Constant Content

From reading across the web and looking at the CC Hall of Fame it seems there are two distinct strategies that can be used on CC. Several prolific authors here have almost all Usage sales. Several others have nearly all Unique/Full Rights sales. It looks like authors are generally trying to either:

A: Write articles for unique/full rights sales for top dollar now or as soon as they sell. This should yield decent income now but it means you have to keep writing to keep making money. (active income aka a job)

B: Write articles for usage sales for small dollar now and small dollars in the future. You don't get as much income now but you could eventually stop writing and sit on a beach while you collect the proceeds of usage sales for years to come. (residual income)

What strategy are you using and why?

No offense, I think that might be an oversimplification. The second strategy, sure some articles for use may sell more than once, but the very nature of the world is well, it changes. Therefore, it would be very tough to write articles that just sell indefinitely. I offer use licenses on all of my articles, but the majority of my licenses have all been full rights.

It would be hard to retire on thousands of usage articles Sure, if I could have a thousand usage sales without doing anything, I'd take it. But let's say I net $5 for each one. That's only $5,000!

Hmmn, maybe I wouldn't take it after all because I know that I can earn much more by selling full rights. For example, let's say I can net $30 per article going full rights. That's $30,000 for those same 1,000 usage articles! Granted, some won't sell, so let's say only half do. That's still $15,000 with 500 articles leftover that can either sell eventually or have their prices reduced. When those leftover articles do sell, in a way, they generate the residual income because they were previously written. Only they're still selling for the higher price.

Here's the thing, it's not that easy to sell inexpensive usage articles once, let alone several times over. One writer is doing it consistently, but she's really the only one with a solid usage-only strategy. The other usage sellers sell far more full rights licenses than they do usage. On the other hand, my estimates of netting $30 per article and selling half are attainable! It is possible to make a nice income here selling full rights. A smart strategy is to take the money you make now and put some aside in a Roth IRA and let it grow.

$30 per article gives you $19.50 (unless you mean $30 net). Which brings up something I've been wondering about in regard to bookkeping and taxes.

When calculating your income, do you record the entire price of the article and then deduct the CC take as an expense? Or just record the amount you are actually paid? I'd assume the latter because who wants to pay taxes on money you don't get, but then again maybe the claimed expenses help decrese the adjusted earned income? Any tax experts or CPAs around?

I was talking net in both cases just to keep it simple.

I report what was deposited into my PayPal or bank account as that is what I was paid. Back when PayPal took fees, I deducted the fees as banking expenses. That's a non-issue now thankfully.

Sure you would need to have a LOT of $5 usage sales to retire on, but the concept is that you can sit on a beach collecting the usage fees even if those fees were not fully supporting your lifestyle. I think the passive income concept explains the $7 articles we see selling for use only. It is also the concept behind writing at ehow etc.

On the tax question - you should declare the net income after expenses. Either calculate based on the gross minus expenses or on declare what you actually receive. Definitely never pay tax on money you never get to see or use.

I wouldn't consider the money CC earns on our articles as income, expenses, or anything like that. It's not money we earn at all, and it's not money we pay. It's CC's income/money, which is paid by the buyers. Our income comes from CC -- not from the buyers. Essentially, we work for CC.

Celeste Stewart wrote:A smart strategy is to take the money you make now and put some aside in a Roth IRA and let it grow.

Celeste, putting retirement money aside is certainly a good idea, but the type of IRA that's best for you depends on your individual circumstances. Just mentioning it so people don't take you too literally . . .

Thanks 4Rumid. It's like those commercials for pharmaceuticals with the whispered side effects. I should have put in a "not tax advice, check with your personal tax advisor" disclaimer. I hate those things but yeah, depending on your tax situation. . .

As far as the usage strategy. I can see the appeal and it can make sense if you do it as part of a larger strategy. For example, if you write articles for your personal newsletter that you send to clients, why not put them up here (and as many other places where non-exclusives are allowed for small upfronts or page views) for usage? Where it doesn't make sense is to spend time writing articles for low usage fees on CC only.

In the first example, the articles are already written and have already served their purpose. Any additional money is bonus money. In the second example, you're spending time writing the article. When article sells, instead of being paid in a lump sump, you're being paid in increments which may or may not come. It's a gamble where you might ultimately make more if the article sells enough times. For me, I'd rather have the money in my hands sooner rather than later.