eHow Unofficial FAQ
Newest update!
The WCP is completely gone. All articles leftover from the WCP are now being deleted or bought for a flat fee. Read more about the eHow closing here.
Big update!: eHow will no longer allow new people to sign up. And as of April 13 no existing members will be able to publish through eHow! You can find out more about the eHow merger here.
I'll keep this page just to memorialize a great time in eHow's life. I know a lot of great people had a lot of great times with eHow - sometimes just answering these questions - and someday, in the future, maybe we can all look back on this and smile.
If you want an alternative, I recommend Infobarrel. It is rising in ranking every day and is gaining Google power all the time.
Having been on eHow for only six months now(as of June 2009), I still feel like a complete newbie to the game. I had never written online before winding up on eHow and it was like everyone was speaking piglatin when I found my way to the forum. What was SEO? Keywords? What were these people talking about?
Well before I could even begin to understand these things I had to understand how eHow actually worked. You can't write articles for your audience without knowing what eHow expects of you.
I scoured the eHow Terms of Use before ever signing it and still refer to it when I have questions, but there are some things that just don't seem to be covered there.
Now that I've been visiting the forum regularly, I realize that I wasn't the only one who had some questions. Sadly, the regular forum-goers often have the same questions posed to them by new members every week or so. It can be tedious to have to answer the same thing once a week, or even more often. I encourage you to, more than anything else, glance through at least the first two pages of forum posts to see if something similar has already been asked. This can help keep the forum clean and easy to follow.
Photo: eHow's free-use, advertising logo.
The WCP is completely gone. All articles leftover from the WCP are now being deleted or bought for a flat fee. Read more about the eHow closing here.
Big update!: eHow will no longer allow new people to sign up. And as of April 13 no existing members will be able to publish through eHow! You can find out more about the eHow merger here.
I'll keep this page just to memorialize a great time in eHow's life. I know a lot of great people had a lot of great times with eHow - sometimes just answering these questions - and someday, in the future, maybe we can all look back on this and smile.
If you want an alternative, I recommend Infobarrel. It is rising in ranking every day and is gaining Google power all the time.
Having been on eHow for only six months now(as of June 2009), I still feel like a complete newbie to the game. I had never written online before winding up on eHow and it was like everyone was speaking piglatin when I found my way to the forum. What was SEO? Keywords? What were these people talking about?
Well before I could even begin to understand these things I had to understand how eHow actually worked. You can't write articles for your audience without knowing what eHow expects of you.
I scoured the eHow Terms of Use before ever signing it and still refer to it when I have questions, but there are some things that just don't seem to be covered there.
Now that I've been visiting the forum regularly, I realize that I wasn't the only one who had some questions. Sadly, the regular forum-goers often have the same questions posed to them by new members every week or so. It can be tedious to have to answer the same thing once a week, or even more often. I encourage you to, more than anything else, glance through at least the first two pages of forum posts to see if something similar has already been asked. This can help keep the forum clean and easy to follow.
Photo: eHow's free-use, advertising logo.
Earnings
"Can people in the U.K./China/Japan/other country earn money with eHow?"
Nope, sorry. eHow is more than happy to welcome members from other countries but there is not currently a way for them to earn with the WCP.
There is a way to earn with some Affiliate Links, but I would caution to be very careful with this. Abuse of the system can get it taken from everyone.
"Why aren't earnings updating?"
Did you just join? If you are a brand new member it's quite possible you haven't earned anything yet. It can take up to two weeks for an article to be indexed in Google and other search engines so that's how long it could take before you even get visitors.
"My article has a lot of views, but no earnings. Why?"
Not all articles are created equally. Sometimes something just doesn't attract earnings. Sometimes something with a lot of views can have no earnings while something with only a handful of views can earn like crazy. You can find information in the eHow forum about how to use SEO in your articles for more traffic and earnings.
"How many views makes $1?"
None. Our earnings are not based on views, but upon a secret earning algorithm.
"How are earnings calculated?"
Sorry, we don't know. Only eHow staff really knows the answer to this, but there are a lot of theories involving ad clicks. And there are other theories involving ratings and how many friends you have, etc. Most likely it's some combination of everything on eHow. Just write quality articles with some search engine optimization in mind to attract visitors and you will earn.
