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
Greetings,
My name is Michael Cook and I manage the Title Editing phase of Titling for Demand Media. This is the crucial stage in which a title is reviewed and deemed grammatically acceptable. However, it goes beyond that.
Our editors are trained to do more than simply make sure that there is subject/verb agreement and correct spelling in every title. We ask them to make a title look better. To make it read aloud naturally and look at home on the front page of any number of web sites. We want to produce titles that anyone would be proud to see displayed on their site’s home page.
For instance: “Prune Rubber Tree Plant” might be edited to “How to Prune a Rubber Tree Plant.” Adding "how to" is allowable when it's fairly obvious that the title's purpose is to teach how to do something.
Another: "Silver Melting Point" is okay as is. But an edit to "The Melting Point of Silver" makes it a little better. We're looking for editors who have that intuitive sense for making any title better than it was without changing any keywords or the original intent.
Those simple edits encapsulate, to a degree, the primary job of a Title Editor –to make a title better without fundamentally changing its intent. We never encourage a title to be edited to the point that its initial purpose is changed in any way, shape or form. As you can see from the above example, the title was simply given what could be called a “cosmetic” edit. Unless a title is already perfect it will need, more often than not, some kind of minor addition that makes it flow better. It could be anything from adding an article, reshuffling the order of words, correcting a misspelled word or incorrect verb tense, changing the casing for special products and any number of other special circumstances.
But that's not the end. To be sure a title is ready for the next stage it will be reevaluated by Title QA to make sure that all crucial edits have been made. If deemed not ready, we’ll send it back for further editing. This assures us that every title will be ready for editorial when they get there.
To help out our editors, we constantly do reviews of the work to offer advice, help and keep an open line of communication going. Additionally, we have two moderators from within the community that also make blog posts and do their best to help out with the large community.
And that is Title Editing.
My name is Michael Cook and I manage the Title Editing phase of Titling for Demand Media. This is the crucial stage in which a title is reviewed and deemed grammatically acceptable. However, it goes beyond that.
Our editors are trained to do more than simply make sure that there is subject/verb agreement and correct spelling in every title. We ask them to make a title look better. To make it read aloud naturally and look at home on the front page of any number of web sites. We want to produce titles that anyone would be proud to see displayed on their site’s home page.
For instance: “Prune Rubber Tree Plant” might be edited to “How to Prune a Rubber Tree Plant.” Adding "how to" is allowable when it's fairly obvious that the title's purpose is to teach how to do something.
Another: "Silver Melting Point" is okay as is. But an edit to "The Melting Point of Silver" makes it a little better. We're looking for editors who have that intuitive sense for making any title better than it was without changing any keywords or the original intent.
Those simple edits encapsulate, to a degree, the primary job of a Title Editor –to make a title better without fundamentally changing its intent. We never encourage a title to be edited to the point that its initial purpose is changed in any way, shape or form. As you can see from the above example, the title was simply given what could be called a “cosmetic” edit. Unless a title is already perfect it will need, more often than not, some kind of minor addition that makes it flow better. It could be anything from adding an article, reshuffling the order of words, correcting a misspelled word or incorrect verb tense, changing the casing for special products and any number of other special circumstances.
But that's not the end. To be sure a title is ready for the next stage it will be reevaluated by Title QA to make sure that all crucial edits have been made. If deemed not ready, we’ll send it back for further editing. This assures us that every title will be ready for editorial when they get there.
To help out our editors, we constantly do reviews of the work to offer advice, help and keep an open line of communication going. Additionally, we have two moderators from within the community that also make blog posts and do their best to help out with the large community.
And that is Title Editing.
Video Spotlight- 5 Questions with Caroline Harrison
Posted by CarrieB | January 20, 2010 | Leave a comment
This week’s Video Spotlight hails from Northern California, courtesy of filmmaker Caroline Harrison. These videos are a production of Golflink.com and hosted by Laird Small, director of golf at the Pebble Beach Golf Academy. Please click the image below to see the segments!
