Currently, Suite 101 and Demand Studios revenue share fall under the truly passive category for me. I haven’t written an article for Suite since May 4, 2011 and my last revenue share for DMS was written on January 4, 2011.

When I look at my revenue share earnings, I can only reminisce about the Demand Studio “good ol’ days” when we were able to submit writer-generated titles. In hindsight, I wish I wrote at least 5 or 10 more of them.

Comparing the Two Sites

I have 270 articles on Suite and passively earned $126.81 in the month of August. With Demand Studios, I have 9 revenue share articles and earned $122.98. My 9 articles with Demand Studios brought in $3.83 less than my 270 Suite articles.

It just goes to show how crazy this whole Internet journey is. I can say for a fact that the quality of my Suite 101 articles is far superior to anything I’ve written for Demand Studios. It’s not that I didn’t write quality for DMS, it’s just the nature of a How to article. There are some concepts that don’t fit within the confines of the How to structure.

Not Isolated Results

The above results are not a fluke. If you own several blogs on a wide range of topics, I’m sure you’ll find the blogs that provide the most well-thought out grass roots information pale in earnings when compared to those that promote a popular product, service or concept (there are a few exceptions).

I could earn a lot more money with a blog that promotes diet pills than I would with one that instructs readers to eat healthy, drink water and get plenty of exercise. The pill promoting blog would probably get a lot of spam comments while the other would develop a loyal following of helpful community members.

Always a Balancing Act

There is one thing I’ve learned about writing online. It is a constant balancing act. You’ve got to write to the masses in order to keep a roof over your head, but you also have to write from the heart in order to keep your soul replenished. It appears that this gal has a bit more replenishing to do.

Photo by Marília Florêncio Santos

Lost Opportunity

Well it looks like Demand Studios is no longer accepting articles under the Writer Created Assignment Program. I happened to sign in to check my earnings and saw the notification. Mosey over to Deanna’s blog, The Write Mom, for a full write up.

Although I’m concentrating 99% of my writing efforts on my own endeavors, if I were going to write articles for a content site, it would have been for the Demand Studios WCA program. Those articles seem to earn pretty well.

Carpe Diem

What we are all quickly learning about the online world is that when an opportunity presents itself, seize it. Don’t ponder too long. Make a decision, jump on it and work it hard. You never know how long the opportunity will be available.

It’s similar to purchasing gas. If you see gas at a good price, fill ‘er up. You know you’re going to need gas eventually; you might as well get it now when the price is better than what it will be later.

My buddy Ken over at The Freelancer Today is right on top of things.  He’s putting together a list of writing venues that might prove to be a nice alternative to writing for DMS. Ken’s list, appropriately entitled Egg Baskets, includes a few content mill sites and many sites outside of the content mill category.

It’s not a complete list, but there’s more than enough there to get you started if you’re looking for a DMS alternative.

Thanks Ken for helping out your fellow writers.

New DMS Format: Topic View

The other day as I was browsing around looking for assignments and I noticed a new format called Topic View. I tend to stick with what I know and do it quickly. I try to be as efficient as possible because at $15 a pop I can’t afford to spend too much time on any one article.

When I first saw the new Topic View format, I didn’t bother trying it. I wasn’t in the mood to learn a new format. I wanted to write a few quick How to articles and get on with it.

Becoming Adventurous

Well, the other day I was feeling a little adventurous and I decided to try one. What I found was it was that the format is so much easier than writing a How to. Using the Topic View format is similar to writing a real article. You get to select a topic, choose the angle you wish to present and then address it accordingly. No more starting sentences with actionable words or rewording steps in a fashion to make it fit the How to guideline. This is the closest I’ve come to a real writing to Demand Studio since I started writing for them.

Easy Repurposing

The best part about the Topic View format is that if DMS rejects or requests an unreasonable rewrite, the article is already in a user-friendly format that makes it easy to upload elsewhere. No longer do I have to change my actionable steps into article sub-headings to make it fit in on another site. All I have to do is copy, paste and viola!

I’ve only done a few of them and they all have gone through without a hitch. I get the feeling that since the Topic View format is closer to real writing, we all may see a decline in rewrites and rejections (I hope). 

On Bukisa I have a network of close to 200 people (of which 10% of my folks actually placed articles on Bukisa). I earn a small daily amount from my Bukisa network. I have a little over 50 referrals on HubPages and of course, no referrals on DMS since they don’t have a referral program.

The Numbers…

For both Bukisa and DMS, I have to earn at least $10 during the month to reach payout.  Therefore, if I earn $9.99 I won’t get paid until the following month. HubPages pays directly through AdSense and I won’t receive an AdSense check until I earn $100.

With my DMS articles, I reached payout in July of 2010 and have done so every month since.  With Bukisa, I reach payout every other month. On rare occasions I earn over $10 in any one month. With HubPages…well, let’s just say that for the 10 months of this year, I would not have received an AdSense check if it were solely based on my HubPages income. As a matter of fact, my HubPages income is less than my Bukisa income.

Reading Between the Excel Spreadsheet Cells

If you read between the lines, my numbers tell me that I’ll get a better bang for my buck if I write a few Demand Media Studio WCA articles rather than post anything else on Bukisa or HubPages.

Although the DMS WCA articles seem to be performing the best, I’ll continue to add the occasional article on Bukisa and HubPages.  I guess I don’t want to admit defeat and would like to reach the minimum payout each month on a consistent basis. Since the Bukisa earnings are so small, they can go directly into a separate savings account. I could always use the money on my birthday for something special such as a spa treat (or half a spa treat).

Work on the Work

Just a note to say, I don’t work on my work once it’s done.  In other words, it’s very rare that I spend time socially networking my articles (I write too many in any given month to socially network them all and I’m lazy). I’m sure my Bukisa and HubPages numbers would increase if I spent time Digging, Xombing, Facebooking and Tweeting them, but I don’t.  I don’t socially network my DMS articles either.

Your DMS WCA, Bukisa, HubPages Experience

I’m interested to hear how well other folks are doing with Bukisa, DMS WCA and HubPages. Which one is working out best for you?