"Why do they keep it secret?"
Probably to keep people from gaming the system. If some people cheated it would ruin the fun for everyone.
"If ad clicks are how earnings are calculated, can I click my own ads or get others to click them?"
NO! This is click fraud and Google can and will catch you if you engage in it. If you are banned from Google's Adsense program you will never be allowed back in.
"How much will I earn?"
Sorry. No one can tell you that and anyone who claims to be able to tell you a number is lying. Money varies on eHow by a lot of factors. As long as you're producing quality content though, you will probably earn something.
Nope, sorry. eHow is more than happy to welcome members from other countries but there is not currently a way for them to earn with the WCP.
There is a way to earn with some Affiliate Links, but I would caution to be very careful with this. Abuse of the system can get it taken from everyone.
"Why aren't earnings updating?"
Did you just join? If you are a brand new member it's quite possible you haven't earned anything yet. It can take up to two weeks for an article to be indexed in Google and other search engines so that's how long it could take before you even get visitors.
"My article has a lot of views, but no earnings. Why?"
Not all articles are created equally. Sometimes something just doesn't attract earnings. Sometimes something with a lot of views can have no earnings while something with only a handful of views can earn like crazy. You can find information in the eHow forum about how to use SEO in your articles for more traffic and earnings.
"How many views makes $1?"
None. Our earnings are not based on views, but upon a secret earning algorithm.
"How are earnings calculated?"
Sorry, we don't know. Only eHow staff really knows the answer to this, but there are a lot of theories involving ad clicks. And there are other theories involving ratings and how many friends you have, etc. Most likely it's some combination of everything on eHow. Just write quality articles with some search engine optimization in mind to attract visitors and you will earn.
"Why do they keep it secret?"
Probably to keep people from gaming the system. If some people cheated it would ruin the fun for everyone.
"If ad clicks are how earnings are calculated, can I click my own ads or get others to click them?"
NO! This is click fraud and Google can and will catch you if you engage in it. If you are banned from Google's Adsense program you will never be allowed back in.
"How much will I earn?"
Sorry. No one can tell you that and anyone who claims to be able to tell you a number is lying. Money varies on eHow by a lot of factors. As long as you're producing quality content though, you will probably earn something.
Articles
"Can I publish the same article, with the same steps and a differently keyworded title?"
No. This is what eHow calls 'cloning'. Every cloned article, including the original one, will be deleted. Severe cases of cloning will get your account closed.
"My article says pending. What's going on?"
eHow has begun taking random samples of new articles for review. This is a GOOD thing. Wouldn't you rather know now that something is wrong with your article than have it totally deleted later? Just give staff time to review it. They do not review over the weekend and it can take a few days.
"Can I republish my articles somewhere else while they're still on eHow?"
Yes. eHow leaves us with the full rights to our articles. You may republish them elsewhere, but not sell exclusive rights to them. Make sure the byline, that is your display name, is the same on eHow as on the place you are republishing on.
You may also want to consider changing the article a little. Maybe give it a different slant or even just take it out of how to format and make it an informational article so you can link the two. This will keep Google from punishing you for same content in the search engine.
"Why don't my ads match my content?"
Did you wait at least 24 hours before looking at your ads? An ad bot has to crawl your page to see what you're talking about before it can give you ads.
If you have waited then you may not be understanding SEO. There are some great articles about it on eHow. Look them up.
"Why was my article deleted/put back to draft?"
Well I don't know if you don't show me the article. If you didn't save a copy of it in Word or another program then shame on you, but you can go and pull it up in Google Cache. ACT FAST!
Articles are deleted or drafted by eHow editors if they feel your content does not follow the eHow TOU. Look at it objectively; was this 'spam', a clone, not an actionable how to article? If you can't figure it out, visit the forum and post a copy of it. People will help you figure it out.
"Can I republish a deleted article?"
No. You can only republish articles that were pushed back to draft after fixing whatever was wrong with them. Deleted articles can be published elsewhere but not on eHow.
"Why is no one commenting on or rating my articles?"
Just because someone visited your article doesn't mean they'll comment or rate. Only members are allowed to comment and rate so the general public won't be able to do this.
"Is there anything that will teach me how to write articles?"
There are various websites and ebooks written about how best to write for eHow. Check the reviews of eHow ebooks here.
