Yet Another First Sale Thread

[Greg]

Hi all,

I just wanted to share (read: brag) about my first sale, and also ask a bit of advice. The article wasn't anything fancy - a 900 word article on how to use the "Mail Merge" function in Word 2003. I got the accepted email at 8:35am, and it literally sold within minutes. Of course, I had set bargain basement pricing - $20 for full rights.

My first question is related to that pricing - is it advisable to continue to build up my portfolio a bit on here with smaller, cheaper articles? So far I have written maybe 3000 words total over 4 articles, and if all sell, I'm looking at making maybe $65 or so, after CC get their cut. I can continue to write basic tutorials on simple-ish computer tasks and likely sell them quickly (and write them quickly for that matter) but my interests definitely aren't tied to computers. In terms of return for my time investment, I won't be doing great, but there is some risk in writing more content-rich (and dare I say more interesting?) articles if they sit there unsold. I don't mind slogging it out, but is there any benefit to "making a name for myself" as it were?

Second question: My interests are widely varied, but in my Real Life I know most about British Columbian and Canadian law and jurisprudence. Not likely to be a big seller :) . In the interest of discussion, I wonder what your experiences are with respect to what topics are consistent sellers? Are there any time-pit topics to avoid?

[Celeste Stewart]

It's not necessary to underprice yourself in order to succeed. THere's obviously a customer out there needing the content. This same customer is paying other writers decent money for their efforts so why should you undervalue yourself? Look at the request and you'll see what the customer is willing to pay and also watch what's selling. Why should you get just $20 when others are getting far more?

[Nessiee]

First off, congrats on your first sale! As for selling it for bargain basement prices, you're free to do that, which can make some quick dollars should you need money fast. But you shouldn't undersell yourself though. I'm a firm believer in waiting a little extra time, for the right customer to come along and buy articles for a reasonable price. If the writing is high quality, you should be paid fairly for your efforts.

Just a note from my own experiences... even when I'm writing topics that I figure would only interest me, there still seems to be a market that is willing to buy them. Surprisingly, I've sold several articles on topics I wouldn't have dreamed would sell, but I wanted to write, because I had the idea in my head. And believe me, some of those articles weren't cheap either. The most I've gotten from a single article so far has been $150 for a 1000ish word article bought at full rights. That's before the CC cut, but that's still a lot of money for something I wanted to learn more about anyway. I could have probably sold it faster with a smaller price tag, but I thought it was a valuable article, so I was willing to wait and see if someone agreed with me and would make the purchase. Now I'm glad I decided to wait.

Mind you, some of my articles sold years after posting them, but waiting for a buyer doesn't take any effort from my end of things, so I consider my articles "long term investments". It's good to write articles for quick sales, but it's almost like a nice break to write something challenging, or something that I have a passion for, and if I can make some money from it (even if it is next year) then that's a bonus.

[Greg]

Thank you very much for the advice. Much appreciated! I've just finished a 1200-worder that really didn't take very long - just under 2 hours. Again, PC tutorials are breezy! I've priced it at about $60 for full rights, which is about on par +/- $15 with what similar-sounding articles of comparable size seem to be going for. Its not a labour of love, but I believe its well-written and on a seemingly marketable topic. We shall see!

This isn't really about money for me - I'm a poor student in any event. So its either a poor student with $60,000 in debt, or a poor student with $60,000 in debt and a few extra bucks in my pocket each week.

Do any of you set dollar/hour goals or anything of the like? I mean, writing is generally time consuming. Do you ever think in terms of "if this is going to take me 3 hours to write, but only likely to earn me $15...." or does it all kind of even out in the end?

Thanks again for the insight - I've been spending all day reading these forums.

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi again,
I definitely approach all writing here with a per hour rate in mind. If I can't make $XX amount per hour, I usually won't take on the project. Otherwise, I'd be better off going back to the corporate world. For me, this is my job so I need to make decisions with my livelihood in mind.

[DSWaltenburg]

Celeste,

How long did it take for you to get to the point where you could start setting your rates at the higher levels? Did you start out doing cheapies, and work your way up, or have you always written, even in the corporate world? Writing is my livelihood, as well, however, I don't have the formal training or credentials, therefore I'm writing for several different sites, in addition to my CC work, just to get the experience and knowledge about internet writing, but also, so that I can someday soon have a basis for obtaining work that will bring in higher rates. What's your advice for those of us who are just getting our feets wet in the writing biz? Are you willing to share what you have charged or accepted as pay in the past, when beginning your writing career?


