The problem with "use"

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 11:15 am

Oh my, usage sales for $4 to $5! The authors will make all of $2.60 (for a $4 sale) or a whopping $3.25 (for a $5 sale). While they may have dreams of selling that same piece over and over, in my experience, that doesn't happen. Maybe they'll get lucky and sell it one more time -doubling their profit to $5 or $6 down the road but maybe not.

Now the article that took a great deal of time and effort to write is destined for usage sales. People wanting full rights will see that it's already sold elsewhere and will be less inclined to buy it because they want unique content. Those who don't care about unique content might buy it but the article will need dozens of buyers in order for the author to make a decent profit.

Plus, as does sometimes happen, there's no guarantee that the customer will abide by the terms of the license's terms. There's much confusion on the authors' part about rights, surely customers are confused too. I don't think they do it on purpose but it happens, they may move the byline to the bottom or remove it all together because of the nature of their website. They might insert a few keywords. All of these are strict no-nos according to the license type.

Right now there's a rash of usage sales which is really unusual. I'm not sure this is a good thing. When pricing a usage license, keep in mind, you will likely never get "full price", even if you sell the article multiple times. If you're willing to settle for $3 total profit, then I suppose it's your perogative to price usage so low.

I price usage as my bottom line, what I'm willing to settle for for a one-time sale of my time and effort ---with fingers crossed that it will sell for unique or full rights. Usually, you'll see it's quite close to unique and not far off from full rights.

cbhrbooth · Post by **cbhrbooth** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 6:09 pm

Celeste - thanks for posting this information! It's an excellent reminder on understanding usage rights and some of the problems with low prices.

Mary B.

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 6:40 pm

Ha, we'll I'm a little cranky today

Can you tell?

catnipp333 · Post by **catnipp333** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 6:02 am

Celeste,

I agree with what you say about low pricing. I just "messed up" my perfect record of ALL fullrights sold - I now have 1 usage sold! I would always rather sell full than any other rights. I price my usage at 1/4 of my full with the hopes to sell it that many times (4 total) or even 3 would cover my "lowest" acceptable price.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL & MAY WE ALL MAKE LOT'S OF $$$$$$

Catnipp333

cbhrbooth · Post by **cbhrbooth** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:46 am

I price my usage at 1/4 of my full with the hopes to sell it that many times (4 total) or even 3 would cover my "lowest" acceptable price.

Catnipp333 - if you can remember would you update us on how this pricing works out for you over the next few months? I've never re-sold an usage article, but maybe my articles weren't generic enough to be bought multiple times. I'd really like to know if your plan works out.
Sincerely,
Mary B.

joywriter · Post by **joywriter** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:06 am

Celeste,
How do you go about finding a sold article out on the internet? I just sold a unique license so I can't really check it out by name?

Ed · Post by Ed » Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:37 am

Try entering a few lines into a Google search?

catnipp333 · Post by **catnipp333** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:25 pm

Mary B (cbhrbooth) --YES, I SURE CAN. If I "forget", just remind me. I also just sold a unique, so now I have at least one of each. The usage sale was from an article I have had listed since November, but my unique was a recent one. I do prefer "fullright" sales, but I will take what I can get, as it's been slow.

Later,
Catnipp333

Kat DeLong · Post by **Kat DeLong** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:23 pm

Thanks for bringing this up Celeste!

I know the editors are sensitive when we discuss pricing issues, but I agree that I only price for usage what I can afford as my bottom line. I see many for $4 or $5 and think that those writers must do this for fun, and not worry about getting paid for their hard work.

Kat DeLong · Post by **Kat DeLong** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:24 pm

Thanks for bringing this up Celeste!

I know the editors are sensitive when we discuss pricing issues, but I agree that I only price for usage what I can afford as my bottom line. I see many for $4 or $5 and think that those writers must do this for fun, and not worry about getting paid for their hard work.

Post by **constant-content** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:52 pm

Lets not forget some people post "usage" articles they have sold to 6 other places and figure why not post it low. Many of the usage articles are just this articles that have served their purpose else where and the writer is just looking for anything extra at this point.

ljcrowe · Post by **ljcrowe** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 2:42 pm

Most of the stuff I have on here is low priced - $5 use - as it has been purchased elsewhere and already received my "bottom line". I haven't thought about using this service as the first step in article purchase, but as I look at the forums I'm thinking it could be beneficial.

A question I have is about byline. I include the full text - including a title, by: Lauri Jean Crowe, and a word count at the top of the article in my upload file. According to what I've read, as long as I include that author information it is suppose to be included with the article.

I recently had a customer purchase a couple of my articles - he deleted the title and altered it, has not credited my work and has requested I send him articles off Constant Content for his site and he'll just paypal me.

I honestly think the guy just doesn't know any better, and I have queried him about it. However, if he refuses to put the byline on there and I really want him to will Constant Content do anything on my behalf? Is this something I need to report?

Thanks.

Ed · Post by Ed » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:32 pm

Wow! Please contact support with all of this information. You'll get a response.

Post by **constant-content** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:41 pm

[quote="ljcrowe"]Most of the stuff I have on here is low priced - $5 use - as it has been purchased elsewhere and already received my "bottom line". I haven't thought about using this service as the first step in article purchase, but as I look at the forums I'm thinking it could be beneficial.

A question I have is about byline. I include the full text - including a title, by: Lauri Jean Crowe, and a word count at the top of the article in my upload file. According to what I've read, as long as I include that author information it is suppose to be included with the article.

I recently had a customer purchase a couple of my articles - he deleted the title and altered it, has not credited my work and has requested I send him articles off Constant Content for his site and he'll just paypal me.

I honestly think the guy just doesn't know any better, and I have queried him about it. However, if he refuses to put the byline on there and I really want him to will Constant Content do anything on my behalf? Is this something I need to report?

Thanks.[/quote]

Contact support with the links and article and we can email the customer, this happens once in a while.

Post by **constant-content** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:46 pm

We can't control people who contact writers off CC but we ask that you do not do this if the customer found you through CC. We spend a lot of time marketing our writers and finding them customers taking a customer from CC is just bad business. A thread was actually started on this very subject and can be found here:

http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... .php?t=734

Constant Content

The problem with "use"

The problem with "use"

thanks!

usage

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Re: Useage & Byline Question