"What are points for?"
You get 100 points for writing an article and 10 points for every photo you add to an article. Points are otherwise not used for anything."
No. This is what eHow calls 'cloning'. Every cloned article, including the original one, will be deleted. Severe cases of cloning will get your account closed.
"My article says pending. What's going on?"
eHow has begun taking random samples of new articles for review. This is a GOOD thing. Wouldn't you rather know now that something is wrong with your article than have it totally deleted later? Just give staff time to review it. They do not review over the weekend and it can take a few days.
"Can I republish my articles somewhere else while they're still on eHow?"
Yes. eHow leaves us with the full rights to our articles. You may republish them elsewhere, but not sell exclusive rights to them. Make sure the byline, that is your display name, is the same on eHow as on the place you are republishing on.
You may also want to consider changing the article a little. Maybe give it a different slant or even just take it out of how to format and make it an informational article so you can link the two. This will keep Google from punishing you for same content in the search engine.
"Why don't my ads match my content?"
Did you wait at least 24 hours before looking at your ads? An ad bot has to crawl your page to see what you're talking about before it can give you ads.
If you have waited then you may not be understanding SEO. There are some great articles about it on eHow. Look them up.
"Why was my article deleted/put back to draft?"
Well I don't know if you don't show me the article. If you didn't save a copy of it in Word or another program then shame on you, but you can go and pull it up in Google Cache. ACT FAST!
Articles are deleted or drafted by eHow editors if they feel your content does not follow the eHow TOU. Look at it objectively; was this 'spam', a clone, not an actionable how to article? If you can't figure it out, visit the forum and post a copy of it. People will help you figure it out.
"Can I republish a deleted article?"
No. You can only republish articles that were pushed back to draft after fixing whatever was wrong with them. Deleted articles can be published elsewhere but not on eHow.
"Why is no one commenting on or rating my articles?"
Just because someone visited your article doesn't mean they'll comment or rate. Only members are allowed to comment and rate so the general public won't be able to do this.
"Is there anything that will teach me how to write articles?"
There are various websites and ebooks written about how best to write for eHow. Check the reviews of eHow ebooks here.
"What are points for?"
You get 100 points for writing an article and 10 points for every photo you add to an article. Points are otherwise not used for anything."
Account
"Can I have more than one account on eHow?"
Yes. As long as you are not creating a second account simply to harass or spam then it is fine. Also, you may not create a second account after you are banned. That account will be deleted as soon as eHow finds it.
"Why was my account deleted!?"
Sorry. You must have done something wrong. There have been very few instances where deletions were done in error. If you feel it was, then use the Contact Us button on eHow to ask for an appeal. You may also PM Rich or Julie (the community managers; revisitingnixon and juliehrh) and they can help you.
Yes. As long as you are not creating a second account simply to harass or spam then it is fine. Also, you may not create a second account after you are banned. That account will be deleted as soon as eHow finds it.
"Why was my account deleted!?"
Sorry. You must have done something wrong. There have been very few instances where deletions were done in error. If you feel it was, then use the Contact Us button on eHow to ask for an appeal. You may also PM Rich or Julie (the community managers; revisitingnixon and juliehrh) and they can help you.
Friends
"Do I need a lot of friends?"
Do you want a lot of friends? That's up to you. The number of friends you have does not directly affect your earnings, but some people like having them. Make up your own mind.
"I keep getting requests to read and rate articles in my PM box. Is this how you make money?"
No. The requests to read and rate are actually considered spam by eHow. This is a reportable offense. I would suggest PMing the person back and telling them this is inappropriate and to please not send messages like that again. If you receive another, then go to the person's profile and click Report Abuse beneath their avatar. You can then C&P the message into the optional box. eHow staff will then give them a warning.
"My friend offered to click my ads if I gave them five stars. Can I do that?"
NO! This is called click fraud. Report this person immediately. If people cheat eHow like that then it may ruin the site for the rest of us. This is also one of the best ways to get banned from both eHow and Google Adsense.
"What does RRCR5* mean?"
Recommend, read, comment and rate 5 stars. This is a dishonest practice that was started among many groups that were later put down by eHow staff. These groups would trade ratings and recommendations on anything, without ever really reading any of it. Some people still use the RRCR5* method because they think this is how you make money. It's not. Rate and recommend honestly.
