Comments on: Demand Studios—You Can Make Over Two Million Dollars If You Try Really Hard

By: Jessie

Jessie — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:30:11 +0000

Thanks Jenn for the dead on advice.

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:13:41 +0000

If you want to make money at it, you can’t spend time toying around with different niches. Make a list of everything you could write about. Do some keyword research to see if people are actually searching for / interested in the topic and how well advertisers are paying, and then devote yourself to the niche. There’s very little trial and error in it with all of the information available these days for market research. The only thing that determines whether or not a blog is profitable or successful is how dedicated the blogger is to reaching their goals.

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:03:49 +0000

Jenn,
I agree with what you said about writer’s own blogs. I’m trying to figure out the right niches for me. I’m using my DS money to hold me over without any hassle. Reread your real look at residual income…totally convinced!

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:59:03 +0000

“DS is good for the things that you will write about quickly and enjoy writing.”

That’s what your own blogs are good for, and why writers should learn how to effectively monetize them (it’s not that difficult to earn at least the modest income you’re talking about from them, and you don’t have to rewrite or associate your name with a mill that won’t remove your account on request).

I’ve also found that rewrite requests are rather minimal with “normal” clients, and the higher their budgets, the fewer rewrite requests there often are.

I wouldn’t have much faith in DS being around in the long term. That’s not to say they won’t be, but rather that it’s silly to assume so and place the future of your career on them. It’s foolish enough to rely mostly or solely on a single 3rd party. It’s even worse to rely on a 3rd party whose own future relies almost solely on another 3rd party (in this case the whims of Google — a company known for killing income models when it suits their own purposes).

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:29:03 +0000

Demand Studios…I’ve got a love / hate relationship going on with DS. I derive most of my income from DS right now. When I first applied to DS, I was super-psyched. I write business articles, which I love to write, and when I want to get immediately paid for something I want to share info. about, I can suggest it and make $5–while very measly that dough is, it does let me take something that would be filed in a folder somewhere and make quick cash. DS is good for the things that you will write about quickly and enjoy writing. For me, I can write business articles very well fairly quickly. I also have a very low cost of living.

Sometimes, writing for DS can feel sluggish and icky, but what I love is that I feel fairly certain it will be there in some capacity. I know that content mills aren’t completely secure and the work could go away at any time, but it helps to have it there to fund projects like blogs and content sites I want to create myself.

Regarding rewrites, I get them occasionally / infrequently, but maybe it is the sting of a recent pain in the ass client but I find that my rewrite requests have been invariably less annoying than some clients will be.

Sorry to sound all grinchy. Demand Studios does have a place for some writers. Excellent objective reporting Yo.

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:08:13 +0000

It’s fixed now. Thanks Stace!

By: Stace Johnson

Stace Johnson — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:32:37 +0000

FYI, the link to the other posts in the series pulls up a 404 error.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:52:49 +0000

I was writing for them, but as you mentioned, they kept wanting rewrites, then would deny them when I’d do the rewrites without telling me what they wanted. And for stupid stuff also; I finally asked them to close out my account. And you’re right, even on topics I knew well because they were in my industry, they would want me to link to outside sources that didn’t make any sense, then be upset because I did it.

Just a major waste of my time; ended up having to write about it in my blog as well.

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:40:46 +0000

OK, it definitely is Salary.com. I just did a sample search for my own local area (for a level 1 copywriter). As an example, here’s the average salary, but then the average cost when you factor in other things like vacation time and benefits:

Salary: $41,101
Real cost: $60,703

Therefore if you wanted to quit your day job paying $41,101 and have an equivalent lifestyle freelancing, you couldn’t aim for around $40k as a freelance writer. You’d have to set the bar to around $60k.

After doing a few searches for different writing-related jobs, it turned out that there was around a 30% difference each time (give or take a little).

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:31:12 +0000

One of the salary comparison sites (it might be salary.com) allows users to search not only salaries, but employee cost as well (factoring in the employer’s part of taxes, average benefits they contribute to, etc.). That’s the number that really matters. So for example, to have the same lifestyle that $52k salary would provide, a freelancer might have to earn more like $65-70k to have all other things equal.