Constant Content

I realize that the decision to sell or not to sell is mine, but I'd still love some input.

I only joined a couple of weeks ago, so I was thrilled to see that I got my first offer. Then I saw it was for $3. I can't blame the buyer too much when I see that a lot of people sell their work that low, but I still feel a wee bit insulted.

What I'm wondering is: is there any advantage to having previous sales listed in my profile? Do buyers care at all? Should I make this transaction just to have a sale, or should I hold out for what I know I'm worth?

Also, do buyers have hard feelings over offers being turned down? I know I'm yakking away like a chatterbox. This is all so foreign to me.

Thanks in advance,

EK

Hi EK,

There is another post with similar questions that have come up in the last couple of days. I just can't remember where. Search for best offer advice on the forum to find it.

I have had a couple of offers for similar prices. I rejected one just yesterday offering $5 for usage for a 1000 word tutorial. I decided, like you, that I am worth more, and that I should hold out for a better price on that one. I did make the mistake of selling a few articles that cheaply when I was new too, but never again. I did the maths and realised I had sold articles for less than one third of a cent per word. I also realised the customers were taking advantage of me, as I had a spate of offers at the same price, as soon as I accepted one. You may not get that particular customer to come back, but other customers are willing to pay decent prices, if you wait.

I also have had some offers where I refused the first and ridiculously low price and the same customer came back and offered a better price the same day or a few days later. I recently had one where I refused the first two offers, and ending up selling the article for $65, if that's any help. If the customer really wants your article, the customer will offer a decent price. I find that some customers just try it on to see if new authors will be silly enough to sell so low. Unfortunately, we also have some authors who are silly enough to sell that low all the time, which does kind of destroy the market for the rest of the authors who want decent prices.

See the comments in the common space section of the forum on "Who is selling articles for $1 to $5?" too, for some helpful ideas on this issue.
My suggestion is to reject the offer, unless you are totally desperate for the sale, and wait for something better.

Hope this helps!

Hayley

EK,

I'll be honest with you here. Some of my "it took me ten minutes to throw it together" articles which are published elsewhere I've let go for cheap (though not for less than 5.00). Although I figure the length of the article, how many times it's been published elsewhere, and a few other figures when deciding.

Anything I've written in the time I've been on this site I wouldn't sell too cheaply. Again though, it's a question of my time and its worth. If I write four articles of three-hundred fifty words in an hour (yes I do this), I need to get more than five bucks for them. If it's one of my pieces which is published in five or six places (and I was dumb enough to put it somewhere that I can never assign exclusive rights to it), I'll let it go for five dollars per usage license.

Now to address your question. Is the piece worth more than 2 dollars to you? Well, after CC's cut of that 3.00, it's more like a little under two dollars. If it's worth more to you, then decline the offer. Making the buyer angry is irrelevant. This isn't like the print publishing world where you mail in a piece only to wait for two or more months to get a rejection notice. This is better.

To me, this site is more like my idea of the perfect "free market" in a sense. In a true free market, price is regulated by supply and demand. If those on the demanding side offer less than the product is worth, we (the suppliers) don't have to sell. On the reverse side is that we (on the supplying side) can opt to allow our customers to "haggle" with us using the best offer option. So again, it boils down to what you feel the piece and your time is worth. If the offer doesn't feel right to you, decline it. It's that simple.

And remember, there are lots of other buyers out there. It may take a while but you can get significantly more than two bucks if you're willing to wait. Shoot, I just sold a 300-word article for $40 today, and it's been sitting around since February 2006 (long since forgotten so this was a nice surprise)! Not that you want to wait three years, but two or three bucks isn't worth the time it takes to upload the article let alone research and write it. I'd say let it sit and find the right customer who can appreciate its value and reward you for your time.

Thanks everyone for their great help. I'm willing to wait.

I'm still interested in the one unanswered question, though: Do you think there's any downside to my profile showing no articles sold, or do buyers care?

I don't think it matters. Our customers are savvy enough to know what quality writing is.

To be honest, I highly doubt most of the customers ever look at a profile. They find what they want, and buy it.

Awesome! Thanks, folks.

LOL, I've taken a 4.5 month break from writing due to pregnancy and I'm STILL selling articles. C-C isn't a site for instant gratification. The more you write, with a variety of topics, the more likely you will get a sale. The site is really like fishing, I've had times where my cast accidentally hooked a fish as it went in the water (once sold a piece on the death of HD-DVD within 30 minutes of it posting) and a few lines have been sitting there for a number of months. Every once in a while I get a bite, and the nice thing about C-C is there is an automatic reeling in process. :)

Welcome and keep at it, it really does take a couple of months before you can determine if you're a success here or not.