Writing Articles - Making Money

eHow recently responded to its members regarding their use of member articles for a six month period to build their UK website.  They are now calling this website the "beta" site.  I imagine there are legal implications if they do not admit that there was testing going on.  But, I am no lawyer.  For anyone who does not have speakers or who just wants to read what the reply was I have transcribed it.  I draw different meanings from things after I hear them a few times and especially once I read them. 

What do you think of eHow finally absolutely admitting that the earnings drop was indeed caused by the UK website?  Does this close the door on the issue?

The following is a transcript of eHow's video blog response about the UK site and earnings issues:


Hi eHow community. This is Rich the eHow community manager. I know many of you had some questions about the eHow UK website. I thought the best person who can answer this question is our general manager here whose name is Greg..um..beforehand, I kinda want to get some tidbit um surrounding your history with eHow.



Greg: sure yeah. I know you’re in the community every day and you’re really the voice for our community and I have been working for eHow for four years now. I was actually the first full time hire by our parent company Demand Media purchased eHow back in 2006 and it’s been fantastic to watch the journey. Um. We’ve really grown into a site where we have millions of readers coming every month and a lot of that is because of our community and the articles that they’ve written and contributed…so uh, I’d be happy to answer questions.


R - Great. Um so like one of the main questions I keep seeing on the forums is uh why did we uh release this uh UK beta website?



G - uh yeah no that’s great question. We really followed the same tradition that we followed that we release every product here uh at eHow. We’re trying to build the best user experience. We want to get feedback on new products uh that’s why we launched the test beta site. We’re doing the same thing on mobile right now. We just released the new android application and we’re really getting feedback from our mobile users and we just launched another project which is eHow logic tool [not sure right name 1:12] and that’s more of an application so it really came down to us to uh thinking about hey we’re a big website in the US and we want to expand internationally and uh our friends over in the UK are a great place because they’re reading English articles and we started with that and uh we got a lot of feedback.



R - Great. Um It’s good to hear um another like second question I hear a lot is and I think is like the one I hear the most is



G - Sure



R - did the um UK um website, this beta website that we have, did it somehow impact the user earnings ?



G - Yeah uh that’s a great question. I know there’s been a lot of chatter about that and yes the uh the our beta UK website did actually impact the earnings and we value our community a lot and we’re going to go ahead and compensate our users for that so I know they’ve been quite vocal about that and um I saw a couple of posts that you responded to you know at the time we launched the beta UK site we didn’t have the ability to automatically pay our members every month like we do in the US um but we’ve gone back and we’ve generously estimated uh those earnings and we’ll be paying out those earnings uh with January’s payment early February.



R - sweet I think that they would uh that’s some good news. I’m pretty sure that they’ll be happy about that um so this is our like first video and it’s you know just something



G - yeah



R - a good opportunity if you have anything else to tell the community



G - yeah no I love it. I think this is a great format to talk with our users and reaching out and uh I hope we do more of these. Um it’s really been just fantastic over the um past four years watching our little website turn into quite a big website. A lot of that is because of our community and really the passion that our members have and uh to be there every day and to be involved in the dialogue and to be creating articles and information that millions of people are searching for and helping them complete their every day projects so um we’re going to continue to fulfill that mission and uh we really look forward to our community to be a huge part of that.



R - sweet. You know I really think definitely has a great format for us to like get the community to get some insight into what’s going on at eHow and I think we should probably do more of these video blogs and I’m looking forward to doing more of these and telling the community about what’s going on at eHow and uh just want to say to the community as well that uh Julie and I we’re always available on the forums um if you have any questions we’re there to answer those questions for you um if you want to write or message us and ask us like any questions about the site or it you know any future like product releases or you know just get some sort of like insight into what’s going on the site you’re more that welcome you know to message us um but uh thanks for tuning in and we hope that when we post up our next video blog that you’ll tune in as well. Thanks.

eHow.com, a company owned by Demand Media, has had itself in a little bit of hot water lately.  The problem is that they created a duplicate site for the UK with the hopes of cashing in on freelance writers in the UK who are laid off and willing to write for an untold amount of money.  Now, this is assuming that they are going to offer the UK writers the same deal as the US folk get, which is writing for a secret algorithm that determines the worthiness of your writing and therefore the price.

