Any webmaster knows to get upset when someone takes your content and posts it up in competition. It draws traffic you should get. You lose ad revenue. You might also lose search engine ranking. Content thieves are just not cool.
Enter ehow.com who took the entire database of articles contributed by writers expecting to earn residuals and cloned the articles onto a “ehow uk” site.
Earnings started dropping for many writers but forum comments about dropping earnings were dismissed as seasonal fluctuations by ehow staff.
Writers noticed that the UK articles were ranking above the ehow.com versions even in searches performed from US based computers. This is especially strange when you realize that Google localizes content for searchers. (Simple example – if you are in the US and search for say Yahoo you will be directed to yahoo.com not yahoo.co.uk.) Some of the more tech savvy writers noticed that ehow was optimizing the UK site to perform better then the standard ehow.com site.
Writers raised hell to the point that ehow could no longer contain the discontent. In somewhat quick time eHow entered redirects so that anyone clicking on the ehow UK clone gets redirected to the ehow.com site.
However, there is the small problem of lost compensation for the US based ehow writers. The US writers have lost income for the 6 months that the UK clones were pulling readers off the ehow.com articles. I suspect that all writers have lost, even writers who’s income went up over the 6 months. Without the UK clone they would have made even more money. eHow, however earned on the ehow uk clones.
eHow writers continued to call for eHow to pay the writers for using the writers’ copyrighted material on the eHow UK clone site. In response eHow is deleting forum threads and posts like crazy. A group of writers started changing their aviators to Pink Elephants to silently protest the topic that looms large but 
eHow refuses to talk about. eHow’s response? Banned at least one member for asking questions, and threaten to ban a number of other members for using Pink Elephants as aviators.
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Addition after publishing:
Just after I posted this article I got an eHow PM which I quote unedited and in full here for you my readers:
“Misinformation
Monday January 25, 11:28 PM
Sent to: Jade Dragon
Hi Jade,
I’m not quite sure where you’re getting the idea that we’re banning users because of what they post on the forums. We haven’t banned anyone. Penalize? Yes, we have, but banning we have not. We have rules and guidelines in place and if you don’t follow those rules, you can be penalized for your actions. We may agree to disagree on what would be considered unruly behavior in the community, but my job is to keep things civil and if I feel that some users are getting out of hand with their posts, I will remove them and penalize them (if necessary). However, members should have access to their accounts even with the penalty in place. Rich – eHow Community Manager“
It is always my intention to provide correct information to the best of my ability. My statement above was based on a direct comments made to me by affected ehow writers. Perhaps there is a difference in word definitions.
I have personally had what I consider fair forum posts deleted, but to the best of my knowledge I have not been “penalized”. I welcome direct feedback from eHow in the blog comments any time and I promise not to censer or delete ehow staff comments.
back to the original blog post…
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Now ehow has been called out by a popular blog http://www.conversationmarketing.com on January 25/10 I don’t agree with everything Ian says but the general sentiment is bang on. Of course I blogged about the eHow uk issue back on January 11/10 but http://innovativepassiveincome.com doesn’t have Ian’s large readership just yet.
Some writers are working on (or talking about anyway) a class action lawsuit. Good writers are fleeing to other writing sites. Complaints are hitting the complaints boards. It is getting pretty ugly out there for the eHow brand.
Will ehow do the right thing and quickly pay the US writers for lost income? I hope so, but I’m not holding my breath.
The moral of this story? eHow really needs a crash course on Public Relations and we can learn from this in our businesses. For reference, here is what the Harvard Business School newsletter has to say about Avoiding PR Disasters.
If you own any kind of business you owe it to yourself to read up on Public Relation crisis management. It is one of those skills you hope you never need, but when you need it, there is no time for a short course.
eHow Management – I know you read this blog – are you paying attention?
Sincerely,
JadeDragon
PS to eHow Management: Clearly eHow needs help and I’m available for consulting work. I bet I could do a better job too since I actually know something about public relations crisis management - knowledge obviously lacking at eHow Corporate HQ.
Please add your comments below. A two way conversation is so much better.
