the great information posted on the blog this week. We wanted to make sure the creator community was aware that there is a whole crew of us working hard every day to make sure there are ample assignments and hence money to be made. My hope is that we shed some light on what was previously not understood. And if we didn’t, of course, you can always contact us directly at TitlingTeam@demandstudios.com.
Ever wonder what it's like to work for Demand Studios? We checked in with our community of freelance creators—writers, copy editors, filmmakers and titlers—and asked them to share their experiences. Hundreds of people chimed in about why Demand Media works for them. Tune in daily to read their firsthand accounts.
My name is Larry Parr. I've been a full-time freelance writer for more than 30 years. I spent 25 years writing and story editing cartoons for TV. My fondest memory was working for Marvel Productions in the ‘80s under the legendary Stan Lee. I can sum up my reasons for loving Demand Studios in two words: flexibility and reliability. Demand Studios gives me the flexibility to write as much or as little as I need to, and I never have to worry about being paid the proper amount or worry about being paid on time. This gives me a peace of mind that many freelance writing jobs simply can't supply. I love Demand Studios.
My name is Larry Parr. I've been a full-time freelance writer for more than 30 years. I spent 25 years writing and story editing cartoons for TV. My fondest memory was working for Marvel Productions in the ‘80s under the legendary Stan Lee. I can sum up my reasons for loving Demand Studios in two words: flexibility and reliability. Demand Studios gives me the flexibility to write as much or as little as I need to, and I never have to worry about being paid the proper amount or worry about being paid on time. This gives me a peace of mind that many freelance writing jobs simply can't supply. I love Demand Studios.
Since you have been properly introduced to the Titling portion of Demand Studios at this point, I’m happy to go into detail about some of the sites that benefit from the Titling process. To start, I am Danielle Maddox - Title Manager. I help manage the communities that distribute titles to Demand Studios' O&O sites, including: Trails.com, GardenGuides.com, Livestrong.com and Answerbag.com. Titles are selected for each of these sites by a community of qualified freelancers, called Title Selectors. Every Title Selector is assigned one of these sites and using its guidelines becomes an expert in understanding the site's content needs.
After a title makes its rounds in Title QA, Keyword QA and Title Edit—as explained earlier in the week—it comes through the pipeline and is vetted by Title Selectors. They decide if the title a) is a good fit for the site, and b) fits the requested template. I review selectors' work on a regular basis and aim to provide them with constructive feedback and guidance on how to improve their understanding when needed (quick shout-out to all those Title Selectors - you guys rock).
As I mentioned before, not only does a selector need to be an expert on the site they represent, they also need to anticipate if a title fits a requested template based on its intent and syntax. This can get really difficult because many titles are very ambiguous! For example, would you think that a reader asking, "Can I Use Live Rocks in My Tropical Fresh Water Aquarium?" really just wants a "yes" or "no" answer (belonging in the Tip template)? OR, is he looking for directions on how to go about selecting and introducing certain types of live rocks into a fresh water environment (a Strategy template)? Hopefully, this provides an example of how subjective interpretations of titles can vary.
Regardless of the obstacles these Title Selectors encounter during the selection process, they produce some pretty great titles for their respective sites. I'd like to recognize some of the articles that have been executed on the O&O sites as a result of the Titling Process, along with a short description of each site.
Answerbag.com is the leading online resource for great answers to every question. Answerbag strives to provide detailed answers to specific questions. Here are some examples of what type of content that includes:
Do I Need Satellite TV in an RV?
How Frequently are Credit Scores Updated?
Why are men at higher risk than women for heart disease?
Does acai berry antioxidant drink work?
GardenGuides.com is the destination for all things gardening and has been a leader in online gardening information for more than eight years. It provides articles written with an expert voice, and the site has high standards when it comes to accepting titles, as exemplified by the following articles:
Comparison of Plant Fertilizers
Fall Care for Perennial Plants
Proper Bed Prep for Planting
What to Do to a Lawn After a Flood
LIVESTRONG.COM is an online resource that lives up to the name and respect of the LIVESTRONG® brand and attitude, as typified by Lance Armstrong. They generate high-quality content written by passionate and qualified writers. Titles like those below are selected for LIVESTRONG to contribute to a daily conversation about living well:
How Acne Works
How to Parent Bipolar Kids
Fitness Ball Uses
Macrobiotic Diet Food
Trails.com is the most comprehensive and reliable online resource for outdoor enthusiasts. The site covers outdoor recreational topics ranging from bird watching to white water rafting. Articles have been executed on titles like:
How Do I Size an Internal Frame Backpack to a Person?
