Some Thoreau thoughts

Last night I went to see a play, "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail." My wife designed the costumes for the play -- yes, both she and I work in "creative" fields. Woe to our bank account! -- and I wanted to get a look at them before the play closed. They looked great, of course. They always do.

The play, though, got me thinking about what we all do for a living. Why did you get into writing? Did you want to make a difference? Did you want to make people think? Did you want to entertain people, make them smile or cry or shout?

I know that's what motivated me to write. But I've lost sight of this as I scramble to make enough money to pay the bills in this dismal national economy.

"The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail" details the long evening when Henry David Thoreau, the famed writer, poet and, of course, tax resister, spent in jail for not paying his taxes. What struck me was Thoreau's conviction to make a difference, to have an impact on his world. It's what inspired him to leave behind his idyllic life at Walden Pond and re-enter the human race.

Now, I'm certainly no Henry David Thoreau, and my house is no Walden Pond. But as I've concentrated on pounding out the content stories, and the regular paychecks they produce, I've left behind much of the writing that inspired me, and, I hope, the people who read them. So, I'm making this resolution: I will continue to churn out meaningless content stories to keep my bank account full enough. But I won't forget to write the stories, too, that represent real journalism, the stories that require me to actually talk to people who have something important to say.

Earlier this month, I wrote a story about grooms who are doing just as much to plan their weddings as are their future brides. This isn't earth-shattering stuff. But it means something. Someone might read that story, maybe a groom who isn't pulling his weight on the wedding planning, and make a change. Maybe that lazy groom will order the wedding invitations so that his stressed bride-to-be doesn't have to. Whatever, a story can make a difference, even a small one.

A content story? Not really. Remember that: Content is for money, purely. Real stories, they're for money, too, of course, but they're for something else, too.

Today's day

I imagine that a lot of readers of this blog wonder what I do with my typical workday. I imagine this, of course, because it's probably fiction.

But in case anyone is wondering, here we go:

Today I have a $75 story due on home energy audits. I'm still trying to nail down an interview. Yes, I waited too long to get started on this story.

I also have a $50 content assignment due. This assignment focuses on how important it is for small business owners to analyze their financial statements on a regular basis. Yes, that's not very interesting, but it's easy writing.

I have to write two stories for a blog that I'm working on through the Content Divas site. The stories are on payday loans and bankruptcy. I can write about anything I want, as long as they are on these two topics.

An independent comicbook company needs a press release written. I pump these out fairly quickly.

Finally, I hope to write and turn in five $15 Demand Studios stories.

That's a lot of work, but when the day is done, I'll be able to add more than $250 to my monthly total. That's not bad. This month I'm on track to meet my freelance goals.

Attribution becoming a real pain at Demand Studios

Attribution has become quite the buzzword at Demand Studios these days. Seems the people behind the company have forgotten that they're paying writers $15 for most stories. If they want heavily sourced stories with proper attribution, they should be increasing their paltry rates.

Does anyone think that will happen? Nope, Demand Studios will continue asking writers to source stories as if we were writing for the New York Times. Hate to break it to you, but the Times pays a lot more than $15 a story.

Demand Studios has benefited from the crummy economy and the woes of newspapers and magazine publishers. Writers who never would have considered writing $15 stories are flocking to the site because they are running out of other options. Simply put, too many magazines and newspapers have shut down or closed off their freelance budgets. Demand Studios is there, eager to take in desperate writers.

Personally, rewrite requests at Demand are driving me crazy. Where are the copy editors who realize that we're all getting paid horrible rates? Why do I keep getting those who think we're writing for some higher good? We're churning out garbage stories for eHow, a site that serves as a depository for some of the most poorly written junk on the Internet. Increasing the quality of the writing on the site is a noble goal. But paying writers $15 a story to do this smacks of a company taking advantage of people desperate to pay their bills.

What about Break Studios?

I've signed up and given Break Studios a try. All I have to say about it is ... eh.

