Constant Content

What a bummer! Finally finished a piece and waved all the magic wands to get it ready to upload. The last wand counts the words among other things. This sucker almost hit 2600 words! It didn't feel that long. I am so bummed. Nobody posts articles that long here. Searched back thru old posts about article length and CC says no more than 3000 and even that is really pushing it. But looking thru existing articles that are available I didn't find a single one over 2000 words. The long articles were all under 1500.

I already know the advice. Turn it into two, or three. Chop chop. Do not spare the knife. Be brutal.

I'll give it a read through today and see if any solutions present themselves but I hate deleting information from a how-to article.

I considered letting it fly as is, then attempting to pull out portions for smaller articles in some way and everything be usage only. Smaller articles would change the main premise so they wouldn't be teaching the same thing the long article is teaching.

Just can't believe it turned out that long! It really didn't feel that wordy.

On the same topic, I finally finished the rewrite of a reject. The original version was 313 words and one of the problems was that the examples were too narrowly focused. They did not appeal to a broad enough audience. After giving it thought I decided to create two articles out of the original, each with a slightly different focus.

I just finished the final edit of the first article, which exploded from 313 words to 1600. I'm on a roll this week, LOL! After submitting several shorties of about 500 words each, my fingers are full of words.

I don't think it could fail the test of examples this time 1600 words provides a lot of examples!

This is the one I don't know if Ed will even recognize from the original. I took a completely different road to present the info. Here goes...

Sharion wrote:ut looking thru existing articles that are available I didn't find a single one over 2000 words. The long articles were all under 1500.

I have a 2,340-word article on feng shui (it's really an e-report/e-guide) that I wrote less than a year ago just to see if a really long article would sell. So far no biters. I still write those longish articles (and able to sell them too); I'm just not submitting them here on CC. I'll probably pull out that article if it doesn't sell in the next 6 or so months and find another market for it.

~Sherry

I sold a 2600 word article about financial fitness last year for $200. It sold within days of acceptance. So, never say never.

What's an e-guide?

I know much of the content here sells for websites, but it's said that magazines and newsletters buy here, too. I can see a long article appearing in a magazine. One of my sales hasn't appeared on the internet yet so I'm wondering if it was for print, or whether they are timing it.

I'm not worried that the 2600 word whopper will be a total write off. I have a personal use for it as well and only plan to offer usage rights. As my usage won't be on the internet there's no conflict with websites.

Still, for CC purposes it's a whopper! There's no other word for it

Yeah, I agree. I've written a few 2,500-word articles/guides that I had originally planned on submitting here on CC, but since the first one I submitted is yet to sell, I did the rounds first and managed to sell them to my long-time clients quickly. It was like querying to magazines, but better. The last one I wrote a couple of weeks ago I sold to someone who's been my client for 6 years. I simply sent him a note that I have a 2,500-word report in his niche, and told him if he's interested, it's $250

I don't have writing clients outside of CC, except for myself. I have websites of my own that I provide content for though most of my topics here don't connect there so I can sell full rights. I hesitate to write too many articles here that fit my own websites, because I don't want to create direct competition for myself. I make a few exceptions, though, for topics that fit my blog. I don't want to post them to the blog until they sell once here, though. Kind of a badge of honor.

So my articles here are a mix of full rights and usage only, and the usage only articles are all brand new. I'm just reserving the right to use them myself in the future for my blog or a book.

I've got a book in the works that I was originally going to self-publish thru Cafepress but after the Cafepress fiasco, the plan stalled out. Now that Amazon.com has jumped on the bandwagon, my interest is renewed and I'm hoping to self-publish there. I know there are other companies but reviews are mixed. I wish Zazzle would offer it.

I have the knowledge, the raw material and a marketing plan. I just need a trustworthy company to self-publish books with

On the topic of writing books, my inspiration is a very successful shareware author. He's been creating shareware games for years and I love his games. He also has a blog and writes a lot of humor.

One day he got married and had a kid. His blog entries were full of new parent humor. I'm not a kid person or a parent but even I got totally sucked into his stories. Apparently so did his readers. He had a huge following already as a shareware author.

His stories were so popular that he decided to turn them into books and self-publish. As he already has a following on his blog and his shareware site, I don't know if he does any other marketing.

As with this fellow, I do have a following for games and my blog, though nowhere near his league. If he can do it, so can I!

I tend to write long articles too. I've sold a few over 2000 words. The longest was 3100 for 250. One or two were sold within a few days of going up on the site. So clearly, there is some market for a longer piece, though not the same kind of demand there is for shorter, tighter pieces.
Sharion, for me writing short articles is like trying to resist gravity. I'm not sure it's worth fighting myself over.

I'm totally with you, C.R. I have to make an effort to write shorter articles so that my portfolio has variety. 900-1300 words is not uncommon for me. I've been practicing the shorter ones and I think I'm getting the hang of it.

It's really helpful to hear from writers with longer articles. I appreciate your sharing. I haven't pulled the trigger on the whoppers yet but one will definitely go today or tomorrow. The other, I'm still pondering its fate.

Nichewriter, was it your Feng Shui article that just sold? I saw one on the list and immediately thought of you. It would be so cool if we were talking about it, then like magic it sold for you!

Sharion,

Nope, not my feng shui article. The one that sold was a private request. I have hope mine will sold eventually

~Sherry

Darn! I was rooting for yours!

Anybody check out the recently sold list today? If someone can sell an article about shipping human remains, that proves that virtually anything can sell!

What's interesting is the category it's under is "Relationships." Hmm.