Studio Blog
Congratulations to our DS Top Content Creator winners!
Posted by Jessyca | September 28, 2009 | Leave a comment
As a part of Demand Studios’ ongoing commitment to rewarding our top talent with valuable resources and opportunities to help advance their writing careers, 100 DS writers have been chosen to receive an all-expenses-paid membership to the Society of Professional Journalists for one full year. They were chosen to receive this award because of their long tenure at Demand Studios and because of their consistent level of high-quality work.
We hope they find value in their new SPJ membership which includes useful benefits like:
· Professional Development: Access to national and regional journalism conventions, exclusive media-related job opportunities and awards
· Local Connections: Networking with other professionals in print, broadcast, online, freelance and trade publications
· Industry News and Information: Subscriptions to high-quality publications such as Quill Magazine, PressNotes, SPJ Leads, Open Doors and the Geneva Conventions Reference Guide
Congratulations again to all of our winners--we are constantly impressed with your work and are incredibly thrilled to have you on our team! For those who didn’t win this time, keep writing well and keep writing often… The rewards are sure to follow!
Hello All,
"When Does Demand Studios Pay?" is a very common question we regularly receive from new writers. We have been reading the forums and your individual blogs to find out what you like the most about working for Demand Studios. One of the factors that kept coming up was how much you enjoy the weekly payments. Many of us started off as freelancers and know how much of a hassle it can be to wait a long time to receive payments from publishers. This will never be something you have to worry about at Demand Studios, and to prove it we’re going to start paying you twice a week! Starting September 29, you will get paid on Tuesdays and Fridays. We’re hoping this will please our weekend warriors who might not have time to write much during the week.
The process of payment is straightforward and outlined below:
As stated in our FAQ, writers will be paid following acceptance by us of each assignment. However flat fee articles and revenue-share articles differ slightly where payment is concerned.
Flat Fee
All articles approved between Thursday and 11.59 p.m. PST Sundays will be paid out on Tuesdays.
All articles approved between Monday and 11.59 p.m. PST Wednesdays will be paid out on Fridays as usual.
Revenue-Share
- Revenue-Share articles have a slightly different payment process. After a revenue share article is published your earnings are deposited into your PayPal account on the 10th of every month, but only after all of your rev-share articles have started earning a combined total of $10 or more. So if your article earned $1 in February and $11.50 in March, you will be paid $12.50 on April 10. Similarly, if you had 11 articles that earned $2 each in March, you'd get paid $22 on April 10. If you article has not yet earned $10, the payment will cycle to the following month.
If you feel there has been an error with your payment, please contact us When you write in with a specific payment issue, please include the titles in question.
The Relationship Between CEs and Writers
Posted by Carolyn Williams | September 11, 2009 | Comments (10)
Editor’s note: We will be featuring blog entries from our own creators from time to time. This installment is from Carolyn Williams on the changing role of the Demand Studios copy editors.
It’s been intriguing, watching Demand Studios grow, and as a veteran Copy Editor (CE) as well as an active member of the writing community, I get to participate in and observe both sides of the publication process. Back in the day when eHow was first created, the CE had a simple role: to check that semi-colons and other grammatical issues were correct. As Demand Studios has grown, so has the role of the CE. Now, rather than simply ensuring that grammar is acceptable, we team with the writers to ensure that the published content provides valuable, insightful, helpful advice to our readers. And we provide a simple logic check for much of that advice. After all, if you’re unstopping your sink, you don’t particularly care if the commas are all there. But you care an awful lot if “Step 2: Put a bucket under the sink to catch the water when you release the trap” is missing. Grammar issues that crop up repeatedly might be noted to the writer to avoid in future. But it’s much more time-efficient for fixes of that nature to be done by your friendly, neighborhood (okay, Internet-enabled) CE. As a CE, as you don’t get paid until the article is rewritten and comes back to your queue a second time. For simple grammar fixes, going in and fixing them is your best bet to getting paid. Larger issues get sent back to the writer.
That, in short, encapsulates how the CE job has evolved. We care as much as the writers do about the integrity of the information published on our many and varied sites. And we care for a very specific reason: job security. If our sites publish information that isn’t good, useful, well written, helpful and on task, then we’ve failed as a publishing team. Readers won’t click on our site to get information if they don’t think what we publish is useful. It becomes, then, a swirling drain. No readers, no new content to publish, no new articles to review, no editing work.
