How to Take Candy From a Baby
Hey kids,
Sorry I’ve been out of the loop. I wanted to see if little Dickie can stand on his own two DSS feet. Looks like he’s doing the job remarkably.
Behind the scenes we’re still working on our transfer to a halfway decent hosting provider, so bear with us while we work that out.
Just wanted to touch on a little something here. It was almost sad reading those goals forums over at the DS site. What with everyone talking about their problems and how DS is helping them out and they’re the greatest employer ever, blah, blah, blah….
So here’s really the crux of my love/hate relationship with Demand Studios.
Ready? Pay attention:
IT’S NOT GOING TO LAST
I truly hope that I’m wrong. Maybe Richard and I are just a little jaded, since we’ve been through these IPO things before. But I don’t think that DMS is sticking around for the long term. There’s just no way this thing can keep going, especially when it’s pointed out that the DS has never made money.
And that’s why I pity the zombies. And that’s why I just do barely enough work to get my articles published.
It reminds me of one of the last dot bombs I worked at. It was a stupid concept in the first place, but they employed a couple hundred people. Nice office, great equipment, lavish parties, the whole Web1.5 thing. One day, we were going through the company Intranet and stumbled upon some sales reports. Apparently the company had made two sales the previous month.
Two.
I went on vacation to come back to find a closed company.
The best part? They paid me for two weeks of severance, even though I had been bitched at for not putting in enough hours. Hahahha. I win.
So you had this company with a lot of employees who were all working really hard and believed in what they were doing. Only to be selling a completely retarded product and have the whole thing cave in on top of them.
That’s why I just don’t care. As long as that money keeps showing up in my PayPal account, I’m happy. But I know that one day I’m going to go to demandstudios.com and find a blank webpage.
That’s also why I’m not bothering to write for anyone else right now. Despite all it’s faults, Demand works for me (hahah!) because I know the system, can churn out these half assed articles and get paid twice a mo-fo week. And recently I’ve found some more titles that are like taking candy from a baby.
That’s also why I can’t be bothered to even look at the Demand Studios forums. All those people getting into a tizzy about articles and titles and Pflags…it just doesn’t matter. If you’re not churing out articles on that site you are wasting your time.
My advice – start grabbing them titles and writing. It’s like the gold rush and we’re headed for Californy. But make your money now, because you don’t want to start out late and try to take a shortcut through the Sierras and make an unscheduled stop with a rather unappetizing bill of fare.
thanks for the comments.
yeah, eHow isn’t going anywhere. they’ll be here for a while. my point is that this $15 an article thing isn’t going to last. I think we’re starting to see it trailing off. look at how they’re starting to compartmentalize eHow. Soon it’ll go down to the $10 article range. It’ll be interesting to see what happens then, because $10 and below is just about what most other places (BrightHub, Break) are offering writers. Much less hassle for the same money.
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I’m particularly impressed by those who do not blog as “amateurs”. To be touched by your greatness is truly an honor for all of us.
Unfortunately, you are not bright.
As someone who has dealt with M&A as well as IPO’s, I can tell you that even if this dud (DMS) does fool investors into buying them, they do not have a sustainable business model.
It’s about much more than adding and subtracting. It’s about trends, revenue vs profit, and so on and so forth. The majority of DMS’ profits do not come from eHow, or didn’t you read the doc?
Patrick’s assumptions are right on. He may not be a pompous ass about it, but that’s because he is going with his gut. His gut is correct.
PS – i truly hope that is the guy who owns “Demand Studios Secrets” in some sad attempt to draw attention to his struggling blog. It would also make sense. Those who stand to profit from Demand succeeding (SEO firms, etc) are going to insist they won’t fail.
…
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Whoever made those comments went through some effort to cover their tracks. Perhaps it was the Demand Media black OPS team trying to stir shit up.
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Demand Studios Secrets is much more … balanced? Intelligent? Score on both counts.
Yeah, also more expensive. But actually, since the whole site is trying to sell a book, it’s not that balanced either.
I can find free tips on how to write for DS, both on the DMS site and on various blogs. So why would I pay for Kent’s advice?
And another thing, who the hell would buy a DS secrets book when DMS is changing? Does Kent have a section on writing half price articles? Is Kent’s book now half price because DMS eliminated most of the tips and short answers from the title pool?
The nice thing about blogs and forums, as compared to overpriced ebooks, is that the former stays current.
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I don’t think this is Kent. Doesn’t sound like him and doesn’t seem like the kind of thing he’d stoop to. What would he have to gain? Besides, you guys have helped give him some publicity.
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*eats popcorn*
I gotta remember to check the blog more often…
OT::: DS sucks has a forum, gives us place to go and doesn’t try to sell us anything.