How to Choose Cross-Country Skis
You can see that Title Selection plays an integral role in maintaining a consistent voice on each of Demand Studios' O&O niche sights. With the aid of the Title Selection process, Demand Studios is able to create loyal audiences on these sites and provide them with quality expert-driven content.
After a title makes its rounds in Title QA, Keyword QA and Title Edit—as explained earlier in the week—it comes through the pipeline and is vetted by Title Selectors. They decide if the title a) is a good fit for the site, and b) fits the requested template. I review selectors' work on a regular basis and aim to provide them with constructive feedback and guidance on how to improve their understanding when needed (quick shout-out to all those Title Selectors - you guys rock).
As I mentioned before, not only does a selector need to be an expert on the site they represent, they also need to anticipate if a title fits a requested template based on its intent and syntax. This can get really difficult because many titles are very ambiguous! For example, would you think that a reader asking, "Can I Use Live Rocks in My Tropical Fresh Water Aquarium?" really just wants a "yes" or "no" answer (belonging in the Tip template)? OR, is he looking for directions on how to go about selecting and introducing certain types of live rocks into a fresh water environment (a Strategy template)? Hopefully, this provides an example of how subjective interpretations of titles can vary.
Regardless of the obstacles these Title Selectors encounter during the selection process, they produce some pretty great titles for their respective sites. I'd like to recognize some of the articles that have been executed on the O&O sites as a result of the Titling Process, along with a short description of each site.
Answerbag.com is the leading online resource for great answers to every question. Answerbag strives to provide detailed answers to specific questions. Here are some examples of what type of content that includes:
Do I Need Satellite TV in an RV?
How Frequently are Credit Scores Updated?
Why are men at higher risk than women for heart disease?
Does acai berry antioxidant drink work?
GardenGuides.com is the destination for all things gardening and has been a leader in online gardening information for more than eight years. It provides articles written with an expert voice, and the site has high standards when it comes to accepting titles, as exemplified by the following articles:
Comparison of Plant Fertilizers
Fall Care for Perennial Plants
Proper Bed Prep for Planting
What to Do to a Lawn After a Flood
LIVESTRONG.COM is an online resource that lives up to the name and respect of the LIVESTRONG® brand and attitude, as typified by Lance Armstrong. They generate high-quality content written by passionate and qualified writers. Titles like those below are selected for LIVESTRONG to contribute to a daily conversation about living well:
How Acne Works
How to Parent Bipolar Kids
Fitness Ball Uses
Macrobiotic Diet Food
Trails.com is the most comprehensive and reliable online resource for outdoor enthusiasts. The site covers outdoor recreational topics ranging from bird watching to white water rafting. Articles have been executed on titles like:
How Do I Size an Internal Frame Backpack to a Person?
How to Choose Cross-Country Skis
You can see that Title Selection plays an integral role in maintaining a consistent voice on each of Demand Studios' O&O niche sights. With the aid of the Title Selection process, Demand Studios is able to create loyal audiences on these sites and provide them with quality expert-driven content.
The Demand Studios Team would like to introduce the first of a series of guest blog posts from Deb Ng on freelance writing.
I’d like to thank Demand Studios for inviting me to blog here regularly on the topic of making the most of your freelance writing career. Each week we'll discuss ways to diversify and get ahead as a freelance writer. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the comments, email or at the DS forum.
If you’re working for Demand Studios, you already have an interest in freelance writing. For some of you, Demand Studios serves your needs and you’re not necessarily hunting up other freelance writing clients. However, I also know many of you have other aspirations and hope to branch out with your clients and pay rate.
I’m happy to help with some suggestions.
When I’m asked of the first steps writers should take when starting to freelance, this is what I tell them:
Research
A common mistake made by many brand new freelance writers is to jump in blind. You may be in a rush to get started, but please slow down. Take some time to research. Learn about the various opportunities and how they pay. Look around the job boards to get an idea of the types of gigs- and research how to land those jobs. Read books, articles and blog posts offering tips for pitching, querying , and running a freelance writing business.