There’s a natural dissonance between the CE team and the writing team; that’s healthy, normal and part of the business of writing. We love the language, we love writing. We’re always working toward stronger, better content with the end goal of providing usable, good quality information that our readers can embrace. There are natural bumps in the road for this 21st-century publishing business model we’re all using; development issues, technical errors, learning curves, dynamic style guides. That’s part of the environment. You either roll with it, or move to an environment that is more appropriate to your particular skills and needs. This is true for both writers and editors.
We’re all in this together, this new, modern publishing process. We deeply appreciate using and understanding the Style Guides. We’ll shepherd the content to publication wherever possible. And we'll team with the writers to make our sites increasingly helpful, useful, authoritative, well written and of high quality.
We answer your questions in the Help Desk. You interact with us in the forums. We work with you on plagiarism flags. We answer your emails, article rejection appeals and editorial questions.
But who is the Demand Studios editorial team?
The Demand Studios in-house editorial team, focusing on article publishing, consists of eight editors, two copy curators and one community manager, who work together during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, from the Demand Media offices primarily in Santa Monica, Calif. and Austin, Texas.
We oversee the editorial process that occurs within Demand Studios.
This includes:
*Accepting new writers to the community and monitoring their quality of work
*Helping create new article formats for writers
*Writing and streamlining editorial guidelines
*Monitoring titles and titling questions
*Working with many branches of Demand Media to improve Demand Studios site features and article quality
Take a moment to get to know us better on the Demand Studios staff page. http://www.demandstudios.com/staff.html
How is the editorial team different from copy editors?
Glad you asked. Our copy editors are all freelancers just like you, who work within the Demand Studios publishing tools. Like writers, filmmakers and other members of our creative community, they claim assignments, edit work and follow the guidelines. Copy editors report to our copy curators, Richard Lally and Eve Lederman, who are in daily contact with the Studio editorial team, as well as their chief copy editors, to keep everyone focused on quality and consistency.
Our editorial team oversees many aspects of your daily working life, and we communicate with copy editors as well. The community manager, copy curators and in-house editorial team collaborate with each other to discover what’s working, what’s not and what improvements can be made in the future, with all of your feedback in mind.
Ultimately, our goal is to help you to produce high-quality, evergreen content that is published on Demand Media websites and a growing list of partner sites.
Please know that we make a sincere effort to read all of your emails and listen intently to your comments and feedback. But it’s not an easy task. There are, after all, only 11 of us.
We know that you sometimes feel frustrated with the HelpDesk, but here are some useful hints to streamline the HelpDesk correspondence:
*Include the exact title of the article if you are writing about a particular article.
Lesser-known fact: It takes in-house editors at least 10 additional minutes to answer a HelpDesk correspondence without title specifics.
*Do not send multiple tickets for the same issue.
Lesser-known fact: Multiple tickets clog the system. Issues that have been visited are revisited through duplicate emails, thus preventing new, relevant inquiries from being answered in a timely manner.
*Provide a thorough but concise history of the problem.
Lesser-known fact: The more details you can provide in an inquiry, the more thoroughly and quickly we can answer your questions.
*If you are corresponding with an in-house editor on a particular topic, please use the reply button instead of replying with a new ticket to ensure you continue working with the same editor.
Lesser-known fact: By communicating with one in-house editor, you’ll receive consistent and accurate information.
*PLEASE USE the Resource Center before submitting a ticket through Help Desk. We constantly update the Resource Center and will happily take suggestions for additional resources you would like to see housed there.
Lesser-known fact: The Resource Center is a tremendous tool for writers. Many times you can find answers to what you need in this area or in the Forums, with the help of your fellow writers.
We hope this helps clarify exactly who we are. We are proud to work with freelance writers and copy editors who are capable of consistently producing quality content at a very large scale. Together we are navigating uncharted territory, and we thank you all for your hard work and dedication. If you ever need us, remember, Monday through Friday, we are here.
P.S. Stay tuned for an upcoming guest blog post from Carolyn Williams, a Demand Studios writer and copy editor, on the relationship between those two communities.
