The WMF Archives

By Kerrie McLoughlin

I am excited to bring you today's Writer to Watch: Lisa Russell. With around 150 articles on eHow.com alone, this woman is an online writing WORKHORSE and gives a good interview to boot! I knew she'd fit it perfectly with our Content Mills Week. Read on to learn a lot of good info ...



WM: What online sites do you write for?
Lisa Russell: I mainly write for Suite101, Examiner.com, Demand Studios and eHow.com, though I also have accounts at Bukisa and a few bookmarking sites, like Factoidz and Xomba.

WM: How did you get started?
LR: I actually started in 1999 for a company called Themestream. They paid ten cents a hit and I did a really good job of generating traffic. People liked my articles and some of them are still floating around online. Themestream went out of business in 2000 and simply disappeared without warning. They didn't give writers any notice and we weren't even able to retrieve our work. I don't know what's worse, not getting the $1200 they owed me, or not having access to my work anymore.

Because of that experience, I was reluctant to get involved with another company, I stayed away until December of 2007. My 6th daughter was born a week before we had to close down our family business, a restaurant. I felt helpless, I didn't want to go get a job with a newborn at home, so I threw myself into writing for Suite101 and Demand Studios. At Demand Studios, I was able to write $15 articles and although we still lost our house in 2009, we didn't starve to death or have our utilities shut off.

WM: How much time do you spend a day/week/whatever working on writing for these so-called content mills?
LR: At my peak last summer, I was writing about 8 $20 articles a day for Demand Studios, each one took me an average of 30 minutes to write. So 4 hours a day roughly. With 6 kids, I rarely get a continuous 30 minute interval to write, so I keep tabs open on my laptop all day. Before they wake up, I can usually get in a couple hours and sometimes if I'm still thinking straight after they go to sleep, I can write then.

My body of work on the residual sites has increased enough that I'm finding I need to write for Demand Studios a lot less this year compared to last year. Right now, our needs can be met with less than an hour a day of work. My short-term goal is to earn enough residuals from eHow and Suite101 so that eventually I won't have to write for Demand Studios at all. My long-term goal is that my own websites and info products bring in all my income, and I can afford to stop writing for residual sites. The way they're set up, I'll always earn income from my work, but as an active writer at Suite 101, I get a 30% bonus.

So, to clarify (because I think I made this more confusing than necessary)

January- Suite101- 4 hours- $750
January- Examiner- 2 hours- $5 if I'm lucky
January- eHow - 0 hours - $130
January- Demand Studios - 12 hours - $600
January- my own Websites- 20 hours- $900

The only work that I do this month that will NOT add to next month's income is Demand Studios. If i stopped writing for my own sites, Suite101 and eHow, I'd continue to earn indefinitely (without having to resell the articles).

One reason I write for Examiner, even though I'm not making a lot, is because I'm allowed to place links to my Suite101 articles, and to my own websites. When Google sees other sites linking TO you, they send you more traffic. Examiner.com articles are quick and easy (200-400 words)

WM: May I ask approximately how much money you make writing for each one?
LR: I have the same amount of articles on eHow as I do on Suite 101 (about 150ish) and I average $1000/mo at Suite 101 and a little over $100 a month at eHow. There are seasonal fluctuations. With a lot of homeschooling articles, August is a really good month and December sucks. Luckily, one of my own niche blogs makes up the December income, peaking in November and December.

If I write one Demand Studios article a day, I get $600 a month. That's currently all I need from them. We're saving for a house and we really like to travel, so I try to write 3 or 4. It just depends on what kind of a mood I'm in. This month I haven't written for Demand Studios for the past ten days because I met my $600 goal the first week of the month and my own websites have really picked up steam, with Adsense and sponsored advertising. In fact, I'm buying a camper this week :)

WM: Which is your favorite to write for and why?
LR: My own websites, but since I'm not a content mill, I have to say Suite 101 is my favorite site to write for. I love the training they provide, I credit my better-than-average earnings on my personal websites with the lessons I've learned at Suite101. They treat their writers very well, communication with editors is always professional and the revenue-share program is set up really well.

Every site is different, though. Some writers do better at other sites, there really is something for everyone.

One thing I notice is that the site owners know what works best. When you're writing for a percentage of the income, the site WANTS you to earn. It means they're earning, too. The guidelines and rules exist because the site knows what works best for them. You have to trust that. You wouldn't get a job at McDonalds and start inventing your own burgers. But you can learn how McDonalds manages a crew and maintains consistency, then bring the knowledge to your own business.