Determine the type of writing you wish to do
Determine if you want to continue writing for the web or if you wish to branch out into print. There are so many options. You might even consider writing for businesses as a copywriter or technical writer. Something to keep in mind is how the different types of writing require different tones and formatting. One of the reason I enjoy blogging is because of its conversational tone. However, remembering to shut it off for something more business-like for my clients can be a challenge. Always consider whether or not you can set the right tone before you apply for a gig.
Set your rates
If you visit all the freelance writing jobs blogs, you’ll notice how rates discussions incite a lot o f passion. Some forums and blogs have outright fights over what writers should charge. I can’t tell anyone what to earn, and I'm not going to do it here. I believe It depends on each individual’s personal situation. I can tell you there are factors you need to consider when setting a rate including taxes, overhead, and hours worked including research, interviews, actual writing, and desired profit. For determining an hourly rate, the Freelance Switch Rate Calculator might help.
Look for work
Ok. So you researched, thought about rates and have a good idea about the types of writing you wish to do. Now it’s time to look for work. This is going to take a big burst of confidence. When I first began writing I doubted my ability and it took me two years of hanging out in the research stage before I gathered enough courage to apply for the first gig. So take a deep breath and just do it. Visit the different job boards and find the work that interests you the most.
Tip: Potential clients tell me they’re sometimes frustrated by writers who pitch without thoroughly reading their ads. Sometimes there are specific instructions which, if not followed to a T, will cost you the gig. Clients feel that if you can't follow their instructions in your pitch, you probably can't be counted on to pay attention to details for their projects.
Network
Something you’ll hear me say a lot is how everyone is a potential client. The social networks are terrific for sharing ideas, meeting other writers and even landing a gig or two. Building up relationships and trust with your friends and followers can lead to exciting offers.
Offline networking is important as well. Attend conferences, seminars and meetups. Don’t forget to print some business cards so potential clients have a way to contact you.
Rejection
In Stephen King’s book “On Writing” he tells the story of how he hung a railroad spike on the wall next to his writing desk and filled it with rejection letters. I often relay this story because I believe it illustrates how even someone with amazing writing skills will receive rejection notices. This is a normal part of the job and is nothing personal. It can be a blow to the ego, but don’t let it get you down. If you receive a rejection notice, tell yourself you’re in good company.
So? Are you ready to give it a try? Take some time and think about where you want to take your career. Right now is the best time to be a freelance writer with so many opportunities for the taking.
Freedom of choice is such a beautiful thing.
Questions? Comments?
Tell us how you're managing your freelance writing career. Talk to us in the comments – or share your own tips for getting started!
Recommended Resources
Try these blogs and resources to help get you started:
Freelance Writing Jobs – A blog network and community devoted to everything freelance writing
Freelance Switch: A popular blog devoted to everything freelance
Freelance Folder: Ditto the above.
About Freelance Writing: My friend Anne Wayman has been doing this for a long time. Though she didn’t know it at the time, she was sort of my freelance writing mentor when I was first getting started.
The Renegade Writer Blog: Linda Formicelli, author of “The Renegade Writer” offers tips for writers of all levels.
The Well Fed Writer: Peter Bowerman proves six figure freelancers exist.
PoeWar: Job tips, job leads and served up with a bit of humor by my friend John Hewitt.
Carson Brackney: What will Carson rant about today?
I’d like to thank Demand Studios for inviting me to blog here regularly on the topic of making the most of your freelance writing career. Each week we'll discuss ways to diversify and get ahead as a freelance writer. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the comments, email or at the DS forum.
If you’re working for Demand Studios, you already have an interest in freelance writing. For some of you, Demand Studios serves your needs and you’re not necessarily hunting up other freelance writing clients. However, I also know many of you have other aspirations and hope to branch out with your clients and pay rate.
I’m happy to help with some suggestions.
When I’m asked of the first steps writers should take when starting to freelance, this is what I tell them:
Research
A common mistake made by many brand new freelance writers is to jump in blind. You may be in a rush to get started, but please slow down. Take some time to research. Learn about the various opportunities and how they pay. Look around the job boards to get an idea of the types of gigs- and research how to land those jobs. Read books, articles and blog posts offering tips for pitching, querying , and running a freelance writing business.
