These days, more than ever, many people are looking into alternative ways to make money, and they are all lured into believing that a computer with a high-speed Internet connection plus a website can do just that. And YES, you can make BIG MONEY through the Internet! Start a business a la Demand Studios, and you can make millions!

There is a multitude of websites available that offer opportunities for making money from home by writing articles, and Demand Studios is one of the businesses offering such a service (Sorry, I refuse to offer a hyperlink to any of the websites I mention in this post). The question is, is the Demand Studios service a scam?

My take is, no, it is not a scam, but what they promise through their advertisement is misleading to say it in the least. The truth is, the majority of their writers don’t even make enough money to pay the monthly grocery bill (I got this piece of information through my favorite most useless magazine Writer’s Digest.)

The way it works with Demand Studios is that you first need to pass their approval process. In my very personal opinion, I don’t believe they put great efforts into the process, meaning they will accept pretty much everybody who is skilled enough to apply a spell-checker to their writings. In other words, the approval process is more or less a formality. Once approved, a writer can pick up to ten articles per day, which are required to be a few hundred words long, and Demand Studios pays between $5 and $20 for each article.

Doesn’t sound bad, doesn’t it? You’ll pick ten articles per day, you make at least $50 per day, and your monthly income could exceed $1,500 easily. Well… Wrong!

Reality Check:

Demand Studios claims they have sufficient articles for your special niche, may it be politics, environmental topics, history, and all the wonderful stories that will help improve a writer’s reputation. In reality the majority of articles are in the nature of “How to…”, meaning you can write about repairing dish-washers, changing the spark-plugs on a John Deere lawnmower, and more of the same nature.

Okay, let’s assume you are willing and have the talent to write about pretty much everything. The next reality check is about time. How long will it take you to write an article? The way it works is that you receive the topic and some references (usually hyperlinks). You familiarize yourself with the subject, and then write something intelligent about it. If you are skilled (after all, if you do this for a while, you get better at it), you can write an article in less than an hour. Be aware, copying and pasting is not necessarily an accepted method. So, forget about a part-time job!

Next reality check: Consider the competition! If, after all, you are willing and able to put in the time it takes, there is no guarantee that Demand Studios can provide you ten articles per day. I don’t have an exact number of how many “authors” work for Demand Studios, but it is safe to assume there are many of them, probably thousands. I seriously doubt that Demand Studios is able to assign as much as ten articles per day to each of its authors.

I will not advice against Demand Studios when it come to creating income through writing, but I strongly recommend checking out further similar services to produce additional opportunities for income. As a fair warning, it is mandatory to apply some intense research before signing up with another service. There are too many sharks out there, who will charge you for signing up, and in the end they don’t have any work for you.

Demand Studios’ Semi-Scam Status:

It is an established fact that Demand Studios is “hiring” writers to produce articles for its clients. In the same sense, Demand Studios is hiring writers to write wonderful stories about… Demand Studios! Through my research I found numerous websites – mostly blogs – that had only wonderful things to say about Demand Studios. And they all assure the reader, “No, Demand Studios’ service is not a scam!” All this comes in a tone, like “You work only part-time while sipping drinks at your swimming pool, and your money just flows into your checking account.” It boggles the mind that people still fall for obvious crap like this.

Let me just point to a few, very obvious examples.

This screen shot was made from the LootSwoop website. They display a vast list of “legitimate stay-at-home online jobs.” My advice is to stay away from that website, unless you are in the business of giving away your money. Their website if full of links to scammers of the worst kind. I found LoopSwoop through my research regarding Demand Studios, i.e. I found an article on their web site praising the Demand Studios services. The same article also included hyperlinks to yet another dubious business, FreelanceHomeWriters. Demand Studios may not be responsible for content on the LootSwoops website, although I cannot say that with all certainty. I believe, that Demand Studios, in the least, paid for the article. Whatever the connection is, the fact remains that Demand Studios is not shy to use any questionable resource to promote their business.

As I mentioned previously, one of the links on LootSwoop pointed to FreelanceHomeWriters. I was not afraid signing up on their single-page website. After all, you can pretty much enter any e-mail address you like. A single home page with absolutely no links to other pages and no more detailed information about their services was the first red flag. It turns out, in order to finish the sign-up process they ask you for your credit card information. The charge is supposed to be only $2.95. Fool, if you think that may be the only charge. This scheme looks like the one used by the so-called Google Profit Library. Initially, they charge a small amount, but at the same time you sign up for an additional $140 service. You can cancel the service per phone within three days, but what good is it when nobody answers the phone?

This last example is a good one! They also promote the Demand Studios business, and they call themselves DemandStudioSecret. They will sell you a “121 page book that encompasses every aspect of Demand Studios from applying to writing to consistently making big money. It costs just $19.99, which is what you could make in less than an hour with Demand Studios.”

