What is your CC "Eureka" moment?

[audrabianca]

I was really inspired when I found this site.

[Stephanie Tallman Smith]

I think the Eureka moment for me was when the first thing I wrote sold within a day. Then I wrote another and it sold. And another, and another, and within about a week I was listed on the author board. I realized that this was something I needed to stick with. For authors trying to break into print, or even just find a medium to offer their work for sale without the dreaded query letter, CC is definitely the place.

[jak]

Eureka. I've just been paid for the first time.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

I started freelance writing for profit for the first time in October of 2007. I wrote for a differntly modeled site for a month, very sloowly. I started with writing a personal articles based on my experience, and the first two were paid upfront. Both were therapeutic, and took less than 2 hours to write.

This got me thinking, "Hmm, I think we're on to something, and probably not being properly compensated." I heard about C-C oddly enough from articles on freelancing from home on that very site. But I was afraid -- the notion of stricter rules and only a 3 strikes you're out type of rejection system was intimidating. On the urging of a friend, unrelated to writing but kind enough to listen to rant about it, I submitted an article, and it was approved. I have since uploaded I think a paltry 19 articles, and of them only 5 are left for sale. I know, it doesn't compare to all of you out there with hundreds. But, you try moving across country during the Christmas holidays and tell me how much time you find to write.

But, I'm pacing myself, and for good reason. I am one of those people that runs 90 miles an hour when I am interested in something, but I have a big tendency to change directions quite a bit. I have a list of article ideas that could last me probably a few months, and I am constantly adding to it! I have put my husband through the gamut of home based businesses (I've sold things, I've taken incoming infomercials calls at home, I've been "recruited" to be a financial advisor etc.). This time, I am learning from past mistakes and walking gingerly but confidently. I now understand the quote that most entrepreneurs fail x times before success.

I think my eureka moment was really 2 weeks ago when I picked up writing again after more than a month hiatus, and immediately sold enough articles to make the threshold. After 4 months now of genuine writing with a hefty profit, I have decided to flesh out my writing career. Since then, I worked on a legitimate business plan, with ideas to make my own website, business cards, and seek writing opportunities in print publications as well. I figure if I keep it new, and fresh, I can maybe stick with this profession. Plus, I absolutely love the look on people's faces when I say "I'm a freelance writer actually." And to the snorts, and "Yeah, how well can that pay?" I treasure the opportunity to say "about $10-15 an hour." (Figure is based on my sales income and the number of hours I actually "work" writing).

Best thing about C-C, is I don't have to bug friends and relatives to hear my sales pitch. Now, if I had the surefire way to keep my crippling perfectionism from preventing submittals, things would be even better.

[Celeste Stewart]

You'll have a second "eureka" moment when you realize you can do much better than $10-$15 per hour Give yourself a raise.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Well Celeste... any high paying work you don't have time or care to tackle, feel free to send it my way.

Thanks for always being there for all of us. I am moving along a quick learning curve right now with my first "weekly" customer. But, while the prices are bargains, I am learning ALOT and he actually sent me a huge compliment on my latest article. It was almost worth more than the article amount... almost.

[Celeste Stewart]

You don't have to have high-paying customers to make a nice hourly figure here. As a newbie, many of my first articles posted to CC netted $50 to $60 per hour (after CC's cut) - that was long before anyone ever heard of me....not trying to rub it in or anything like that, just letting you know that it's entirely possible to earn higher rates - even without private requests.

[Gail Kavanagh]

My Eureka moment was getting paid - it was so trouble free. I had been freelancing and writing content for various clients and publications before that, and some took forever to pay, some didn't bother to pay at all (they know who they are - I've reminded often enough) and some only paid by check which takes six weeks to clear here in Australia. Then there were the ones who never bothered to get back to me at all about my submissions, and so on - freelancing can be slow and frustrating as board members will know.
But CC is like having an agent, I don't have to deal with the clients at all. I just write and get paid, and the money comes into PayPal which means a couple of days wait instead of six weeks.
Even the editing process is more streamlined than dealing with editors who sometimes have no clue. Can't say that about the CC editors.
Gotta love it! Thanks, CC.

[jwatkins]

My Eureka moment came when my first article was rejected by Ed.
I knew then that the high standards set by Constant would surely bring in the customers and if I could just get by the gatekeeper I could make some sales. Well as of now I've only written 22 articles but I've sold 13 of those. Oh and another thing, this is really part-part time for me and it's cool to not write for two months and then get an email that I have sold another article. Good ploy Constant, now I'll have to write some more and get a couple more sales to get paid!

[vjlenin]

Wow, I missed this sticky. Great to read the others' feelings. I am totally screwed missing all this. In my limited internet time, most of which is taken up in research for my newer content in CC or for my blog or for various other things I do, I couldnot much be active in forums.

Here goes my Eureka moment. I knew the potential of CC from the very first. I knew this is a great place for freelancers. (Though, I was not sure of the quality and editing details.) I am very finicky about my content, and need to make myself a great author. I am passionate about language, and still being young, learning a lot!! (though very lousy language user in forums!!) So, I decided to see my work in action in CC as a good publishing option, and to see if I can build a career here at all.