Determine the type of writing you wish to do
Determine if you want to continue writing for the web or if you wish to branch out into print. There are so many options. You might even consider writing for businesses as a copywriter or technical writer. Something to keep in mind is how the different types of writing require different tones and formatting. One of the reason I enjoy blogging is because of its conversational tone. However, remembering to shut it off for something more business-like for my clients can be a challenge. Always consider whether or not you can set the right tone before you apply for a gig.
Set your rates
If you visit all the freelance writing jobs blogs, you’ll notice how rates discussions incite a lot o f passion. Some forums and blogs have outright fights over what writers should charge. I can’t tell anyone what to earn, and I'm not going to do it here. I believe It depends on each individual’s personal situation. I can tell you there are factors you need to consider when setting a rate including taxes, overhead, and hours worked including research, interviews, actual writing, and desired profit. For determining an hourly rate, the Freelance Switch Rate Calculator might help.
Look for work
Ok. So you researched, thought about rates and have a good idea about the types of writing you wish to do. Now it’s time to look for work. This is going to take a big burst of confidence. When I first began writing I doubted my ability and it took me two years of hanging out in the research stage before I gathered enough courage to apply for the first gig. So take a deep breath and just do it. Visit the different job boards and find the work that interests you the most.
Tip: Potential clients tell me they’re sometimes frustrated by writers who pitch without thoroughly reading their ads. Sometimes there are specific instructions which, if not followed to a T, will cost you the gig. Clients feel that if you can't follow their instructions in your pitch, you probably can't be counted on to pay attention to details for their projects.
Network
Something you’ll hear me say a lot is how everyone is a potential client. The social networks are terrific for sharing ideas, meeting other writers and even landing a gig or two. Building up relationships and trust with your friends and followers can lead to exciting offers.
Offline networking is important as well. Attend conferences, seminars and meetups. Don’t forget to print some business cards so potential clients have a way to contact you.
Rejection
In Stephen King’s book “On Writing” he tells the story of how he hung a railroad spike on the wall next to his writing desk and filled it with rejection letters. I often relay this story because I believe it illustrates how even someone with amazing writing skills will receive rejection notices. This is a normal part of the job and is nothing personal. It can be a blow to the ego, but don’t let it get you down. If you receive a rejection notice, tell yourself you’re in good company.
So? Are you ready to give it a try? Take some time and think about where you want to take your career. Right now is the best time to be a freelance writer with so many opportunities for the taking.
Freedom of choice is such a beautiful thing.
Questions? Comments?
Tell us how you're managing your freelance writing career. Talk to us in the comments – or share your own tips for getting started!
Recommended Resources
Try these blogs and resources to help get you started:
Freelance Writing Jobs – A blog network and community devoted to everything freelance writing
Freelance Switch: A popular blog devoted to everything freelance
Freelance Folder: Ditto the above.
About Freelance Writing: My friend Anne Wayman has been doing this for a long time. Though she didn’t know it at the time, she was sort of my freelance writing mentor when I was first getting started.
The Renegade Writer Blog: Linda Formicelli, author of “The Renegade Writer” offers tips for writers of all levels.
The Well Fed Writer: Peter Bowerman proves six figure freelancers exist.
PoeWar: Job tips, job leads and served up with a bit of humor by my friend John Hewitt.
Carson Brackney: What will Carson rant about today?
Welcome to eHow Title Selection!
My name is Kendra, and I am the Title Manager for the eHow Title Selection Community. In essence, eHow Title Selection is the process by which a community of about 50 people choose what titles should become assignments for eHow writers and filmmakers to execute and publish through Demand Studios.
As those of you who are eHow writers peruse the pages of available writing assignments in the Studio, many of you have surely wondered: how do these bizarre, adventitious yet informational titles get selected for eHow assignments? Well, let me try to shed some light on the enigma of eHow Title Selection.
The birth of the eHow assignment begins in Title Production where three separate communities scrutinize potential title candidates. These communities, Title QA, Title Edit and Keyword QA (each of them discussed earlier this week on this blog), select, mold and assign relevant keywords to each title. After this process, these titles live in our Title Bank, where they eagerly await the possibility of transforming from a slew of phrases into a developed article on eHow.
