Constant Content

Hi all,

I'm wondering if it's just me or if Constant Content has really been winding down in recent months. I work almost full-time for CC, and have done for over 5 years, but my sales and income have been steadily decreasing for over a year now. I haven't even seen a writer's pool request in over two years, and I only get 3-5 minor private requests per month. I did put up my rates to 10 cents per word a few months back, which may have hurt sales, but they were already in decline long before then anyway. For me, the scrapping of usage rights has meant that sales of recently published articles have taken a major hit too. Anyway, I wonder how other writers are managing or if I'm doing something wrong, so it would be nice to hear your experiences too.

I did really well in June and dropped of in July but was happy with the amount compared to the effort I put into the site (not a lot lol). Last year, as soon as I posted something it sold. It's hard for me to judge because I haven't uploaded anything in a couple of months and maybe only uploaded a couple things in the last several months. I noticed a drop off too but I remember it's happened before (maybe 2010??).

I don't use it for full time work. They don't have the traffic to support me lol. But the side money was always good. For a long time I sold things even though I didn't upload anything for a while, but these past couple of months have been bad. I rocked Feb-March, so I don't know if it's seasonal or what.

HI,

I don't think it is you. I am seeing the same decline. A bunch of my regulars told me they found it difficult to navigate the website after the changes were introduced. Some of these clients stopped using CC and tried to get me to go with them. As a result, my monthly income dropped. Recently, I experimented with low pricing, but articles priced at 10 to 14 cents per word sold instead.

I suspect quite a few variables at play here, including the option to have CC connect customers with a writer for private requests which means fewer public requests, the failure to require clients to purchase private requests, the lack of communication between CC and authors must surely be reflected in communication between CC and customers, authors leaving to find work elsewhere, authors leaving the site to write for existing CC clients outside of it (I've had requests from individuals who weren't clients of mine), higher pricing than you'll find on other sites, higher fees than you'll find on other sites, and delayed editing whenever a flurry of private requests go through. I am sure other variables are at play and some of the ones that I've mentioned might not even be influencing factors. Even with the few writer pools that I am in, I cannot snag any requests because they are all scooped up by other writers within seconds of appearing on the page. The scrapping of usage rights is definitely a step in the wrong direction in my opinion. I haven't offered usage on most of my content for the last couple of years, so this change isn't likely to affect me. Casting calls are more annoying than anything, and I rarely apply to them or even look at them nowadays, particularly since clients typically change their pricing and/or word count to ridiculous amounts.

Can you tell I miss the good old days? Gosh, I'm not even sure why I am still here......

Good luck with future sales! I hope things get better on CC for all of us!
WG~

casting calls are awful lol

It's kinda funny because I built a PC in May and put the parts on PayPal credit. I always do this and then just use my CC income to pay off my purchases. PayPal credit gives you 6 months to pay off purchases with no interest. It was a $1200, and I thought for sure no doubt I'd make $1200 in 6 months off of CC sales. I made something like $3k-$3500k in Feb-March. Great months. I wound up paying the last $300 from my bank account because I didn't even make that much. That is really unusual for me.

I thought site navigation was difficult too. The articles aren't in your face like they were before. But Eric said before he left that sales were up and I believed it because I was pretty satisfied with returns from Oct 2015 to July 2016, but things have taken a nosedive for me. Not sure again if it is just that I haven't uploaded much, which is possible.

I've been looking at the sales for the last few weeks, and often, catalog sales don't even reach a total of 20. With all of the writers on the site, most likely, few people are making what they used to with the exception of those writers who have ongoing private requests in bulk. I'm definitely not uploading as much as I did in the past, but I don't think it would make much difference at this point.

Personally, I've been seeing some good times and some bad. It seems that I either sell several articles within a very short period of time or go long stretches without selling anything. I'm getting a reliable biweekly payout of $100 or more, which is better than I've done historically, but I've also significantly increased my volume of catalog articles here over the past two months. Ultimately, it's a nice sideline, but I somehow doubt that I'm ever going to be able to do CC full-time like a couple of you have.

I have a sneaky suspicion that they are focusing more on private sales, but until they can guarantee me pay I won't touch them anymore.

I guess I've been lucky... my private projects have greatly increased over the last couple of months, which has been incredibly helpful as I just moved out at the beginning of October and this is my only source of income. I have a few fantastic, steady clients that I hope never stop requesting work!

Because of this I haven't been paying attention to if there are any writer's pool request. I basically never sell from my catalog, but at the same time I don't really write for it much anymore. Still, I have over 200 article sitting in it and I did used to get some catalog sales from time to time. It scares me to think that the site may be slowing down because I do rely on it so heavily, so I hope my private work doesn't dry up as well!

I am both an author and a client. From the client perspective, I am struggling to navigate the site because it's taking forever to upload any useful pages. That's the main issue I have.

I tried browsing the articles from a few authors today and all I am getting is the endless status (progress) circle going round and round. The site is saying 'buy content in seconds' but an hour later, I still have not managed to view what I wanted to view. Sometimes, things open up after several clicks but a single click should suffice. Mostly, though, the circle still goes round and round even after many clicks--and I have asked other contacts to try; same result.

There is also a client Home page that seems to be floating with no purpose other than to catch new clients--many people putting 'Constant Content' into their browsers will be seeing the same thing I see, which is a page where there's room for new clients to sign up but nowhere for anyone to log in! This has wasted another ten minutes, several times over, because each time I search CC this page appears in preference to the login pages for either authors or clients. As a client, I can feel my blood pressure rising exponentially.

I tried many browsers and the problems are the same on each. I was beginning a new upload of dozens of new articles I have written but wonder if anyone has the ability to view! The presence on the Forum is depressing also; there are hardly any posts here compared to when I joined six years ago, for example the Questions & Answers forum section still shows me as the last poster--that was 4 days ago! The forum used to be a lively, interactive place with daily new posts. It looks like Marie Celeste here!