What was the most difficult or unexpected challenge of this production? Noise. We were in the middle of one of the most popular and well-maintained golf courses in the country (Pebble Beach) on a bright sunny morning at 8am. Lo and behold, we were not alone. There were mowers emerging from every horizon, cars driving between us and the hole, and golf carts full of chattering clientele (and not the sort that you could easily ask to be quiet).
What equipment did you use for this shoot? A Sony EX-3, a Porta-Jib Explorer jib, Cartonie Tripod, LED 1000 light from Flolight, Sennheiser G2 wireless mic, a reflector and a Rhode directional mic with blimp.
What was your first filmmaking job? [She smiles] I decided it would be a good idea to make a film about the re-introduction of wild wolves to Idaho when I was 16. I borrowed an ARRI 16mm film camera from a rather surprised cameraman in Boise and set off in a small Ford Escort I'd picked up for $500. Now, wild wolves cover about 60-75 miles a day. There were only six of them. So you're with me, this wasn't a 'good' idea. I ended up with more moose, bison, bear, and otter footage than intended and finally, after six weeks I had an encounter with two wild wolves deep in a forest while the camera happened to be rolling ...
What is your favorite part of the production process, and why? That moment when your talent asks for a second take because they've seen you tweak and improve, tweak and improve everything to make this shoot work as well as possible and they want to rise to that level in their role. It's when we become a team.
What attracts you to filmmaking? Two things: The process (identifying the story, drawing character and emotion from the talent, fiddling with equipment, editing - nothing I don't like about that) and the impact. Most people would rather watch imagery and hear a soundtrack than listen to an awful lot of people talk in reality. Film adds magic. So I'll shut up here.
Caroline Harrison has been making films for more than a decade, for both the BBC in England and the ABC in Australia. Her last film with the BBC won the prestigious Planet Earth award at the Wildscreen Film Festival. Recently, she spent nine weeks visiting nine cities across China to create a documentary about the potential for acceleration of a sustainable Chinese construction market.
What was the most difficult or unexpected challenge of this production? Noise. We were in the middle of one of the most popular and well-maintained golf courses in the country (Pebble Beach) on a bright sunny morning at 8am. Lo and behold, we were not alone. There were mowers emerging from every horizon, cars driving between us and the hole, and golf carts full of chattering clientele (and not the sort that you could easily ask to be quiet).
What equipment did you use for this shoot? A Sony EX-3, a Porta-Jib Explorer jib, Cartonie Tripod, LED 1000 light from Flolight, Sennheiser G2 wireless mic, a reflector and a Rhode directional mic with blimp.
What was your first filmmaking job? [She smiles] I decided it would be a good idea to make a film about the re-introduction of wild wolves to Idaho when I was 16. I borrowed an ARRI 16mm film camera from a rather surprised cameraman in Boise and set off in a small Ford Escort I'd picked up for $500. Now, wild wolves cover about 60-75 miles a day. There were only six of them. So you're with me, this wasn't a 'good' idea. I ended up with more moose, bison, bear, and otter footage than intended and finally, after six weeks I had an encounter with two wild wolves deep in a forest while the camera happened to be rolling ...
What is your favorite part of the production process, and why? That moment when your talent asks for a second take because they've seen you tweak and improve, tweak and improve everything to make this shoot work as well as possible and they want to rise to that level in their role. It's when we become a team.
What attracts you to filmmaking? Two things: The process (identifying the story, drawing character and emotion from the talent, fiddling with equipment, editing - nothing I don't like about that) and the impact. Most people would rather watch imagery and hear a soundtrack than listen to an awful lot of people talk in reality. Film adds magic. So I'll shut up here.
Caroline Harrison has been making films for more than a decade, for both the BBC in England and the ABC in Australia. Her last film with the BBC won the prestigious Planet Earth award at the Wildscreen Film Festival. Recently, she spent nine weeks visiting nine cities across China to create a documentary about the potential for acceleration of a sustainable Chinese construction market.