Six months ago when eHow launched it's "beta" UK site they did so by using all of the content produced by the writers here in the US.  It took a solid group of people to steadily keep at eHow demanding answers to why the new UK site was ranking higher in the search engines than its US copies and were we getting compensated for the writing they were using for free.  Not only were they using the writing for free, but they lied about the slow in traffic and decrease in earnings blaming it on Christmas and, at times, just flat out lying to its members.  Finally, with enough pressure, eHow answered its community with a promise to remove the articles from the UK site because they said it was not fair if they couldn't pay us for using the content. 

eHow responds to writers by redirecting the UK articles, but doesn't respond to the question of payment.  For six months they used our content for free raking in suspected millions while some long term dedicated members left eHow because the money just wasn't there anymore.  After six months of deception they have come clean, disabled the UK site completely, and responded with a semi-apology and an answer to the issue of compensation in a video blog:  YES, it did affect your earnings.  Yes, we don't want to be sued so we will give you damage control compensation. 

Here is eHow's official answer and apology where they say they will pay compensation to the writers in the Writer's Compensation Program (WCP).  This link opens up to eHow's video blog.  Notice the eHow UK site is now being referred to as the "beta" site although that's the first the members have heard of it.  If you want to read a transcribed reply go read it at transcript of eHow's video blog response about the UK site and earnings issue. 

Freelance writers need to be concerned with optimizing their articles.  While we focus a lot of attention on using good search engine optimization, it is also important to get links to your articles and blogs.  I read that Google will favor content that has an .edu extension linking to it.  Apparently, if someone in education thinks your content is worth reading then Google does, too.  But, we can't all get back links from an .edu extension.

I just discovered a new website and earning opportunity several days ago:  SheToldMe.com.  If you have an Adsense account then you can make money by posting content on their site.  You retain copyright.  By using SheToldMe you can create back links and earn income on your content and articles.  SheToldMe calls their articles or submissions "scoops". The goal of posting to the site is not only to generate Adsense income, but to create back links to your writing and increase your exposure.  Like Digg, you can vote an article up or down all the way to the front page and you can leave comments on other people's content.  A perk is that your article will show up as a related link on many articles if the keywords are similar.  You can make 100% of the ad revenue on this site if you sign up for an Adsense account.  However, it is not necessary to have Adsense to sign up.

Positive points of using SheToldMe:

• create back links to your website, blog, or individual articles
• earn 100% Adsense income
• earn income using Chitika (sign up here if you don't have it)
• community of bloggers and writers = more potential exposure for your writing
• lists your website on each "scoop" submitted
• increased my presence in Google
• can post just for back links if you don't have Adsense
• multiple ways of exposing articles

Here is a tip when you sign up for SheToldMe.  Make sure to fill in the section that asks you why you are signing up -- the motivation section.  You will be rejected if you do not fill this out.  My first application was rejected because I skipped that section on oversight.  Whether you want to create back links or Adsense income using SheToldMe, it can't hurt your writing to have another place to post.  Spreading out your writing will increase your readership. 

You can set up an individual channel in Adsense to track the views and earnings.  You should also use Chitika as an additional form of ad revenue.  It also shows ads on a website or blog and can be used with Adsense.  Using both Chitika and Adsense increase your chances of making more residual income. 

Overall I recommend using this website.  I expect that it will be another source of residual income in the days and years to come.  Good luck! 

eHow UK Site Impacted Earnings - Redirects Articles Home

eHow has taken action to move forward.  They redirected the UK articles to the US articles supposedly as of January 21.  While I think it is interesting an entire day went by without the action being reported, I am glad something has finally changed.  I do still have some suspicions that are actually fueled in part by the way eHow has fixed the situation.  As much as I wish I knew programming, I don't.  I do find it interesting that they could remedy the UK situation by simply redirecting our articles.  To me, this means that the intent with the UK site was clearly one of gathering views and making free money.  eHow made a lot of money in the past half year by diverting viewers to their free mirror site.  They clearly did NOT pay or compensate us in any way for any action over the past five or six months while using articles and lying about the real impact of the UK site.


