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Question about rewrites and usage

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:15 pm
by cgardener
I've written some articles on a site that lets us keep 100% ownership of our articles. We can remove them at any time, or post them elsewhere, whatever. My articles there are pretty much written in blog style, more personal and first person, but with lots of good info. If I rewrote something from there, say an article that isn't getting much traffic, and removed it from that site, would it still only be saleable as "usage"?

Re: Question about rewrites and usage

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:07 pm
by audrabianca
If any of the wording was the same in the new article you submit to CC, it should only be for usage.

What I've done is taken my ideas from an old article and COMPLETELY rewritten the content. The ideas can lead you to a whole new article. What helps is what was written on another forum post here a while back. Just take a slightly different angle on the article using what you learned or had ideas about in the old article to create an even better article now. IMPORTANT: It is more time intensive to work from an old idea than to start completely fresh.

Here is an example:

I wrote an article involving three tips for not saying too much during an interview.

Now I am writing an article for learning from mistakes you made when you said too much or the wrong thing during the interview.

Helpful hint: Reading your entire old article gives you a whole new article to write with jumping off points. Sometimes if you write an article that takes the exact opposite perspective, you have a winner. For example, to write a whole new article differently, I could write three tips for when you should give long answers during an interview (because that is your strategy to set yourself apart from other candidates). Or I could write three ways to overcome an interview in which you said too much (maybe by following up with an email, thank-you note, or phone call).

Re: Question about rewrites and usage

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:48 pm
by cgardener
Thanks! I submitted it for usage, and I'm pretty sure I'll keep it that way. Not much way to really change it that much. I'm thinking of another article along the same subject, though.

Your advice was helpful.