Is Demand Studios Worth It?

I wrote a post titled Is Guru Worth It not too long ago.  Google Analytics is showing that as one of the main destinations for readers of the ArcticLlama blog.  Since Google Analytics does not provide access to the info contained in Google’s brain implant chip (yet), I have to guess why that article is so popular.

My guess is that there are many professional freelance writers and other writers who are starting out who are wondering which of the online writing opportunities that are out there are actually worth pursuing before they have to put a lot of effort into applying.  So, I’ve decided to share my conclusions with you here on our freelance writing tips blog.

Writing For Demand Studios

Demand Studios was one of the sites I got involved with early on after deciding to become a freelance writer full time.  I don’t even remember how I ended up finding out about it, or why I chose to sign up with them, but I’m pretty glad I did.

I still write for Demand Studios today, although things have changed dramatically recently.  Until about November of last year, I could log onto to Demand Studios, write fast, hammer them out, and then get them published quickly.  It was a nice way to fill in any gaps in the writing pipeline or to make a little extra income.

Today, things are little different.  These days, titles are actually becoming harder to find and there are much fewer of them.

Before, there we a lot of specific categories to choose from which made finding articles easier.  For example, I am a former financial planner, so I wrote tons of the finance and investing articles.  They were listed under the “Personal Finance” category.

Unfortunately, earlier this year, they changed to just a handful of categories:

• Animals
• Arts & Entertainment
• Automotive
• Business
• Computers
• Culture & Society
• Health & Fitness
• Hobbies & Games
• Home & Garden
• Sports & Recreation

As you can imagine, most of the finance and investing articles are now in Business.  The problem is that so are lots of other articles, so sorting through them to find ones you actually want to write is much tougher.

Before you say that you don’t think it would be so bad, click on this screenshot of one page of listings in the “Business” section.

There is a search feature, but it doesn’t work very well.  On more than one occasion I’ve searched for something like “IRA” and found nothing, only to start browsing and within one minute find “Roth IRA Income Limits” or something like that.  It happens fast enough, and often enough that there is no way that it is just a coincidence that the title was made available between when I searched and when I found it by browsing.

Is It Worth It To Write For Demand Studios

Demand Studios made one other huge change with the new year.  They introduced two new types of articles to write.  One is called a “Fact-Sheet” and it only pays $5.  The other is a “Revenue Sharing” article and it pays nothing, but you get a certain percentage of the revenue produced by the article forever.

Since this is a review, I won’t get into the details, but trust me when I tell you that writing anything, no matter how supposedly simple, for $5 is not worth it, period.

As far as the revenue sharing articles go, I can’t say, because I haven’t written one yet, and they haven’t been around long enough for any sort of consensus to emerge, though I  did read one post where an author had a question about when it said that her article made 8 cents in February and 11 cents in March if that meant it was up to a total of 11 cents (earning 3 more cents in March) or if it was a total of 19 cents.  Either way, that is completely not worth it, though that might be a bad example.

For all the “regular” articles, Demand Studios pays $15 per article.

You will find plenty of people and websites telling you why you can’t or shouldn’t write for $15 per article.  That’s bunk.

However, you cannot spend an hour writing a $15 article unless you want to starve.  Don’t forget, you’ll lose around 35% to 50% of your earnings to taxes, so $15 an hour is actually like $7 an hour.  Do yourself a favor and go work at a grocery store for double that.

On the other hand, if you can write 3 $15 articles per hour, then that’s $45 an hour, and that isn’t too bad.  If you can write 4 $15 articles per hour then that’s $60 and hour and now you are doing really well.

Before anyone complains that you should actually be making much more per hour than that off of your freelance writing, let me explain.  As a professional freelance writer, you can earn much more than that.  But, you almost can NEVER earn more than this writing anywhere, any amount, any time, without any sort of schedule or commitment.

That is the beauty of Demand Studios.  If you have a full slate of projects one week, then don’t write anything for Demand Studios.  They won’t care.  If it is near the end of the month and you have to make rent, then sit down and write to your maximum every day of the week, and they won’t care.

Any other writing gig you find paying more than $50 will come with at least some requirements.  Maybe you have to be on-site 20 hours per week.  Maybe you are required to write 2 articles per week no matter how busy you are with other stuff.  Maybe, you can write ONLY 1 article per week no matter how many great ideas you have.

You get the point.

Next Up – How Demand Studios Works

Also in this series:

1. Why Write for Demand Studios
2. Earn Money Writing for Demand Studios

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Disclosure: I am a writer at Demand Studios, for which I get paid for articles that I submit and are accepted for publication. In this role, I have the same role as any other Demand Studios writer. I received no payment, services, or special treatment in exchange for this or any post on ArcticLlama.com

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