Once in the Title Bank, titles transition into what we like to call our Title Distribution process where we decide whether they should be turned into articles or videos and where the best fit might be. We do this by creating Work Orders based on a given site’s (in this case eHow) specific criteria. These Work Orders pull title contenders based on keywords, categories and templates. The titles are filtered through a Duplicate Checking Community, which ensures each title’s uniqueness (discussed earlier today).
At this point, titles are then ready for review by our community of eHow Title Selectors, who have been trained to understand the eHow voice and editorial style. eHow Selectors choose titles based on Guidelines from eHow’s Editorial Team, which cover the main rules of eHow rejections and selections. However, the Guidelines are only a starting point. Selectors are required to use their editorial instinct and writing experience to wade through the awkward, trivial and yes, sometimes disturbing titles that find their way into Title Selection. Such gems like “Can I Bring My Knife to Disney World?” or “Performing Surgery With a Rusty Scalpel” are typically rejected based on simple common sense.
So how does the process work? Before the title’s fate is determined, it must pass through our gauntlet of Title Selectors, who decide whether to accept or reject it. All in all, eHow Selectors have a very challenging job. They must act quickly when seeing ambiguous titles, and they must remain ready to adapt to ever-evolving Guidelines. Just as Bob so perfectly recited, “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” so we in eHow Title Selection have made adapting to change our mantra.
All things considered, the eHow Title Selection process is relatively new. In fact, the Title Selection tool is only about four months old. In this short time, we have made some great progress thanks to the combined efforts of multiple teams and individuals, and as always, we are constantly looking for ways to improve.
Of course, the eHow Title Selection Community deserves a special shout-out in this post. Almost all of our eHow Title Selectors have been or currently are writers for eHow. Many of these Selectors have been working within the Studio for over a year, and their continued attention and diligence in eHow Title Selection is imperative to getting assignments to eHow. In order to understand who makes up the eHow Title Selection Community, take a gander below at just a few of our awesome eHow Selectors.
Debra Bacon
Debra is an award-winning journalist and editor who has managed and assisted with managing several interesting businesses, including The Country Press Group in Malakoff, Texas, which published four newspapers in East Texas. She is a former member of the Texas Press Association and the Texas Community Newspaper Association. Debra has been writing for eHow since April of 2009, and she has been a Title Selector for over four months.
Dawn Werner
Dawn has been writing for Demand Studios for nearly two years and has written many how-to and informational review articles for various websites. She is a member of several online writing groups and is also a self-published author of a romance novel. Dawn has been a Title Selector for nine months.
Don Bolen
Don is a research scientist with more than 30 years of experience in laser design and applications. Bolen holds many U.S. Patents including three for the Excimer laser presently used for LASIK eye surgery. He presently is an engineering consultant, author of three nonfiction books and provides content for Demand Studios. Don has been a Title Selector for over three months.
Tara Kimball
In her own words, “I’ve been [an approved writer] for eHow since December 2008. I’ve written approximately 100 articles. I love eHow. It’s a fantastic resource for just about everything, and now I understand why. There’s a great community behind the scenes making it happen!” Tara has been a Title Selector for over three months.
So, that is eHow Title Selection in a nutshell. Thanks for your interest in how assignments are chosen for eHow. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of the responsibilities and challenges in eHow Title Selection.
My name is Kendra, and I am the Title Manager for the eHow Title Selection Community. In essence, eHow Title Selection is the process by which a community of about 50 people choose what titles should become assignments for eHow writers and filmmakers to execute and publish through Demand Studios.
As those of you who are eHow writers peruse the pages of available writing assignments in the Studio, many of you have surely wondered: how do these bizarre, adventitious yet informational titles get selected for eHow assignments? Well, let me try to shed some light on the enigma of eHow Title Selection.
The birth of the eHow assignment begins in Title Production where three separate communities scrutinize potential title candidates. These communities, Title QA, Title Edit and Keyword QA (each of them discussed earlier this week on this blog), select, mold and assign relevant keywords to each title. After this process, these titles live in our Title Bank, where they eagerly await the possibility of transforming from a slew of phrases into a developed article on eHow.
Once in the Title Bank, titles transition into what we like to call our Title Distribution process where we decide whether they should be turned into articles or videos and where the best fit might be. We do this by creating Work Orders based on a given site’s (in this case eHow) specific criteria. These Work Orders pull title contenders based on keywords, categories and templates. The titles are filtered through a Duplicate Checking Community, which ensures each title’s uniqueness (discussed earlier today).
