Constant Content

In your experience, do you find that articles sell faster when you include the full text? So far, I'm putting up general articles with 1/3 text and articles for public requests with full text. But I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better for sales to always put up the full text.

I'm a bit skittish, because I've had a few articles scraped on CC in the past (2011). One of them - luckily - only had 1/3 text up, and a buyer paid me to rewrite that part of the text. I was lucky. If I'd put up the whole text, then I wouldn't have made any money off that article at all.

However, if full text means more sales, then it might be worth it to risk infrequent losses to content theft - kind of like a loss leader.

I'd love to get an idea of what other writers are doing!

Thanks,
S

You'll find a lot of different answers. Many writers put at least 2/3. I don't know any who put up their whole articles unless it's for a private request. I'd recommend just posting the lead-in and just enough to hook someone in. Think of a how-to article as an example. First you talk about the product and/or problem, and then move on to the steps on how to use/fix it. So you really only want to put up the beginning, and a small part of the solution. Why? How often do you click next on a page because the beginning of an article whetted your appetite?

I prefer to just post the entire article. I like the reader to be able to see the whole thing before buying it. Yeah yeah, I know, there are scrapers, and that's why C-C has a return policy in case the customer doesn't like the rest of the article... But I really can't bother to think of it that way.

I guess I've been lucky enough not to have had any articles stolen so far. If that ever happened, I'm pretty sure I'd change my attitude towards posting the entire article.

When I first started here I posted a third, but it wasn't long before I started posting the whole article and so far it has worked well for me. If I was the customer, I would want to see the whole article.

Thanks for the feedback! I think I'm going to put full text for now, and then reevaluate later on. I know that I feel more comfortable setting higher prices when the buyer has the opportunity to read the whole text first.

I do a little of both...

Full text for private requests and regular clients; though, admittedly, when a client is brand new to the site--zero sales--I am a bit hesitant about posting the whole thing. Still, I don't feel like I've gotten burned so I still tend to post the whole thing.

Public requests and unrequested submissions--2/3 of the piece and I jump all over. I don't think giving them the first portion makes a client comfortable enough to make a purchase, particularly if it's a high-priced piece. I usually give the first two paragraphs and then use "...[article continues]" and jump down to other portions I want to highlight. This way, I can showcase some great writing examples that may be buried more deeply in the article and I can also demonstrate where the article goes so a buyer knows exactly what to expect from the whole piece.

Anyway, it seems to work for me, but I admit, I sometimes wonder if I should tweak my plan, too. But I'm comfortable overall:)