Newbie - need advice
Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 3:48 pm
Hmm. How best to put this so I don't sound like a crazy person...
I'm a full time college student and have been part-time freelancing for various (relatively worthwhile - I won't touch the places that pay pennies anymore) content mills pretty successfully for the last year. I stumbled onto CC and I've been impressed with how much it SEEMS like people can make here... I don't know whether it's an issue of politeness or what, but whenever anyone asks "how much can I make here?" the answer is always "well I write here full time/part time/etc" instead of an actual dollar estimation... I know it's mostly based on how much effort you put into it, but it would be nice to get some dollar amounts from real people in comparison to the amount of articles they write and sell, along with how many hours they spend doing it, etc... Someone should make a chart.
In any case, I've had ten articles accepted so far with one currently in the review process. One has sold for full rights, two for usage, for a total of $110.50 last month after CC's cut. I've heard the ratio of articles sold to articles written improves over time so I'm not terribly concerned...yet. Even with the low percentage of my articles that have sold so far, I'm still making about the same amount of money per hour I would have at one of my other gigs for the hours I put into all ten of them (earnings for just the three that sold divided by the hours for all ten). I did not put a whole lot of time toward it, admittedly (I'm still focusing on my other gigs for now because they have actual deadlines).
I would leap for joy if I could scrap everywhere else I write and write purely for CC. I'm afraid to do that, though, without some security. My problem so far is that, with school and my other writing, I don't have a whole lot of spare time to devote to testing out CC. I'm hopeful about my success so far, but I want to get some answers before I start doing away with some of my other gigs and focusing here. Hopefully you all can help me
How "secure" is writing for CC? I know they have a three strikes rule. I have had the majority of my ten articles accepted with no problems so far, but a couple have been returned to me because I'm terrible at writing conclusion paragraphs. I don't want to think I have hit it big here after a few months and then discover that, oops, I screwed up three times in a row and now have no source of income anymore. I've heard both ends of the spectrum - there are posts on the forum that reassure writers that the three strikes rule is more of a "weed out" for insufficient writers and that writers who regularly have content accepted should be fine, but I have also heard that somewhat successful CC writers have been banned for the three strikes rule. What's the real deal here?
I know that, as long as I can dodge getting banned for making careless mistakes, my income will be largely based on my own time and effort. I guess I just need someone to hold my hand and tell me that, yes, CC is sustainable for years at a time for people who may make an occasional human mistake and, yes, the income around this joint is steady enough to make (I'm aiming low here so i don't get my hopes up) about $500 bucks a month reliably... <input encouragement here>
I'm a full time college student and have been part-time freelancing for various (relatively worthwhile - I won't touch the places that pay pennies anymore) content mills pretty successfully for the last year. I stumbled onto CC and I've been impressed with how much it SEEMS like people can make here... I don't know whether it's an issue of politeness or what, but whenever anyone asks "how much can I make here?" the answer is always "well I write here full time/part time/etc" instead of an actual dollar estimation... I know it's mostly based on how much effort you put into it, but it would be nice to get some dollar amounts from real people in comparison to the amount of articles they write and sell, along with how many hours they spend doing it, etc... Someone should make a chart.
In any case, I've had ten articles accepted so far with one currently in the review process. One has sold for full rights, two for usage, for a total of $110.50 last month after CC's cut. I've heard the ratio of articles sold to articles written improves over time so I'm not terribly concerned...yet. Even with the low percentage of my articles that have sold so far, I'm still making about the same amount of money per hour I would have at one of my other gigs for the hours I put into all ten of them (earnings for just the three that sold divided by the hours for all ten). I did not put a whole lot of time toward it, admittedly (I'm still focusing on my other gigs for now because they have actual deadlines).
I would leap for joy if I could scrap everywhere else I write and write purely for CC. I'm afraid to do that, though, without some security. My problem so far is that, with school and my other writing, I don't have a whole lot of spare time to devote to testing out CC. I'm hopeful about my success so far, but I want to get some answers before I start doing away with some of my other gigs and focusing here. Hopefully you all can help me
How "secure" is writing for CC? I know they have a three strikes rule. I have had the majority of my ten articles accepted with no problems so far, but a couple have been returned to me because I'm terrible at writing conclusion paragraphs. I don't want to think I have hit it big here after a few months and then discover that, oops, I screwed up three times in a row and now have no source of income anymore. I've heard both ends of the spectrum - there are posts on the forum that reassure writers that the three strikes rule is more of a "weed out" for insufficient writers and that writers who regularly have content accepted should be fine, but I have also heard that somewhat successful CC writers have been banned for the three strikes rule. What's the real deal here?
I know that, as long as I can dodge getting banned for making careless mistakes, my income will be largely based on my own time and effort. I guess I just need someone to hold my hand and tell me that, yes, CC is sustainable for years at a time for people who may make an occasional human mistake and, yes, the income around this joint is steady enough to make (I'm aiming low here so i don't get my hopes up) about $500 bucks a month reliably... <input encouragement here>