A great List article should strive to marry knowledge derived from both the writer’s own expertise as well as additional research done to complement that knowledge, or at the very least reinforce it. Each section should tie in to the title to make it all relevant to the reader and deliver the information they seek. It’s not enough to only list the different things, ways or locations the title asks for, it should also explain why these are the ones you chose to include and how it relates to the title.
A great example of how writer background enhances credibility to a piece of content can be seen in this article below where it shines through in both the author’s writing as well as in her bio. Each section explains why the breed mentioned is good for seniors in particular, it's not just a list of dogs and what they look like.
Also, please check out Nine Tips for Writing Better List Articles in the resource center for more advice.
Thanks
A great example of how writer background enhances credibility to a piece of content can be seen in this article below where it shines through in both the author’s writing as well as in her bio. Each section explains why the breed mentioned is good for seniors in particular, it's not just a list of dogs and what they look like.
http://www.ehow.com/list_5814477_dogs-people-over-50.html
We also want you to go beyond the minimum requirements. We see a lot of three-section List articles when there were more that could have been added to make a more complete article. The articles should only have three sections if there is absolutely nothing else valuable to add. Or, if the three sections and overview are already 500 words and you can't cut it down to make room for more sections. We don't want you to start adding sections just for the sake of adding sections, but we want to make sure you provide the reader with a good experience and that requires going beyond the bare minimum.Also, please check out Nine Tips for Writing Better List Articles in the resource center for more advice.
Thanks
Hello,
My name is Erick and I manage our Title QA community for Demand Studios. Title QA is the very first step on the journey a title takes from a search query to a useable Demand Studios title. It is the job of the Title QA User to determine whether a title can be used as it is, if it just does not make sense as an article or video, or if with a little tweaking from our Title Editors it could make a great piece of content.
The job consists of looking at a title and trying to decide if that title is clear, executable, free of any spelling or grammar mistakes, and ready for a writer or filmmaker to claim and produce. If the Title QA determines that the title is not useable by Demand Studios in any way, we throw it out. Sometimes the Title QA notices that it could be made into a good Demand Studios title with a few minor changes such as fixing spelling errors, grammar mistakes, or changing the word order. When that happens, we send a title to an editor.
While on the surface the job sounds pretty simple, it can be pretty tricky at times. The Title QA User has to be somewhat of a mind reader and put themselves into the shoes of a person searching for the content specified by each title. They have to determine whether a title represents an informative piece of content. When they are looking at thousands of titles a day, sometimes the intent of each title is not very clear at all.
Some examples:
Am I Paying Too Much in Property Taxes?
We could not answer this question outright. We have no idea where this person lives, what her house is worth, or how much she is paying in property taxes. However, an informative article about all of the factors involved in property taxes could answer this question and so makes sense as an article. This title should be accepted.
Yosemite National Park
Any number of great articles could be written with this title. That’s the problem with it. What would a person be looking for if they searched for this? They could want to know how to get to Yosemite, what to do there, the history of the park, etc. This title should be rejected.
Train Signals Hand Dog
Titles are not always going to be pretty or even make sense at first glance. However, with a little editing this one could become “How to Train a Dog With Hand Signals” and be ready to become a great article or video.
Our Title QA community does a great job with the huge task of looking at tens of thousands of title candidates every day. Their hard work ensures that our writers and filmmakers will have plenty of quality titles to produce content for. I have no doubt that they will continue their efforts to make Demand Studios a great place for freelancers to come and find work.
My name is Erick and I manage our Title QA community for Demand Studios. Title QA is the very first step on the journey a title takes from a search query to a useable Demand Studios title. It is the job of the Title QA User to determine whether a title can be used as it is, if it just does not make sense as an article or video, or if with a little tweaking from our Title Editors it could make a great piece of content.
The job consists of looking at a title and trying to decide if that title is clear, executable, free of any spelling or grammar mistakes, and ready for a writer or filmmaker to claim and produce. If the Title QA determines that the title is not useable by Demand Studios in any way, we throw it out. Sometimes the Title QA notices that it could be made into a good Demand Studios title with a few minor changes such as fixing spelling errors, grammar mistakes, or changing the word order. When that happens, we send a title to an editor.