At this point, titles are then ready for review by our community of eHow Title Selectors, who have been trained to understand the eHow voice and editorial style. eHow Selectors choose titles based on Guidelines from eHow’s Editorial Team, which cover the main rules of eHow rejections and selections. However, the Guidelines are only a starting point. Selectors are required to use their editorial instinct and writing experience to wade through the awkward, trivial and yes, sometimes disturbing titles that find their way into Title Selection. Such gems like “Can I Bring My Knife to Disney World?” or “Performing Surgery With a Rusty Scalpel” are typically rejected based on simple common sense.
So how does the process work? Before the title’s fate is determined, it must pass through our gauntlet of Title Selectors, who decide whether to accept or reject it. All in all, eHow Selectors have a very challenging job. They must act quickly when seeing ambiguous titles, and they must remain ready to adapt to ever-evolving Guidelines. Just as Bob so perfectly recited, “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” so we in eHow Title Selection have made adapting to change our mantra.
All things considered, the eHow Title Selection process is relatively new. In fact, the Title Selection tool is only about four months old. In this short time, we have made some great progress thanks to the combined efforts of multiple teams and individuals, and as always, we are constantly looking for ways to improve.
Of course, the eHow Title Selection Community deserves a special shout-out in this post. Almost all of our eHow Title Selectors have been or currently are writers for eHow. Many of these Selectors have been working within the Studio for over a year, and their continued attention and diligence in eHow Title Selection is imperative to getting assignments to eHow. In order to understand who makes up the eHow Title Selection Community, take a gander below at just a few of our awesome eHow Selectors.
Debra Bacon
Debra is an award-winning journalist and editor who has managed and assisted with managing several interesting businesses, including The Country Press Group in Malakoff, Texas, which published four newspapers in East Texas. She is a former member of the Texas Press Association and the Texas Community Newspaper Association. Debra has been writing for eHow since April of 2009, and she has been a Title Selector for over four months.
Dawn Werner
Dawn has been writing for Demand Studios for nearly two years and has written many how-to and informational review articles for various websites. She is a member of several online writing groups and is also a self-published author of a romance novel. Dawn has been a Title Selector for nine months.
Don Bolen
Don is a research scientist with more than 30 years of experience in laser design and applications. Bolen holds many U.S. Patents including three for the Excimer laser presently used for LASIK eye surgery. He presently is an engineering consultant, author of three nonfiction books and provides content for Demand Studios. Don has been a Title Selector for over three months.
Tara Kimball
In her own words, “I’ve been [an approved writer] for eHow since December 2008. I’ve written approximately 100 articles. I love eHow. It’s a fantastic resource for just about everything, and now I understand why. There’s a great community behind the scenes making it happen!” Tara has been a Title Selector for over three months.
So, that is eHow Title Selection in a nutshell. Thanks for your interest in how assignments are chosen for eHow. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of the responsibilities and challenges in eHow Title Selection.
Ever wonder what it's like to work for Demand Studios? We checked in with our community of freelance creators—writers, copy editors, filmmakers and titlers—and asked them to share their experiences. Hundreds of people chimed in about why Demand Media works for them. Tune in daily to read their firsthand accounts.
My name is Jim Hagerty, and I’m a full-time writer. I have degrees in journalism and public relations from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. Aside from writing for Demand Studios, I am a feature writer for a weekly newspaper in Rockford, Ill. Demand Studios provides me with the flexibility to expand my writing portfolio and make as much money as I wish. It affords me the opportunity to choose projects at will and work a schedule that is deadline-driven yet flexible enough to thoroughly enjoy each assignment I take. It is a superb system run by some of the most efficient and professional people in the business.
My name is Jim Hagerty, and I’m a full-time writer. I have degrees in journalism and public relations from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. Aside from writing for Demand Studios, I am a feature writer for a weekly newspaper in Rockford, Ill. Demand Studios provides me with the flexibility to expand my writing portfolio and make as much money as I wish. It affords me the opportunity to choose projects at will and work a schedule that is deadline-driven yet flexible enough to thoroughly enjoy each assignment I take. It is a superb system run by some of the most efficient and professional people in the business.
