Screeching halt in sales?

[airwolfe777]

Anyone elese sales been down recently? I was doing great and then all of a sudden - nothing this past week. Is there trouble with the site?

MJ

[DSWaltenburg]

I haven't sold anything other than for my private request work. However, I haven't really written anything else either. Just the natural ebb and flow of the sales, I think. Site is working fine.

[melissan]

Same here. Sold a number of articles earlier in the month and then not so many in the past week or so. Ebbs and flows. Maybe content buyers have so much budget for their site and by the end of the month it runs out. Who knows.

My humble suggestion is for writers to try and not undersell their written work. If a buyer can buy original content for $5 (I am guilty of this myself), why would they look any further? At $5 an article, it is unlikely that the writer is making even minimum wage and the more content that is available for this price, the more buyers grow to expect this. Articles that are priced higher will continue to be overlooked when budgets are tight and there is too much underpriced content.

We all ride a fine line between wanting more sales (who isn't striving for the top ten board?) and making a living.

Just my two cents.

[DSWaltenburg]

Even worse than the $5 articles are the $1 articles. EEEEEEEEEEEEE! :) Might as well just go write at AC or some other freebie writing site. I'm guilty of the $5 articles....my recipes....usage only though. Who knows. I kind of seriously screwed myself out of money with the private thing, in the short run, by offering a bit of a discounted rate for the volume of work he has given me, however, in the long run, this keeps food on the table, and has the potential to help me buy a laptop someday!! :D

[cgardener]

From things I've read on the forums here lately, there seems to be some wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes with authors and customers, that may or may not be acceptable, but it cuts into the sales for the rest of us.

[DSWaltenburg]

Even if that's truth and not just rumor, it wouldn't account for a site-wide slump in sales.....and I doubt the slump is site-wide, it's just based on what we slump-ees have in our inventories, and what we care to submit, or have time to submit....just not fitting right now.

Just that awkward time of year when there isn't much going on, society wise, except for the economic, financial, and Wall Street stuff which requires instant coverage, since it changes by the 1/2 hour. It's not too easy to sell current events/news stuff with articles requiring a review process. (No fault of Ed's, just the way it is...)otherwise there'd be tons of us writing on the daily goings on of the markets, and the global money meltdown. Gardening is winding down for the year, Colleges and schools have been in session for well over a month in some cases. Seems the only topics that are constantly requiring coverage are tech-related, and maybe a broader view of the financial sector.

The holidays are fast approaching, so I'm certain that sales for those types of pieces will pick up soon!

[cgardener]

I've noticed that more people are buying "usage" and not "full rights". I don't sell a lot of usage articles, but I don't price my articles very high either. In hard financial times, maybe there isn't money to buy articles, and it is going into the holiday season as well.

I lost one sale on a halloween article that was the same subject as someone else's because I didn't put a usage price on it. Stupid me. I should have realized that holiday articles sell better for usage than full rights. Holidays come and go, and how many people actually keep Halloween stuff on their blog or website all year long?

[Lor]

"...things I've read on the forums here lately, there seems to be some wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes with authors and customers...cuts into the sales for the rest of us..."

I come into the forums for a quick boo every day, cgardener, and never picked up on any such thing. I know you're not yourself right now, but really. I just think maybe we'd all like to see you back up some of these accusations you make. :)

Take care of yourself, now.

(And if it's true, I doubt it's the problem. It's all about time, patience, experience, diligence and responding quickly to requests.) It's nobody else's fault.

[Celeste Stewart]

I don't think there's wheeling and dealing going on either. Sure, one thread discussed a misunderstanding on how to go about getting the customer's attention for work (the answer is to write an article and give the customer a link to it rather than pitching your services and skills) but I don't really think there's a new rash of people circumventing the system. And if there were, I doubt the writers would come to forum to talk about how they're doing it.

If you're concerned that some writers and customers work with each other fairly exclusively through the private request system that shouldn't be an issue either. While the whole batch of writers isn't invited to participate, it doesn't necessarily affect the opportunities available. For example, just think, some of the more prolific writers don't even write to the public requests at all because they are occupied with other projects. This means that there's less competition for the open requests.

The opportunities ARE there.

[melissan]

I think we are all responsible for our own success or lack of as well. CC is a business and each of us as individual writers are a business of sorts. It doesn't matter if people are cutting deals (which I haven't had any suspicion or knowledge of) to me. I continually look for ways to write what I want for the price I want to sell it. I've made comments on the $5 articles because I think it undermines all of us as a whole, but if a writer only believes that their work is worth $5 -.33%, then that's the choice they've made.
Highly professional writers on this site make a living by selling their writing. They work hard and have been giving solid advice. There is enough work for everyone if as a group we write well and submit interesting content that continually brings new buyers to the site. We are in this together because we all represent what CC has to offer.

[airwolfe777]

Writing, schmiting --- I just want to make money.

:)

MJ

[grouchy]

Maybe it's time for you to go flip burgers somewhere.

Your attitude makes me
GROUCHY

[airwolfe777]

My younger brother actually lost his life "flipping burgers" a Wendys in Connecticut. So don't put down "flipping burgers" -- my brother took pride in his job and although he had trouble landing a "real" job, he quickly climbed the ranks to assistant Manager. A grease fire in the rear grill caused an explosion and it took my brother's life -- literally while he was "flipping burgers". So think twice before you put someone down for their occupation, Grouchy.

My "writing, schmiting" comment was simply a joke.

MJ

[grouchy]

My point was that it would be predictable income, unlike writing.

[airwolfe777]

Haha! I got your point -- I was just teasing you. I am an only child. I've never had any siblings. You might say my story was a "double whopper" (with cheese)

:)

MJ