Writing Articles - Making Money

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. 

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.
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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.

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.