Constant Content

I have a 1200 word article that I listed at $20/$35/$60. I got an offer for use at $11. If I sell for use, does that automatically delete my option to sell it full, since it will no longer be a unique article?

$11 isn't a good offer for a 1200 word article is it?

If you sell for use, then you'll lose the ability to sell full or unique rights because someone else will have already used it. But you can sell the usage rights as much as you want or can. However, 11$ for a 1200 word article is a pretty bad offer. Was this customer called 'info' by any chance?

What's the article on?

Yeah I thought I priced it pretty reasonably since I'm relatively new still. I sold articles back in 2005 but only a few, and now I'm finally back.

Anyway the article is about whether you should choose to take on a business partner as an entrepreneur. The person ahead a username other than info....

$11 is an awful offer, and it's why I turn off offers. You have to think of it from the customer's side. This process is completely anonymous, so there's no real personality or relationship with the writer. If I was a customer, I see articles, and I know that there are plenty of writers who will settle for lowball offers. I just throw out as many low offers as I can, and there are writers here who will take it. It's not really the customer's fault. It's the writer's. There could be reasons why the writer takes the offer. For instance, if it's a 5 year old article, I'd probably take it just to get rid of it. I had someone ask me to turn on offers, but I told them that I won't budge much on anything that is as old as a year. I usually sell things that are 6-12 months old.

Anyway, personally, I'd turn off offers if you don't want to get the $7 offers. I never had a reasonable offer when I had them turned on. Plus, when you have hundreds of open articles in the queue, I could see where it could start to be too many emails/offers.

Great idea. Thanks! I guess I was thinking I would be willing to accept less on the full rights but I wasn't thinking about having to deflect lowball offers on the "use".

Good on you for asking the question, Kitagrl!

Don't take the offer! Once CC takes their cut, you'll be left with nothing anyway. You have a chance of making a lot more if you leave it in the catalogue for a while and a different buyer buys it. Sometimes if you reject an offer they'll make a better offer, although if your buyer is starting at $11 I doubt you'll get enough to pay for 1,200 words.

I aim for at least 10c per word for full rights. Sometimes if it's an easy article I wrote quickly for the catalogue, I'll ask for less because I want a sale and I know it's not a very technical article. Or I'll drop my price for an old article I really want to get rid of. But if you've researched and written it well, you want a decent amount of money for it. The other thing is that I think a lot of clients want something shorter. I sell a lot of 500 word articles. Sometimes 700-ish. I guess it depends on the buyer's needs. Have you thought about writing another similar article on the same subject, but shorter? You won't have to research twice, and you might sell both eventually.

Good luck anyway.

Abba

Thank you! I have gone back and priced my articles higher according to word count, and have made Unique and Full Rights the same price, with Usage rights half that amount.

I sold all of my articles back in 2005 when I joined, but I think the competition is higher now that I've returned! But hopefully I'll start selling soon.

Kitagrl wrote:Thank you! I have gone back and priced my articles higher according to word count, and have made Unique and Full Rights the same price, with Usage rights half that amount.

I sold all of my articles back in 2005 when I joined, but I think the competition is higher now that I've returned! But hopefully I'll start selling soon.

I'd go a higher percentage with usage or even the same/almost the same as full. Articles don't really sell multiple times anymore. Usually it's just a client wanting a discount and hoping no one else buys it. So unless you have somewhere else to post the article or want to be able to use it as a sample, usage doesn't get you much.

gators18 wrote:I'd go a higher percentage with usage or even the same/almost the same as full. Articles don't really sell multiple times anymore. Usually it's just a client wanting a discount and hoping no one else buys it. So unless you have somewhere else to post the article or want to be able to use it as a sample, usage doesn't get you much.

Agreed. I used to charge half price for usage rights but I don't anymore. Now I charge roughly 10% less. The way I see it, if someone likes the article and doesn't mind my name being attached to it, they should still be willing to pay a substantial amount of the full price in order to be able to use it, because it will still likely net them the same amount of page views and serve the same purpose as an article without my name would. If they want to take my name off it and make changes, then they can pay the 10% more. My usage sales haven't suffered at all by my doing this (in fact they have increased lately!). If someone wants a specific article then they seem to be willing to pay what I ask, and if not then they can always make an offer or message me!

I'm always messing with prices on here. I've recently been pricing usage for the absolute minimum I want for a full rights article and then adding 20-30% for full rights. I've been wordy lately, so my articles are in the $150 range. I've been trying to cut back to the 500 word range! I also price according to how unique I feel the article is. Is it the same SEO blah blah keywords blah blah? If so, I price less. If I think I'm bringing something unique to the table that they aren't going to find with other writers, I price higher.