While on the surface the job sounds pretty simple, it can be pretty tricky at times. The Title QA User has to be somewhat of a mind reader and put themselves into the shoes of a person searching for the content specified by each title. They have to determine whether a title represents an informative piece of content. When they are looking at thousands of titles a day, sometimes the intent of each title is not very clear at all.
Some examples:
Am I Paying Too Much in Property Taxes?
We could not answer this question outright. We have no idea where this person lives, what her house is worth, or how much she is paying in property taxes. However, an informative article about all of the factors involved in property taxes could answer this question and so makes sense as an article. This title should be accepted.
Yosemite National Park
Any number of great articles could be written with this title. That’s the problem with it. What would a person be looking for if they searched for this? They could want to know how to get to Yosemite, what to do there, the history of the park, etc. This title should be rejected.
Train Signals Hand Dog
Titles are not always going to be pretty or even make sense at first glance. However, with a little editing this one could become “How to Train a Dog With Hand Signals” and be ready to become a great article or video.
Our Title QA community does a great job with the huge task of looking at tens of thousands of title candidates every day. Their hard work ensures that our writers and filmmakers will have plenty of quality titles to produce content for. I have no doubt that they will continue their efforts to make Demand Studios a great place for freelancers to come and find work.
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 Aaron J. Patton, and I've been acting professionally and screenwriting for the past seven years. When the work is there, it's great, but dry spells tend to last longer than everyday bills allow. So when I found out about Demand Studios, I became very excited about the potential to put my eagle eye for the English language to work. I started out as a title proofer, and now I'm a title editor. What are the gas prices like? It makes little difference, because my work for Demand Studios allows me to stay home, take care of my responsibilities and have the flexibility to pursue my creative endeavors. This is one artist who is definitely not starving thanks to Demand Studios!
My name is Aaron J. Patton, and I've been acting professionally and screenwriting for the past seven years. When the work is there, it's great, but dry spells tend to last longer than everyday bills allow. So when I found out about Demand Studios, I became very excited about the potential to put my eagle eye for the English language to work. I started out as a title proofer, and now I'm a title editor. What are the gas prices like? It makes little difference, because my work for Demand Studios allows me to stay home, take care of my responsibilities and have the flexibility to pursue my creative endeavors. This is one artist who is definitely not starving thanks to Demand Studios!
My name is Justin and I serve as the Lead Title Manager for the Titling Team. I support title production for the Studio, including content distribution across five Demand Studios websites and community management for five different Titling roles. Since I joined the team, I’ve done a little bit of everything, including troubleshooting payment and technical issues, shaping and revising our guidelines, answering questions from our community, testing and recruiting new community members, and helping direct Titling strategy.
As Demand Studios continues to expand, we constantly pursue the efficiencies that creativity, technology, and enterprise can afford us, adapting our processes just in time to address the new challenges we face along the way. It certainly keeps life interesting. And while it may seem like we run a highly efficient black box operation, there are several key processes that make such a complex, large scale operation work smoothly. Titling is one of those processes.
As you may have heard, titles are created in bulk by our patented “Algorithm.” But it’s not as simple as blast mining the internet for millions of titles and then delivering them to writers en masse. While we publish thousands of pieces of content a day, many of those pieces come from titles that are put through an extensive quality control process that begins with the Titling department.
In Titling, we rely heavily on the power of people. Why, you might ask? Well, in order to create a piece of content, a title has to have 1) a clear, specific request for information 2) that we can provide 3) without violating ethics, laws, or copyrights. After some trial and error, we discovered that only people can help us make these determinations.
For example, we might be able to tell a computer to find titles that have nouns in them—such as “Sam Builds Fences”—or verbs—such as “Makita Drill Parts”—or syntactic structure—such as “How to Rob a Train.” But, while the first title makes sense, there is nothing that the title is asking for. While the second is a request, it’s more than likely a request for a website where someone can purchase drill parts, not information. Finally, while the third title is a clear request for specific information, it’s clearly illegal.
