There has been some serious outrage at eHow's newest article sweep, most of which I think is unfounded. I can completely understand being upset that a high-earning article has been deleted, but I don't think the blame should be transferred to eHow. They are simply trying to clean up the site which has suffered as a result of articles that haven't met their guidelines.As for those who have had their work removed, I can't make any judgments, but I believe that eHow has genuinely found something wrong with the article. This could be anything from the wrong format, poor grammar, outdated information, incorrect information, spam or promotion of a single product or advertisement, etc.
I've been reading the eHow forums, and several people have posted the articles they have had removed in hopes of receiving some feedback. At first glance, every single one of those articles fits into one of the above categories. I don't believe for one second that eHow is deleting high-earning articles to replace them with editor articles. This would make no sense, because eHow is losing money when the high-earners are deleted, as well.
I don't think there's much to worry about if you write according to the TOS. I do understand how it would be upsetting to have your articles deleted, and I feel badly for those of you who were affected. However, I do feel there is a bit of a "they're out to get us" feeling amongst many of the members that is unwarranted.
I don't think the articles are being replaced with editor articles. The redirection to similar articles only lasts a few days until the article is removed from the Google SERPs. Then, there's no more redirection because the article doesn't exist anymore. I don't think eHow is trying to steal traffic from high earning articles. This is just their way of trying to keep readers at the site when they happen to click on a deleted title that still shows up in the search engines.
This isn't the same thing as stealing traffic or stealing revenue. It just isn't. You are still the owner of your content, which eHow has removed from their site for their own reasons. You are free to do with it what you like, including posting it on other residual sites or your own blogs. They aren't keeping the content and continuing to profit from it while no longer paying.
I've also heard that many people are upset that poor articles written by unnamed editors are remaining on the site while articles of a higher quality are being deleted. I think this is also unfounded. We have no way to know which articles have been reviewed and how many have actually been removed. Simply coming across a crappy article and immediately assuming that eHow approves of it and thinks it's better than one of yours doesn't make much sense.
In this case, you just have to have a little trust in the site. If you don't trust them anymore, it might be time to move on. In my experience, they have never been unfair. Again, I can't know if this is true in every case, and I feel badly for anyone who feels that their articles were removed unfairly. I can only report what I see, and that's eHow removing articles that do not conform to their standards. If someone doesn't agree with said standards, they don't have to submit any more content.
I know it can be frustrating and upsetting, but I think if we all try to do our very best work, this problem will be a thing of the past (for the most part).
I continue to support eHow in their efforts to clean up the site, as I think all members should. This will only result in the site being realized as a source of real information which DOES have some editorial standard. We wouldn't want them to end up like Bukisa, would we?
Thoughts? Opinions? I welcome your point of view on the subject!
20 comments:
Great post Willow. I just posted a similar topic on my blog today.
You raise some very good points that I hadn't really though of. I have been fortunate not to have any of articles removed either, and I do think it does help to have some DS experience under my belt, as we have to know their TOS quite well to get upfront pay.
The only issue I have is they are deleting articles without really giving the authors a reason. They are supposed to putting in such a system soon...once they do, hopefully most of the anger and confusion will be gone. eHow members can then see exactly WHY their articles have been scraped from the site, and will no longer blame the site for trying to steal revenue.
I think this is well put BUT Ehow does have a financial incentive to discriminate in favor of their wholly owned content.
Remember, they can see the comparative stats and we can't. It has to occur to them if they eliminate the competition they can increase their earnings. What they do with that information, I don't know. Ethically they should ignore it, but greed does strange things to corporations.
I agree with you that many of the articles people are sharing have problems that justify their deletion. But we haven't seen all the articles and it is a strange business model that deletes moneymakers. You would think they would at least give writers a shot at editing because that benefits everyone.
Personally, in my opinion something doesn't smell right here. Ehow needs to be more transparent because this is affecting their credibility. Right now, I'm assuming they are acting in good faith and have just royally botched the writer relations side of things.
Then again, having worked in Corporate America, that kind of massive customer relations fail is often indicative of management quality and thought process. When I go down that thought path, I am disturbed to realize they could care less about their contributors. That's not good.
If Ehow continues to do arbitrary things that piss off writers, that would be a strong signal of a deeper problem.
Sorry I wrote a book!
M
hi, found your site helpful to other writers. will link you up in my writing journal if u dont mind...
thanks!
Hey Willow,
In both major sweeps that I know about, I've had only one single article deleted. Knowing that others had a lot more deleted, I realize I don't really have room to complain.
The only thing that ticked me off was the redirect using my keyword driven title. I did NOT realize that was temporary, so thanks for pointing that out. That definitely makes me feel better.
One point I'd like to make for all eHow writers who are afraid their articles may get wiped out in the next sweep - SAVE all of your articles on your computer or a disc. I started doing that after the last sweep - just in case any of mine were deleted in the future. Thanks to that move I was able to immediately pop my deleted article onto another residual site.
Liz
When I saw on the forums that people had several of their articles deleted I worried I might be among the list. Thankfully, I wasn't. But just to be sure, I'll read those TO's you talked about... not sure where they are but I'll find them.
It's good to know they're not targeting based on DS articles as competition. I was worried about that. Now I can know as long as I follow format I should be ok.
@Kecia - I completely agree. I think it will alleviate many of the current problems when members are given a reason for these deletions. I can't believe eHow hasn't incorporated this into the sweeps yet. Hopefully next time!
@WriterM - I can definitely see where you're coming from. I think they do need to be more transparent with their contributors, since we make the money for them! I think they've made many mistakes dealing with writers, but I am hopeful they have heard the complaints and will try harder to appease everyone in the future. :)
@Liz - That's a great point. Writers should definitely be saving back-ups of ALL their work, no matter where it's published. I create all of articles in word documents which I save to my computer before publishing. You never know what can go wrong.
