eHow is witholding my earnings for no good reason - a saga of frustration and glitches

Those of you who have been paying attention to goings-on at eHow (or write for it) are aware of the big changes that have taken place on it. Specifically, that eHow's writer compensation program has been terminated, and now all eHow writing will have to take place through Demand Studios. That in itself is no problem (since I was also accepted into Demand Studios), but this comes on top of numerous publishing glitches that have recently made submitting eHow articles an exercise in frustration.

To top it all, in March 2010 a number of eHow writer's earnings (including mine) have been put on hold, which is what they do if they suspect plagiarism or click-fraud. Which would be well and good if I had indulged in any such unethical practices. Except that I haven't. And it sounds like several other eHow authors are in the same predicament (i.e., innocent, but declared guilty). I'm rapidly losing faith in eHow. I don't think they play fair, and some of their dealings seem downright shady (those of you who remember the whole eHow UK earnings fiasco will know what I'm talking about). I guess "discovering" click-fraud on a certain number of eHow accounts is just handy for eHow in the sense of not having to pay those authors for that month? Is this a game they play? We'll find out. Of course, if they're snooping around this blog, it's possible they will terminate my eHow account for other "unethical" behavior on my part which they will conveniently claim to discover, which will effectively shut me out of eHow. Wonder if they've done this to other authors as well.

Bottom line is, I'm pissed off. When I signed up to write on eHow, I thought they were a bit too good to be true. Now I know this for a fact...

Late March 2010 update, my new eHow blog and StumbleUpon

March earnings haven't been great so far. I've just broken February's total, with over $17.00, but there are still a few days left to go in March, so let's see how it works out. Here's a screenshot of my 2010 earnings to date:

Also, I started a new blog where I'm listing all my eHow articles. Check it out, it's called my eHow articles blog.

Lastly, I've started using StumbleUpon to promote my articles. Several people have commented that it's a great way to get article exposure, but the problem is that you can only submit a few articles at a time from a given site, to prevent spamming. I'm submitting non-eHow articles to StumbleUpon as well, let's see if that allows me to submit more of my eHow articles to them (currently, I'm maxed out on the number of eHow articles I can submit to StumbleUpon. Maybe this DVD would help: Get Floods of Traffic To Your Website Using Stumbleupon!

February 2010 earnings, March update and thoughts about keyword optimization

February wasn't that great of a month, especially with all the publishing glitches that eHow was having. Still, I managed to pull in just over $17.00 for the month, and March eHow earnings stand at just over $10 as of 13th March, so on track to exceed February takings, but not by much. Total earnings since I joined eHow (just under 3 months ago) stand at over $60.

Have been too busy to write for eHow lately, but hoping to bump up my article totals this month. Also, I've been paying a bit of attention to keyword optimization, and it seems to have helped a bit. Only a few of the articles on which I optimized keywords have earned anything, but they have done better than most other articles, so I think the lesson there is, if one uses search engine optimization techniques, then it pays off in the long run, as long as one keeps at it. Like with everything else in eHow, volume matters, so one can't just write a couple of good / optimized articles and expect it to pay off, but rather, keep at it for the long term.

Also, another tip I want to share is that it's better to be slow and steady on eHow rather than try to write lots of articles in a short time to bump up volume. The latter strategy quickly leads to writing fatigue. Better to write steadily and at a somewhat relaxed pace. Great if you can write an article every day, but even that can be overwhelming after a while. But if you can write an article or two every few days, that still adds up and you end up with a substantial article count over a few months. I raced to write a 100 articles in my first month on eHow, and am now taking it somewhat easy.

January 2010 earnings and Feb update

I made just over $26 in Jan, with 98 articles, and February has been rather lackluster so far, with $5 and change so far. Let's see how the month goes. Also, eHow seems to be suffering publishing glitches, so I have several submitted articles stuck in limbo. So far, total earnings on eHow (since late Dec 09 when I started writing for them) are about $42.

Slow going in earnings, but progress is progress, I suppose...

I don't think it's just me, as many others on the eHow community forums have been complaining that their eHow earnings are way done. Still, am on track to make payout this month too - at the moment, a bit over $15 for January. I've been managing to turn out articles at a pretty good clip - now up to 77 articles, which is not bad considering I started just before Christmas (less than a month ago). It's also hard to discern a clear pattern in which topics do well in terms of revenue and which ones do not - on the one hand, some articles on saving money or shopping or general financial advice have done well, but others haven't brought in a penny. And some recipe articles have brought in some earnings as well - not tons, but I was pleasantly surprised to see them bring in something, since I had assumed that people reading recipes were not looking to shop, just to learn how to cook something. I guess this goes to show that it's good to diversify the article base - you never know up front which article is going to be a big earner, and besides, it keeps things more interesting to write on multiple topics... Aiming for a 100 articles total by the end of the month, let's see how that goes.

First payout on eHow !!!

Was thrilled to receive my first ever payout from eHow! I had managed to just clear $10 in my very first week on eHow (which was also the last week of 2009), and today they paid out as I had hoped they would. So there is something to this eHow thing after all....And am looking forward to getting paid next month as well, since I've just cleared $10 for the month of January already. Total earnings stand at just over $21, with 55 articles and over 1600 views - not riches, but not bad either for a little side project like this...

eHow earnings trend is still good

As of today, I have made over $17.00 in just over two weeks. eHow article count stands at 43. Not sure how much longer I can keep up the pace, but for now I'm still able to think of new topics to write on. I wonder if I can ever write hundreds of articles like some of the others on eHow? There are only so many ideas I can come up with. Let's see how it goes. I wonder if these books might help...