Will Writing for Demand Studios Make You Money?

Demand Studios is not an evil empire. This company, so far as I know, does not engage in shady business practices, such as manipulating payment algorithms to reduce writer payments, or copying articles to duplicate sites and not paying writers for pageviews (cough*eHow!*cough).

Not being evil, while a step in the right direction, isn’t the only thing you look for when you’re choosing a venue to make money online. Is writing for Demand Studios worthwhile? Will the amount of money you earn justify the time you spend?

The answer depends on 3 things:

1. How fast you write

Demand Studios typically pays $15 for a 400-500 word article. You’re paid per article, not per word or per hour. If you write 500 words in 30 minutes, writing for DS will be more worthwhile for you than for someone who takes 2 hours to write the same 500 words.

2. Where you live

If you live in a country with a high cost of living, DS may not provide enough income for you. On the other hand, if you live in a country with a very low cost of living, even one or two articles per day might be enough to cover basic living expenses and more. (Note: DS is only open to American citizens, but you don’t actually have to be living in the country.)

3. How good you are at following directions

Writers who submit articles to Demand Studies that don’t meet quality standards or formatting guidelines are asked to do a rewrite. Rewrites are not paid. The more time you spend doing rewrites, the less money you earn per hour.

My personal experience

In 2009, I researched dozens of writing platforms, including Constant Content, eHow, Textbroker and many others. Demand Studios’ professional-looking website and transparent payment policies impressed me, and I wrote several articles for them.

I didn’t bother writing for Demand Studios for more than a few weeks, but that had nothing to do with their site or their policies. It was simply that I ended up making so much money at Constant Content that it became pointless to spend time on any other writing site.

However, Constant Content is a unique model, and it doesn’t suit everyone. Demand Studios, while not as high-paying, is a good match for a certain type of writer, and it is possible to earn a full-time income there. Is writing for DS the right choice for you? Will you earn enough money to make it worthwhile? That’s what I’m going to explore in the rest of this post.

Writing an article for Demand Studios: a walk-through

I’m going to walk you through the process of creating and submitting an article at Demand Studios. This is not a how-to guide: Demand Studios does a great job of providing tutorials and step-by-step guides for writers on their own site. If you want to learn more about how DS works, start with their FAQ.

Instead, this walk-through will give you a clear understanding of the number of steps required to create and submit an article. You should get a pretty accurate idea of how long it may take you to write a DS article. Then you can decide for yourself if it’s worth signing up for Demand Studios and writing articles.

1. Choose a title

Assuming you’ve already created an account with Demand Studios, you’ll be able to claim a title from the DS catalogue of available titles. Once you’ve claimed a title, nobody else can claim it.

This part of the process is more time-consuming than you’d expect. The prevalence of obscure and often bizarre titles at Demand Studios has become a running joke among freelance writers. In order to find a viable topic, you’ll wade through gems such as “How to Adjust a Shimano Top Swing Front Derailleur,” “North Carolina Labor Laws on Lunch Breaks,” and “Homemade Scanner Antenna Tape Measure.”

As you can see in the below screen, I chose the titles “Home Health Aide Training in Queens,” and “Emergency Nursing Information.” I spent about 10 minutes browsing titles before I found these, along with a few others, but I’ve spent up to half an hour in the past. Remember, you’re not getting paid for the time you spend scouring the titles.

2. Categorize your article

Below is the Claimed Assignments screen where you can view the titles you’ve claimed and select one to write.

I’ve chosen “Emergency Nursing Information.” Before starting the actual writing process, I have to select a category and sub-category. This takes only a couple of seconds.

3. Choose an image

Ready to write? Nope, still one more thing to do: choose an image to go with your article. Demand Studios says that this step is not mandatory, but they are known to reject articles that are submitted without images, so you should assume that you’ll need to choose images for most of your articles. I had a hard time finding an appropriate image for “Emergency Nursing Information.” It actually took between 15-20 minutes.

4. Write your article

Finally–the writing! Each discrete section has its own subhead and body. You can include an image for each section, but you don’t earn any extra money for doing so, and it’s not required. I brainstormed and wrote the entire article in TextEdit, then copied and pasted into the sections.

Each section has a required wordcount and specific guidelines, depending on what article format you’ve chosen. These are clearly explained in the DS help sections so I won’t go into them here, except to say that your first article will take longer since you’ll be familiarizing yourself with the guidelines. I recommend reading the guidelines for your specific format (How to, About, etc) just before you start writing, and then again just before you submit.

5. Add references and resources

Each DS article must be accompanied by references. This means you can never write from your own personal experience. Even if you are an expert on a topic, with years of professional experience, you cannot say anything in your article that isn’t directly backed up by one of the websites you cite.

Even though I’ve listed this step at the end, you want to find your references before actually doing the writing. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour. Occasionally, you simply cannot find references for an article and have to release it back into the pool.

6. Review your article

After completing the article, you review your article. Since I hadn’t written for DS in several months, I took a good 10-15 minutes to review my “Emergency Nursing Information” article, glancing back over the editorial guidelines and checking off all the requirements. Once you’re experienced, this step should just take a couple seconds.

7. Submit your article

And it’s off. After submitting, there’s nothing more for you to do–unless, of course, your article is rejected.

Collect your money

Oddly enough, I got an email from Paypal several days before I received Demand Studios’ acceptance email. Doesn’t bother me–the important thing is, my article was accepted and I’ve been paid. All payments are instant, so you can make a few extra bucks as needed, which is great!

Here’s the email from Paypal:

And here’s the email from DS:

Was it worth it?

Here’s the breakdown of the time I spent writing a single article:

Reading and reviewing editorial guidelines: 25 minutes
Choosing a title: 10 minutes
Finding references: 10 minutes
Choosing a photo: 15 minutes
Writing: 1 hour
Total time spent: 2 hours

Hourly wage: $7.5

The Verdict

$15 for a 400-500 word article that may take up to two hours to write does not appeal to me. If you’re a fast writer, you can probably get the time down to 30 minutes per article once you’ve mastered the guidelines and know your way around. How much money do you want to earn per day, and can you write articles fast enough to hit your goal?

Also, consider the burn-out factor. DS articles are paint-by-numbers, with little room for creativity. How many of them could you write before wanting to poke your eye out? 4 a day? 8 a day?

If DS appeals to you and you think it would be financially worthwhile, I recommend that you time yourself when you write your first few articles. Include the time you spend reading the editorial guidelines, looking for reference websites, and doing rewrites. After the first few articles your time spent per article should dramatically decrease. Then you can make an informed decision about whether or not you want to keep earning money at Demand Studios.

I personally am not going to bother with DS anymore. After re-visiting Demand Studios, I’m reminded of the reasons I stopped writing for them in the first place. The pay is pathetically low compared to Constant Content, so I’d rather not take away from the time I could be spending earning money there. Plus, these days rigid formatting restrictions just make me cross. But I can imagine myself enjoying the predictable structures of DS if I were in a certain mood. It just depends on what you enjoy as a writer and what mood you’re in.

Despite my lackluster review, I do recommend this site to US citizens who are new to making money online, have basic writing skills, and want to be able to work from anywhere. I especially recommend it to people who want to hone their writing skills before heading over to the more lucrative world of Constant Content. DS will help you develop attention to detail, master basic article structures, and build self-confidence.

No one writing platform suits everyone, but I hope that this post helped give you a clearer idea of what to expect from DS and whether it’s worthwhile trying to earn money there. What do you think of Demand Studios?

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