@esper - The article submission guidelines can be found here:
http://www.ehow.com/about_us/faq_ehow.aspx#q69
As long as you follow these guidelines you should be fine! :)
I agree with your post about the sweeps on eHow. I have had 3 articles deleted in the 2 sweeps that were performed - but I can not disagree with eHow's decision. All 3 articles were written when I was a "novice" and really didn't know how to write quality articles. Six months into the process I have become a writer for DS as well, and both sites have taught me a lot. My writing has improved drastically (as well as my earnings) and I am working on editing my older articles to make them conform to a higher standard.
I think the reason people are getting upset is because high earning articles are getting deleted without warning or chance to edit. And often you can not see your own writing mistakes or understand why an article is deleted.
Anyways, good luck to all on eHow!
I wonder if this lack of transparency is typical of most online content sites. I wish they would be more upfront with us. Have never tried eHow, frankly. Your is awesome -- I plan to haunt it often! Great job!
I support the cleanup because if the site becomes too spammy, Google could penalize it in the rankings which would be bad for all of us.
I do wish, however, that they would communicate better with the writers when it happens. I don't think each writer is entitled to a lengthy explanation, but some feedback might be helpful
I had several taken out in the last purge, and these were articles that survived all of the previous purges. I am also a Demand writer and was a WRG writer before that. In all, I've written for eHow through these company for about three years. Even with that experience I really don't know what the problem is.
One of the ones they cut wasn't super great and it was pretty short. But the others- I really have no idea. They weren't promoting anything, they weren't clones, they weren't plagiarized. The only thing that I can find that most of them have in common is that they discuss other websites. None of them are focused on one site, but most of them discuss several sites that can help accomplish the goal. I don't know what to think. I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but my intros are still being used to draw readers through Google and into the existing articles on the site. Now I can't use those intros again because they come up as plagiarized. Not cool.
I agree with you 100%. Good post.
I totally agree with you on this. Those who are angry at Ehow should really take a look at their attitude towards freelance writing. Editors will do what they think is best for their publication, even if it might hurt your feelings!
@Faith - I agree that there is much anger coming from the lack of explanation for deleted articles. Ehow has said that they will fix this in the next sweep, and I hope they stick to it. :)
@Freaky Jewelry - In my experience, this is not typical. Sites like Suite 101, WiseGEEK, etc. don't usually have problems with writer relations. I think eHow could take a lesson from these sites. :)
@Julie - I also agree that feedback would be helpful to everyone. Hopefully, this will be implemented soon. :)
@L. Shepherd - While I can't comment on your deleted articles, I can understand that it would be upsetting, especially if you don't know WHY they were removed.
However, the article intro will only show up in the search engines for a few days after being removed. Then, Google will see that the article is gone and remove it from the SERP's.
This isn't eHow's fault, but just the way the search engines work. It takes a little time to weed out website pages which have been removed. You should be able to use the articles elsewhere by now. :)
@Ali B - Thanks! I appreciate your comment. :)
@Rachel - Agreed! I am sympathetic to those who have lost their articles, but I know that it's just a part of the game. In the end, we have to comply with what eHow wants.
However, I think from these comments, and others on similar blogs and forums, the main problem people are having is that they don't know WHY their articles are being removed. Let's hope eHow hears the cries! :)
Actually, it's been two weeks and those intros are still in Google. I also sent the articles through ArticleChecker to see if they were out of the search engines yet, and the articles came back as already being online. No matter how you slice it, they took them down without giving me a reason and left me without the ability to post them elsewhere. Maybe they'll filter out eventually, but it's still a royal pain.
I had 4 articles removed. I wrote on ehow's requested topics and they had titles that were similar (Baby shower invites, baby shower invitations). I accepted them all and wrote the articles, modifying the content a little. Well, eHow kept the first original article and deleted the clones. Don't understand why they had them in their list anyways?!!??!
I hope I won't lose the few cents I made off those articles!
I lost a three HORRIBLE articles to the sweeps, and two of them were making really good money, too.
I think the redirects will be permanent, though because of incoming links, it's not just google that sends traffic, it's Stumbleupon, digg, and the original writer's other websites and social networking, too.
I don't plan to do any more eHows, but I' rocking the DS and trying really hard to rock the Suite101 right now. sometimes fast cash is more important than long-term, kwim
Ehow deleted some articles that did fit their format, especially the moneymakers. However, some articles needed to go. I believe they are using a software that is not always accurate.
I don't think anger is entirely unfounded, but are these writers backing up their articles or just leaving them on ehow. If you don't, it's not ehow's fault if they are gone for good. I have left DS because they took the bulk of my articles and locked me out of my account but still like ehow and will keep writing!
I agree with your post, however, two of my highest earning articles were pulled today. Both ranked number two with Google and were well written. It did upset me to see that one of the articles has been redirected to a Demand Studios article. Recently, I praised eHow and recommended the site on my blog. I thought adding good content and obtaining several page views were a win-win for eHow and writers. I am also a Demand Studios writer.
Hi, Tamara. I'm sorry to hear your articles were removed. It seems to me that it's the quality of views that are important. For example, an article that doesn't meet the site's guidelines can still get tons of views and even make decent money, but it might also discourage the reader from visiting eHow again if the article was poorly written or spammy.
I'm not saying that your articles were sub-par, but for some reason eHow didn't want them on the site any more, and that's just something we all have to deal with when an article is removed.
Sorry again, but keep writing, for other sites if not for eHow. :)
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