Out of the Closet: Finally Acknowledging EHow.Com

While wandering around my room this morning, pacing back and forth in the hope that a topic would pop into my head, it occurred to me that I had never, ever written about my eHow.com portfolio (http://www.ehow.com/members/cstoddard.html ). Strange, I know, considering that I've maintained the page for a year now. I suppose I never wrote about it before because it doesn't contain any original content; all the articles there I posted on my Associated Content page (www.associatedcontent.com/christinestoddard) first. The fact that I haven't addressed eHow.com in any of my writings before doesn't mean I think it's second-rate, however.

In many ways, it's presents a superior format for How-To articles. The lay-out is cleaner, with fewer advertisements than any Associated Content page. eHow is simply more visually appealing. The template is fast and convenient to use and I like how it organizes my How-to articles step-by-step so that they're easy for the reader to understand. My eHow page is just so much more reader-friendly than my Associated Content page. All of the articles are even categorized according to subject material (currently I have 36 fashion articles, 19 education articles, 5 career articles, 3 arts and entertainment articles, 2 culture and society articles and 2 health articles up on the page) so readers can quickly decide what they want to read. On Associated Content, readers have to scroll and scroll and scroll in order to find what they want.

I've also noticed that my eHow status and number of page views are both much higher and increase much faster than those on my Associated Content portfolio. (Remember, the eHow articles are exactly the same as the How-to articles I post on AC, too.) I'm not sure why that is; maybe eHow is better known than AC (although I doubt it) or eHow is more truthful in reporting how many page views my writing receives (I know for a fact that AC misreports my page views because even after several friends and family have emailed me about a particular article, AC says the article has gotten zero views. It seems like at least 10 or 20 people have to read an article before AC reports even 1 page view. I know it's because they don't want to pay you for every single page view your article actually receives. But I can rant about this cruel truth in another writing).

There are only two disadvantages to using eHow over AC that come to my mind: 1) eHow does not offer upfront payments, and 2) You can only post How-to articles. I have noticed, though, that even though I have MUCH less content on my eHow page and fewer people read it, my monthly page view payment is always $10 to $25 higher than what AC gives me. I also don't mind writing most How-to articles, especially ones about fashion and education, but it is limiting since I like to write about so many different topics.

Anyway, I just wanted to bring attention to my eHow portfolio and point out that it's another place to read my writing and learn about my opinions and advice. Perhaps this piece also provided useful advice for other aspiring writers so they know the ins and outs of submitting to AC and eHow.