My Sales Numbers on CC

[jkcki]

It's sort of hard to gauge success on CC because it's so incredibly wild. I thought maybe it might be beneficial for some people if I shared my numbers, since I've been trying to have a legitimate go at this website. I'm no stranger to content sites. I make my living from sites like these. At the same time, CC is a very unique beast. Maybe others could share some numbers too?

In the past 30 days (from Mid September or so) I uploaded 45 articles. Of these 45 articles, 28 percent of them have sold. My articles were between 300 - 500 words. The amount I actually made breaks down to about $11.5 per article I uploaded with an average of $40 for each sale (this is after CC's commission). This is interesting because it's a little less than some content mill sites and a little more than some others. I sold two usage articles and 11 full rights articles for a total of 13 sales. With an average of about 400 words, this is a little less than 3 cents a word. So the total made from 9/23 or so was $528.

With only a couple of exceptions, all of the articles I sold were either about insurance or mobile phones. I had a few real estate sales, but overall insurance and mobile phones were the big purchases.

Out of my 45 articles, I think maybe 9-10 were rejected at first. They were all for small inconsistencies, such as not capitalizing the world "Internet." The changes took a few seconds and I, thankfully, wasn't banned.

So $528 in a month really isn't that bad. The 45 articles I uploaded were mostly done over the course of three or four days of work, with some stragglers that I edited and posted later on. Were I to actually devote time to the site, I think I could easily make at least $4,000 a month purely on spec.

Hopefully this helps someone who is wondering about sales, how it works and whether it is worth it.

[Lysis]

Wait, you did 45 articles in 4 days? Damn woman. That's amazing, if I am understanding your correctly.

My ADD kills my concentration. Even if I devote like a Saturday, tops I have 5 articles in me and I'm burnt. Usually, it's 2-3 and I'm done. And that's only if I have titles I know I want to do. I have a goal of 1-2 a day here. I live off of a software developer's salary, so I don't think content writing will ever be able to replace my salary. Well, not anymore since rev share models were killed by Panda. But it's good side money.

[evaku]

Thanks jkcki! Those numbers are awesome to know, and I think you're doing amazing! It's interesting to see how different people's experiences are with this site. Most of my sales come from Writer's Pool projects. I've sold maybe 10 catalog articles in the last month tops (though I have only written 20-30 so I wouldn't say that is too bad of a stat all things considered).

On the other hand I have sold about 20 for writer's pool.

I average $28-$30 a full rights sale, which I think is pretty good and gives me hope. I make an average of $32.5 for requests and a little less than that for catalog sales, as most of what I offer is for $45, giving me about $29 a sale.

I'm still a student until the end of November, at which point I hope I can dive headfirst into this and really start writing my butt off. Right now, if I really buckle down and ignore school work, I can pick up requests and do maybe 15 articles in 4-5 days, but after that I will be burnt out for a while (especially if they are over 700 words...)! I think if I didn't have schoolwork on top of it I would have a much easier time doing such marathon writing and bringing in more money as well.

I'm really hopeful to see what can happen once I am done my degree and can have that much more time to spend on this.

[Lysis]

Yeah,, 45 articles in 4 days is amazing. When I go back and forth in corporate and have to write in between, I try to bust out content but can never do it.

[jkcki]

It's not as amazing as it sounds. What happened was I was stuck in the airport for a 12 hour layover... both ways. So I had like two days that I spent the WHOLE TIME in an airport lobby.

[Lysis]

It's not as amazing as it sounds. What happened was I was stuck in the airport for a 12 hour layover... both ways. So I had like two days that I spent the WHOLE TIME in an airport lobby.

lol you have my sympathies, and OK, that makes a lot of sense. But still that's a pretty sweet push for your pool.

I always figure I will sell half pretty soon after they're published. I'm sitting about half sold right now. I can't give hard numbers, because I don't keep track that much (bad me!), but I try to stick with what I know. But, I write stuff on things I've done during the day or week or whatever. For instance, I wrote about peer to peer loans, because I paid off my CCs on Lending Club. Wrote about it last month and sold it this month. I try hard to write about things that aren't already covered over and over again or at least bring something new to the table with a saturated topic.

[jkcki]

Submitted 10 articles last night. Still have 7 awaiting review. Sold 3 more articles though, just last night! About insurance and saving money. Average of $40 profit for each after commission, so I made a tidy $120 in a single night.

I think one thing that isn't really explored is the idea of exposure on this site. I think articles that don't sell may still be "making me money" due to the fact that they still come up in searches and get my name around.

I noticed there seems to be only one major insurance buyer, which is interesting!

Funny thing, I wrote about Lending Club too.. I'm an investor, and I think it's a fantastic platform

[JDWhang]

Welp, you've inspired me to step my game up.

[jkcki]

More sales last night. One was an article I posted back in last YEAR. I'm getting many hits by coming through recent tech news and creating content that relates but is still somewhat evergreen.

[Lysis]

Yeah, I did a count of how many articles I sold between the time I stopped writing in May 2012 and went back again June 2013, and I sold an average of 1/month (12 exactly within those months). Not great but those emails are pretty cool when you're not even writing for CC anymore.

I think it has a lot to do with continual writing and how many you have in your pool. That's the hard part when you first start: increasing your pool count. 10/day will get you there much faster though.