Since computers can’t choose titles based on common sense and good judgment, we depend on our communities to recognize quality and determine if something has intent. But we do use technology for tasks that humans aren’t absolutely necessary for. For example, before sending anything to our community members, we cull titles that we think have the potential to be used on one of our sites, excluding as much unpublishable material as possible.
But determining that a title has quality and intent is just one part of the Titling process. Demand Studios’ sites need to publish new content every day, and DS writers have an inexhaustible hunger for assignments. A group of editors sitting around a mahogany table pitching ideas can only come up with so many title ideas. So, once a title receives its seal of approval, it moves on down the line to be matched up with one or multiple sites for publishing.
Titles that have made it through our quality control process go to a holding tank with all of the other verified titles – and from here, our network of sites can pull the titles that they think work best for their particular site voice and focus. Again, we depend on our community to help us make these decisions. With a set of guidelines and a group of very focused individuals, we choose thousands of titles a month for sites like eHow, Livestrong, Answerbag, and Garden Guides. And many of these title selectors are also writers, so their unique understanding of a site’s voice and style—as well as their experience executing on titles—is vital.
At the end of the day, what we’re doing in Titling is fueling the creation and distribution of thousands upon thousands of pieces of content. We’re surfacing the right types of titles, in the right quantity, to the right sites, in the right format, so that writers can find them and write them, copy editors can edit and approve them, Demand Studios can publish them, and you can find and read them whenever you want.
Hopefully, you’ve begun to understand the enormous complexity involved in what Demand Studios does every day…and how Titling sits right at the center of this process.
As Demand Studios continues to expand, we constantly pursue the efficiencies that creativity, technology, and enterprise can afford us, adapting our processes just in time to address the new challenges we face along the way. It certainly keeps life interesting. And while it may seem like we run a highly efficient black box operation, there are several key processes that make such a complex, large scale operation work smoothly. Titling is one of those processes.
As you may have heard, titles are created in bulk by our patented “Algorithm.” But it’s not as simple as blast mining the internet for millions of titles and then delivering them to writers en masse. While we publish thousands of pieces of content a day, many of those pieces come from titles that are put through an extensive quality control process that begins with the Titling department.
In Titling, we rely heavily on the power of people. Why, you might ask? Well, in order to create a piece of content, a title has to have 1) a clear, specific request for information 2) that we can provide 3) without violating ethics, laws, or copyrights. After some trial and error, we discovered that only people can help us make these determinations.
For example, we might be able to tell a computer to find titles that have nouns in them—such as “Sam Builds Fences”—or verbs—such as “Makita Drill Parts”—or syntactic structure—such as “How to Rob a Train.” But, while the first title makes sense, there is nothing that the title is asking for. While the second is a request, it’s more than likely a request for a website where someone can purchase drill parts, not information. Finally, while the third title is a clear request for specific information, it’s clearly illegal.
Since computers can’t choose titles based on common sense and good judgment, we depend on our communities to recognize quality and determine if something has intent. But we do use technology for tasks that humans aren’t absolutely necessary for. For example, before sending anything to our community members, we cull titles that we think have the potential to be used on one of our sites, excluding as much unpublishable material as possible.
But determining that a title has quality and intent is just one part of the Titling process. Demand Studios’ sites need to publish new content every day, and DS writers have an inexhaustible hunger for assignments. A group of editors sitting around a mahogany table pitching ideas can only come up with so many title ideas. So, once a title receives its seal of approval, it moves on down the line to be matched up with one or multiple sites for publishing.
Titles that have made it through our quality control process go to a holding tank with all of the other verified titles – and from here, our network of sites can pull the titles that they think work best for their particular site voice and focus. Again, we depend on our community to help us make these decisions. With a set of guidelines and a group of very focused individuals, we choose thousands of titles a month for sites like eHow, Livestrong, Answerbag, and Garden Guides. And many of these title selectors are also writers, so their unique understanding of a site’s voice and style—as well as their experience executing on titles—is vital.