As I am fairly younger than most here, after just passing out of my college, it is great feeling to have a work in my chosen field, writing. With all hope and aspirations, I did thorough research on my new topic, SEO, which I am doing myself for my blog. I found resources, and compiled a huge (about 2000 words) article on SEO fundamentals. I posted it here once with links, and got a rejection too soon. Posted it second time after removing the hyperlinks and putting only the link urls. Got second rejection. I removed the hyperlink urls totally, and got my third rejection.

I would say that was my Eureka moment: when I got hit by my third rejection. I had posted in other article directories which accepted my content with some stylistic and grammatical mistakes. But CC won't that was understood at that moment. And I was really extremely happy to find that CC has quality in it, and a person thirsty for quality like me will taste good success here. That was my Eureka moment I would say.

The story continues... I edited that article, reread my style guide, Elements of Style, and edited the article in one long sit of nearly seven hours. I found more than 200 errors in various places, restructured the content totally, edited out all stylistic problems, reread, reread, reread, and made absolutely sure that it was perfect (really difficult job to edit content I must admit). Then with high hopes, posted the article, doublechecking the formatting, guidelines etc., once again to be too sure.

I waited for about three or four days this time, and was almost sure that I will have that approved. And then one fine evening, at the time when I usually check my email, I found among other crappy mails, one great great news (use the third great i skipped here for the next landmark): Constant content article has been accepted. Voila! I am on the way to my publishing life my career of life!!! What next?

Hardly two hours passed! I wanted to log back in (it was night about ten I guess). And the news I see: here goes the great great great greatest news: Constant content article sold! hehe, my first article, my life's first article sale had come! embarking on a long long career (I hope sincerely). I had seventy dollar on that (the customer was online, and he had made an offer for my content he first wanted it for fifty dollars, and I negotiated and got it up to seventy).

There goes, vjlenin, embarking on his career in freelance work. After that, I have now got about 24 articles in CC and 12 sales so far. I am writing serial content for a customer, and am publishing some extra works as well. What hits me most is the editing thing!
I must award it to Ed, who takes nothing less than perfect! I am a lousy editor, I take pride in writing, and was not in habit of giving closer look at my articles than a light one, editing out obvious grammatical and style errors (you can get idea from this post itself). But Ed now almost made me a great editor, I now put in extra time editing and am getting faster acceptances. And i am also learning a lot from community and authors here. Thanks a lot... I just love CC and you all!

Lenin

[Viqi French]

This is my first day here and I'm so encouraged from reading all of your [i]Eureka [/i]moments.

I was motivated to get started here because an ebook client "burned" me. So I'm sitting on this wonderful 50+ page ebook and want to somehow get properly paid for all my hard work.

I hope I can come back to this thread soon and share a similar success story!

Viqi

[jak]

I just had another one. Opened my emails this morning to find eight from CC. Two public requests and six sales.

SIX sales in one day.

A first for me. Yippee.

[jentypist]

Is anyone out there making CC their primary source of income? I looked at some of the top selling authors with regard to the amount of licenses they have sold, used $30 as the average price, and came up with about $58,000 for one. Is it possible to make this a full time job? If so, how long does it take to get established? Unfortunately we can't control people's spending habits, no matter how good the content.

I did sell a few pieces, and that alone was motivation to keep going! One of them was on a mental health topic that I actually came up with myself. This wasn't a known topic that has been previously written about. It's a great feeling to know someone purchased something that you "invented!"

[Celeste Stewart]

Yes. CC is one of my main income sources. I have a couple of outside clients that fill in the gaps. It helps to have several regular CC private requesters and that takes time to establish. But once you do, the work is fairly steady. I do it part time and make a decent living for my efforts.

[melissan]

I have been writing forever, back in the day when the Writers Market book was the best tool for finding buyers for articles, etc. Query letters left unanswered and rejection letter after rejection letter. I stopped trying to freelance write about 1996, continuing to write but no longer trying to sell it.

Oddly, it never occurred to me that with all of the opportunities online, you could now sell your writing to buyers online. I feel pretty old, but in college we didn't have the internet and had to use a dot matrix printer that was shared with the entire room of computers. No cell phones. No text messaging. WOW. I am old.

My point is, I was talking to a friend about writing again for money. I was bored at my job and wanting to stop investigating child abuse cases on a daily basis. She suggested the Writers' Digest magazine and it was there that I saw constant content advertised. I tried a few submissions and was not daunted by the first few rejections. I was excited when the first few articles sold and I started to focus on providing more content for the site.

My "eureka" moment was when I submitted 6 or so real estate articles and once they were accepted I believe I sold 5 in a day, making on average $35 an hour, even with the CC fee.

Honestly, I didn't need to sell anything to know that I could write, but making money for what comes easily was a shock. I've written it before, and I'll write it again. Selling words for money is like picking money off of a money tree.

Eureka.