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eHow: Loyalty was Never Apart of Your Game Plan

By Bryan Hadaway | Published January 27, 2011 | Need me to update this article?
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evilHow – I’m going to layout my experience with this site/service:

  • I created an account, started writing how-to articles and everything seemed fine. (this was all before I started writing for my own blog)
  • I quickly learned the site was glitchy and reporting was delayed and often confusing (that’s fine, I considered it all beta anyways). The big kicker was how shady and secretive the compensation program was, they never laid out the formula so you knew what you were getting. It was clear that you were taking a cut of the ad revenue from which your articles performed. What percentage you were getting probably very small, they obviously didn’t want to reveal this.
  • Then eHow started really changing. They took a lot of criticism for having poorly written articles and of intangible subject matters like “How to Smile” or something to that effect. Although the users and writers themselves liked it and poor vs quality articles were determined by the community with rating and comments they decided to go over our heads and just start deleted articles. The criteria/guidelines were always loose for what you could write, it was basically if you think it could be helpful to someone and they can take actual steps to do it go for it. Naturally the writers including myself were outraged in fear of our articles being randomly deleted without notice and for reasons unknown by eHow’s new Nazi Regime. We’d then have to go search Google cache to salvage our articles if we didn’t keep a local backup. When we tried to comply we couldn’t, there was no way to know what was acceptable and what wasn’t. We’d ask and we would get such strange, contradicting and vague answers there was never any way to know.
  • So we started doing their job for them. If they weren’t going to at least set official and clear guidelines so we could attempt to get our articles “right” by this new regime we at least wanted them to NOT approve them instantly only to delete them a week later. So they finally implemented a review process. They would “review” and approve articles and they were still getting deleted anyways!!! So we again demanded to know what the guidelines were for deletion and if they wouldn’t reveal them could the reviewers and moderators at least get on the same page?
  • Next is where eHow really shined with their loyalty. Regardless of the fact that WE built their house and made them ALL their money (they really only laid the foundation) they came up with a plan to get rid of us. They were going to “update” the writing process. You now had to be one of their very top writers, have a college degree in literature or be a famous writer or you were out. That took away the ability for probably 80-90% of us to write any longer, best thing that ever happened to me :). I’ve made more money in day than I ever made in the whole of being “apart” of eHow for the last couple years.
  • What does it come down to? Money. They couldn’t care less about the community that actually got them to where they are now.
  • They probably never considered us to be anything more than annoying and bandwidth/storage sucks. So here’s their new plan to get rid of us and shut us up…

Important eHow.com announcement

Exciting news about eHow.com member profiles

Hi [USERNAME],

We have some exciting news to share about eHow.com. Beginning in February 2011, Facebook Login will be the exclusive means for login to the site. You’ll be able to use your new or existing Facebook username and password to connect with the eHow community. We’ll also be removing eHow member profiles to help you streamline friend lists and eliminate the work of managing multiple online accounts. If you are a participant of the Writer Compensation Program (WCP), this update will not impact your ability to manage your articles. We’ve built a new portal, providing the same tools you are accustomed to using. See below for more detail.
Additionally, we’ll be closing forums on the site. We want to hear from you directly, so moving forward, we encourage you to communicate us through the “Contact Us” section of eHow.com.

We’re excited to introduce these updates! Get started and click on the Facebook Connect button in the upper right corner of the home page to login. We want to keep in touch, so also remember to Fan Us.

How does this impact you?

In February, your current eHow profile will be taken down. If there are items in your current profile that are important to you (e.g., favorites and playlists), bookmark them so you can retrieve them in the future. Also, if you have friends on eHow.com that you’re not connected to on Facebook, be sure to add them on Facebook so you can keep them in your trusted network of friends.
For Writer Compensation Program Members
Starting this month, Writer Compensation Program (WCP) participants, will access these reports in the new WCP portal. Unlike eHow.com, your eHow username and password will continue to work here. The portal will show you the exact same tools and reports you are accustomed to seeing on your eHow.com profile page. We will share the URL and further details later this month. Your existing profile and access to WCP earnings will not be removed until the URL for the new reporting portal has been shared with you.

For Writers Who Are Not Part of the Compensation Program

Starting this month, you’ll be able to modify and republish your articles from the same new console utilized by WCP members. See the description in the section above. We will share the URL and further details later this month.

Next Steps:

• Go to eHow.com now and link your current eHow account to your Facebook account, using the Facebook Connect button in the upper right corner of the site.

• In the coming days, if you wish to preserve information from your profile — bookmark favorites, videos or playlists. Be sure anyone in your current eHow friends list is also on Facebook, so you can stay connected.

• For additional information, please visit the FAQ, submit questions here, or Fan Us.
Thank you for taking time to read this message. Contact us with any questions or comments, we always want to hear from you and are here to help.

Thank you,
The eHow Team

Good work eHow. Good work. – I’m now going to go rescue my articles, be back in a jiffy.

UPDATE: All my articles have now been Rescued from evilHow and most of them updated.

Thanks for reading, Bryan

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  • http://www.tanzaniawildlifesafaris.com Tanzania safaris

    Hi Bryan,

    I can understand your frustration, but eHow came under fire from a few sources, if I remember correctly. It would seem that people started looking at eHow as Google’s little pet. Also, a lot of the articles on there were, to be honest, of lesser quality (for stuff I was searching for, in any case). It’s a pity that innocent writers should suffer for those who take advantage of the system, but I suppose with a large system it’s difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.

    Best thing to do? Write for yourself, as you are doing. Spend a little extra time on research, and do your own writing. That’s the way to go.

    All the best!

  • http://www.bryanhadaway.com/ Bryan Hadaway

    Well, less frustration and more learning of eHow’s true colors.

    I could never alienate the great community that gave me all the money, power and presence to do so in the first place.

    The nicest way to put it is they sold out and went corporate.

    Thanks, Bryan

  • DMF

    I was wondering – where in the world is the new Writers Compensation Portal? I emailed eHow’s helpdesk for the URL since they claimed they would send it out before removing the previous log-on method, but I never received this URL. They replied with a link to the message saying that they would send the URL out… still no URL for me. Would really appreciate it if you could let me know how to find this URL because eHow apparently doesn’t care to actually answer questions. Thank you :-)

  • http://www.bryanhadaway.com/ Bryan Hadaway

    The last I heard they were making yet again another ridiculous move by forcing everyone to have a Facebook account to sync up with your eHow account in order to login or you would essentially be locked out.

    I would think this is an incredibly dumb move for a company to make alienating their customers, yet based on recent history it just seems like another calculated move to filter people out.

    If you really want to get to the bottom of it you might hit up the parent company:

    http://www.demandmedia.com/

    To be honest, why would you want to continue writing for them making them rich instead of writing for yourself, your own blog; making more money than you’ll ever make with evilHow? Seriously, cut out the middleman.

    Check out: http://www.calmestghost.com/pagelines/ – it’s cheaper than you might think to get up and running.

    Thanks, Bryan

  • Chickie85

    I never got the link either. It doesnt matter paypal isnt paying either something about giving them information about myself but I don’t feel comfortable giving all that information out. I looked into it some and found out there are alot of other people that have had the same problems with getting their money from paypal. Can’t trust any site I guess. I am over it all.

  • Katie
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