Constant Content

Hey Everyone - I am new and was going to begin writing, but am very confused about something and now not sure I want to be a part of this. When writing, is it true that you open up a request you are interested in and then go ahead and write all the articles, submit them and there is a chance/probability that other authors are writing the same articles and submitting them to the same client? Is it also true that whoever gets them in and accepted first, gets paid and everyone else does not, so we wrote the articles for nothing?

It seems like a huge waste of time. I may be confused and got the info wrong. Can someone please help me with this and tell me if this is true and if so, why anyone would take the time to write if they could possibly not be paid? It seems like that if we landed one that was $25 and article for 4 articles for $100 total, but before that say we wrote 20 articles for different clients, but other authors beat us to it and we don't get paid for them, then we really wrote 24 articles for $100. That's about $5 per article.

Please tell me that I have this wrong!

Hi,

You have it sort of wrong but sort of right. First, take it one article at a time. If you see a request for 10 articles, go ahead and try writing one - not the whole batch. Other writers will be doing the same, so the customer will have many different articles to choose from. He may, or may not, pick yours. So, yes, that is a risk. We are submitting the article on speculation in the hopes that the article meets the customer's needs.

Now, what if he didn't pick your article? That's a bummer for the moment, but you have options. You can leave it posted on Constant-Content where other customers are browsing and may buy it, so it pays to look at the topic with an eye on how popular the topic might be. It's not unusual for other customers to come along and buy these articles. In fact, that's why there's now a three-day exclusive review for public requests. Another option is to pull the article or price it for usage only and post it on another site where you can get a few bucks for it such as AC. You have to pay attention to rights when you do this. For example, if you want to sell it for usage here, you need to offer it to AC as non-exclusive.

Also, when submitting to a public request, not every single writer will be doing the same. There may be no one else interested in that topic or they may be busy writing something different.

In my experience, about 74% of my public request articles have sold (yes, I keep track, I'm a geek). There's a sticky thread where CC provides further sales info site-wide and the site has a 70% ratio of sales if I recall.

If anyone can tell you that this site is NOT a waste of time, it is the community of writers you will find right here. We know what works and what doesn't, so feel free to ask.

Here are some more personal percentages:

Public requests - 74% sold
Articles submitted without a request - 57% sold
Private Request - 100%

These percentages have been surprisingly stable. I believe a few years ago I posted my ratios and it was something like 75/50/100. I'd have to look to be sure, but that's what I think they were.

The private requests are the result of relationships that blossomed after submitting for public requests. So, in my experience, it pays to write for public requests. Not only is the ratio higher than topics I dream up on my own, it can potentially lead to private requests.

I rarely write for public requests...they really have to interest me since I have precious little writing time. I rely on my catalog and the more anonymous clients who purchase without formal requests. On the other hand, I have a fulltime job so I do this on the side and, consequently, can be a little picky about my topics. You might try writing for requests, but also writing to establish a catalog here that may sell over time. I sold 3 articles over the last two days that were written well over a year ago. I love that. It just takes the right customer to come along and need what you've got.

JA

Thanks for the response Celeste - I really appreciate it. I just can't help but feel uneasy about writing something and waiting to see if someone else beat me to it and not getting paid. I am used to writing several articles at a time. I guess I have to rethink this a bit. I belong to a site now that pays less per article but its a guarantee - so you claim a block of 10 to 25 articles and no one else can claim them. You write and submit them. If they need editing you edit them and then you get paid. And I know that there are times when I am writing that I am not wanting to finish but do bc of the money. But this site does pay more per article so it may make sense. I was excited when I found this site and am a little disappointed. I am curious as to why you cannot claim a project and write it. Makes more sense to me, but I am not here to change things.

I may try to post some articles on the WITHOUT REQUEST section and maybe sell those, though you said that is even a lower percentage. Hmmm

Thanks for the info - I will think this all over!

Thanks JA - I might try building a catalog. How long do those usually take to sell?

The short answer is--I have no idea! I've sold articles that sat around for a couple years and I've sold articles the same day I submitted them. It depends on what topics are hot. And I like to think it depends on the quality of the article. That isn't to say I don't put singular effort into all of them, but sometimes you hit on a title or topic and you think...this will go fast. And often it does, but sometimes it doesn't. Those doesn't articles can pile up over time and there's really no way to know if they will ever sell, but from my experience, the old articles do go eventually. But Celeste is right--when you write for the public requests there is often a chance that you will build a relationship with a client from there. When I started out I watched the "recently sold" page a lot. That's how I got into writing about gardens. I thought I would do a ton of book reviews, but I instead fell in love with landscape design and writing about strange plants.