At the end of the day, what we’re doing in Titling is fueling the creation and distribution of thousands upon thousands of pieces of content. We’re surfacing the right types of titles, in the right quantity, to the right sites, in the right format, so that writers can find them and write them, copy editors can edit and approve them, Demand Studios can publish them, and you can find and read them whenever you want.
Hopefully, you’ve begun to understand the enormous complexity involved in what Demand Studios does every day…and how Titling sits right at the center of this process.
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 Christopher Earle. I’ve been working as a writer and photographer for nearly 25 years and have had stories picked up by the Associated Press and National Public Radio. I’ve written either as a contractor or direct employee for Boeing, Umax, Microtek, Acer and many other companies. Demand Studios offers me the opportunity to write on a wide range of subjects. As time goes on, Demand Studios continues to surprise me. From offering basic health coverage to donating books to charity based on writer performance, Demand Studios shows a rare commitment to both freelance and social issues. And let me say again: The book donation program was INCREDIBLE. Thank you!
I’m Christopher Earle. I’ve been working as a writer and photographer for nearly 25 years and have had stories picked up by the Associated Press and National Public Radio. I’ve written either as a contractor or direct employee for Boeing, Umax, Microtek, Acer and many other companies. Demand Studios offers me the opportunity to write on a wide range of subjects. As time goes on, Demand Studios continues to surprise me. From offering basic health coverage to donating books to charity based on writer performance, Demand Studios shows a rare commitment to both freelance and social issues. And let me say again: The book donation program was INCREDIBLE. Thank you!
“I do have trouble with titles.”
-Jim Harrison, Novelist
If there is one subject Demand Studios creators are most consistently <<insert one of curious/incensed/interested/frustrated/entertained/confused /> /> about, that subject is undoubtedly titling.
Reading the many colorful comments about titling in our forums could easily lead an otherwise reasonable soul to conclude that Demand Studios is completely off its rocker, negligent or both with regard to how we provide assignments to the community.
So allow me to be the first to say…though this be madness (I would prefer “strategic insanity”), yet there is method in it. Ok, so I’m not the first to say that. But the fact is, we here on the titling squad are well aware of how some of this stuff may seem to the untrained eye.
My aim here today is to help remedy this perception by pulling back a bit of the curtain and giving you some insight into what the wizard is working on in the wonky world of titles…
“What idiot comes up with these things?“
Truthfully, our titles are made by you…and me…and everyone else with an Internet connection. Each of them starts as a query entered by someone into a search box (on our own sites, on major search engines and elsewhere) and then enters into a sophisticated process where up to 10 people might touch it before it eventually becomes an assignment that you can claim in the DS tools.
First, we use a proprietary algorithm, developed by one of our mad geniuses here at Demand Media, to isolate those queries which are most likely to have the following three qualities: traffic, an advertiser and the ability to compete well against other web content.
After we’ve harvested large amounts of the most popular of these queries, each of them is then matched against other, similar search queries to corroborate that they indeed make sense. When two or more match, we try to narrow it down to just one—this is why you might see one awkwardly phrased version of a common question. At this point, these phrases become what we call “title candidates.”
Next, the candidates are sent before a large community (currently more than 900 people) of freelancers, similar to writers and filmmakers, who are tasked with various quality control functions, such as deciding if a candidate is a good title or if it discusses a topic that we have already covered ad nauseum on one of our sites. All of these functions are executed by a trained community in a democratic fashion. That is to say that if people get together and decide that a title is bad then we will listen to those voices and cast that title out of our system.
Is it always accurate? No, of course not. Humans make mistakes and computers have trouble thinking like humans. And after all, we combine elements of both…kind of like Robocop. But the end result is that titles created in this fashion show Demand Studios where we have the best opportunity to compete on a crowded Internet. And it works, by God, it works.
“So DS is all about the money but not about the quality?”
Thanks to the world wide interwebs, today’s media environment is complicated and fraught with philosophical questions about the value of information, quality of online editorial and the role of user generated content. Traditional publishing and many established brands are struggling to compete, which has caused massive upheaval in the writing and editing professions.
