Getting older articles sold...

[DennisMartz]

Celeste (or anyone else who can answer),

You've been around long enough that you've probably had articles that were written some time ago that are no longer getting any hits (views) When that's the case, is there any way to get them "back in the saddle"??? I don't think changing a price or making them open to bidding will do anything, so if that's the case I'd think the only way to get them "seen" again is when we write something new, hoping people will look at what else we've written...

If that IS the case I'm wondering if there is something CC can set up to get our older "dead" articles into some kind of a window? Maybe a "Discounted Articles" window on the site or something? (it would make "everyone" more money - which couldn't be a bad thing...)

Thanx,

Dennis

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Dennis-

Really, articles sell themselves here. Some suggestions for older articles is you could check your keywords. Did you include popular keywords for that subject? Variations of the keywords? (like foreclosure and foreclosures). How is your short summary? Does is make it the article sound like something special?

As far as pricing, try searching the keywords your article uses. How much are similar articles going for? Or is your article the only one in the category? You could try a best offer, as just because a buyer bids on it, you don't have to accept it. I put best offer on almost all of my articles, and I make sales and rarely get a "bid." Most buyers just buy at the price the article is at, and don't bother waiting to bid and then for the author to get back to them.

But generally, your article was approved. It has a strong chance of selling, eventually. Some take years to sell (see Common Place). I had an article 1.5 years old sell last month. Just keep writing, and maybe buyers will look at what else you have written.

[Celeste Stewart]

Good morning,
Elizabeth is right. Over the weekend I sold two older articles for usage: one that was four years old and the other was two years old. I really think that the keys are to keep adding content and not worry too much over the older ones. An occasional review to make sure the older articles aren't overpriced or have plenty of keywords isn't a bad idea. I checked your profile and your articles look sellable to me. They just need time for the right buyer to come along and discover them.

I'd go in as Elizabeth said and add keywords to the keyword fields if the fields are currently sparse. Brainstorm as many as you can for each article. For the pilot article I'm sure you already have the basics like pilot and become a pilot. Consider adding others such as: aviation, career, careers, dream job, job training, flying, piloting, airlines, airline jobs, airline training, flying school, charter pilot, flying school, aircraft, flight instruction, learn to fly.

[Evelyn]

Celeste, will you pretty please write all my keywords for me?

Google AdWords Keyword tool is a lovely thing. Enter your search term and Google returns related words and phrases. Use these to *gently* load your articles with long-tail and short-tail SEO and to apply variations of keywords. The results show the number of times a particular word/phrase was used in Google... Choose the ones with millions of searches and you'll be a prime target.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

[DennisMartz]

Thanks for the all the suggestions!

Somewhere back a few months ago I thought I saw a post that said the keywords didn't really do anything - that they were for some other purpose, so I've not been doing much with keywords (which didn't make a lot of sense, but what can I say?) Anyway, I'll obviously be doing some "keyword' work, now that I've heard it's worth the effort!

This does however raise a couple more questions:

Do the keywords we use get any Google Search hits or is it just the search engine here on our site?

and

Is there a maximum number of keywords we can input?

Thanx again!

Dennis

[Celeste Stewart]

I think it's just the internal search. I don't think there's a max.

[jadedragon]

It is also an exact match. ie: coffee, coffees, coffee shop, coffee creamer are all unique search terms. So the more the better. Also some look by category, so think about the best category too.

[jak]

Sometimes if the topic becomes popular or topical again, I delete an old article, change the title and resubmit, with a note to Ed saying what I've done in short summary. I might review the pricing as well, and I might adjust the text if it seems a good idea. But basically I just believe that getting them to the top of the list again might help. I know if I'm searching for something, I really don't want to go through loads of pages.

[Debbi]

I *finally* took the advice of several authors here and submitted four of my CC articles that are now usage-only to AC. Three of them were accepted, no problem, but the fourth (which has sold for usage several times here) was declined because it is being displayed on a blog without my byline. So there you go, another way to find copyright infringment is to submit usage-only articles to AC, heh. I reported it to Support and am waiting to hear back. Of course, I don't know if the blogger bought my aritcle and just "forgot" to put my byline up or "appropriated" it. I suspect the latter becuase he/she added some text to ti, which is a no-no with usage rights, but we'll see.

[jak]

The same thing happened to me when I submitted an article to Helium some time ago.

[Debbi]

How to get older articles sold? Just let it sit there! Today I was surprised with the sale of an article I wrote in July of 2009 Not as long ago as some of the authors here but one of my first submissions ever. And for the original amount. I had been thinking of going in and reducing the price on some of the older stuff, but I think I'll just let them sit

Hey, where's Phil's happy dance when you need it?

[Sharion]

Grab my hand and we'll do the happy dance together! Got a juicy sale, too! I can't say it was an older article as being a newbie none of my articles are older articles. But they're all worthy of the happy dance! Somewhere there's a Christopher that probably needs to join the dance. We could make it a line dance like the Electric Slide! (Guilty of partaking of that one last night, LOL!)