I guess you have to consider what you need out of the site. If you need solid income every month, I guess it would be important to attack those public requests and work toward obtaining private ones. But having a backlog has worked for me. I took off--maybe 8 months after my daughter was born and I think I made money just about every month regardless because I had so many posted articles that finally sold. But the more you write--I believe--the more you will sell. That's been my experience whether I was writing some unlikely ancient history piece, folk remedy, or travel content. It takes time, but it's worth it to find a niche. Good luck. JA

I totally understand your concerns, especially about someone beating you to a request. But what's funny is that it's not nearly as competitive here as it sounds. In fact, the CC community is one of the most supportive writing communities I have found.

If you've ever tried those bidding sites, yikes! You spend more time crafting a pitch than it takes to do the article half the time and then assignments are rare. Not to mention the dreaded payment problem after the fact. Here, you don't write a proposal, you just write the article and let your work speak for itself. It doesn't sound as if your other gig is a bid site and if you're doing well and liking it, then keep on doing what works for you. I'd still give CC a good try while continuing the other gigs because it's an interesting model that has a ton of potential.

Constant-Content isn't for everyone. If you're not a risk taker and want guarantees, than you won't be happy here right off the bat because you have to take risks here and there are no guarantees. Even if you are willing to take a few risks, there are still no guarantees. However, look also at the potential reward and decide if the risk to reward is worth shooting for. Take a look around the boards, check out the profiles of some of the writers you see on the boards, check out the recently sold list, keep asking questions, and see if the site is right for you.

I started by writing articles about everything I was doing at the time - if I was upgrading my operating system, a quick article about that went on the CC site. If I was shopping for new tires, I wrote about tire shopping, etc... Instead of blogging or emailing my friends with my latest escapades, I wrote articles - and they sold! I was hooked and making money writing about stuff I'd be writing about anyway in some form or another.

Check out the "CC Eureka Moment" thread as well for CC success stories if you haven't already. It's really worth trying. No guarantees but you won't sell a penny here without trying.

Plus, as JA mentioned, those older articles do payoff. I write 'em and forget about 'em - until I get that "article sold" email and realize how cool it is to get a payoff for time that I spent long ago. The time spent was in the past - it's ancient history and I can't get it back. But I can enjoy the fresh sale here and now

Here's the link to the Eureka thread in case you're interested: http://www.constant-content.com/forum/v ... f=4&t=6987

As far as why you cannot "claim" an assignment -- that is one of CC's selling points both to customers as well as to us writers. Many customers don't like the bidding sites where they have to look at resumes, proposals, and "pick me" emails. Plus, once they do all the work of finally picking someone, the final article may totally suck. Many writers don't like having to detail their qualifications, write up bids, and convince potential customers that they are the right writer for the job. Plus, a ton of cheapo "I'll do the whole batch of $100 articles for $3" writers are also bidding which makes it nearly impossible to land a good writing job.

With CC, all that nonsense is gone. We do what we do best: we write. The customer sees what we can do and has completed articles from which to choose. He doesn't care if you're an English major or a bricklayer; if you can write what he asked for, you are a serious contender.

Since CC is selling to customers and not for its own sites, this model works really well. If any of us could "claim" a given request, we might not be the right writer for that particular customer. I know I'm not the best writer for many topics but I might try regardless. Had I claimed the topic, the customer would be stuck with mediocre content whereas if the topic were open, someone else - even a newbie - would have a chance to shine. The CC model is a great equalizer that allows the writing to show through. It's fascinating to me, and it really does work well.

niccam wrote:Thanks for the response Celeste - I really appreciate it. I just can't help but feel uneasy about writing something and waiting to see if someone else beat me to it and not getting paid. I am used to writing several articles at a time. I guess I have to rethink this a bit. I belong to a site now that pays less per article but its a guarantee - so you claim a block of 10 to 25 articles and no one else can claim them. You write and submit them. If they need editing you edit them and then you get paid. And I know that there are times when I am writing that I am not wanting to finish but do bc of the money. But this site does pay more per article so it may make sense. I was excited when I found this site and am a little disappointed. I am curious as to why you cannot claim a project and write it. Makes more sense to me, but I am not here to change things.