If the solution to this UK situation is simply redirecting the UK articles back to the US articles then eHow absolutely had full awareness that the UK site set up unfair and direct competition.  For members who supported eHow through this entire UK site charade, I just wonder if they realize what eHow UK did to members, them included. The multi-million dollar company built by community members made a mirror website with our content, without our permission, likely violating intellectual property laws, and then has the audacity to make a statement about community.  I wonder what an intellectual properties lawyer or online copyright law attorney thinks about this blatant misuse of content.  One thing is certain. Online content writers need to learn about copyright law, including how to report plagiarism when bloggers and scrapers use content without permission.  The internet should not be a place without morality.  I am going to read up on copyright law and suggest go to the library, search online, or read some books about copyright law and licensing.  

Rich Says eHow Did Not Deceive Members - Can't We All Just Get Along

I am not a lawyer. I want to know what rights, if any, were actually violated in the process of them using my eHow articles on a cloned UK site then covering it up and not paying members for it.  Rich, eHow's Community Manager commented:

"Look, everyone will have their own thoughts.  However, I think few folks are really caught up in the fact that we intentionally tried to "deceive" our members, and that's not true.  And, I'm being honest about this. I just need to butt in when I read such things because that was definitely not our intention.  Our commitment is to our community and it's a team effort to tie up any loose ends that may have been over looked.  You can't change things if everyone keeps having that mentality of "you vs me."  If you want eHow to be the best site possible and a site that you can be proud of, then we need to work together, collaboratively, to make that happen.  -Rich"

If the eHow community is going to move forward from this UK fiasco, eHow is going to have to make some kind of concession that they made a mistake. Although I suspect they legally cannot do that without admitting some sort of fault that can land them in hotter water. The community is asking for compensation*.  Some people are talking about lawsuits.  eHow "solved" the problem with a simple redirect of our articles. When Google crawls the site again it will read all the new code further directing it away from the UK site.

What then was the purpose of the UK site.  Where do we go from here?  If they can direct the UK back to the US then didn't they have to first direct the readers to the UK?

(update:  eHow admits fault and compensates writers, sort of)

The heart of any community is palpable by their passion.  For some of us, writing residual articles online is a necessity because of the economy.  Writing online can produce a potential lifetime of earning residual income if the situation is right.  I learned how to write online for money over at eHow, but I am also now learning that I have a voice.  I do not agree with them posting our articles on the UK website as fillers until they get themselves together, if that even ever happens. For a multimillion dollar company I am dumbstruck at their lack of organization.  Why I expected more I am not sure.

The arguements that have risen out the the forums on the eHow website are tender.  Behind a computer screen some folks are destructive and others will defend what they want to believe is the truth.  I do not want to see a community of writers split over a situation that was perpetrated by a corporation.  Last night, I was discussing the issue of going on strike.  We talked about the ways in which people try to make laborors feel like they should just work and stick it out, keep their mouth shut, and not assert their right to speak up.  I feel like a laboror who is striking because their company will not pay fair wages.  Yes, I did sign up for eHow knowing that I may never make a dime and without knowing what they actually pay out because they are not upfront about payment.  So what?  When did signing my name to something seal my lips to injustice?

I have virtually gone on strike against eHow because I will not be writing anymore articles there until the publishing situation with the UK is resolved.  I have my reasons.  Some eHow writers say, "if you don't like it here then leave" as if that ever solved a thing.  That is a negative solution to the problem.  There are plenty of writers ready to take my spot, but worse than that are those who do not care that they write for a company that bends their vertebrate into dollar bills.  Leaving a company is good in some situations.  In this one, I think it is an easier cop-out just to say to someone, "shut up and leave". 

I read a forum post that insinuated  that the writers "striking" against eHow by not writing are doing it to cut their competition.  This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard (and I am not even sure what it means).  Okay, not the most ridiculous, but damn close.  Why would that even make sense to someone?  I have been searching through the posts trying to find the person's response because I just cannot understand why or how someone could taint others in the fashion.  The thread was was probably deleted as per the usual way eHow runs on certain matters.  If it's not deleted I apologize for the insinuation.

Perhaps we all cannot take this stance.  I actually understand that some people cannot afford to stop writing for a couple of weeks to assemble, to write letters to eHow demanding that their articles are removed.  But, it is the people who claim that the character of others who are doing this is anything but integrity with whom I have a problem.  I am speaking up to an institution to make it a better organization for all writers. 

