'Recently Sold Content' and what it can tell us

[PaulMaplesden]

Over the last month, I've been analyzing data from the publicly available 'Recently Sold Content' page of 'Writing Ideas' on CC. The idea was to find out what was selling, what customers were paying and what areas were performing well. In an effort to help other writers here to create content that draws more customers to the site (which is good for all of us!), I'm happy to share the high level data that I have managed to glean. This is based on information gathered from late May to date, so it's almost exactly four week's worth of data.

It's important to note that due to the seasonal nature of content sales, this data may not apply throughout the year, so this is just very much a snapshot.

High level information
Overall sales: Just over $23,000
Number of licenses sold: 781
Average cost per license: $29.57

Number of sales by license type
Full: 393
Unique: 28
Usage: 360

Total sales value by license type
Full: $15,600
Unique: $780
Usage: $6,700

Average sales value by license type
Full: $39.78
Unique: $28.11
Usage: $18.54

Median sales value by license type
Full: $35
Unique: $20
Usage: $15

Average price paid per word by license type*
Full: 8 cents a word
Unique: 5.6 cents a word
Usage: 3.7 cents a word
*As it is not easy to source this data, I have made an assumption of each article having 500 words on average

Inventory
Total articles added: 925 (Around 280 a week)
Net change in articles: 153 (around 37 a week)

Areas that sell the best (number of licenses sold)
> Business > Marketing 30
> Relationships > Self Improvement 28
> Health & Lifestyles > Nutrition 28
> Business > Careers 27
> Home > Home Improvement 26
> Business > Online Business 24
> Business > Entrepreneurship 22
> Recreation > Travel 22
> Relationships > Parenting 20

Top ten areas with highest inventory
> Health & Lifestyles > Medical
> Health & Lifestyles > Nutrition
> Home > Personal Finance
> Recreation > Travel
> Health & Lifestyles > Health & Lifestyles
> Home > Holidays
> Home > Gardening
> Business > Marketing
> Business > Careers
> Technology > Internet

Ten areas with lowest inventory
> Arts & Culture > Classical Studies
> Regional > Mexico
> Regional > Africa
> Sports > Golf
> Merchandise > Lingerie
> Sports > Tennis
> Regional > Oceania
> Regional > South America
> Sports > Swimming
> Regional > Regional

Best ratio of inventory to number of articles sold (*Hot* areas)
> Health & Lifestyles > Aging
> Merchandise > Jewelry
> Recreation > Outdoors
> Business > Entrepreneurship
> Arts & Culture > Visual Arts
> Technology > Web Development
> Relationships > Self Improvement
> Merchandise > Fashion
> Business > Real Estate
> Business > Online Business
I have filtered these for sales of at least ten licenses over the last four weeks

Value of sales by area
Arts & Culture: $600
Business: $6,000
General: $300
Health & Lifestyles: $4,800
Home: $2,700
Merchandise: $500
Recreation: $1,200
Regional: $300
Relationships: $2,500
Science: $300
Society: $1,400
Sports: $150
Technology: $2,500

I hope that you find this information useful in terms of what's selling, inventory and future projects. Please do share your own insights and information.

Paul.

[PaulMaplesden]

I have also shared this information on Reddit, Google Plus and Quora in the hope that it can attract more potential customers to CC. Fingers crossed!

[Lysis]

Probably gonna attract more random bad writers. This data is attractive for providers not buyers, but it's still cool stats. Hopefully, the influx of writers suck.

Incoming flood of rejection questions. haha

[JDWhang]

I was thinking of putting together some data like this, but was too lazy. Thanks for doing this!