All this has served as motivation to us to improve, innovate and grow smarter as a media company. We also want to keep offering opportunities to more and more of our editorial ilk. And in some ways it is because of our predictive titling process, hiccups and all, that we have been able to produce assignments, add new content destinations and consistently pay out thousands of content creators in a troubled economy. In short, we couldn’t do all this without the titling algorithm.
But our titling process is not just a way to predict better earnings. It’s also become a powerful production engine for meeting the demand of thousands of writers, many of whom write multiple articles every day. Think about it for a second, if someone asked you to come up with 160,000 titles (as I write this that is the number of assignments available in Demand Studios) and then add 5,000 to 10,000 more each day for the next year…how would you do it?
Ok, so I sound a little defensive of the process, don’t I? I promise it’s not intentional. I just want everyone to know that this isn’t just a stilted computer spitting out low-quality content that no one cares about. We have a huge team involving hundreds of super intelligent people spending long hours to ensure that the titling faucet stays on at all times, and that the titles themselves are executable. Yes, we know you see some duds in there from time to time, but we are listening to your concerns and constantly striving to get better.
I’ve rambled long enough with this post, so I’ll draw to a close. I hope this has shed some light on the process, but if it hasn’t, fear not. We’ve decided to make this week “Titling Week” here on the Demand Studios blog. Stay tuned over the course of this week for a series of posts on all things titling. If your questions are still not answered by the end of the day Friday, contact us lickety split at TitlingTeam@DemandStudios.com and we’ll do our best to ease your worries. After all, without your input, we’re but lost ships on a sea of search queries.
-Jim Harrison, Novelist
If there is one subject Demand Studios creators are most consistently <<insert one of curious/incensed/interested/frustrated/entertained/confused /> /> about, that subject is undoubtedly titling.
Reading the many colorful comments about titling in our forums could easily lead an otherwise reasonable soul to conclude that Demand Studios is completely off its rocker, negligent or both with regard to how we provide assignments to the community.
So allow me to be the first to say…though this be madness (I would prefer “strategic insanity”), yet there is method in it. Ok, so I’m not the first to say that. But the fact is, we here on the titling squad are well aware of how some of this stuff may seem to the untrained eye.
My aim here today is to help remedy this perception by pulling back a bit of the curtain and giving you some insight into what the wizard is working on in the wonky world of titles…
“What idiot comes up with these things?“
Truthfully, our titles are made by you…and me…and everyone else with an Internet connection. Each of them starts as a query entered by someone into a search box (on our own sites, on major search engines and elsewhere) and then enters into a sophisticated process where up to 10 people might touch it before it eventually becomes an assignment that you can claim in the DS tools.
First, we use a proprietary algorithm, developed by one of our mad geniuses here at Demand Media, to isolate those queries which are most likely to have the following three qualities: traffic, an advertiser and the ability to compete well against other web content.
After we’ve harvested large amounts of the most popular of these queries, each of them is then matched against other, similar search queries to corroborate that they indeed make sense. When two or more match, we try to narrow it down to just one—this is why you might see one awkwardly phrased version of a common question. At this point, these phrases become what we call “title candidates.”
Next, the candidates are sent before a large community (currently more than 900 people) of freelancers, similar to writers and filmmakers, who are tasked with various quality control functions, such as deciding if a candidate is a good title or if it discusses a topic that we have already covered ad nauseum on one of our sites. All of these functions are executed by a trained community in a democratic fashion. That is to say that if people get together and decide that a title is bad then we will listen to those voices and cast that title out of our system.
Is it always accurate? No, of course not. Humans make mistakes and computers have trouble thinking like humans. And after all, we combine elements of both…kind of like Robocop. But the end result is that titles created in this fashion show Demand Studios where we have the best opportunity to compete on a crowded Internet. And it works, by God, it works.
“So DS is all about the money but not about the quality?”
Thanks to the world wide interwebs, today’s media environment is complicated and fraught with philosophical questions about the value of information, quality of online editorial and the role of user generated content. Traditional publishing and many established brands are struggling to compete, which has caused massive upheaval in the writing and editing professions.
