I asked a new friend, Howie, to write a guest blog about how Info Barrel has learned from eHow’s mistakes for you. Howie’s comments about InfoBarrel on the eHow forum, along with his InfoBarrel articles, convinced me to join InfoBarrel several weeks ago. When Howie commented on my blog a few days ago, we began a conversation about eHow and the InfoBarrel opportunity without realizing at first that I was his Info Barrel recruit.

If this post encourages you to try your hand at InfoBarrel, I strongly recommend that you join InfoBarrel using Howie’s referral link. He is one of their top contributors, and is about to publish a comprehensive ebook about earning residual income writing for InfoBarrel. Howie takes good care of his recruits (I can vouch for that), and I don’t know the ropes yet, so Howie can best help you learn to earn the most residual income possible writing online for Info Barrel more quickly than I could.

And so for your residual income enlightenment, I present Howie’s message to you:

How Info Barrel has Learned from eHow’s Mistakes

In a booming industry that is absolutely saturated with viable competitors, making a name for ones’ self in the article submission/revenue sharing arena requires nothing short of an elaborate mesh of clear editorial guidelines, generous revenue share, outstanding customer service as well as viral promotion and marketing efforts. After spending years writing for several ‘similar’ article submission and revenue sharing website platforms, a culmination of many events led to my discovery of the Info Barrel website platform. While I am a firm believer that no website is ‘perfect’, in this industry, some companies simply conduct business in a way that is just simply superior to others.

Enter eHow.

As one of the world’s most elite websites, it only stands to reason that eHow would have already constructed an amazing, fail-safe, business plan that other websites could only hope to emulate. Their very high current Google pagerank, and frequently trafficked interface, would give great indication to the fact that they have done just about everything right. It isn’t until a user delves deep into the heart of eHow’s very user base that they can become familiar with the subtle downfalls in functionality and customer service that eHow users have experienced.

Unfortunately, with mounting user complaints and disgruntlement surfacing from eHow’s most elite and influential members, one cannot help but begin to recognize such noticeable inadequacies. In fact, these mounting user complaints, as well as unrelenting glitches, have become everything but “subtle.”

While a small minority of writers have still chosen to fight on behalf of eHow, it has been hard for the casual layperson to not recognize what I have deemed a “mass exodus” from the eHow website platform. This great exodus has been spurred by some of the most influential eHow writers, and, was actually the reason why I encountered Info Barrel through a passionate recommendation on their very own user forum.

Not only did I immediately withdraw all 150+ articles (at the time) from the eHow website platform, but I had noticed that many writers had done the same.

Whether implemented as a result of some of eHow’s apparent mistakes, or not, Info Barrel’s management has had the foresight, and dedication to long-term growth and viability, to address many of the same issues that eHow clearly struggles with to this day. These are the very same issues that have turned off many eHow members to their very website.

1. Inadequacy in Revenue Sharing Transparency. Inherent to eHow’s writer’s compensation payment plan program FAQs, it is crystal clear that eHow simply will not reveal the most fundamental aspect of its business: their revenue share distribution percentage. Clearly, this intentional void of information hasn’t stopped many users from flocking to the large hopes of revenue share potential that now disgruntled eHow users had publicized in the past on the forums, their blogs, and ebooks. While many people do still realize significant monthly passive revenue, one cannot help but question eHow’s ability to achieve long term growth and viability.

Unlike eHow, Info Barrel is completely transparent about its advertisement revenue share distribution. Writers on Info Barrel receive 75-90% of all Google Adsense advertisement revenue, which is one of the most generous, and competitive in an industry where many websites either won’t give more than 50% back to their writers, or just simply won’t tell them how much they will receive period.

While one would think that this veil of secrecy would be a great deterrent to user involvement in eHow, promises of great earning potential causes those very writers to turn a blind eye to eHow’s shady business practices.

2. Lack of Multiple Article Formats. I am very skeptical about the long term growth and viability of any company or website that only affords writers one particular article format. eHow does this. While many people do search out exact search engine queries beginning with the words “How-to,” not all queries can be answered with this type of article format.

Fortunately, Info Barrel has addressed this clear inadequacy in the eHow platform by not limiting its writers in the same manner that eHow does. Even though some may find it simple to write articles as “how-to” steps, I am of the strong opinion that having several pre-made article template formats places Info Barrel at a significant advantage against its nearest competitors. This late in the game, I don’t believe it is realistic for eHow to integrate multiple article formats into its website infrastructure.

3. Massive Article Saturation. This is a critical shortcoming of eHow’s that I am convinced many new writers don’t realize exists at all. For more on this, I turn to eHow’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

Q. What is my payment based on?
A. You get paid per article. Your article’s earning potential can be based on a combination of several elements, including the amount of times it’s been viewed and its category. The more useful your articles are to the reader, the more money you could make.
Writing simplistic, themed articles for eHow, at this point in their website’s growth and development, in my honest opinion, is nearly impossible. Where eHow significantly frowns upon having article that are even remotely similar in title and in content, the days of writing articles like “How-to Shave” are gone. Had you decided to write an article about that topic, as many other users have conveyed, those particular articles (no matter how well-written) will more than likely fall prey to deletions at the hands of one of eHow’s massive site-wide article sweeps.

What does this mean for YOU, the writer? This means that the most fundamental aspect of simply picking an article title has become a seriously taxing endeavor. You must do queries and research into eHow in order to make sure that there are articles that aren’t even remotely similar to your own. Even then, if you do decide to write a similar article, there is a very clear possibility that the same article you submit and is approved to their massive database of articles, could very well be deleted months in the future.

4. Faulty Customer Service. Prior to my subsequent removal of all 150+ of my eHow articles, from their database, I had conducted a bit of my own little “test” regarding eHow customer service. At periodic intervals, over the course of several weeks, I would send off an occasional email with a question or concern. As has become consistent with the experience of many eHow writers, much to my dismay, I did not receive a single response to any of my emails. Within the confines of my little “test”, I had given eHow significant benefit of the doubt, by providing my own justification for possible reasons why my emails had gone unanswered. Perhaps they were just busy, or my emails had simply “slipped through the cracks”. At this point, I am 100% convinced that those emails were simply ignored.

Take the challenge and query Info Barrel’s support staff, and, you will find that your email will be answered with 24-48 hours. I guarantee it.

The previous four examples of clear inadequacies in the eHow website platform are just a small handful of reasons why I no longer write for them. As a passionate writer who is willing to go to the ends of the earth to provide high quality content, I did not feel comfortable at all continuing to write for eHow.

Where great effort and time are invested into skillfully crafting awesome articles, I choose to invest my own time and effort into a company such as Info Barrel that operates under clear guidelines, outstanding customer service, and promotes user transparency.

Howie is a frequent contributor to Info Barrel. With over 180+ articles now submitted, he has more recently been documenting the trials and tribulations faced by many former longterm and disgruntled eHow users. Not only has he made it a priority to advocate for these particular individuals, but he has also made great effort to shed light on the inherent inadequacies in functionality and offerings of many companies that are similar to eHow’s website platform.

Howie is also nearing publication of the first Info Barrel eBook. Read his latest article documenting the progress of this Info Barrel eBook, and explore the Info Barrel residual income opportunity for yourself.