The second point is this. A few of DS's former writers have stated both here and at other sites that they were fired when they questioned assignments. I will dig for the one particular post, but know that I don't write what hasn't been reported elsewhere. I don't "make shit up", as you so eloquently say. I state what I know to be true. If you'd like to prove me wrong, I'd welcome that.

Second, your claim, "Some writers are fired when they question assignments" is positively insane. Please back up this claim. Writers at DS choose from a pool of assignments. No writer is ever forced to write anything. The notion that someone would be fired for questioning a particular assignment is crazy. You probably heard that third-hand from a disgruntled writer and now you're spreading false rumors. If you want to criticize DS that's fine, but don't make shit up to bolster your argument.

I would never, ever advise anyone to work for this company. I don't even list it on my resume I'm so embarrassed by it!

Writing for these content mills only SEEMS to be a good way to get started in freelancing. The time it takes to research, write and rewrite would be better spent in learning more about writing and in seeking out better paying markets. A shortcut is usually really a bad idea-you end up lost and confused, and then you starve. Not a great recipe for success.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Demand-Studios-4-Reasons-Why-It-Sucks

That said, I haven't been back to Deb's site since I decided that I really don't want to be a freelance writer (I don't want to deal with clients, and I don't want to do interviews, so I'm sticking to internet marketing and will hopefully make enough some day to hire freelance writers at a good wage instead), so I missed this whole sponsorship thing.

That said, I did sign up for DS at one point, but never bothered taking any of the jobs because none of the titles were interesting enough to research (or subjects that I knew well enough to not have to research), and the pay wasn't good enough to waste my time on learning new guidelines and such.

My guideline for taking on writing jobs was always that I wouldn't take less than I could get from doing PayPerPost posts on my own blog- that pretty much rules out any content mills!

As I said, I don't want to get into a lot of tit for tat but Anonymous? I don't offer people $5 an hour for jobs.

Devon: I do my best to answer all my email and I apologize for not answering yours. I'm not going to say I didn't get it, but I don't recall seeing any email from you recently and after searching my gmail just now I didn't find anything from you. However, I apologize as I know it's frustrating when you write to people and they don't respond. I'm so sorry to lose you as a member of my community.

Lisa – As Lori said, all comments are food for thought. I believe there are no haters, only opportunities. Thank you for your support.

Joan – I commented on your blog.

I hope you all have a nice day. Good luck with all of your endeavors.