If you are looking to make a fulltime income immediately through freelance writing, Demand Media should be at the top of your list for consideration. With both affiliate as well as in-house topics, a freelance writer can not only make a decent income out of the starting gate but will also find a virtually unlimited supply of work.

The Application Process

A visit to the DemandStudios.com will take you to the Demand Media website. Click on the ‘apply’ link and fill out the form. It’s short, simple and you will have room to copy and paste your article sample or you can upload it to the application. After submitting you can expect to be given a reply within a week.

It’s important to understand what Demand is looking for in a sample: They want clean and concise copy. Nothing overly poetic or flowery should be sent. Most of their articles are straightforward pieces that impart information and there is no creative writing or fiction. This is all nonfiction work.

Starting with Demand Media

Once you have been accepted, you will be allowed to choose up to 5 articles to write. As you write one and submit it the article will be sent to an editor. The editor will either accept the article as-is or return it for revision. If the article is accepted immediately then it will also be scored. You will see your scores on the dashboard.

At this point you are still considered under training. As a result, until you have 5 scored articles then you can have no more than 5 articles in your queue AND the editing process at a time. After your training period you will be able to have 10 in your queue at a time as soon as you submit one article you can select another, keeping your queue full; you will not have to wait until the articles have been edited to refill your queue.

Selecting a title to write is very simple. You click on the tab for work, choose a title and click on it. It’s immediately available for you in your queue.

Writing Articles for Demand Media

There are several article types at Demand Media and each one has their own format. There are format guides for each readily available on the website. Some of the formats include How-To, About and Strategy are the three most common.

There is a general word count but Demand is much more interested in concise and thorough copy than in word count. This is especially true for How-To articles. These articles explain a particular process in a step-by-step manner. About and Strategy are very similar with Strategy essentially being a longer version of About articles. In the case of both you are writing about a particular title or a strategy for completing the question that the title asks.

Here are three actual titles from Demand Media along with their assigned format:

How To Sit on a Saw Horse – How-To

How Far Should You Sit From a WideScreen TV – About

How to Care For a Manor House – Strategy

Those are all three titles that I personally wrote for Demand Media. There are also many available in technical and computer areas as well as gardening and home improvement. I wrote in many of those categories but the three listed were particular favorites because they were silly, fast and fun. There are many articles of that nature at Demand Media and they make the writing process fun and entertaining.

The Editing Process

There had to be a downside to Demand Media and their editing process is where this occurs. If they revamped this process they would be top-notch.

Once you submit your article it heads to an editor. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to a week. In fairness, none of my articles ever took longer than 2 days to be edited and I wrote thousands of them. Once the editor has the article then it is either accepted or returned for revision. Here is where the trouble with the process takes place.

Writers have no dialogue with the editor and generally never know the identity of the editor. They also have one chance at the revision. If the instructions from the editor are clear then the writer can make the changes and resubmit. The editor can then accept the article or reject it. Either way, the editor will rate the article.

If the article is rejected the title goes back into the assignment area and the writer doesn’t get paid. At this point the writer can challenge the rejection but this is a bad idea. Out of hundreds of rejected articles I have read about in the Demand Media forum, only two of them were ever overturned. In many of the other cases the writers who challenged the rejection were terminated. This doesn’t make for a harmonious working relationship between editors and writers. It can be even more onerous when the editor doesn’t give clear directions for the rewrite.

Those that have been with Demand Media for a long period of time have successfully found places to sell the rejected articles rather than challenging the rejection. It’s easier and less stressful to take this route.

You do have the option to clarify or challenge a rewrite. You have to send it through the system via a button on your edit page. It is not uncommon for a response from the powers that be to take longer than the 3 days you have allotted for the rewrite. There is virtually no point in challenging the rewrite as Demand Media always sides with the editor (if you are seeing a theme here, good.)

Demand Media Rating System

The editor rates each article when it’s either accepted or rejected. This is the other point of contention where editing is concerned. While there is a standard in place it’s a subjective standard and based on points.

The problem with the subjective nature of the rating system is that a writer can be doing a fine job for a long period of time and then suddenly get a new editor that rates everything harshly and that ruins the average and can impact the ability to be accepted into the more lucrative programs. Unfortunately Demand Media doesn’t pair up new editors with more experienced ones. Even when an editor is removed for poor editing, the writing scores and rejection numbers stand. This is a particular thorn in the side of writers.

Steady Work with Demand Media

New articles are constantly being generated and categorized so the average writer can usually keep their queue filled.

Another facet of writing for Demand Media is the use of their niche groups. There are several companies that contract with Demand Media for content and every writer can apply for acceptance into them. If accepted, you will have another category open up on your jobs board and you can select from those articles as well. Only titles you are eligible to write are visible on your jobs board.

Once you accept a title you have a week to write the article. If it is returned for a rewrite you have 3 days to resubmit it. If it expires then the article will return to the jobs queue and be picked up by someone else. You also have the option to abandon the rewrite. It’s not a good idea to do this often, as it will impact your overall score.

Payment from Demand Media

Demand Media pays twice weekly, Tuesdays and Fridays. They are one of the few online writing companies that pay more often than monthly and their twice-weekly payment process is a big hit with most of their writers. They pay through Paypal and they pay the fees.

The basic Demand Media pay scale is entirely dependent on the article type. How-To and Strategy both pay $15 per article with About articles paying $7.50. Garden Guides generally pays between $25 and $30 for an article. The amount varies between writing formats and programs. All amounts are clearly specified on each article title so you know upon choosing the title how much you will be paid for it once it is accepted.

Tips for Working With Demand Media

• Don’t challenge rewrites. You can be right or you can get paid. Opt for getting paid and make the requested changes. Rarely, if ever, are rewrite challenges successful.
• Don’t challenge rejections. Locate a writing site to sell your rejections to and move on to another topic.
• Don’t write disparaging comments on the writers’ forum.
• Learn one format at a time. If you write one particular format at a time and try and get similar articles then you can usually write them much faster. I could easily write 6-8 How-To articles per hour. That was $90-$120 an hour. Not a bad gig.