Hello, John Clark here, head duplicate checker in charge of making sure that once the Death Star is destroyed, another one doesn’t show up in deep space seconds later due to the oversight of my dupe checking team. If the Death Star is a title, we only want one: the Death Star that Luke Skywalker destroyed. If we already have “Destroying the Deathstar” in the Demand Studio title bank, we don’t need titles like “Goodbye Mr. Deathstar”, “Kaboom Black Def Star” or “Attacking the Big Round Battlestation in Star Wars”. These are all basically the same title, approving them would clog up deep space, not to mention our websites.
We have an automated system that can eliminate duplicates with similar words and sentence structure, but only humans will know that all of the above titles are essentially the same. However, internet searchers may want to know more about the Death Star than how to destroy it, such as how to build a model of it or how to dress like the Death Star on Halloween; both of these queries would be considered unique titles and suitable additions to our title bank.
To bring this discussion down to Earth, consider the following example. Treehouse Building is a popular topic. The Titling Team at Demand Studios looks through thousands of internet searches a day, and we often run into several titles on the same topic. The duplicate checking interface is set up to allow the dupe checkers to compare a title that could possibly be a duplicate (these candidates are determined by the automated system) to titles that we already have in our title bank. A title like “How to Build a Treehouse” might be compared to titles we have already accepted, such as:
How to Build a Treehouse
How Can I Build a Treehouse?
Building a Treehouse
How to Build a Great Treehouse
DIY Treehouse Building
How Do You Build a Treehouse?
How to Make a Treehouse
Tips on Building a Treehouse
While these titles are worded differently, they would be considered duplicates, since they all focus on the basic task of building a treehouse. The addition of words like “great” or “tips” does not significantly change the meaning of the title. When comparing a potential duplicate to ones that are already in our title bank, the dupe checkers determine if an article can be written about the potential dupe which is substantially different from the article titles which we already have.
Minor variations can differentiate a title from the ones in the title bank. “How to Build a Treehouse with 2x4s” or “How to Build a Two-Room Treehouse” are different enough from the previous list of treehouse titles that a duplicate checker would approve them as unique titles.
Duplicate checking involves some very tricky decisions which play an important part in making sure that Demand Media content does not overlap, that we are not paying for multiple articles on the same topic. Or replays of the same Death Star explosion. Indeed, dupe checkers work behind the scenes to make the universe a safer place, or at least try to make it less cluttered and confusing.
We have an automated system that can eliminate duplicates with similar words and sentence structure, but only humans will know that all of the above titles are essentially the same. However, internet searchers may want to know more about the Death Star than how to destroy it, such as how to build a model of it or how to dress like the Death Star on Halloween; both of these queries would be considered unique titles and suitable additions to our title bank.
To bring this discussion down to Earth, consider the following example. Treehouse Building is a popular topic. The Titling Team at Demand Studios looks through thousands of internet searches a day, and we often run into several titles on the same topic. The duplicate checking interface is set up to allow the dupe checkers to compare a title that could possibly be a duplicate (these candidates are determined by the automated system) to titles that we already have in our title bank. A title like “How to Build a Treehouse” might be compared to titles we have already accepted, such as:
How to Build a Treehouse
How Can I Build a Treehouse?
Building a Treehouse
How to Build a Great Treehouse
DIY Treehouse Building
How Do You Build a Treehouse?
How to Make a Treehouse
Tips on Building a Treehouse
While these titles are worded differently, they would be considered duplicates, since they all focus on the basic task of building a treehouse. The addition of words like “great” or “tips” does not significantly change the meaning of the title. When comparing a potential duplicate to ones that are already in our title bank, the dupe checkers determine if an article can be written about the potential dupe which is substantially different from the article titles which we already have.
Minor variations can differentiate a title from the ones in the title bank. “How to Build a Treehouse with 2x4s” or “How to Build a Two-Room Treehouse” are different enough from the previous list of treehouse titles that a duplicate checker would approve them as unique titles.
Duplicate checking involves some very tricky decisions which play an important part in making sure that Demand Media content does not overlap, that we are not paying for multiple articles on the same topic. Or replays of the same Death Star explosion. Indeed, dupe checkers work behind the scenes to make the universe a safer place, or at least try to make it less cluttered and confusing.
