Copyright 2010 Cherie Kuranko "InkSpot" All Rights Reserved
eHow.com writers are forced to find other outlets to earn money writing online after eHow chose to post their articles at the new UK eHow.com website without their knowledge. Many writers have been complaining for months about the drop in views and earnings on their US eHow articles. When they asked eHow about the problem, they either received no answer or were told it was part of the normal seasonal drop in Internet usage by readers.
Writers soon discovered the new UK eHow.com website was using their articles. They also discovered Google searches were ranking higher on the UK articles than on the original US articles. eHow did not pay writers for any views of the UK articles and states they will not be compensating writers for those views in the future. Pleasing a few writers, they offered to remove the articles from the UK website, claiming it would take about three weeks to accomplish this. Most writers are very angry, are demanding compensation and no longer trust the eHow company to do right by its writers. Writers are deleting their articles and leaving eHow.com for greener pastures.
Many have deleted their articles and closed accounts with eHow because of what has come to be dubbed as the "eHow.com UK scam" by writers affected by eHow's actions.What they are discovering is that eHowand the remaining writers will still benefit from the articles they had at the sight, which writers spent many hours backlinking to from other websites, forums and backlinking sites like SheToldMe and XOMBA.
Some of the writers who have chosen to stay at eHow arereporting increased views in the last week or so. They believe it is because eHow has started removing their articles from the UK website, but other writers are skeptical and claim it is because their deleted articles are being redirected.
Writers who have deleted their articlesdiscovered their original article URLis being redirected to an index of other eHow writers' articles at a new URL, thus pushing more traffic to somebody elses articles at eHow.com. For example: My How to Build a Fish Scaler Using Bottle Caps article had the URL: /how_5464209_build-using-bottle-caps.html Type that in and try to go to it and it will automatically redirect that URL to: /articles_2167-fishing.html This new URL shows up with a list of other eHow.com fishing related articles. Every time a readerclicks on the backlinksmade to the originalarticle URL are redirected to all articles about fishing on eHow.com.To throw salt on the wound,angry writerssuspectthe redirect was created during the submission of their article when they chose specific categories for the article. The job of removing all backlinks is too time consuming, even if the writers could remember each place they created a backlink to their articles. However, th ere is a way to quickly and easily request the removal of the original URL and perhaps the current URL being used to redirect traffic to eHow.
HOW TO DELETE YOUR ARTICLE URLsFROM GOOGLE SEARCH:
Google Webmaster Tools has a URL Removal Tool, which can be used to remove a URL from Google's search engine. They offer a free account. I removed both my original URL and the current one as "dead links". I don't yet know if the URL used to redirect willget removed or not, but the original URL should because it does not go to the article.
Google lists all of my requests to remove URL's as "pending" for now in a list you can view later to see what action was taken. I will continue tocheck back and see what happens over the next few weeks and update this article. However, Ilearned I'mnot the only one submitting the eHow redirect URLs to Google, because it sometimes came back with the message that the URL has already been submitted by someone else. So, others have already caught on to this. If you want to remove your articles and no longer write for eHow it would be wise to delete your original URL FIRST. Once you have deleted the articles, you no longer have that URL available---unless, like me you kept all your eHow articles in your favorites. If they are still in your favorites (or on whatever you kept your records on-paper or spreadsheet),you can delete the original URL at Google. If you have already deleted your eHow articles at eHow and still have the eHow articles bookmarked in your favorites, then yo u should be able to pull up the original URL to your articles. To find the original URL by using your favorites, you can right click your mouse, go down and click onproperties and a window will pop up with the original URL (note: my window pops up behind my main screen--so just move it out of the way). Copy the URL, then paste it into the Google remove page. This is the quickest way to remove all those backlinks to your original article, so they won't be redirected to eHow AND more importantly they won't be competing for traffic you want to generate tothe new site you post them at. To remove your articles URL at Google, just visit Webmaster Tools: This is a link to that site. It is free to sign up for a Google account. I did it a long time ago for other purposes. Click on URL Removal Tool at Google's Webmaster Tools.It is a very simple, quick process. I was able to do 50 URLs in about 30 minutes. This should remove all the backlinks you created to those articles all in o ne shot.
How to Delete Your Articles fromeHow.com:
First, be sure you have copies of your articles savedon your computer; inWord or a flashdrive, whatever your preference is. This will make it is easy to copy and paste when you post at a new site, like Bukisa.I love writing for Bukisa and doing very well here. I highly recommend them and you can sign up if you like by clicking here: SIGN UP FOR BUKISA. Then go to eHow.com and sign in. Go to your articles.Click edit on the first article. You mustselect"save and continue" until you reach the very last page of the edit/submission process. At the very bottom there is a "delete" button. Click it and the article is deleted. Continue to do this until all articles have been removed.
You may also want to delete all your favorites and groups, content, personal information, etc. Some writers are keeping their account and redirecting traffic to their new websites by posting the links in their profiles. Why not? eHow.com is of the opinion they can use their writers backlinks and hard work, so why can't the write promote their websites on their eHow profiles.
As far as payment, eHow.com paid everyone through the end of the year--making it a perfect time to switch to a new writing site. However, keep in mind you will most likely lose any earnings left on the books if you close your profile. I sacrificed $1.29.
Good luck to all the other writers who were affected by the eHow.com UK scam and be sure to try Bukisa. Read their agreement. Writers know upfront exactly how much they will be earning and I've had no problem receiving exactly what they promised--on time.
Copyright 2010 Cherie Kuranko "InkSpot" All Rights Reserved
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