It has been almost 2 weeks now and nothing has been done about the UK site.  Our articles still automatically post to the UK.  I do not believe that they have no control or that it should take this long. 

After looking at the forums on eHow and especially after seeing a reply by Rich, the eHow Community Manager, I realize there are so many people who do not understand what the problem is with eHow posting articles to the UK site.  So, for those of you who are confused and so on, let me explain.

What's Happening:

eHow.com has branched out their business to the UK.  They are doing this because the journalists in the UK, like the United States, have been hit hard and there is a high rate of unemployed writers.  Until now, eHow has only been available to writers in the U.S.  I do not think the UK site is actively accepting new people, but I'm not positive.  According to Steven Kydd of eHow their goal is to "recruit at least 1,000 paid freelance contributors in the UK by May 2010...[the] UK expansion is the priority now."

eHow launched the UK site with articles that are written by the U.S. members.  This is not inherently bad.  The problem is that they are not compensating, in any way, the writers who retain the copyright to this content.  Every person who writes for eHow agrees to a Terms of Service contract that gives eHow the right to publish our content.  This does include a statement about using it worldwide. The UK site has been live for over five months.
 
As a writer on eHow, I am thrilled that they are expanding.  I have had friends outside of the U.S. express interest in writing for eHow, but frankly we aren't always trying to write for free.

What is eHow's Pay Based On:

They have a Writer's Compensation Program that is a mysterious mathematical algorithm that figures several things and determines worth.  The eHow Community Manager commented on an article at The Business Insider stating:

"WCP participants are compensated based on the quality and popularity of their articles. While a member may submit several articles per month, they may not earn any money from these due to a variety of factors, such as title popularity and uniqueness, viewership, rating, writing quality, etc. An article’s earnings can vary month to month and it will continue to create passive income for as long as it generates interest from visitors."

This is about the closest and best answer anyone is going to get regarding payment.  Because eHow's algorithm considers "interest" and "viewership" it is imperative that an article can be found.

The Heart of the Issue for eHow.com Members:

So, what's the big deal?

When a person searches in Google a list of results from all over the internet show up.  If you've searched for something you know what I'm talking about.  Search results.  Good writers try to write their articles so they rank higher in the search results than a competing article.  This is done by using keywords and search engine optimization tactics.  Suddenly Google results started showing mainly results from the eHow UK site. The only difference in articles is the extension .co.uk at the end of the URL. The UK site is mirrored. When a person clicked on an article that has the UK extension then no credit goes to the writer.  eHow had not figured into their payment algorithm to pay writers when the article was viewed via the UK site extension.

The short answer is that they used member articles to fill the site, those articles ranked extremely high with many outranking US articles so much that they did not show up, and then they did not compensate anyone for these articles.   Remember when I mentioned "interest" earlier?  If a UK article is read again and again then "interest" is not being shown because the algorithm does not include anything UK.


I Don't Believe It.  Let Me See an Example of Search Results:

I searched for my blog by keywords "write fierce morals ehow".  It is listed first.  The second result just happened to be an eHow article.  Fifth is an article from eHow...UK.  The results are fairly typical and prove that the search produces results from both countries.



The Heart of the Problem Again:

The fact that any results are showing up in Google from the UK site concerns the writers because they are not being paid at all for anything UK.  Rich has postulated that this phenomenon has been caused by the members looking up their own articles and now Google has a "personalized" search feature.  Absolutely irrelevant.  As long as there are results showing up from the UK site writers are losing money, eHow is making it. 

In Closing:

eHow is wrong and it is disheartening to put faith in a corporation to have them build their brand off your backs.  They have promised to take down these articles from the UK site within the next few weeks.  This probably means several months.  No matter what anyone thinks of the quality of articles on eHow, I certainly try to stand out and write good stuff.  I contemplate the impact of writing about this UK fiasco.  It's my goal to lay out the facts as seen from a writer's perspective.  If we could unify I would strike and refuse to put new content up until the articles are removed from the UK site.