Writing for several sites gives me insight into reader behavior, search engine behavior, the affects of social media, and practical experience with several different publishing platforms.

WM: What do you think about content mills versus writing for print?
LR: They're two different worlds. For one thing, I think that a readers have changed a bit. Some print publications will survive this change in the industry, but others will die, and it's just the way it is. It's not that web content is replacing print, there will always be a need for magazines and newspapers, but they're going to have to keep up with the times, and some of them will, some won't. When people flip through an Asian Cooking magazine, for example, they're not looking to solve a specific, immediate issue, like they are when they Google "how to make Teriyaki sauce."

I think there's room for both kinds of writing in the world. Print isn't dying, and it isn't being replaced by web content. If anything, print editors will be relieved of mediocre submissions because us mediocre writers can make a badass living online, instead.

WM: Do you think I'm lazy because I write one article and sell it as a reprint over and over instead of cranking out tons of pieces for online content mills? (this isn't a loaded question, just my token trying-to-be-humorous one)
LR: No way. Selling articles is work, too. It's an entirely different game. Am I lazy when I post the same reworked article on five different websites? Maybe we're both lazy; how long does it take to write an article? Learning how to query, submit and communicate with print editors is a skill. Learning how to use Search Engine Optimized keywords and social networking is an entirely different skill. They both have value. Contrary to what some writers think, it's not a war. Those of us who aren't fighting about it, are making a really good living.

[Kerrie's answer to Lisa's question is that it probably takes about 5 hours to research, get quotes for, write several drafts of an article, etc. Not much if I only sell it once, but decent if I sell it 10 times]

WM: Do you think people who gripe about not making money on eHow.com and Bukisa and the like are big whiners who aren't writing enough good content?
LR: Content mills pay a few ways. #1 per hit (Examiner & Bukisa) #2 percentage of ad clicks (eHow and Suite101) and #3 per article (Demand Studios)

Each kind of pay model requires different skills. None of them requires any fancy writing skills, other than basic grammar & spelling. Actually, Bukisa doesn't care much about grammar & spelling. Neither does Helium or Triond. Unfortunately, those sites hardly pay anything, either.

Writing for content mills isn't a lifelong career for me. It's a means to an end in my 5 year plan. My goal was to earn enough from home, without leaving my kids, and I've reached that goal. As I learned more about the industry, I decided to go out on my own and build my own websites. My sites would not have been as successful had I not learned so much writing for these mega-sites. Additionally, my own sites have benefited from incoming links and my relationships with these content mills.

I feel very blessed to have worked with some of the highest-earning sites on the web, and the lessons I have learned have helped me grow my own websites.

People who whine about not making money aren't necessarily bad writers. On the contrary, I have a friend who is an excellent writer. Her work shines, it's beautiful. However, it takes her nearly 2 hours to research and write a $15 Demand Studios article. She's making $7.50 an hour. I write $20 titles, and I can do 2-3 an hour. I'm not a better writer than she is, I just don't work as hard.

People who whine about not making money on revenue share sites, like Suite101 and eHow are usually not using keywords properly. Web readers don't go to Google and search for "ten ways to combat chocolate cravings" they look for "alternatives to chocolate" or something like that. The clever wording of headlines that catch our eye at the newsstand are not the things we look for when we're using the Internet. While "The History of the Coach Logo" might be an interesting read, it won't generate as much income as "Coach Handbag Outlet Stores in Pittsburgh".

Like I said before, the revenue share websites WANT your articles to earn income through ad clicks. Proper keywords ensure that the search engines know what your article is about. They also ensure that the ads appearing alongside your article are of interest to the reader. If no one ever sees your article, or if the ads are off-topic, no one is making any money. Follow the site's advice and guidelines about how best to earn. Learn from the people who are actually making good money (not the other whiners) and STICK TO IT. A lot of the whiners spend more time in the forums complaining than writing or learning. Don't take your work so seriously. If your goal is to be an excellent writer, good luck making any money online. If your goal is to make money online, then read my website. I started 30queries30days.com because I wanted to stop writing online and start querying magazines. I never made it, my online income took off and now I use the website to help other people learn how to work the internet for writing income. The whole "content mill controversy" amuses me. I don't understand why it's a problem. There's room for everyone. Words are free. The idea that ANYONE makes a living from making up words amuses me.

Writers to Watch: Lisa Russell, Online Content Writer