Demand Media’s eHow.com is allowing ‘power users’ to make their entire living by writing for the site, Shawn Colo, co-founder and head of M&A, Demand Media told delegates at the AOP Publishing Summit 2009.

With 50 million unique users a month, and ‘just shy’ of  one million articles published, some of the site’s contributors are earning ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ per year, via its ‘writer compensation programme’.

The site, which provides instructional solutions for users – anything from how to remove a red wine stain to dealing with computer software problems – was bought by Demand Media in 2006, but really expanded in 2008: “We knew it was critical to have a killer application,” said Colo.

Richard Rosenblatt started up Demand Media in 2006 with US $320 million in investor funding. Its family now also includes LIVESTRONG.COM, Trails.com, GolfLink.com, Cracked.com, Mania.com, Pluck Enterprise, Pluck on Demand, and eNom.

More to follow from the summit throughout the day: in the meantime, follow this tweet stream featuring choice 140ch updates by digital journalists and publishers at the event.