It's fine, I suppose. Maybe I'm burning out, but all the content sites out there feel the same to me these days. The difference with Break Studios is that the topics are generally easier to write than the bizarre title requests you'll find at Demand Studios. The editors at Break aren't as much of a hassle, either.

But then there's the pay and the waiting. First, stories at Break Studios pay $8. That's lousy, again. But the stories are easy to write. I've picked four mortgage titles -- how to refinance your home, how refinance fees are calculated, how credit scores are determined -- and pumped them out quickly. They were all approved.

But it takes forever to get an editor to review titles at Break Studios. The first time I submitted, it took two weeks for someone to look at the story. The last three times it's taken about a week-and-a-half. That's not exactly speedy editing.

Break Studios also pays just once a month. Again, this isn't great. If you miss the monthly cut-off thanks to slow editing times, you'll have to wait until the next month's payoff to get your money.

I'd give Break Studios a "C" grade. The writing's easy. The editors, too. But the pay's too low and the editing and payment times too long.

A Demand Studios funny

Most of the copy editors at Demand Studios are smart, talented folk. Really. Don't believe all those Web sites out there that slam them.

But you should believe the rumors that there are certain editors for the site that aren't up to snuff. There aren't many, but there are some. When I run into one of them, I usually abandon the rewrite request. It just isn't worth it; you can't please one of these "special case" editors.

I ran into a funny copy editor situation just this morning at Demand Studios. The editor approved my story, a thrilling one on parking lot laws, but also left me this slightly scolding comment: "A little rough in some places. You'll be find with some more proofing."

Why don't you proof that sentence and tell me how "find" that copy editor is?

Clients: Remember what you're paying

Here's a quick post for anyone out there who hires freelance content writers: Remember what you're paying for the words you're getting.

What I mean by this is that you shouldn't expect New York Times prose when you're paying $4 for a 400-word article. It's not worth freelance writers' time to research such low-paying articles. To make such a job worthwhile, a writer has to be able to pound your $4 article in no more than 10 minutes. Even then, that's only $24 an hour, not a great wage.

So when you do order a $4 400-word article, don't expect breaking news, a jaw-dropping read or to learn something new. Expect something written off the top of a writer's head. After all, that's the only way for a writer to make even a lousy hourly wage.

My new success strategy at Demand Studios

I've been writing pretty heavily for Demand Studios for the past four months. The first three-and-a-half went really well: I concentrated on writing real estate stories, my specialty. I wrote mostly about loan modifications, credit scores, foreclosures, home equity loans and anything to do with real estate.

Then, about two weeks ago, something strange started happening. The good real estate titles dried up. I began stretching. After getting one rejection -- which happened because I tried a topic I knew little about and then botched the job. This was my mistake -- in my first three-and-a-half months, I rapidly got three in a row. This time, all three were because of odd copy editor requests.

This was frustrating. It represented $45 down the drain. Then there were all the odd rewrite requests. It seemed that many of the copy editors editing my real estate stories wanted to me to write stories that were worthy of my work with the Washington Post or Chicago Tribune. Sorry, for $15, Demand Studios isn't getting my best work. It's just not worth it.

So here's my new strategy: I'm only writing lists, and I'm only the writing the simplest of lists, stories that are nearly impossible to get rejected. So far, I've written about gift basket ideas, holiday meal ideas, low-cost laptops, traffic laws in Phoenix, the best birthday presents for teen girls, etc.., These stories take 15 minutes to write, which means that I can pump out four in an hour if I'm working hard. That's $60 an hour; not a bad rate. It also means that I can get my Demand Studios writing out of the way fast on an average workday. I try to write five stories for Demand a day, or $75 worth. (I only write $15 stories.) When I get them out of the way, I can spend the rest of my day writing for my private-client content jobs, newspapers or trade magazines.

So far, I've been at my new Demand Studios strategy for about a week. It's gone quite well. The biggest challenge is finding these easy list titles. But if you're patient enough to wade through them, you'll find things like "romantic gifts for adults." That's as easy a $15 as you're likely to make.