Hopefully this helped anyone who didn't understand the situation to grasp it a little better.  I welcome comments and ideas.
-----
Edit:  June 2, 2011 - As of May 5, 2011, eHow.com will no longer pay residual income on WCP articles still on the site. eHow offered up front payment to many members. It's a good idea to break eHow backlinks if you have them.

After another long day of searching for new ways to reinvent myself and my writing, I end frustrated.  I tried a new website for freelance writers, Seed.com.  I find the work at home forum to be really helpful and I found some articles about Seed.  What Seed does not mention specifically is that you might be one of one hundred people (made up number) submitting on the same topic.  I grabbed a title then wrote a good article.  It did have a due date that I slid right in under.  I thought I might have missed it.  The message I received from their editors said that they appreciated my content, but it just wasn't a good fit and I should try again.

After the rejection I started to wonder just how their system works.  After a little bit of investigating I found that several others had been frustrated as well.  I have not heard of anyone that has been successful at getting published there, but that doesn't mean people aren't out there. I did only just hear about it.  I admit I am not a fan of AOL.  When they were my internet service provider I felt like I had a virus on my computer because I could never get rid of it all the way.  Regardless, I don't know if I will spend my time writing for Seed. One thing I did not like is that once I accepted the title I could not see the instructions again and had to go by memory on the keywords and topic.  This was very frustrating and may have led to me not writing the article to specs.  I suppose the best game plan is to write one or two more articles for them. After all, I do write articles for eHow and wait for residual income to trickle.  I also write for Info Barrel and have not seen a whole lot of success there yet, but I believe the potential is great. 

Pros of Seed

• fast turnaround by editors
  
• upfront pay if accepted
• clean user interface
• options to submit articles or photos

Cons of Seed

• unclear payment structure
• feeling of being solo without a lot of guidance
• no specifics when articles are not accepted
  

However, I just read a post on the WAHM forum that says that Seed is relatively new and they are, oh dare I say, "fleshing" out their site.  I think signing up and throwing a few more articles their way is in the future for the following week.  I'll keep you posted.

I would love to hear from anyone who has had any experience writing for this site.

EDIT ON February 21 - I submitted another article to Seed.com.  It was rejected.  I think that I have figured out when they approve their articles.  Both of the articles that I submitted were due that day, so I got prompt rejection.  I am impatient, so even though my articles are not getting accepted at least I know they are not taking them.  I emailed them asking for further information about their licensing policy, but never heard back from anyone.  Since they did not accept the articles, I will publish them elsewhere.  I am not going to waste a perfectly good mismatched article. 

The letter that they send is a form letter.  I am going to give writing for Seed one more try with an assignment I accepted last night.  If you don't want to wait around for a long reply I suggest looking for fast expiring writing assignments.

Like some other freelance writers, I find myself in a moral battle of writing for eHow.com. The debate over the latest fiasco has pitted many against each other and harsh words are being spewed from all corners of the internet and forums.  What's the debate?  The legal and moral standing of eHow's decision to expand their brand to the UK.  That itself is an excellent idea.  The trouble is that they cloned the US site and filled the UK library with these articles.  eHow is denying that the articles were cloned.  According to Merriam-Webster online clone means "one that appears to be a copy of the original form: duplicate".  I think posting our articles in full sounds like a clone whether their legal speak deems it such or not.  The main issue is about compensation and the loss of earnings and views created by the competitive US versus UK Google rankings.

eHow does own the UK site, but writers did not give up all rights.  eHow has decided to remove the articles from the UK site citing their concern over preserving the community.  I cannot help but believe that somewhere they hung themselves with what appeared to be a legal loop hole. 

The moral battle is deciding whether to continue writing for a company that seems to belittle their members with subtlety and turns a deaf ear often enough to dizzy some of their hardiest supporters.  Do you follow the money or hang up your laptop?  Many folks are so angry that they are deleting all of their articles from the website.  A lot of wriers are starting to write for Info Barrel, a newer content site that has seen a huge spike in members over the past several months because of problems on eHow. For people who have lost trust in eHow and want to write for Info Barrel, I'll be posting information on that site soon with some advice.

An eHow.com review pointed out that eHow has trouble communicating with its members.  There have been many things that I don't agree with since I started writing there.  But, I don't own the company and frankly, eHow's business model is one of secrecy.  They are not upfront about their payment methods and some people call it a scam.  Not me.  I do not believe that eHow is a scam.  But, I don't agree with some of their decisions.