All this has served as motivation to us to improve, innovate and grow smarter as a media company. We also want to keep offering opportunities to more and more of our editorial ilk. And in some ways it is because of our predictive titling process, hiccups and all, that we have been able to produce assignments, add new content destinations and consistently pay out thousands of content creators in a troubled economy. In short, we couldn’t do all this without the titling algorithm.
But our titling process is not just a way to predict better earnings. It’s also become a powerful production engine for meeting the demand of thousands of writers, many of whom write multiple articles every day. Think about it for a second, if someone asked you to come up with 160,000 titles (as I write this that is the number of assignments available in Demand Studios) and then add 5,000 to 10,000 more each day for the next year…how would you do it?
Ok, so I sound a little defensive of the process, don’t I? I promise it’s not intentional. I just want everyone to know that this isn’t just a stilted computer spitting out low-quality content that no one cares about. We have a huge team involving hundreds of super intelligent people spending long hours to ensure that the titling faucet stays on at all times, and that the titles themselves are executable. Yes, we know you see some duds in there from time to time, but we are listening to your concerns and constantly striving to get better.
I’ve rambled long enough with this post, so I’ll draw to a close. I hope this has shed some light on the process, but if it hasn’t, fear not. We’ve decided to make this week “Titling Week” here on the Demand Studios blog. Stay tuned over the course of this week for a series of posts on all things titling. If your questions are still not answered by the end of the day Friday, contact us lickety split at TitlingTeam@DemandStudios.com and we’ll do our best to ease your worries. After all, without your input, we’re but lost ships on a sea of search queries.
A great List article should strive to marry knowledge derived from both the writer’s own expertise as well as additional research done to complement that knowledge, or at the very least reinforce it. Each section should tie in to the title to make it all relevant to the reader and deliver the information they seek. It’s not enough to only list the different things, ways or locations the title asks for, it should also explain why these are the ones you chose to include and how it relates to the title.
A great example of how writer background enhances credibility to a piece of content can be seen in this article below where it shines through in both the author’s writing as well as in her bio. Each section explains why the breed mentioned is good for seniors in particular, it's not just a list of dogs and what they look like.
Thanks
A great example of how writer background enhances credibility to a piece of content can be seen in this article below where it shines through in both the author’s writing as well as in her bio. Each section explains why the breed mentioned is good for seniors in particular, it's not just a list of dogs and what they look like.
http://www.ehow.com/list_5814477_dogs-people-over-50.html
We also want you to go beyond the minimum requirements. We see a lot of three-section List articles when there were more that could have been added to make a more complete article. The articles should only have three sections if there is absolutely nothing else valuable to add. Or, if the three sections and overview are already 500 words and you can't cut it down to make room for more sections. We don't want you to start adding sections just for the sake of adding sections, but we want to make sure you provide the reader with a good experience and that requires going beyond the bare minimum.Thanks
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 Heather Vale Goss, and I've been working as a journalist and freelance writer in all media—TV, radio, print and online—for more than 15 years. I love the flexibility and control Demand Studios gives me; sure, I could spend days sending out queries to magazines and waiting weeks for replies—and I do that sometimes—but even if they pay a higher rate per word, it's a big gamble with a lot of wasted time. On the other hand, with Demand, I can just log in any time from home and focus on doing what I love: writing! Not only that, I can write as much or little as I like and get paid for it quickly. As the parent of a young toddler, that's crucial in being able to manage my time, and my freelance writing career.
I'm Heather Vale Goss, and I've been working as a journalist and freelance writer in all media—TV, radio, print and online—for more than 15 years. I love the flexibility and control Demand Studios gives me; sure, I could spend days sending out queries to magazines and waiting weeks for replies—and I do that sometimes—but even if they pay a higher rate per word, it's a big gamble with a lot of wasted time. On the other hand, with Demand, I can just log in any time from home and focus on doing what I love: writing! Not only that, I can write as much or little as I like and get paid for it quickly. As the parent of a young toddler, that's crucial in being able to manage my time, and my freelance writing career.