Freelancewritinggigs.com, otherwise known as Freelance Writing Jobs (FWJ), created by freelance writer, professional blogger and social media consultant Deb Ng is an essential piece of any freelance writer’s puzzle to not only find work, but connect with a writer community that offers lively discussion, tips and advice for the hard knock life of writing for a living.
With job leads posted every day and categorized into sections such as copywriting, blogging and freelance reporting positions, the FWJ network essentially cuts down the time you might spend on scouring job boards and allows you to focus your attention on acquiring positions instead of just searching for them.
The site also offers job hunting tips such as figuring out how full your freelancing plate is and why targeted job searches work best. The advice also extends to actual writing as well, including such information about plagiarism and making sure your query gets to the right editor.
Taking in all the important aspects of FWJ to a freelance writer’s career, we are excited to announce that Demand Studios and FWJ have joined forces – you can read about the partnership on FWJ here!
From Lead Copy Curator Richard Lally: The Importance of In-Text Citations
Posted by Jennifer M | August 18, 2009 | Comments (2)
As many of you know, Demand Studios recently has invested additional resources to improve the quality of your articles. Our efforts have produced new, more efficient product features, higher standards for writers and copy editors, and an increased emphasis on sourcing and fact-checking.
In continuing our focus on quality, we want to reemphasize the importance of in-text citations. These citations expedite fact-checking and review times and enhance the quality and credibility of your articles. Including detailed in-text citations (such as “According to the American Diabetes Association ... ”) tells your readers that you are a seasoned professional who extensively researches subjects before composing content. Citations create trust between you and your audience. And, as a bonus, they raise your ratings and article limits while reducing your rewrite requests.
Specificity is the key to citing sources. When making claims about your subject, don’t resort to the shoddy journalistic practice of writing, “Experts claim,” “Many people say,” or “According to a study.” Leave those vague, empty passages to the amateurs. Instead, identify the experts by their first and last names and note their credentials. Detail which organization or individual conducted the study, supply the date when it was conducted or published, and name the publication in which the study or article appeared. Apply the standards of a professional journalist to all sources.
We already value the work you create, and we're setting these quality standards to help you attain our common goal of producing superior content that will enhance your reputation as well as ours.
Best,
Richard Lally
Hello Writers,
As many of you may know, Demand Studios currently accepts suggested titles, upon editorial approval, in the “How to” format. You can suggest titles from the Suggest New Assignments page.
Once approved, these assignments are paid a $5 flat fee and allow writers to create articles according to their areas of expertise and interest. For example, if you are an expert in legal field and are looking for additional legal titles, you could suggest a title such as How to Create a Living Trust and write the article using your research and knowledge.
We encourage you to submit title suggestions and want to provide you with updated guidelines for doing so. Keep in mind that we do not accept titles that are duplicates of existing titles in our system, and all titles must be approved by our editorial team.
Please see the guidelines here: http://media.demandstudios.com/Documents/462e46bf-c9b5-4ec7-9f36-b2f9c196ea24.pdf
These will be featured in the Resource Center.
Happy writing!
I'm the editor of Travels.com, and I'm pleased to announce a new section of the Demand Studios forums geared specificially to travel writers. Here you can feel free to answer questions, talk with other writers, or just share your experiences and expertise. From time to time, we will also be adding updates and other important information for the site, so make sure to check up on it every once in a while.
Thanks so much for all your hard work, and I look forward to interacting with you in the forums.
Anna Roth
Travels.com Editor
CE: Friend or Foe? (From Lead Copy Curator Eve Lederman)
Posted by Jennifer M | July 30, 2009 | Comments (14)
We’ve heard your fears, doubts and concerns. As a writer, we know you often question a CE’s true motives or reasoning. We know it sometimes feels as if the CEs are playing for the other team. As a lead copy curator for Demand Studios—and a copy editor myself—I’d like to take a minute to shed light on the CE process and hopefully diffuse some of your anxieties.
If you think a CE is “out to get you,” you’re not alone … but think again. Contrary to popular belief, CEs are not the enemy. First, know that our editors are highly trained professionals. They come from rigorous editing backgrounds and have spent years with the top newspapers and book publishers in the country. We reject half of the applications we receive and half of the editors we test—which means that only 25 percent of the copy editors who apply actually make it through our gates. If they were out to sink writers, they would not be at the top of their field and they certainly wouldn’t make it through our (virtual) doors. So, next time you feel an editor is out to get you, we hope you’ll think twice.