I may try to post some articles on the WITHOUT REQUEST section and maybe sell those, though you said that is even a lower percentage. Hmmm

Thanks for the info - I will think this all over!

If you're talking about DemandStudios, you're not guaranteed pay with them either. I write a lot for them, and I've officially had to eat over $1,000 on that site from new editors not knowing the guidelines and a poor appeal process, system glitches, and other issues.

I don't have a whole lot of time to sink into CC, and I also don't have a 100% sale rate with public requests, but I've written for them and most do sell. If they don't sell to the user, then another will come along. I think the key to public requests is writing for ones you think have a market if the user rejects them. I usually write articles for my portfolio, and it is worth it. However, even though it's more money per word, it's not going to be enough to live on (It isn't for me). When you're scraping jobs over the Internet, I think it's important to diversify where you write, and putting CC into the equation is worth it.

Also, if you are talking about DS, this place is harder to break into. At DS, the editors fit little mistakes, but you get one shot here, so I highly recommend proofing your work and treating this place a little different than DS. Last time I submitted work here, it was about a week wait, so if you screw something up (like I did on my last submission :-/ ) you need to wait another week after you fix it.

Thanks everyone - you have been extremely helpful. I may try to post some stuff that I have already written and see how that goes. I guess I used the wrong word when I said bidding sites. I belong to a site that you don't bid by proposal or anything like that. They carefully screen the writers to see if you are on par with what their clients expect. Then they post projects, the first person to claim it gets it. It is typically 10 to 25 articles with a price attached. You write the articles, submit to client. Once they approve you are paid, or if there are edits you make them and are paid. They pay once per week. Problem is the price per article is pretty low and I was looking for something higher like they pay here. However, writing is time consuming as well mentally draining sometimes when you have to do research or whatever. I honestly dont know if I could do all that and not get paid.

So that is really my point with the public requests. I am going to try the other side of it and just post stuff and see what happens.

But thanks for your help, I appreciate it!

So, is the site you write for Demand Studios? If not, what is the name of the site? Just curious.

Debbi wrote:So, is the site you write for Demand Studios? If not, what is the name of the site? Just curious.

Sounds like DS to a T, so that was what I was thinking.

Lysis,

$1,000 eaten, really? Whoa, that's like over 60 articles! I can't even imagine how much time that took. I hope you did something else with those articles.

Debbi

Debbi wrote:Lysis,

$1,000 eaten, really? Whoa, that's like over 60 articles! I can't even imagine how much time that took. I hope you did something else with those articles.

Debbi

80 articles, to be exact. Some are my fault, but others were guideline changes *after* I'd already submitted. Some were CEs who just said I didn't spin the title right. Others argued over the facts. Some said I should have focused on x topic, so I need to rewrite the whole thing (not worth it, so I dumped it). You can only appeal those types of rewrites, because the CE can just reject you. I don't appeal much, because most people experience the article just expiring and the lead editors come around a day late and a dollar short. The 2 times I have appealed this has happened to me, so I don't bother anymore. I have 80 of these, and I tell ya it's frustrating. DS doesn't care about their writers, so you have a choice to quit or just put up with it. There are thousands of others who will come along after you if you quit, so they don't care. It's a content mill, but it's good money if you use it as side money. I should say that I have 1200+ articles published, so that 80 is a tiny number in comparison, but add up the money and it's a lot.

I'd like to focus more on CC, but I don't think it can bring in the amount of money I need for the mortgage and bills. CC is good for side money, IME. On DS, I can throw out an article on how to format a hard drive in 10 minutes. It doesn't take any effort since I know how to do that, and any typos or mistakes are fixed by the editors. Here, I really need to proof. As a student who needs to memorize chapter after chapter, I fall into the habit of speed reading and picking out important points to filter out the fluff I don't need to know. I find this has affected me in proofing, because I speed read through things and skip over the fluff words and those words are the ones I usually make a spelling error on. My biggest percentage of rejections here have been stupid spelling errors. Don't get me wrong, I'm doing tons better than I was before on CC, but I still do it occasionally, and I want to kick myself in the butt when I do it. This makes me really sit down and proof my CC articles well. I probably spend an hour proofing a CC article, so it eats my time.

Anyway, I just woke up, so I'm yapping. DS is cool, but expect to lose money there. It isn't guaranteed either.