On another popular forum where CC is becoming known as a hub of great content, I've seen several discussions lately on how to "get stuff cheaper" from us.
One person said: "I have worked it out to a science where I get killer articles for $10 and $15. One of my tactics is to make lowball best offers at Constant Content and then when it's refused, come back with $2 or $3 more from my partner's account.
The author then believes that that is what the article is worth and they won't do much better, and takes the second offer. It's been working extremely well. Got 4 awesome 500-800 word articles today for $47 doing that!"
Geez, that's sneaky and underhanded and incredibly rude. I hope they don't do business that way all the time. We've become a Walmart culture, though, and so expect things at a bargain. At least I can say anything they got from here wasn't money wasted--like some other writing sites.
OK, that's kind of funny. I mentioned Walmart in my response... and several people in the thread talked about Walmart. Great minds think alike.
What's the Latin phrase for seller beware?
It's a shame that some jerk crows about how he took advantage of a writer, and that writer in all honesty just wanted $37 to buy groceries. So hard to stick by yourself when the little ones are hungry, and then the whole process turns shameful. Icky.
"Most recently, I've been pillaging over at Constant content, but I've had a writer from India who is very good who has been giving me 50 - 400 word articles every week for 3 months now for just $5 each." and later
"Just this morning I got a 1000 word article on video marketing from Constant Content for $32. The author originally had it listed for $150. did I force him to sell it to me? No, he did because that's the best offer he got. Plain and simple.
From the way some of these people are talking on here, you'd think I rode in with an armed paramilitary force and forced these people to sell their articles and homes at gunpoint! LMAO at this whole thread."
That should be enough to identify this buyer at Constant Content.
I'm sure there are other people like this one, trying to get something of value for next to free. It reminds us of how important it is to feel good about ourselves and our writing. When you work hard to write a piece, don't give it away just so you can have a sale beside your name. You send a message to potential buyers that doesn't represent the talent you are. I never check the offer box because my personality is such that I would not have patience with people who submitted worthless bids lol
This tactic left a bad taste in my mouth. They don't seem to understand the point of "best offer" for many of us -- helping them when they can't quite scrape together enough but really want the content, not giving them a chance to bid super-low on everything.
Evelyn wrote:OK, that's kind of funny. I mentioned Walmart in my response... and several people in the thread talked about Walmart. Great minds think alike.
They used it in a different way. The person who uses this tactic said that the people condemning him probably shop at Wal-Mart and therefore are hypocritical.
"I have worked it out to a science where I get killer articles for $10 and $15. One of my tactics is to make lowball best offers at Constant Content and then when it's refused, come back with $2 or $3 more from my partner's account.
The author then believes that that is what the article is worth and they won't do much better, and takes the second offer. It's been working extremely well. Got 4 awesome 500-800 word articles today for $47 doing that!"
I read this post at the Warrior forum yesterday. I would add it to my previous thread entitled “A warning about customers’ offers”. I have a customer who keeps bidding (almost day by day) and trying to purchase my articles without paying the price I’m asking for. I sold him two articles I wanted to get rid of because they were old and their content wouldn’t be helpful if they would be sold later, but I’m not accepting more offers now.
Customers’ offers are good when they are reasonable, and when we want to sell a few articles that nobody ever decides to purchase. However, we must be very careful with them.
The good news is: the guy got slammed by other forum posters who value their writers. Most people are fair and reasonable so focus on attracting those customers and forget about those who don't value our work. It starts with us valuing our work first
I participated yesterday of the thread at the warrior forum, where this warrior mentioned his tactic for buying CC’s articles. You are right, Celeste. Many other warriors showed respect for quality writing.
I love the Warrior forum because it is the best internet marketing forum online. Many warriors give real lessons to the public in their posts. You should not believe that this member’s attitude is imitated by most warriors.
However, they are marketers…
They basically care about making money. Everything else has a secondary importance for them.
I'm not a marketer. I simply teach internet marketing because I have an online business and I know how to make money online. Internet marketing is everyone’s favorite topic… I don’t have the same indifferent spirit that characterizes most marketers. I look for justice.
However, our customers here at CC are basically marketers, and we have to know how to deal with their marketing tricks. I believe that this warrior showed us very clearly the game existent behind customers’ offers. He gave us very interesting information. We should be grateful for his honesty. He showed us his tactic publicly, without hiding it from our ignorant eyes.
I haven't read these forums described above, but I have received some low offers. Many of them I reject, but some I let go for the hell of it because the articles took me about ten to twenty minutes to write. There are times when it takes me longer to think of what to type into the short summary. Letting a six hundred word article it took me ten minutes to write for twenty bucks, even with CC's cut, would still come out to 78.00 and hour for actual writing time if I sold six of them. Of course, I don't deal on those articles I've sweated over. Those will live there until my bones grow far older.
From a business standpoint, I can understand wanting to get the most I can on a limited budget. Still, I can't bring myself to try and screw someone completely over - but to go online and brag about it is something I'd expect of politicians. I wish the old saying, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you," was something beat into people from a young age still. I still hold the door open to let people pass, I say please and thank you, I don't call in sick unless I'm half dead or one of my children have to go to the hospital, and I will gaggle to get the best price I can without putting the other person out of business. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think the rod has been spared in too many instances in this day and age.
Thanks for starting this thread, Zabrina. It is up to us to sell our work for the price we think is fair. The motivation of the buyer shouldn't be a factor, although I admit it's tempting to play the mind-reading game - "Well, maybe if I accept this offer, they'll come back for more..."
This discussion got me thinking of other situations when I've given into pressure to do something I didn't really want to, and then regretted it afterwards. Even silly little things - someone wants you to reschedule a meeting at some inconvenience to you, and you agree because you assume they wouldn't ask unless it was important - then it turns out that there was no real need. I'm not saying it's better to be foolishly inflexible, but this whole thing has reminded me of how important it is to understand your own needs and honor them, whether in business or personal life.
First, I have to say I love this forum. As a newbie, I am amazed at all the help and information available from all you "old timers" .
When I submitted my first article I stressed over my prices. Since I've never sold anything I figured my prices should be really low to start off. But then I read all the advice here and realized that setting ridiculously low prices hurts everyone, so I opted for something just slightly below the recommended guidelines. I'm not sure if I'll sell anything but at least I know I'm not selling my soul to some jerk like the one you're talking about.
I am so glad to have found CC and it's wonderful community of writers who actually look out for each other. I'm looking forward to many happy years of writing here!
I found this most informative. Thanks for posting the alert. I haven't been around for awhile, and was prompted to checkout the forum when I received 5 extremely low and I mean extremely low offers all in a row. I first received offers of only $3.00 then they upped it to $7.00 without me doing anything. They were all from the same customer and all for full rights. Topics ranged from jewelry to gardening to photography and travel. I rejected them all. That is less than minimum wage. Even with their higher price offer and with CC's cut it is still less than minimum wage.
In another thread I read that someone said that buyers motive's shouldn't be taken into consideration. In the beginning I used to think that too, but that was years ago! Well, I can't help but think that since I received these 5 offers on an extremely broad spectrum of topics that it is only a link farm trying to get cheap content. Upon reading this thread, I'm thinking that yeah, maybe we should take into consideration buyers motives. Obviously full rights articles are intended for business purposes.
