Constant Content

Hey, my name is Sam and i'm a couple days new to the site.

I live in central U.S., and aside from the National Guard as well as a full-time day job and part-time night job, i'm currently trying to get a freelance writing business off the ground. I've submitted one article so far which is currently in review. Just thought i'd spend a couple hours exploring the forums a little and decided to leave my mark in the Intro thread as well. I have high-hopes for building a decent portfolio using CC.

I do have two things i'd like to ask. First, I realize there are help threads in the forum, and they're great, but if anyone has any personal tips they'd care to share with someone completely new to writing for the purpose of being published, i'd greatly appreciate them. Lord knows I can use all the help I can get.

Second is a question about article rights. I know the differences between usages, unique, and full pretty well. However, if I sell an article for full rights, will I still legally have the right to go to wherever the client has used the article and print off the clip to use and show in my portfolio?

Thank you for any tips and help you can give me. I'm very serious about getting into this business, and I can't wait to be writing on a more regular basis.

Hi Sam and welcome. My tips are: make sure you understand and comply with all the guidelines - some people make a checklist of them to tick off before each submission; once you have passed the initial acceptances, keep writing and submitting - I find when I am most active here is when the sales come. I think some customers will look at your portfolio when they see an article that impresses them, so you need to build it up. Good luck.

Hello Sam! Welcome!

You are not supposed to use an article that has been sold for full rights in any way -it's not yours anymore. Therefore, it wouldn't be a good idea to use it on your portfolio either.

Good luck!

Welcome Sam. To answer your question, it depends. Sometimes a buyer will order full rights primarily because they want to be the only one to use the article and they want the right to make edits as needed (such as enter additional keywords or add links; the buyer may opt to leave your byline on the article. When this happens, then you're probably safe using it as a clip in your portfolio. However, if they drop your byline or add their own name to the article, I'd let it go...

Hey Celeste! I didn't know that was actually possible! All I've ever heard or read on the matter said that you are not to use sold articles in any way. Of course, what you say makes sense, since you will still be credited as the author. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thank you all for the tips and helpful remarks about the rights to articles. I know it's forbidden to speak with buyers, whether actual or potential, outside of CC, but would anyone pick bones with me if I sent them a request on here to use the clip just as a showpiece? I realize that the decision would be to them, but I was just wondering whether or not it might be frowned upon if I asked.

Also, Celeste. I read your e-book shortly after joining. It was a great help. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write it.

I don't intend to hijack this thread. But, since I'm new too, I wanted to ask just two questions:

For the past 48 hours that I've been active here, I noticed that not a single article has been added to the list of latest articles. Why is that? Also, since many people are submitting articles, at this rate I wonder when my article will be reviewed. It's in reply to a public request, so I guess the faster it's done the better.

And, I've read on various sites that many people make thousands and even hundreds of dollars out here. I'm fine with that - they do their work and get the sales. But, for that to be possible, content should really sell right? The latest sold articles show no more than 30 articles per day. So, does this mean just 30 or so are being sold each day?

Regards
Brandon

I'm just a writer, so I'm only giving my opinion on this, but I think that the lists of latest articles and recently sold articles are not the best place to get a feel for the volume of articles sold.

The latest articles listed are only a selection of those submitted, as the software seems to be set to pick up one or two from a random selection of topics. Not every article will show up on the latest articles list (e.g. other articles recently submitted to the displayed topics or topics not highlighted). Articles submitted for public and private requests will not show up here as they are restricted to the customer who placed the request for a period of 3 working days.

The list of recently sold articles only shows the last however many (I've never counted quite how long the list is). Some times of day and some days of the week are busier than others. At the weekend, when fewer customers are working, it may show up every article sold as fewer sales are spaced out over a longer period of time. However, on busy days, there will be whole batches of articles that quickly shoot down the recently sold list. For example, if writers have submitted a lot of articles over the weekend and customers return and make purchases on Monday morning, there will be many articles that move quickly down the list of sales.

Review times vary. As I understand it, private and public requests get pushed to the front of the queue, but can still take a couple of days depending when they are submitted and how busy the editors are. Every article is read by a human being, so it can take some time.

However, my experience of CC is very positive. Read the guidelines, browse the forums, and take time at the beginning to proof read your articles very thoroughly. It can feel slow to start with, but as articles are accepted and displayed in your portfolio, you will begin to gain momentum.

Hope this helps.
Lynne

Thanks Lynne, that surely helped a lot I've submitted one article in response to a public request, waiting for it to be approved (Hope I didn't add an extra comma or miss one out )