Sorry to bother everybody, but I'm new to Constant Content and had a couple of questions.
First --- I read the "Cans and Can'ts" list about the different about what you get with the different levels. With the Full Rights category do I get to keep my byline or relinquish it? And can I use my article elsewhere once I've sold it at Full Rights. Just a little confused here that's all.
Second --- I need some guidelines for establishing what to charge on my articles. I've seen pricing range from 2 cents to over 10 cents per word.
With Full Rights, the purchaser gains all rights to your article. You may not sell it elsewhere (ever again), and they can change it as they like, including removing your byline. However, they might leave your byline on; it's up to them at that point. (This can get annoying if they change the article and leave your byline on; I've read of some that this has happened to.)
In regards to pricing, there is a pricing guide on the submission page, but I normally look to see how articles in similar categories are priced. I check the Recently Sold Content list as well. Finally, it makes a difference for me whether I wrote the article with little or extensive research. So it's hard to give definitive advice to that question.
One thing I didn't realize when I first started here about pricing is I forgot about the cuts taken out.
See, I was so thrilled to sell my first few articles for $20, until I realized that C-C takes 35% and then once I am paid through Paypal, another roughly 3% is taken out. Hence, 5 articles at $20 sold and 1 article at $45 sold only netted me $95, and then from that really only $65 so that 1/3 can go to paying my taxes at the end of the year. My $20 articles were about 500-750 words, and the $45 was a whopping 1800 words, but was written for a public request that I wasn't chosen for, so I priced it to essentially get rid of it. Well, that worked! But I'll always wonder if that buyer would have also been willing ot buy the article at $55 or $65?
I am working on a new pricing strategy for myself, and I think the hardest thing is to not sell yourself short. This business takes a considerable amount of patience for your article sales, and it is tough to not seek instant gratification as soon as your article is approved for submission. Good luck and best thing to do is to keep writing, and ignore when other authors put their articles up for only $5 or $8.