"How do I get more recommendations?"
Don't worry too much about recommendations and ratings and all those other shiny bells and whistles. They don't mean anything. They don't calculate into how we're paid and many normal eHowers forget to use them sometimes. Just write good articles and the ratings will come. Under no circumstances should you request your friends give you recommendations.
Do you want a lot of friends? That's up to you. The number of friends you have does not directly affect your earnings, but some people like having them. Make up your own mind.
"I keep getting requests to read and rate articles in my PM box. Is this how you make money?"
No. The requests to read and rate are actually considered spam by eHow. This is a reportable offense. I would suggest PMing the person back and telling them this is inappropriate and to please not send messages like that again. If you receive another, then go to the person's profile and click Report Abuse beneath their avatar. You can then C&P the message into the optional box. eHow staff will then give them a warning.
"My friend offered to click my ads if I gave them five stars. Can I do that?"
NO! This is called click fraud. Report this person immediately. If people cheat eHow like that then it may ruin the site for the rest of us. This is also one of the best ways to get banned from both eHow and Google Adsense.
"What does RRCR5* mean?"
Recommend, read, comment and rate 5 stars. This is a dishonest practice that was started among many groups that were later put down by eHow staff. These groups would trade ratings and recommendations on anything, without ever really reading any of it. Some people still use the RRCR5* method because they think this is how you make money. It's not. Rate and recommend honestly.
"How do I get more recommendations?"
Don't worry too much about recommendations and ratings and all those other shiny bells and whistles. They don't mean anything. They don't calculate into how we're paid and many normal eHowers forget to use them sometimes. Just write good articles and the ratings will come. Under no circumstances should you request your friends give you recommendations.
Promotion
"Do I have to promote my articles?"
This is up to you. Some people see great benefits from it, others think it's a waste of time. I recommend you experiment a bit. Promote in various ways, try some things together then don't promote for a while. Choose for yourself what you think was worth the time.
This is up to you. Some people see great benefits from it, others think it's a waste of time. I recommend you experiment a bit. Promote in various ways, try some things together then don't promote for a while. Choose for yourself what you think was worth the time.
Plagiarism
"OMG! Someone is stealing my content! HELP!"
Calm down. Take a deep breath. The world isn't going to fall out of the sky and you can do something about this. If only your article appears to be being stolen then send a Cease and Desist letter to the site owner. You can find the owner by running the site through Whois.com.
Does the site appear to be stealing multiple eHowers' content? Bring it to the forums and post the website. Be sure to send a Cease and Desist letter anyway, but the forum members will be more than happy to help take down a plagiarizer.
"How do I find stolen content?"
You can either type your title (as long as it's unique) into the search engine with "" around it or you can use a short clip from your article with "" around it.
Be careful when checking sites. Some may be carrying viruses, spyware or malware.
"Is this plagiarism?"
Has your entire article been reproduced? Then it's plagiarism.
Was your article intro reproduced with a link to the full article? This is GOOD for you. You want this. It is not plagiarism.
Calm down. Take a deep breath. The world isn't going to fall out of the sky and you can do something about this. If only your article appears to be being stolen then send a Cease and Desist letter to the site owner. You can find the owner by running the site through Whois.com.
Does the site appear to be stealing multiple eHowers' content? Bring it to the forums and post the website. Be sure to send a Cease and Desist letter anyway, but the forum members will be more than happy to help take down a plagiarizer.
"How do I find stolen content?"
You can either type your title (as long as it's unique) into the search engine with "" around it or you can use a short clip from your article with "" around it.
Be careful when checking sites. Some may be carrying viruses, spyware or malware.
"Is this plagiarism?"
Has your entire article been reproduced? Then it's plagiarism.
Was your article intro reproduced with a link to the full article? This is GOOD for you. You want this. It is not plagiarism.
Forum
"Where is the forum?"
Glad you asked. I'm sure you can tell by now that I really support people visiting the forum. There is always someone to talk to, friendly faces to see and some kind of discussion going on. Join us! We don't bite often, though we have ocassionally been described as a dysfunctional family. Most discussion topics need to be placed in the Community Chatter forum. Bugs and questions directly to eHow staff should be in the Feedback forum.
"Can I advertise my articles on the forum?"
