by Rena Sherwood

Created on: February 19, 2010

At Demand Studios (DS), the freelance writer is presented with a very long list of already created titles that you write to.  Choosing an article title to write about sounds simple enough – unless you are writing for Demand Studios.  In some sites like Helium, you just pick the title, write the article, submit it and get paid.  If the article is found to have factual errors, the Helium writer is given a two week warning and then, if the article isn’t fixed, it's taken down.

But Demand Studios has figured out how to make a seemingly simple process into a very complicated one.  Although Demand Studios employs title approvers, bad titles slip through at an alarming rate.  For example, one title that was approved was "How to Cure Depression in Three Minutes."  This is impossible.  There is no cure for depression.  I know – I have it. Don’t attempt to write the article anyway because it will be automatically rejected.

Article Requirements

All articles need an average of three online sources to back your statements up.  Books and magazines are no longer encouraged as sources – unless they are on Google Books.  It doesn’t matter how much personal experience you have on the article topic because you do not count as a reference.  If you can’t find at least three online sources, then forget the title and move on.

And you can’t use just any online source.  You need to keep a copy of the Demand Studios website blacklist handy.  Surprisingly, their own sites like eHow or Livestrong are blacklisted.  Other blacklisted sites include Wikipedia, Helium, HowStuffWorks, Associated Content and About.com.  If you're writing an article for Livestrong, then WebMD is also blacklisted.

No Assumptions

Remember the old bumper sticker that says "Never assume – it just makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me".  You may think you know what the title is to focus on, but the Demand Studios Content Editors may have a differing opinion.  And the Editorial Team will almost always side with the Content Editor rather than a writer. 

For example, how about this title – "Dogs that are Good as Pets".  I assumed it meant to the qualities dogs need in order to be a good pet.  Fortunately, I went to the Title Clarification Forum, which is free to DS writers and asked if my assumption was right.  I was wrong.  A member of the Editorial Team told me to list out specific breeds that make good pets.  Now, if I wrote the article my original way, it would have been rejected immediately. 

The DS Help Desk often crashes, so go directly to the DS Writer Forum and scroll down to Title Clarification in order to save you a lot of time and frustration.

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