Deborah

[Celeste Stewart]

I always started out charging what I thought was fair to both myself and the customer. Sure, I'll give you a peek into my first month. For example, just a few weeks into CC, I sold a 500-word article for $80. That same first month, I posted a 1000-word article for $150. That one didn't sell right away but eventually did. The first article eventually led to many, many more articles and a good, longtime customer. The second article took me an hour and half to write, netted me $97, and averaged out to an hourly wage of $65 per hour. Not bad for the first month if I do say so myself. During that first month, I made close to $300 after the CC cut plus all the articles (except for one) that didn't sell eventually did sell over the long haul.

I did a bit of experiementing, answered lots of public requests, and wrote articles that interested me. My first private request came a couple months later and that was a great feeling! Haven't looked back since.

Yes, I've always been a writer at heart. Did lots of script writing back in my early days of television and video production and then tons of writing in general for my marketing job. In my free time, I enjoyed writing fiction.

[DSWaltenburg]

Thanks for giving that glimpse, Celeste. You rock! It's good to know what experienced writers have tried and learned over the course of their careers!!!

I know I'm definitely-probably-yeah definitely selling myself too short on some of my articles, but as I go along and build more confidence, I'll bump up the ante a bit at a time!! :)

[Elizabeth Ann West]

I can give insight to how the other way works :)

My first article here sold for $18 full rights (a paltry $11.70 after cut). I wrote $20 or less articles for my first 2 months I think. I sprinkled in a few high dollar ones, one on Online Banking for $85, sat for 2 months finally sold when price came down to $45. My first Big article was a treatise on alternative ways to combat shopping addiction. It was selected as a Premium Article when that program first rolled out, and sold $65 after a month and a half, to a credit consolidation website.

I started out small potatoes, and it took me about 4 months to have the confidence to just price higher. Now I tell new people price high, you can ALWAYS bring it down if it doesn't sell within a month or two. But it's awfully hard to move the other way.

I also have an hourly thing like Celeste, and before I took on a major client who eats up most of my writing time with a happy paycheck, I followed her advice of set a goal of X dollars that day, like I will write $200 worth of article today. You do that for a whole week, you will quickly see your portfolio grow and at one point it was like every week I was selling 2-3 articles. This gave me my biggest month before the big client, and I would still be using this method if I had the time.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

(again the character count stirkes me down again)

Other half of previous post...

I find in addition to price, one area people forget about is customer service. I make it a point to thank public requesters for their business to our community of Authors. And in the same breath that I wish them the best of luck in finding the content they need, I remind them I am always available for future content needs via Private Request. Some buyers who post Public Request don't realize this function at first. I also like to give a bief sentence or two about the angle I took for their article request and who I think will benefit from it.

Say I was writing for that Salzburg article request (which I don't even begin to have time for). Once my article is up, I would add in there :

I have an article in my portfolio I believe will suit your needs. It's called "Title" and write about Salzburg, Austria in relation to other large European cities, so seasoned travelers realize Salzburg, Austria is a modern urban destination their trip itinerary is sorely missing.

There I gave them a thank you, asked for future business, and gave them a teaser of the article. If it's not what they need, no worries, I'm sure someone will come along and buy it, after all, Salzburg isn't going anywahere anytime soon. :)

[DSWaltenburg]

You're right, Elizabeth, it's nigh on impossible to bump the prices UP after they've been sitting at lower prices. I'm gradually working my way up. I use the Q&A's alot on the public requests, just to let them know about me, and hopefully spark their interest for further projects. So far, no bites, but I'm not letting it drag me down, just plugging away :)

Thanks for your insight!!!

Deborah

[Lor]

Celeste and Elizabeth,
Thanks for the insight into your ways and means. :)

Lor (rain)

[melissan]

I have a scrappier style to writing content which may help you in your quest or fully point out how ADHD of an adult I can really be.

I have a profitable day job that I enjoy, so I write for fun and extra cash when the mood suits me. I choose some topics that I know will sell and others for my own enjoyment. Shhhhh..don't tell anyone, but I actually do not like private requests. I like to write, post and hope it sells eventually. Private requests (I am in the minority for sure) make me feel as if I have to hurry and write something about a topic I don't understand and I feel like I have to price the article in order to entice the buyer for future work. I have found that I sell articles for much less through private request than I would through regular submission.

I'd rather produce content as the mood suits me because I write better that way. I do not like to produce under a deadline because it simply stresses me out too much. The reason I love writing for CC is because I can post an article and then forget about it. No pressure, no deadlines.

I have sold about 40% of the articles that I have posted so far, most of the articles at prices I thought were reasonable. I have sold a few articles for $7 and became very irritated at myself once I did. Numbers are not worth it, overall profit is.