About the Author

Felicia A. Williams is a freelance writer and blogger. She spends her time raising her family and writing. In addition to being the Insurance Feature Writer at Suite 101 and freelancing wherever she can, Felicia spends her time tinkering around with her sites, Tidbits and Stuff (a site full of useless and useful information), BLULOW, (all about living green) and Visit Hudson Valley.

See All Posts by This Author

Back on the Demand Studios Merry-go-Round

November 11th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

The other day I received an e-mail from Demand Studios asking me to update my bio. I had received a similar request before and chose to ignore it since I had not been writing for Demand Studios and didn’t see a need to update my bio.

Just for grins, I opened the e-mail expecting to find an ultimatum of “update or leave,” but I was surprised with the type of ultimatum I received. In essence, they told me that I had until XX date to update my bio or else they would update it for me.

WHAT!?

With such a curious ultimatum I signed into my account and updated my bio. No, I did not include my education or any of that other information. I only updated my 50 word narrative and added a “fun fact.” Additionally, I added a free photo from stock.xchng to accompany my nom de plume. The photo is so obviously not me.

Back on the Merry-Go-Round

Since I had logged into my account (after several moths), I figured, oh what the heck, let me get back on the merry-go-round to see if I can try writing a few articles. I was able to find several titles that interested me so I’m giving Demand Studios another shot. After all, the holidays are around the corner and I could use the additional money.

I’m taking it slow. I’m only writing 1 or 2 a day to test the waters. If things go smoothly I might increase my productivity. I don’t want to run into the same frustrations I had run into in the past.

A Few Things Have Changed

The twice a week payment structure is something that I had not had the benefit of enjoying in the past and I find that to be an attractive feature. Additionally, I see that they are now going to offer health insurance to eligible writers. That’s also something positive. They do seem to be trying to keep their writers happy.

Only time will tell if I can tentatively add Demand Studios back into my freelance writing arsenal. It would be a nice addition to the residual income I’m already receiving.

There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

Comment by Cyn (12 comments.) on 11 November 2009:

I got the same email. After ignoring two previous ones, I also updated my bio (and I’m wondering what the heck they would have written for me…). Since I was there, I decided to go ahead and take a few assignments, too.

I had no idea about the twice a week pay, though. That’s pretty interesting! What are the pay days (and pay periods)?
Cyn´s last blog ..Happy eHow-niversary to me!
Comment by Felicia on 11 November 2009:

Hey Cyn,

They pay on Tuesdays and Fridays. All articles approved by Sunday are paid on Tuesday and all articles approved by Wednesday are paid on Friday. I think that’s a nice little perk.
Comment by DeAnna (41 comments.) on 11 November 2009:

I had the same e-mails from Demand Studios and finally updated my profile too. Then they came back and told me I had to update my photo – even though there was a perfectly good one on there. They listed one of the options for a photo was to partially hide your face behind a book you have written if you wanted to remain annonymous. So, I wrote back that I liked my photo as it was and if they were willing to accept a silly photo with a face behind a book then they can live with the photo I already had. It was approved. I haven’t written for DS for awhile but I do like to keep my options open just in case.
DeAnna´s last blog ..Suite101 Update
Comment by Deborah (21 comments.) on 12 November 2009:

I’m a little worried about having my real info on there. I’ve heard a lot of writers say they use pseudonyms and fake photos because it could damage their writing credibility and their ability to get higher paying projects. Is it too late for me to do this?
Deborah´s last blog ..A New Design is on the Way
Comment by Felicia on 12 November 2009:

No, I don’t think it’s too late. I’ve changed my pseudonym a couple of times.
Comment by Kim H on 12 November 2009:

I tried several times unsuccessfully to add my education, when they asked for it. Kept getting an error. I put that in the comment section, then they sent me an email to add the text to my bio. That kicked back because it was over the allowed word count. Then I got another email saying the same thing. I think robots are running the site, and the miscategorized titles are driving me nuts.
Comment by Felicia on 12 November 2009:

If I’m not mistaken, I might have had my education on my original resume so I didn’t feel a need to fill in all of the education fields. I only updated the first page.

As far as the categories, I never search for titles that way. I type in a few key words and choose from the available titles. I find the categories are never accurate.
Comment by Elvenrunelord (1 comments.) on 15 November 2009:

Its not robots running the site, rather harried and overworked editors dealing with all you writers

Seriously this info makes me question if I even want to join Demand Studio.

I probably will once I get over my comma dilemma that is holding me back at Textbrokers.
Comment by Wendy (22 comments.) on 18 November 2009:

Thanks for the information about the pseudonym! I just assumed it was too late to switch. I have never used one before….this will be a little bit fun. I should have made up stuff on the bio, too…anyway…

until my website and suite and other stuff starts making money, I feel like DS is not a bad way to bring in extra money…

Plus, I have to admit, if I am in the right frame of mind, I actually love writing on arcane topics…I finished one on “How to Make a Natural Armadillo Repellent” recently… : )

Cheers! Wendy
Wendy´s last blog ..Nov 12, Essential Oil Blends