And yes, this is yet another great example on how make money through the Internet. You familiarize yourself with a very popular topic and sell your findings as a PDF file.

As always, I do invite comments, may they be in favor of my writing or not. However, with a tricky subject like Demand Studios at hand I do reserve the right to monitor responses and delete them if I suspect foul play.

Supplement – March 18, 2010

Recent Comments:
There was a comment by a writer who makes some good income through Demand Studios. Apparently I was wrong about the number of available articles – I just posted my own experience with Demand Studios. The commenter had a few things more to say that I still do not agree with. Please read the comments following this entry to get the whole picture.

Another View On Content Mills:
Content Mills is the term used for businesses such as Demand Studios. Let me quote Angela Hoy  of WritersWeekly who responded to a writer complaining about the content mill he worked for: “You are working for a content mill, also known as a writer’s sweatshop. You are likely earning far less than minimum wage. You’d probably make more money working at a fast food joint. Also, working for a firm like this enables them to stay in business, and to victimize other writers as well. You, my friend, are part of the problem.”

She also points out: “At WritersWeekly.com, we post real jobs and paying markets for free every Wednesday. Remember, nobody is forcing you to work for less than minimum wage. You put yourself in that position.”

See the full article at http://www.writersweekly.com/ask_the_expert/005939_03172010.html.

Supplement – March 21, 2010

Just in case I am yet again being abused of superficial research:

“We have been profiling content mills and companies that have revenue sharing / pay-per-click programs. You know the type. They either offer insultingly low rates for articles (and often take all rights)…or you work your butt off to fill their site with content, and promote their site to get lots of clicks and/or ad revenue. They then earn money on ads placed on your content pages and you usually end up earning less than minimum wage, if anything at all.”
Reference: WritersWeekly.com

“Content aggregators like Demand Studios represent the lowest rung of freelance opportunity. It doesn’t take a lot of journalism training, writing experience or time to put together the kind of evergreen how-to articles these types of sites thrive on, which is one reason why the pay’s so low. Another has to do with supply and demand. When there’s a large supply of writers, professional or otherwise, willing and able to do the work, sites like Demand Studios don’t have to offer higher rates to attract the labor they need.”
Reference: WordCount

“Thousands of other filmmakers and writers around the country are operating with the same loose standards, racing to produce the 4,000 videos and articles that Demand Media publishes every day. The company’s ambitions are so enormous as to be almost surreal: to predict any question anyone might ask and generate an answer that will show up at the top of Google’s search results. To get there, Demand is using an army of Muñoz- Donosos to feverishly crank out articles and videos. They shoot slapdash instructional videos with titles like “How To Draw a Greek Helmet” and “Dog Whistle Training Techniques.” They write guides about lunch meat safety and nonprofit administration. They pump out an endless stream of bulleted lists and tutorials about the most esoteric of subjects.”
Reference:  Wired

Supplement – April 13, 2010

Today I received the following message through my contact form (contact’s name removed) :

“I’m wondering if there is some bias in your writing about online writing sites such as Demand Studios. I noticed that you are a businessman in the industry and I understand how a new paradigm of a business model is sometimes rejected outright by the traditional industry. I am a new online writer and have been writing for a few sites and I’m not making much now but I have emailed many other authors on some of these sites and they seem to be honest about how much they make doing this. They all say that it is hard work until you’re established but over time they seem to be making a decent living. I am researching both sides and I am interested how much research you have done in the online market.”

My answer:

“I have been going back and forth about whether or not I should answer you, but, after all, I deem it polite to answer everybody who contacts me. In your message you accuse me of being biased, outright rejecting new business models, and lack of research. I don’t expect anybody to agree with me, but I do expect a certain level of professionalism. I wish you good luck with your research.”

Yet again, please feel free to contact me or leaving a response to this entry (see entry form below), whether you agree with me or not. A polite and professional tone is appreciated.

Supplement – May 5, 2010

As always, it is recommended reading Angela Hoy’s newsletter – See WritersWeekly.com – Content Mill Complaints.

Just a brief excerpt: “I just signed up to write for (a content mill). I increased my writing skills over the past year and felt confident about working for them. I wrote one article. It was accepted the same day. Then I wrote another and was asked to rewrite. The whole article took me about three hours with research the first time. I rewrote it and sent it back. It was rejected, saying that my writing was not clear. I then wrote another one about the same time and it was also sent back for a rewrite and rejected after that.”

The same scenario, i.e. multiple rejection due to overzealous editors, applies to Demand Studios (We don’t know if the above comment refers to Demand Studios or another content mill). See the description at http://www.makemoneywithdemandstudios.com/forum. This seems to be a good resource to check out the Demand Studios’ reality.