Freelancing at Home

Last week, I did a post about Mahalo wanting freelance writers, specifically how to writers from eHow.

Well I got an e-mail at 1:00 AM on March 4 (six days after publishing) saying my task was rejected. Apparently all tasks need to have citations within the text - which was not stated anywhere on the how to make a how to page. It only said to use them if they were not common knowledge - or if you were quoting something - and everything I wrote was common knowledge that can be found on dozens of websites, on any handout from a body piercing shop and a variety of videos on youtube. You do not need to cite things like that because they are so widely said, they are common knowledge.

I really can’t say I’m broken hearted; after putting all that work into the page and knowing that I was going to be paid only M$16 ($12 real world) and that it would significantly drop to only $3.75 and $7.50 for any how to tasks after that point, I wasn’t gung-ho to work for Mahalo. In a sense, I’m relieved. Payout on Mahalo is M$150. Do you realize how many how to articles it would take to get that? Even with the 40% revenue share I’d either have to wait about a year to get that much or write a bunch of how to articles for low pay.

The bonus, the review e-mail I got was very polite. It was very specific about what needed worked on and also said what you did well at.

At this point in time, eHow.com is the place to go for how to content. I just really wish they could get their shit together.

If you want to do longer pages like Mahalo wants, I would recommend Squidoo.com. What Mahalo wants in just a how to page would be a great complete lens on Squidoo. If you want to see how pretty my Mahalo article turned Squidoo lens turned out, check my Caring for a New Body Piercing lens.