Yes. This is the preferred method of advertising on eHow itself. Everday a thread is started specifically for new articles to be posted in. Members who want to participate will look through all the articles and read the ones that interest them. The thread for this will contain the day's date: Example: January 10 Articles
"Can I advertise other things on the forum?"
The black and white answer is, no. That is considered spam. There are some instances where it is okay. If you are asking for honest advice about a new blog or website, etc. then it can be acceptable. If someone posts a topic and you have a relevent website you can post it. If you only ever appear to post links in threads though, people will begin to flag it.
"How do I watch a discussion in my e-mail?"
You can't. Sorry. There is a button for it, but it's a lie (kind of like cake). We're not sure what that button does, but it doesn't give you updates.
"I'm addicted to the forum. Will I ever write another article?"
Welcome to the ranks of the eHowcaholics/coholics... however you want to spell it; it's all the same. We're addicts and ironically the only support group is the forum. Vicious cycle, right?
Don't worry. You'll get some ideas for articles, find a few moments where the forum is lulling and be able to write it.
Glad you asked. I'm sure you can tell by now that I really support people visiting the forum. There is always someone to talk to, friendly faces to see and some kind of discussion going on. Join us! We don't bite often, though we have ocassionally been described as a dysfunctional family. Most discussion topics need to be placed in the Community Chatter forum. Bugs and questions directly to eHow staff should be in the Feedback forum.
"Can I advertise my articles on the forum?"
Yes. This is the preferred method of advertising on eHow itself. Everday a thread is started specifically for new articles to be posted in. Members who want to participate will look through all the articles and read the ones that interest them. The thread for this will contain the day's date: Example: January 10 Articles
"Can I advertise other things on the forum?"
The black and white answer is, no. That is considered spam. There are some instances where it is okay. If you are asking for honest advice about a new blog or website, etc. then it can be acceptable. If someone posts a topic and you have a relevent website you can post it. If you only ever appear to post links in threads though, people will begin to flag it.
"How do I watch a discussion in my e-mail?"
You can't. Sorry. There is a button for it, but it's a lie (kind of like cake). We're not sure what that button does, but it doesn't give you updates.
"I'm addicted to the forum. Will I ever write another article?"
Welcome to the ranks of the eHowcaholics/coholics... however you want to spell it; it's all the same. We're addicts and ironically the only support group is the forum. Vicious cycle, right?
Don't worry. You'll get some ideas for articles, find a few moments where the forum is lulling and be able to write it.
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byThe Unanswered Questions
Did I forget something you REALLY want to know? I will be more than happy to answer any questions I can or direct you to the people who can answer it.
Any questions that are repeated from the above information will be deleted. Any foul language will be deleted and if you just want to vent that eHow deleted your articles/account and won't reinstate them/you that will be deleted too.
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John
Feb 6, 2011 @ 9:14 am | delete
- Where is the sign in button i cant find it when i try to sign up
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prettyevil
Feb 6, 2011 @ 9:29 pm | delete
- eHow is undergoing a change right now. It seems you can no longer have an account with eHow. I'm not sure how this will work for normal users, but right now the writers are being told we need to merge our accounts with our Facebook accounts if we want to continue to communicate with eHow. I would suspect this means non-writers just won't have or need accounts anymore.
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vallain
Nov 21, 2009 @ 5:01 pm | delete
- I'm linking this to my new lens about eHow.
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prettyevil
Oct 23, 2009 @ 5:49 pm | in reply to Stephanie | delete
- A variety of things could have happened. 1. You could have hit a very hot priced keyword, meaning you need fewer clicks to get the same amount of money. 2. The views are not updated completely. As views do not update the same time as earnings, and often do not filter in all at once anyway, you may get a few more (or a lot more) views before the end of the day.
It may be a combination of these two things or anything else. It's definitely not something to worry about though. Instead, celebrate and be happy.
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Stephanie
Oct 23, 2009 @ 5:41 pm | delete
- An article I just wrote, I checked it today and it had 3 views total and earnings of $4.67. How did that happen? The best of the articles I've had posted for months and months have only earned between $5 and $6 total, and many have only earned between pennies to a couple bucks.
What is the deal with that? Three views and that much money?
Thank you,
Stephanie
ehow Lafincoff
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