A word on our editorial process: While editors do choose fields of interest so they can edit articles in line with their knowledge, articles are distributed to them randomly. It’s important to recognize that a CE earns the same fee, regardless of whether he approves your piece on the first pass or requests a rewrite and then ultimately approves or rejects the article. So if you think a CE “has it in for you” when he requests a rewrite, please realize that he is actually spending the time to help you improve that article without getting paid any more for doing so. In fact, her overall hourly wage will actually drop because she’s choosing to devote more time to your work.
Look at a rewrite as a learning opportunity. You are working with consummate professionals who are seeking to help you improve your writing—both with the present article and beyond. This back-and-forth collaborative dialogue between the editor and the writer is customary in the publishing world—and it’s a crucial step in ensuring your work is the best it can possibly be before it’s published.
Try not to take a CE’s notes personally or assign a tone to them, which can be hard to assess in email; please recognize that CEs are under immense time constraints. Unlike writers who can write as much or little as they want, when they want, CEs must meet weekly hourly minimums and article quotas. Their rewrite notes may often be direct and perhaps even terse, rather than effusive—and it’s the nature of their job to “get in and get out” of an article, as Richard’s advises. With that said, if a CE’s comments are truly rude and unprofessional, we will take action.
It’s also important to know that CEs will often contact us for a second opinion before rejecting an article. They truly don’t want to reject your work, particularly work that demonstrates skill and effort, and they feel badly about it when they do have to reject an article. Realize that it is not a frivolous click of a button.
Finally, understand that editing is an art, not a science. We can't have 100 percent consistency. New editors—just like writers—make mistakes while acclimating to our system. We hire new CEs weekly so that we can turn around your articles quicker, and we have to allow for their learning curve with patience. Sometimes seasoned editors make mistakes as well; their judgment may slip after hours of work. If an editor sends you an erroneous rewrite request—requesting a URL for a hard copy reference or requiring a photo for an article in which it’s optional—understand that he’s most likely a new editor overwhelmed with our guidelines. Use this as an opportunity to reciprocate; teach him by pointing out his mistake and direct him to the page of our style guide with the proper information. We’re building a team community here, one writer and editor at a time.
Your CE friend,
Eve Lederman
View Your Ratings on the New Writer Scorecard (From VP of Product Julie Henley)
Posted by Jennifer M | July 28, 2009 | Comments (3)
We know you’ve been asking for insight into your ratings, and as a result, we’ve developed the Writer Scorecard. We are extremely excited to announce that we will unveil this new Scorecard tomorrow, July 29.
Below is a preview of the three sections in the new Scorecard:
Article Ratings for Grammar and Research
* Every article you’ve written since May 2009 has been rated by the copy editor.
* Once you have submitted at least five articles, we’ll present your average rating in two areas: grammar and research.
* The average rating not only tells you exactly where you stand but also helps you track your progress over time.
Article Submission Information
* The second section of the page displays data about the net result of any article submission.
* We break out the number articles that have been approved (with and without rewrite requests), rejected and flagged for plagiarism.
* We provide detailed data on the number of rewrite requests you receive.
* You can now monitor how many rewrite requests are completed and successfully approved versus how many are abandoned.
* This new feature offers visibility into everything you’ve written.
NOTE: We really encourage our writers to complete rewrite requests. Doing so not only helps keep our CE queues down and streamlines our production process, but it improves your writing capabilities as well.
Productivity
* The last section allows you to track your productivity by providing reports on your approved articles.
* You can easily find how many approved articles you have written in any given week since you started writing for Demand Studios.
* We hope this helps set goals as to what you wish to complete in a week and encourages you to submit a few more articles and add to that weekly paycheck.
Remember, you are the only member of the community who can see your Scorecard. The ratings are provided by CEs on each article, but the CE cannot see your overall averages.
As we’ve said, the new Scorecard should make your lives a lot easier. Every step of the way, you now have a clear understanding of exactly where you stand. You can track your progress and if necessary, make adjustments to your writing. We hope you find the information you’ve been asking for from the Scorecard.
Please keep the feedback coming, and we will continue to work hard to develop new features and better your success with Demand Studios.
Thanks,
Julie
