Comparisons Between List My 5 and Ehow

Technology & Electronics - Websites

By: Amberdawn 09-Feb-2011

Introduction:

If you're a former eHow writer, eHower, eHow peep, member or contributor, then you were probably sad to see it go. After writing there for 2 years I've seen my earnings grow exponentially. And I'm truly grateful for that, and I hope my articles can live there and continue to earn for a long time to come. However, after a long respite I've been bitten by the writing bug again and found a new venue here on List My 5. It's actually a lot like eHow. A LOT like eHow. I know someday people are going to get sick of hearing the comparison, but you have to admit eHow was successful, so if List My 5 picks up where they left off, power to them! So if you'd like to learn more about List My 5, read on.

Similar Writing Templates

You enter a title, fill in each field (eHow allowed 3 or more, but as you can guess from the name of the site, this is restricted to exactly 5). It doesn't have to be how-tos like eHow but those are welcomed as well. The minimum word count is 25 per field (125 total obviously) which I believe is shorter than eHow's limit. Some short articles were grandfathered in, but they raised the minimum limit later on.

Similar Interface

The interface is extremely user friendly; within a day or so it was second nature to me. After fulfilling the word count of the 5 fields you categorize it (there's not an overwhelming number of categories, and the secondary dropdown list simplifies things I think, but they are still open to new category suggestions if you can't find one that fits). Then you need to agree to the TOS and promise you're the author and not a plagiarizer, and enter the Captcha. You can then click publish or save it as a draft. Interestingly, unlike eHow, you can put a published article in draft mode by going in to edit later and selecting save instead of publish.

You Own Your Content

You reserve the rights to your lists, which is very important to me. This means if you decide to take them down, you can post them elsewhere (as long as you choose a site that accepts articles that have previously appeared elsewhere). You can also edit your articles anytime, which is also important to me because I like to proofread after a few days. It's easier to catch errors when the content isn't as new to me.

Familiar Faces

And as far as I've seen, MOST of the writers there are former eHow writers. It's funny because half of the List My 5 forums is eHow talk. And coincidentally (or not) it seems, and I could be wrong, that List My 5 has only been around since September. That's right around when eHow stopped accepting new articles.

Pay

The pay for List My 5, well, that's just like eHow too. Which is to say the first week of writing, don't expect to make a penny. That's the nature of writing online! It's slow going, so if you don't enjoy writing for the sake of it it's going to be very difficult to find the motivation to write. Also, because List My 5 is such a new site, you won't find many (if any) writers whose articles (I mean lists) have had time to mature and become steady earners. Only the SEO gurus among us can boast of that, and even they will tell you they're not paying the bills with List My 5 because the domain itself is not as established with Google and Alexa as eHow. Yet.

Final Thoughts

Those of us writing for List My 5 see real potential with this site, but only time will tell. So if you'd like to get on the ground floor of a new writing site that's got fewer hoops to jump through than other sites, where you can do your own quality control, and where you don't have to worry about layout, pictures, and so on and you can JUST WRITE, give List My 5 a try!

Give this list a high five!

Comments

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dashboardc33 3/6/2012
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I made good money when I wrote for eHow. I really miss it. Nice list of comparisons between the both of them.
hummingbirdee 3/2/2012
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Good comparison.
snowfence 2/20/2011
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Thanks for the article. H5!
Amberdawn 2/12/2011
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I don't think eHow is in trouble. As long as the money keeps rolling in and the articles top Google I love me some eHow. And I think List My Five can (and already has) learn a lot from eHow. I'm just glad it's here since writing for eHow isn't really an option now.
AkbarTheTentmaker 2/12/2011
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Akbar is quite grateful eHow is going down the toilet, and will gladly invest himself into Lm5.
clewand550 2/10/2011
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Nice list of 5. I wish that I would have written for ehow. I hear so much about that site. I am happy to write for lm5. Well written list.
jseven 2/9/2011
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Nice comparisons. I love LM 5 and the people here. :)
ElaineChastain 2/9/2011
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Amber, I love your straight forward style. You have pretty much pinned it down as to how easy it is to write here.
Ellie 2/9/2011
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Great info. I never wrote for eHow, but I keep hearing how similar the two are.