What sells and what doesn't - some personal stats

[jakedanger]

I have had about 30 articles approved so far. I have concentrated on two types of articles. The first type is boring, information-intensive articles that are SEO-optimized to attract lucrative advertising markets such as legal services. The second type is articles about subjects that interest me, such as psychology and philosophy (plus a couple of travel articles), that are not in any way SEO-optimized. After a few months, the results are as follows:

Sales rate for boring articles: 25% (my net income: $108.55 = $27.14 per article sold)

Sales rate for interesting articles: 70% (my net income: $425 = $47.80 per article sold, including two articles sold twice for use rights)

Thus I challenge the conventional wisdom. I have discovered that people will buy an article simply because they like it. From now on, I will be writing about subjects that interest me, regardless of their SEO potential.

[jakedanger]

A thought - perhaps many CC customers represent print publications that rely on subcription fees more than advertising revenues, and perhaps "interesting articles" cater to this market.

[Celeste Stewart]

I think customers value good writing (interesting articles over boring ones / original ideas over same old, same old) whether they're publishing in print or online. Thanks for sharing

[CaseReynolds]

This is happy news!