PS: there have been more developments – including an announcement of compensation for lost earnings due to eHow UK. See additional posts in this blog.
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I think ehow has a LOT going right for it and when things happen it is hard to keep those in mind. Ehow has IMPROVED in communication, but has it improved enough? Many of the things that contributed to this “fiasco” could have been made better with suggestion that have been made by members for well over a year.
The number one public relations mistake made this time (imho) is IGNORING or MINIMIZING earnings complaints because they were made by the wrong people. Waiting for emails from people they respect to substantiate the complaints made is LETHAL.
Sidestepping a direct question for weeks : “Are we compensated for our articles being on the UK site – yes or no. ” – was another LETHAL blow.
I tend to concur with what you are saying. I have written two ehow articles that stemmed from my frustration with how ehow handled revenue related situations that impacted “peeps” in a negative way last year.
Alrady – I’m not giving up on eHow but I am blogging about the frustration writers are facing. Suppressing debate and questions on site just drives the discussion off site where it is FAR harder to manage. You nailed two of the top issues I did not get into.
Well said, Jade! It seems, from the moment they announced they had “fixed” the links to redirect back to eHow USA, eHow has taken a tougher stance and almost ruthless approach. Another bad move. The effect is one of blaming the victim, rather than owning their own problems. Many who were sort of on the fence — believing eHow did wrong, but wanting to give them time to make it right, have now come off their fences and on solid ground, against eHow.
As Alrady said, “Waiting for emails from people they respect to substantiate the complaints made is LETHAL.” This has long been a serious problem at eHow, and continues even now. No complaint is ever taken seriously at first, unless it is made by one of the so called “darlings of eHow”. Instead all complaints are seen to be rabble rousing. this pits members who actually like each other, against one another and causes constant turmoil on the forums and around the net. With perhaps one or maybe two exceptions, the “darlings” do not ask for or even always realize their position. But others notice because they complain about legitimate complaints, ask legitimate questions, and are ignored or even rebuffed. Then a darling has the problem, and suddenly eHow is right on top of it. This gives the appearance often that the non-darlings are complainers and whiners or trouble makers, simply because they HAVE to keep repeating themselves in order to have some chance of being heard and recognized properly. Even now, certain people are “allowed” to call others out and claim they are attacking members when they are only criticizing eHow and asking specific questions. The accused are seeing their posts deleted, while the accusers, no matter how mean and snippy, see their posts remain, as if a monument to how “right they are”.
All of eHow could benefit from public relations education, even though much of this is just plain common sense. More on my blog.
Excellent points AJ. Thanks for your helpful comments. I follow your excellent blog.
JadeDragon,
I noticed the UK version of my article ranking high, back in November, when I started writing articles. I also noticed how the community at large was getting unhappier by the day.
These aren’t the mid-90s AOL days. eHow should can any arrogance and do their best to keep the community of writers thriving.
I’m posting anonymously because I think I’ve already been penalized by ehow. I am afraid to post anything on the forums, even though I have been very quiet on the issue–I asked only one question–but I have seen my earnings go this month from almost a dollar a day to twenty cents a day on almost 100 articles. Yes, I quit posting on ehow, and yes, I signed up at infobarrel and a few other sites, but seriously, that’s made me consider moving my articles.
http://www.infobarrel.com/forum-topic.php?id=43 has a pretty interesting discussion about the ehow uk issue.
I want to thank the blogger very much not only for this post but also for his all previous efforts. I found http://www.innovativepassiveincome.com to be greatly interesting. I will be coming back to http://www.innovativepassiveincome.com for more information.
Hello,
I think I’ve been banned or “penalized”. Some idiot kept marking all of my new articles with a one star ranking. So my wife and daughter would log in on their eHow accounts and rate my articles higher. I’ve heard the stars don’t mean much, but the one star bandit was out of control. When I try to go to eHow now, I get a website that looks like all of the formatting has gone out of the boundaries. Many of the hyperlinks are dead. The ones that are dead. Can anyone help me fix this?
I don’t know what you are seeing. The site works for me (sort of). One stars mean nothing and you should not waste time trying to counteract them. Just write or link more.