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Why all the hostility DSSS? If you are Kent, then I’d hope you realize the way to build your audience is not by engaging in the pettiness we’re seeing out of you. If you’re not Kent, then your trolling really is flattering. Based on what I can tell about you (your words, your attitude, your proxy) – I’d say you are Kent.
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whoops. i meant more power to kent and his book selling.
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if you’ve got something “secret” pass it along and we’ll put it up. demand studios secrets is – if you recall – written by a guy who used to be one of their key employees and probably still knows a lot of people on the inside. oh yeah, and he’s selling a book. as richard was saying, you don’t need to write a 182 page book to make money. want the secrets – here they are:
* skimp on research, assume the CE has no idea what you’re talking about
* write the same article over about 1,000 times
* do it as fast as possible.
can i have $18 now?
more power to the dude.
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Thanks for proving my point, asshat. So witty!
DS’s workers are hungry for all the stuff the company doesn’t want us to know – everything from cold hard dirty facts to rumors. You know, the stuff a REAL blog specializes in. If you clowns don’t provide it, someone else will start doing it and you’ll be left with the half dozen whining morons who comment here daily. If people are coming here, it is because you have no competition.
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Your criticism serves as the sincerest form of flattery.
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For one thing, you can tell that no one associated with this “blog” has ever really written in even an amateur fashion before. The blog is pathetic.
Second, the way you guys flog the “DS never made money” horse just proves you either can’t add or can’t do basic research. Remember when they bought Pluck? That was a $75 million expenditure, so take that off the books and DS turned a profit this year. The reason DS hasn’t been in the black isn’t due to a revenue shortage, but because the company has been aggressively expanding using all that venture capital. Um, Business 101 anyone?
Demand Studios does suck, but by writing like a fucktard and making stupid mistakes, you wind up sucking worse. Your fans love you, but you won’t get far beyond that. Demand Studios Secrets is much more … balanced? Intelligent? Score on both counts.
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actually, i should have phrased this better –
getting paid $15 an article isn’t going to last.
i’m sure eHow will be around for a while.
the $15 is all i care about.
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I just stumbled onto this article, tweeted by the Twitter account of this site http://www.demandstudiosreview.com (writing about Demand Studios is becoming a cottage industry it seems) which explains about some of the financial stuff at Demand that I didn’t know about. He makes a pretty good case for not worrying: http://bit.ly/atcu69
Although it was written by a friend of Richie’s so perhaps it should be taken with a grain.
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yes. there is no limit on the retarded things that people search for.
i read somewhere that “facebook” is the most commonly searched for thing on Google.
uhhhhh….well, do you think what you’re searching for might be a F***ING CLUE to the URL?
Richard helped me get my first gig in the Interweb world. I remember having to write HTML in vi.
People are stupid. I’m old.
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As for going public being equivalent to admitting defeat, I don’t understand what you mean by that at all. I assume they always intended to go public eventually. Most big companies do.
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You’d be surprised how many people search for ridiculous things. Use the Google Keyword Tool sometime and start typing some things in and you’ll be shocked. There are so many people searching for things online that even if just a half percent of Googlers (so to speak) search for something that’s a lot of people. If you have millions of pieces of content on your sites added to that…well you get the idea. If they fail it won’t be for lack of traffic. According to sites I’ve checked that keep track of website traffic eHow.com alone gets between 4-7 million hits per day. Not too shabby.
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I’m going to have to agree with you Patrick.
The content could be as evergreen as the Wisconsin Pine forest, but if no one searches for “Ways to decorate a bed with only two legs and a crate” it’s simply not going to earn money.
As for Richie not wanting to admit defeat… isn’t that why they are going public? Excuses on hand…
It really is some of the easiest work going right now. Once I stopped caring, it became a fluff job that fills my paypal weekly. It will be rather sad to see it go.
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I hope you’re right and I’m wrong, because this is the easiest money I’ve ever made in my life.
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While I’m not going to say Demand Media will be around forever, I do think they’re here to stay for at least quite a few years. Here’s why:
- They have tons of money from investors, as well as Richie’s own personal fortune. They are losing money each year, but they can keep riding on their investor’s money for some time I’d imagine.
- Richie seems like the kind of guy who wouldn’t want to have to admit defeat.
- They are losing less and less each year. They are inching more and more towards the black. While that’s hardly the most glowing thing that can be said for a company, it at least means they are headed in the right direction.
- Their content (for the most part) is evergreen and can keep earning. So while they have to pay off their initial costs and their operating costs as they go, they have content that they can keep adding to and keep earning from indefinitely.
Just my two cents.
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Patrick’s been gallivanting around playing tour guide, neglecting his DSS obligations.
We’ve postponed the migration, but by no more than a week. Gives me a chance to kick back and take some time off, so I’m not complaining too much.
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