What is the Demand Studios Writer Development Program?

By Demand Studios Review Editorial

Posted On 8/16/2011 

Three simple words have been striking fear into the hearts of Demand Studios freelance writers: Writer Development Program.

Recently, many writers have been disappearing into its ranks, some never to return to the Demand Media Studios ranks.

We’ve had a few writers ask us for advice on how to survive the Writer Development Program. That article is coming soon, but first let’s gets a better understanding of the program itself, what it’s for and who ends up there. 

What is the Demand Studios Writer Development Program?

Demand Media has been cracking down lately in the quality department. The Google Panda update has everyone working harder to create strong content that the search engines will be glad to index, instead of junk they wish to flush.

It is clearly in Demand Media’s best interest to weed out weaker writers and promote stronger ones. In order to do this, Demand Media has implemented the Writer Development Program. Writers who are placed into this program must prove their writing skills in order to maintain writing privileges.

How do Writers End Up in the Writer Development Program?

Writers end up in the Writer Development Program in primarily two ways: Either they have a less than stellar scorecard or they have been “bubbled up” by the copy editors (CEs).

What is Considered a Bad Demand Studios Scorecard?

There is no cut and dry answer to this question, but there are a variety of known rough cutoffs supplied by Demand Media staffers in the official Demand Studios forum.

First, let’s talk about percentages.

It is generally acknowledged that having a rejected article percentage above three percent is problematic and may trigger a review. Likewise, you want to have an abandoned rewrite percentage at three percent or lower.

Obviously, the higher the “Accepted No Rewrites” percentage the better. Try to keep it at around 80 percent or higher.

Having a high “Approved Rewrites” percentage isn’t great, but it’s not as important as having a low rejected or abandoned percentage.

Basically, Demand Media is aware that copy editors are told to kick back articles for a rewrite even if the changes required aren’t huge. Copy editors are only paid about three dollars an article and they aren’t going to spend much time making big or even midsized changes. They also may just need a quick clarification. So as long as most of your articles are approved eventually, you should be fine.

Next, let’s look at grammar and research scores.

We know less about research scores than grammar scores. Generally, research scores tend to be higher than grammar scores. This is because it is easier for most people to find good resources online than to write strong, compelling articles with few or no grammatical errors.

A research score in the high threes, low fours should be sufficient. Check out our article on how to improve your Demand Studios research score with .edu and .gov references as well as our article on the Demand Studios research tool if this is an area of concern for you.

Demand Media staffer Johan Mengesha recently posted some interesting grammar score percentages in the Studio News section of the Demand Studios forum. It breaks down like this:

A grammar score of 4 or higher lands you in the top 15 percent of Demand Studios writers. A score of 3.9 or 3.8 means you’re in the top 35 percent. Writers with a grammar score of 3.7 or 3.6 are in the lower 35 percent, and anyone with a grammar score of 3.5 or lower is in the bottom 15 percent.

Anyone with a grammar score of 3.5 is likely to end up in the Writer Development program at some point. There may be an exception made if the writer has written for a number of special assignment projects or sections. The copy editors on those project tend to grade harder and Demand Media knows that and takes it into account.

Those with a 3.6 or 3.7 who don't write special assignment articles might want to try to bring up their scores as well.

If you’re worried after reading these stats, read our article on how to improve your Demand Studios grammar score.

What Does It Mean to Get Bubbled Up? What is the Quality Improvement Tool?

Bubbling up is when a writer is brought up for review due to poor feedback from copy editors. This primarily comes from the Quality Improvement Tool. The Quality Improvement Tool, or, as some critics have dubbed it, QuIT, was introduced back in February. It gives copy editors five boxes to check after they’ve reviewed an article. The five boxes are:

• Excellent article 
• Gross factual error 
• Plagiarism/duplicate content 
• Unprofessional behavior 
• Composition 
• Thin or off-topic content 

As you can see, most of those are negatives instead of positives. When first introduced, it was described as a way to bubble up good writers and surface struggling ones.

The term “bubbled up” now more colloquially means to be called out for poor writing. Writers may still be bubbled up in a positive sense. If your writing receives a large number of “Excellent article” checks you will probably find yourself granted permission to write Demand Studios special assignments. For instance, many writers were recently granted permission to write for LIVESTRONG due to high scores and positive feedback.

What is the Writer Evaluation Program? Is That Different from the Writer Development Program?

The Writer Evaluation Program (WEP) was the original name for the Writer Development Program (WDP). It was changed because the new name sounds less frightening. Or, as Demand Media explained, it’s a more accurate name because the program was always really about development and not evaluation. Either way, WEP and WDP are interchangeable and mean the same thing.

What Happens if You Are Placed in the Writer Development Program?

Writers placed in the Writer Development Program will have their article claim limit reduced to three. Each article will be reviewed by a senior copy editor when it is submitted.

The goal is to have each article pass by without a rejection, and preferably without rewrites. The articles should be well written, well researched and deemed to be of high quality.

One writer told us that she was fired after entering the Writer Development Program even though all three of her pieces were accepted. So apparently having all of your articles accepted is no guarantee that you’re safe.

Writers who pass through the Writer Development Program successfully will have their title claim limit raised to ten and will continue to write under a prohibition period where their work will be more closely scrutinized. The probationary period will vary from writer to writer, according to Demand Media.

Stay tuned for our upcoming article on how to survive the Writer Development Program (WDP), aka the Writer Evaluation Program (WEP). Until then, good luck and remember to check out some Demand Studios alternatives whether you’ve been placed in the WDP or not. Diversify, diversify, diversify!

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