Is anyone still selling reasonably from their catalog?

I sold $2k-$3k maybe in Feb-March, so I was pretty happy with that as side money. I raised my prices, so that's only about 30-40 sales for me. June was pretty good too. Only $500-$600ish IIRC. Still happy with that amount as side money though because I didn't upload much at that point. July I made a couple hundred IIRC and then after that I think I've made a couple hundies in the last few months.

I'd like to upload maybe 10 more just to see how they sell but I haven't had time.

eta: it does kinda suck that the forum is so slow.

Sales might be better if there was an easy way for clients to search for articles within a specific writer's inventory. For clients who have previously purchased from a CC writer and like that person's writing style, it should be easy to search for a keyword/keyword phrase but limit their search to only one writer. Unless I'm missing something, I have yet to find a way to search within a writer's catalog. Scrolling through page after page of articles hoping to stumble upon niche-specific content isn't a viable solution for busy buyers (especially when their preferred writer has thousands of articles for sale on CC).

Lysis wrote:I sold $2k-$3k maybe in Feb-March, so I was pretty happy with that as side money. I raised my prices, so that's only about 30-40 sales for me. June was pretty good too. Only $500-$600ish IIRC. Still happy with that amount as side money though because I didn't upload much at that point. July I made a couple hundred IIRC and then after that I think I've made a couple hundies in the last few months.

I'd like to upload maybe 10 more just to see how they sell but I haven't had time.

eta: it does kinda suck that the forum is so slow.

That's great information, Lysis; how many articles do you have in your catalog?

Also, thanks for sharing the actual figures as it really helps. I have never uploaded many articles but what's there does sell, which encouraged me to revisit the site and start working here again until I saw the recent downhearted writer comments. It's good to see your positive feedback.

HiredGun wrote:Sales might be better if there was an easy way for clients to search for articles within a specific writer's inventory. For clients who have previously purchased from a CC writer and like that person's writing style, it should be easy to search for a keyword/keyword phrase but limit their search to only one writer. Unless I'm missing something, I have yet to find a way to search within a writer's catalog. Scrolling through page after page of articles hoping to stumble upon niche-specific content isn't a viable solution for busy buyers (especially when their preferred writer has thousands of articles for sale on CC).

I agree with you too, HiredGun. I cannot see a way to search a single writer's inventory either, and I was also trying to achieve that only last week. I'm sure the site's sales would rocket if functionality improved on many levels, with the 'search' function being brought to the core of the offer. It's a very basic site--and feels hit-and-miss just now--which, for a couple of $k invested (maybe less) could be an amazing place for both writers and clients.

I have to giggle, though, as my experience with frustrating searches today reminded me of being a member on an online dating site where the search function was just as challenging. It offered a vast drop-down menu but no matter what criteria you entered during a search, the same ten men came up every time, ha... the articles seem to be doing pretty much the same for me these days!

On the upside, the editor in Relationships approved my new submissions in record time.

cherylannej wrote:

HiredGun wrote:Sales might be better if there was an easy way for clients to search for articles within a specific writer's inventory. For clients who have previously purchased from a CC writer and like that person's writing style, it should be easy to search for a keyword/keyword phrase but limit their search to only one writer. Unless I'm missing something, I have yet to find a way to search within a writer's catalog. Scrolling through page after page of articles hoping to stumble upon niche-specific content isn't a viable solution for busy buyers (especially when their preferred writer has thousands of articles for sale on CC).

I agree with you too, HiredGun. I cannot see a way to search a single writer's inventory either, and I was also trying to achieve that only last week. I'm sure the site's sales would rocket if functionality improved on many levels, with the 'search' function being brought to the core of the offer. It's a very basic site--and feels hit-and-miss just now--which, for a couple of $k invested (maybe less) could be an amazing place for both writers and clients.

I have to giggle, though, as my experience with frustrating searches today reminded me of being a member on an online dating site where the search function was just as challenging. It offered a vast drop-down menu but no matter what criteria you entered during a search, the same ten men came up every time, ha... the articles seem to be doing pretty much the same for me these days!

On the upside, the editor in Relationships approved my new submissions in record time.

An upgraded search function is easy; it just has to be a priority for CC (i.e. https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/search or https://www.algolia.com). Factor in technologies like NLP and AI; discovering all the awesome content on CC would be a breeze.

Thanks for the feedback everyone - it's especially interesting to hear the opinions from a client's perspective and from the other top writers on the website. It would be great, however, to get some input from Constant Content's staff as well, but I am getting the impression that they're not nearly as responsive as they used to be. For example, I wrote to Support last week regarding the fact that several of my articles have been on 'waiting' status for several months now, and are presumably unavailable for purchase by anyone else.

I'm glad to hear that CC is still working out for some of you, but I can't help but think it's on the decline overall, judging from my own experiences and those of most of the other top writers here. I hardly ever get catalogue sales any more, and private requests are very rare. The website's speed and usability from the client's perspective sounds absolutely dire - I really can't imagine why the Constant Content team aren't working around the clock to get this issue fixed before it escalates out of control. I mean, if you can't even search through a particular writer's portfolio, then what's the point of even being a full-time writer here?!

Anyway, I'm now spending all the time I would normally be spending writing on-spec articles for the public catalogue looking for my own clients and working on a new popular-science blog (I have a severe obsession with dinosaurs and space). I also think it's a good time to start looking for new things to do with unsold articles (I've already taken down some of mine to publish on my blog). I'll keep taking on any private requests or the extremely rare writer's pool request but, for me, Constant Content is no longer the future unless, at least, there's a drastic improvement. Uff... I feel rather like I did 6 years ago before I found CC.