Free articles - why?

Linda Hourston · Post by **Linda Hourston** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:07 pm

Hi everyone,
I'm new here but have spent some time researching the site. There seems to be a lot of free articles and they're usually the ones downloaded more than once. I'm thinking maybe authors who write free articles are doing it for exposure and creds, but, doesn't that make life harder for the rest of us? Maybe a minimum of say, $5 would level out the playing field? Then 'buyers' wouldn't just be on the look-out for free stuff. I've looked through the forum for any info on this issue but couldn't find anything so I'm sorry if my question has been dealt with before. Thanks.

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:29 pm

The site no longer accepts free content.

Linda Hourston · Post by **Linda Hourston** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:15 pm

now I feel silly

Must've been looking at alot of older content - sorry

AlanP · Post by **AlanP** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:11 pm

I'm new to the site too, well not that you will be now considering when the post was made, but I had been wondering about the free articles as well.

Following on from that though what is the easiest way to research for an article topic to write on? I've noticed that most of the ones I've looked at don't seem to have many, if any, downloads.

Alan

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:24 pm

Hi Alan, most of the ones you see that have "downloads" have sold for usage and are still available due to the type of license sold. Gazillions of articles have sold for "unique" and "full rights" which means they sold and due to the type of license sold are no longer available for sale therefore removed from CC. So you won't see a list of the many successful sales in the past.

The ones you see with 0 downloads have yet to sell. So take heart, the majority of sales go for unique or full rights (though lately, usage has been hot) and the articles are removed.

Good luck! Hope that made sense.

AlanP · Post by **AlanP** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:33 pm

Hi Celeste,

Thanks for the speedy reply - weren't lurking were you?

I do follow what you're saying, and the gazillions is just the sort of stat I like, but is there an easy way to research a hot topic? I don't really mind writing about most things (I have an unhealthy interest in researching things anyway) I'd just like to make sure I don't pick the one topic that nobody has any interest in at all.

Alan

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:49 pm

Hot topics come and go here. Right now "pets" has been a hot topic lately. When signed in, go to the "recently sold" section. You'll see what's selling. Also look at the current "requested content" section. Lifestyle, pets, finance, real estate, gardening, family, tech, business, etc. all seem to be popular on a regular basis.

The people who get most frustrated here are those who write to an obscure niche such as "I specialize in microbiology as it relates to goat's hooves and that's all I want to write about. How come my articles won't sell?"

Also, you never really know. Write to current requests if it suits you or write what you know with an eye toward an internet audience. First person accounts aren't nearly as popular as informative, third person accounts. For example, if you are a realtor, instead of writing, "How I Became a Realtor," you would have a wider audience by writing "How to Become a Realtor." Not always as fun but it is fun to get the sale and you have a better chance that way!

AlanP · Post by **AlanP** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:56 am

Thanks for the advice on where to look that will save me a lot of time. I'm probably approaching this from a slightly different angle; well I was to start with, because I have been doing the internet marketing side of things and decided to look in to this a little more. In the IM approach you are looking at what people are searching for online and writing based on that, which is a bit different to here where you can see what people are actually buying - it takes a bit of the guess work out of things when you know that money is changing hands rather than the fact that people are, possibly, just looking. Also thanks for the tip on avoiding the first person point of view. With one site I have the first person account is the best approach as it is a health/emotion topic so gaining some amount of trust is useful, but that probably isn't as important if the article is being sold.

Oh no, guess I'm going to have to giveaway my article on "The top fifty funny things I saw as a microbiological hoof inspector"! Any takers...?

AlanP · Post by **AlanP** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:58 am

Thanks for the advice on where to look that will save me a lot of time. I'm probably approaching this from a slightly different angle; well I was to start with, because I have been doing the internet marketing side of things and decided to look in to this a little more. In the IM approach you are looking at what people are searching for online and writing based on that, which is a bit different to here where you can see what people are actually buying - it takes a bit of the guess work out of things when you know that money is changing hands rather than the fact that people are, possibly, just looking. Also thanks for the tip on avoiding the first person point of view. With one site I have the first person account is the best approach as it is a health/emotion topic so gaining some amount of trust is useful, but that probably isn't as important if the article is being sold.

Oh no, guess I'm going to have to giveaway my article on "The top fifty funny things I saw as a microbiological hoof inspector"! Any takers...?

janewinstead · Post by **janewinstead** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:43 pm

This post has nothing to do with the subject we are discussing but I notice that AlanP's post is duplicated. I see this a lot in the forum and wonder what causes it.

Jane

Celeste Stewart · Post by **Celeste Stewart** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 7:34 pm

oh that darned refresh key (or f5).......

Kat DeLong · Post by **Kat DeLong** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:25 pm

It has happened to me before, and I think it is when I use the back arrow key to get back into the forum after posting a message.

janewinstead · Post by **janewinstead** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:00 am

Thanks. I have noticed it several times. Don't know if it has happened to me or not.

Take care, Jane