Here's the bottom line:  money is eHow's bottom line.  Not everyone has the ability to pull their articles and this is not what I advise.  As long eHow has their Writer's Compensation Program it is a good place to earn residual income.  Freelance writers should have a diverse portfolio.  There is a lot to learn writing for eHow. I'm not happy about all of the things that have occurred, but legal mistake or legitimate move, they are removing the articles from the UK site.  I doubt there will be rectification of earnings and it is likely only a class action law suit could even attempt to find out the truth behind earnings.

The absolute best thing to do is make yourself stand out as a content and freelance writer.  Whether you decide to remove your articles from eHow because of the UK debacle or stay and ride the wave is ultimately your decision.  It is critically important for you to not be influenced by other people to pull your articles and run.  Don't make a decision in the heat of emotion.

If you want to be a freelance writer you are going to have to stand out from the crowd.  With the downturn in the economy online sites are flooded with aspiring writers and people who want to make a quick buck.  However, writing online for residual income is a process that does not produce overnight success.  If you have the patience to build your library and work hard without seeing money in the beginning then you might be able to thrive as a content writer.

Standing out from the other content writers isn't too difficult, but it does take a lot of hard work and dedication.  The following tips will help you set yourself apart from other writers.

Ways to stand out from other content writers online:

• Develop a unique voice.
• Write about a variety of topics to develop.
• Use facts in your writing and quote reputable sources.  This is important.  Some people do not consider places like eHow.com, About.com, and other content websites as reputable sources.  If this is where you write it is imperative you make your writing stand out.
• Always check your spelling and grammar.  A great article can crash because of of simple spelling and grammar errors.  
• Capitalize your titles correctly. 
• Watch your online presence.  When you post in forums they are found in searches.  Complaining about company policies can present you in an unfavorable light if you swear and make wild accusations.  It is okay to voice your opinion and stand up for what you believe by asking questions, but make sure to keep in mind that a potential employer may be reading.
• Develop a niche and make your voice unique. 
• Consider your name and writing as a label or brand.  When you make a brand you want to promote it and make it successful.  Keeping the same username across sites can help you expand your brand.
• Learn how to write about sensitive topics. For example, people make mistakes when writing about addiction by using photos.
  

Learning how to make yourself stand out as an online content writer is important.  You can be successful writing quality articles and content online making residual income.

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/valerianasolaris/3626860068/

You bet!  Okay, I used to think that all of these work at home and write online sites were just a bunch of b.s., but then I started writing for eHow.  Now, I don't claim that they are the best residual income site around.  I didn't even know what the heck "residual income" meant until I started writing online. There is so much to learn when you write online.  That is if you want to learn all the ins and outs of creating good, quality online content.

In case you don't know either, residual income is defined as "royalty income that accrues to the owner of an intellectual property, such as art, books, lyrics, music, patents, etc." This includes freelance writing.  When you are a freelance writer you make residual income, so writing articles that pay nothing upfront but have the potential to earn money in the future is the basis of being a residual income writer.
 
The first year I started writing online I made less than $300. Most of that money was made from a lucky article about going to President Obama's inauguration.  Overnight, I had a hit article that pulled in 40,000 views.  I actually thought that the system was broken.  Sometimes, you can hit a hot topic. I had no clue that I discovered a great topic, but instead had been watching the evening news and thought some people might want to know.  Sadly, in the great eHow sweeps, I lost my highest viewed article.  While it was a historical article, it was also outdated. 

In 2009 I made a lot more. Writing online content is not going to make you rich.  But, it will pay some bills.  Or you can invest it or use it as savings.  One mistake that I see a lot of people make is to become dependent on this income. If there is one certainty in writing online it is that nothing is certain.  Yeah, I hate sayings like that, too.  But, I have found it to be true.  Although I can average what I make each month and have a rough expectation that I will at least make that much next month anything can happen.  If you can write with the attitude that the money you make writing online will add to your overall income then you will be able to write with a better sense of freedom.

Start writing!  You will soon get addicted.  It's kind of crazy. 




citation:  http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/residual-income.html