Is Demand Studios' USA Today deal a raw one for writers?

I'll answer the question in the title of this post right away: Yes. It is.

If you don't know, Demand Studios is paying its writers $20 for travel stories that will eventually end up in the pages of USA Today. This begs the question: Is this a great way for writers to get a byline in the national paper, or is it just one more sign that newspaper publishers enjoy screwing over writers?

I think it's the latter, unfortunately.

Look, $20 is simply a lousy fee for a USA Today story. The USA Today is a national newspaper. It should be paying writers $500 or more for travel stories. Instead it's worked out a deal with Demand Studios to fill its pages on the cheap.

To me, this stinks of a terrible deal for writers. I write every now and again for the Washington Post. I get paid a lot more than $20. My fear is that more big-time newspapers -- not the small ones that have always paid lousy -- will make similar deals with content providers like Demand Studios.

It's already tough enough to make a living as a freelance writer. We don't need papers like USA Today working to make it even tougher.

(And I, unlike most writers, actually kind of like USA Today!)

Ridiculous content-writing offers at Digital Point Forums

We all know that content writers don't exactly fetch kingly rates. But if you're fast enough, you just might make a decent hourly rate, as long as you don't accept assignments that pay insultingly low offers.

Now, if you are looking for insulting offers, try exploring the forums at Digital Point. This forum, dedicated to Web site owners and the people who provide them services, has its own subsection where Web site owners request content writers for their sites.

Sounds like a good place to find work, right? Well, sometimes. Unfortunately, it's most often a place where site owners ask writers to provide them content for ridiculously low offers.

Here's an example: This guy needs an article writer for a bulk project. The pay he's offering? A miserly $1 for 300 words. But, the poster promises, the work is in bulk. What does this mean? That he'll end up paying writers $5 for 1,500 words. That's pretty damn bad.

This poster is willing to pay $2 for 300 words. Again, this is pretty lousy. What's even worse is the poster's attitude. The poster says that writers who provide three or more "bad" articles will be fired. That's right, fired from this terribly lucrative $2-for-300-word job. What will the poor writer do? Work at McDonald's for even more money?

Overall, Digital Point is a rather depressing place. It's filled with forum posters who can barely string together two sentences demanding perfection from writers for $1 articles. If you're looking for good content-writing work -- and there are good clients out there, even in the world of content writing -- skip Digital Point.

Spammed by Demand Studios

I signed up for Demand Studios a few weeks ago. I did so reluctantly. The chance to write dull-as-dirt stories for $15 a pop didn't exactly sound thrilling. I'm a bit amazed at how many freelance writers, though, consider Demand Studios a great place to work. Maybe. But I'm making $75 apiece by writing similarly dull stories for a local newspaper chain's syndication service.

Anyway, I signed up and then mostly forgot about Demand Studios. I'd click on the site every once in a while to see what assignments I was eligible for. But, for some reason I'm still not quite able to fathom, I can't seem to ever bring up any potential assignments. Do I not meet Demand Studios' "high" standards? Not sure.

Yesterday I received an e-mail message from Demand Studios informing me that the company recently added thousands of new jobs. Fine, I figured, let's go take a look. I did and, surprise, no assignments seem to be available to me.

I suppose I could do something to figure this out. I could send an e-mail message to the lovely folks behind Demand. Or I could even make a phone call.

But it just doesn't seem worth it. Maybe it's my rather blue-mood week, but begging for $15 assignments just seems like a slap in the face.