Can submitting to public requests hurt future sales?

[dmgray]

I have had a thought. In my experience (not much granted, but enough to see a pattern emerging), there may be some evidence to suggest that any article submitted to a public request, that is subsequently returned to the main arena, suffers from missing out on the initial exposure it may have received had it not been sent to the public request.

I think it is true that not every article submitted for general viewing will appear on the home page listings, but it seems that articles sent to a public request that return to general do not seem to get the hits. My popular articles all got sent to general and the ones that went to public request struggles for views. Yes, views do not equal sales but it does not hurt the chances. Incidentally, all my sales have come from articles that were submitted to the general database.

I imagine there is also massive competition for any public request, so with that in mind, is it better to just submit articles to the general viewings?

I can see the potential for public request. You may get a sale and that could also lead to future private work if the customer liked your article. I am just wondering what everybody else thinks.

[Celeste Stewart]

Can submitting to public requests hurt future sales? Not in my experience! Submitting to public requests puts your article in front of the eyeballs of a customer with an immediate need. Submitting articles not associated with a request does not (it might, but you're relying on chance there). Instead, you have to wait.

For example, if you want to write an article about candle making and there are no requests for that topic, you just submit the article and hope a customer comes along needing something like that. On the other hand, if a customer specifically requests such an article, go for it! You know that a customer is interested in the topic and ready to buy. Sure, other writers will be writing articles along those lines, but none will have your unique point of view. If the article sells, great! If not, you're no further behind than if you wrote the same article without a customer prompting you to do so.

Okay, so you're three days behind if the article doesn't sell to the requester, but those three days aren't going to affect the article's marketability over the long haul, especially if the topic is popular.

If you're interested in a topic and a public request matches that topic, it makes sense to submit it and put it in front of the customer that is right here, right now. If he doesn't bite, no worries; others will come along. On the other hand, if you ignored the request (but wrote an article on the topic), didn't show the customer who's right here, right now, you'd have to wait for someone else to stumble onto your article.

[Amy W]

Wise words, Celeste!

Also, don't worry about whether your article makes it to the home page listings or not. I can't remember where, but somewhere on these forums either Ed or jrichards said that most customers who come to CC do a keyword search. You'll get a few who are browsing for articles, and they might happen to read whatever is on the home page. But most know exactly what they want, and they search for keywords. If you feel your articles aren't getting enough hits, add more relevant keywords - it should help.

[dmgray]

Great advice, thanks. I love it here, you ask a novice question and people go to a lot of trouble to repond with informative answers that are not condescending. If I asked my sort of questions in other forums no doubt some arrogant know-it-all would shoot me down in flames! You CC people are so helpful

My hits have been surprisingly good for many articles. I think it may also depend on the subject. I have started to spot what is doing well and concentrate on that. Guess some of the lesser viewed articles may be slightly obscure. I think working in SEO has left me paranoid about keyword stuffing so I tend not to add loads of keywords! I will have to do better.

[Nessiee]

In response to the adding more keywords, you don't need to stuff your articles with keywords, just go to "My Content" and click edit on any one of your articles. Inside that page near the bottom, is a box where you can add keywords. This isn't adding keywords to the article itself, rather keywords that will help searching buyers locate your article.

Also - from what I've read, the keyword box is very specific, like if you had an article about pizza, you should consider adding keywords like "pizza", "pizzas", "pizzeria", "pizza parlor", "pizza delivery", "delivery pizza", as well as keywords like, "food", "delivery food", "italian food", etc. because each would bring up different search results. By finding additional relevant keywords, you can ensure that more searchers will be able to find your article.

Hopefully that makes sense. I believe this is what Amy meant by adding more keywords to your articles. Good luck

[dmgray]

Sorry, I think I confused things a bit! I didn't mean stuffing the article, I meant that I saw the separate keyword section as a sort-of meta tag section. I know now that this was me being over cautious and have started adding as many relevant keywords as I can. The variations tip was helpful, thanks. I now just try to add any keyword that I think a customer will type into search relating to my article subject.

[Nessiee]

No worries, it can be hard to understand each other because it's a forum. Misunderstandings are bound to happen lol...

Another tip I thought I'd add... keep checking the Search Topics page within the Recently Sold Content section. Sometimes I see new search terms in there that I hadn't thought of myself, so I add them to my articles as I see relevant ones pop up

[Amy W]

Thanks, Nessiee - that's exactly what I meant.

Another tip - use both American and British spellings in the keywords box, ie color, colour, flavor, flavour. You wouldn't want a Canadian buyer to miss out on your article on colours just because you used the American spelling.

[jadedragon]

Great advice. Keywords are only used for onsite search. You can't have enough keywords here since every one you use is another chance your article gets found.

[dmgray]

Brilliant info, thanks a million. I love the one about the search topics, that was really helpful.

The different spellings one was interesting...I am from the UK but try to use US spellings, as I figure that is where the main market is. I really should include the UK variations as well - sorry Canada, totally forgot about you!

Dear god, my keyword lists could take as long as the actual articles now!

Cheers for the help.

[Gailwriter]

Just wanted to add to other writer's info. My very first sale was a Public Request. I always look at them. It gives you ideas for your own articles as well. I now have a regular monthly Private request that I would not have got if I did not look at the public request. My Private request buys 4 of my articles every month without fail, so for me reading and sending Public requests are well worth the effort. When a Public request comes in I always check to see if I have already written an article that may suit. You can send these articles to the Public request provided they have not been sold for use if the client wants a full rights article. Hope this info helps, regards, Gail