Hi everyone! It’s almost spring and time to get your writing cranked into high gear. Thanks to everyone who has sent me emails, I love hearing from you guys!

One of the first reviews I wrote on here was for Demand Studios. If you haven’t seen it take a look and get the inside scoop on signing up with the company. Double check your sample because it’s what will make or break your hiring.

So how do you succeed at Demand Studios? Well, there are a few ways so we should get right to it. One bit of caution and please pay attention to this. There is a forum and it is human nature to want to vent at times. Don’t vent about Demand Studios on there. Keep it general and keep personal things out of it. The editors and the staff do read the forum. Don’t say anything there that you don’t want them to read.

Demand Studios is great about paying on time. The single time I was working with them and there was a glitch, they immediately posted it site wide and updated it constantly. The delay was less than 2 hours.

There are 6 things you have to know to succeed with Demand Studios

1. You can be right or you can be paid

This is something you learn quickly. You can be right or you can get paid but you can rarely do both. When something goes through fast and is approved, it’s great. When it’s kicked back for a rewrite you can rewrite it, abandon it or argue the point.

To succeed at Demand Studios you want to challenge as few rewrites as possible. The response time is such that many of them will expire before you get an answer leaving you in the same position as before. The staff will generally agree with the editor anyway. You can ask for more clarification on what the problem is but again the rewrite will likely expire before you get a response.

2. To rewrite or not to rewrite; that is the question

Once an article is kicked back for a rewrite you have one shot. If the editor doesn’t like the revision the article is rejected. One hot topic of forum discussion is on whether or not you should bother even doing them. Yes and no.

If the rewrite requests are clear and concise, do the rewrite and move on. If the instructions are vague to the point that you can see no clear way to complete the rewrite, consider abandoning it. Depending on your abandoned score and your rejection score, you might choose one or the other. In a case like this send for clarification from the editors on how you should proceed. If a response comes in time, you can meet the deadline. Otherwise make your choice and move on to something else.

3. Dealing with the editors

Of every review I have done, no company that uses editors got a worse review on the topic than Demand Studios. They keep claiming that they are reforming the system but so far there have been no changes that matter.

The brutal truth is that Demand Studios, no matter what they may claim, will side with the editor 99% of the time or more. If you challenge a rejection you will lose and they keep track of it. Complain enough and you will find yourself out the door. Don’t waste your time. Write it off from the start and save yourself the anxiety.

The other problem with the editors, and this is a problem with all editors, is that each one has a different standard. Articles that would be instantly approved by one are kicked back for a rewrite by another. Just to make it interesting, an entirely different editor will edit your rewrite! So you can make the changes requested but the new editor doesn’t like them and rejects the article (remember, you only get one shot at rewriting) leaving you with nothing.

As bad as that sounds, the vast majority of articles sail through either on the first or second attempt. Some of the editors are very good and helpful.

4. Find your format

This was one thing I loved about Demand Studios. They have various article formats and this is unusual in an online writing company. You could choose to write a ‘How-to’ that was a step by step process or you could select a ‘Strategy’ article and write a regular article. There are a lot of formats and while it’s fun to wander through them, picking a format that you can complete quickly will maximize your profits. I chose the ‘How-to’ format most of the time because I could write out the process quickly and word count was less of an issue. As long as the process was complete the editors didn’t much care about word count.

5. Watch your scores

You are rated on several things including spelling and grammar. You are also rated on the number of articles you write, how many are approved clean, how many are sent for rewrite, abandoned and rejected. You want to keep your scores as high as possible. Not only will it, generally, keep you in a job but it will also make you eligible for higher paying project lines.

6. Create an article dump

Remember the bit about rejected and abandoned articles? Well create a place for those articles to go by creating a Yahoo Voices account. Then when you get a rejection, you can change the title and put the article on there. Demand Media owns the title but once the article is rejected or abandoned you own the content.

So here is the step by step (or ‘How-to’) in being a success at Demand Studios

Apply and be accepted. Once that is done you can fill out the profile or not, it is not a big deal here.

After you are accepted you will have a queue that will allow you to save up to 5 articles. Go to the jobs board and find 5 you like and think you could write with a minimum of effort. In the interest of time, try and choose the same format.

Write and submit the articles. Once these articles are submitted a block is placed that prevents you from claiming more articles. Use that time to study the formats. There is a format guide on your dashboard.

If any of your articles are sent back for a rewrite, do it immediately. Normally you have a few days but you want that block lifted and until you have them cleared you are stuck waiting.

Once the articles are approved and the block on your account is lifted you claim as many articles as your queue will allow you to claim. Most people immediately jump to queue of 10.

Whenever possible, try to find similar titles in the same format. For example, I once wrote 10 articles on how to install various pieces of computer hardware. As soon as your queue is clear, fill it back up.

Once the initial block is lifted you can write as many articles as you want without waiting for approval of the last submitted batch. I’ve had as many as 100 articles pending at once.

You have a week to write the articles you claim. If you aren’t going to get to it in that time period, you can release it without penalty. One popular trick is to release the article and reclaim it again. Demand Studios is on to that trick so you can only claim each article twice. After that it will not appear as available to you.

After the first month, apply to higher paying sites affiliated with Demand Studios. You will find these on your Dashboard and under your account heading. While the lowest paying articles here are $15, some of the affiliate sites pay much more, $50 and $100 is not unusual, depending on the site.

Demand will also occasionally put out calls for specialists. Specialists are people with real world experience in certain areas. For example, you are a paralegal and they need people who can write about legal matters or you are a nurse and they have a medical niche to fill. These all have various rates but the lowest is $50 per article.

Write-claim-write is the secret formula to success at Demand Studios. When you can, apply for the higher paying niches and continue the formula.This is a great site to learn online writing, dealing with editors and to hoe your typing skills. The faster you write the articles the more you will earn. Anything rejected or abandoned goes to your Yahoo account and you make residual pay on that.