Are Your High Priced Articles Selling?

[dsletten]

I'm just curious...I've noticed a lot of articles lately that are for sale for full rights at $100 and $120 and up. Are authors really selling their articles for these prices or are you taking Best Offers for them? Or are customers buying use rights instead for the higher priced articles? It's been my experience that the higher the full rights price, the harder it is to sell. I've seen a few high-priced articles go through the sold section but generally I see articles sell for under the $40 range. I'd love to hear from other authors on this - you don't have to give details about what you are earning, I just would like to hear if you've had success at selling a lot of high-priced articles. I'd also like to hear from the authors who haven't been able to sell at higher prices. It would be interesting to hear everyone's take on this. Thanks.

[Celeste Stewart]

Yes, they do sell! I had one recently that sold for $200 on the same day that it hit the site. That was awesome. Others have taken much longer to sell, but they have eventually found a home at full price as I don't do the best offer thing.

Here are some of my stats:
Topic/price

Paying taxes/$100
Save money/$150
Credit card deadbeats/$75
Financial fitness/$200
Adding more fruits and veggies to diet/$150

Of those, the only one that was particularly long was the $200 article which was about 2000 words.

[beconrad]

I've recently sold a few in that price range as well, mostly on financial topics. I see a lot of articles on saving money, budgeting, surviving the recession, etc. selling for high prices. As Celeste said those high priced articles don't always sell immediately, but they do sell. One of my $100 articles (on avoiding work at home scams) had been sitting around for 5 months, so it definitely pays to be patient.

Bonnie

[Celeste Stewart]

Most of my higher priced articles bring either more depth or detail or a level of uniqueness to them, too. I'm not just slapping a higher price on articles just to see what happens. For example, when writing about the solar system, describing the planets would be fairly ordinary and wouldn't command as high a price as an article digging into which planets might sustain life and why or analyzing the orbits of each planet and projecting potential collision paths.

One of my goals lately has been to try to write at least one "premium" article per month. It's a goal that I've let slide a bit, but I think it's worth doing. Not only does it give you the potential to sell a few higher priced articles, it also exercises those writing and research muscles. So, give it a try. Write a $100-$200 article! I know you can do it :)

[dsletten]

It's very encouraging hearing from you both. Of course, I not surprised that either of you have sold articles in that price range. I'll have to do some re-thinking of how I price some of my articles. Thanks for sharing. I'd like to hear from others, too. :)

[Celeste Stewart]

I see someone just sold "Hints for Hospital Visitors" for $90. What a terrific topic. I'm guessing that one took a while to find a customer but when that right customer came along, the article filled the bill!

[dsletten]

It's kind of interesting. When I first came to CC 2 years ago I sold articles for much higher prices than I do now. But after awhile I noticed only lower priced articles were selling so it was hard to sell the higher priced ones. Now it seems authors are placing higher prices on their articles again. Has anyone who has been here awhile noticed that or is it just me? What do you think, Celeste?

[Celeste Stewart]

I do think that there are some group dynamics at play. After all, when you see other articles selling for higher figures than your own, you might think, "Am I missing the boat?" and adjust prices upwards. LIkewise, if you're noticing most articles selling for pennies, you might think "Could I sell more if I offered lower prices?" and adjust downward. In the last couple of months, I've noticed articles selling at nice rates and have seen many of my older articles sell. We do seem to have some customers who recognize the value of the articles offered in all price ranges!

Either way, it's all good. Sometimes it's easier and immediately more rewarding to crank out a few less expensive articles than it is to write a higher priced article. They all fill a need. The trick is to figure out which of our articles deserve a higher rate. For example, I wouldn't charge $100 for a quickie movie review, even if I gush on and on for a thousand-plus words but I will charge that amount for an article that explores the pros and cons of accepting early retirement in today's economy, even if the article is shorter than the movie review.

[dsletten]

Thanks for your input, Celeste. :)

[JD]

I can't see any rhyme or reason to the selling stats. But as Celeste says, it's good to see those higher priced articles selling, as opposed to articles going for $5 or even $1. I sold three articles on Friday, all for full rights, one of which was for $80, which was great, especially as I'm not submitting at the moment ($80 is at the top end of my price range - the others were for $60 and $55). I have my own pricing structure based on CC's suggested prices (based on word count), and I stick to this. So even though the articles I sold Friday were relatively easy to put together (they were relationship based articles, which didn't require a great deal of research - it's all inside of me!), I didn't deviate from my pricing structure. Similarly, with an article I write that takes a little more research, most often I will still stick to my pricing structure. Whether that's wise or not, it's not causing me any concern. I think that my prices are reasonable and I'm content with what I get for the work I put in.

Patience is key though. Those articles I sold Friday were written perhaps a year ago. But I very, very rarely change the price of an article just because it's been a number of months since I've written it and it hasn't sold (or because lots of articles are selling for "lower" prices).

Anyway, I'm sure that next week, or the week after, we'll again see a fair number of $5 and $1 articles being sold!

Jane

[HayleyWriter]

Hi all,

I have sold two articles in the past two days - one at $90 (yes the Hints for Hospital Visitors was mine, and yes it had sat for several months waiting for the right customer - that happens with specialised articles) and one for $100 (that one was only put on the site in the last few days!). Both had the option of best offer, but the customers just bought the articles outright, which was nice. I think some customers are willing to pay the higher prices for the quality articles. In fact, my last four sales have been $100, $90 and $90 all for full rights and a $25 for use. I have noticed that the customers have bought in batches of related articles, and often these were the highest prices in the batch, so others are selling for lower prices.

I think the pricing is partly about marketing - by putting prices on my articles that are reasonable but towards the high end of the market, I'm saying to the customer that my articles are quality and are worth purchasing. Selling cheaply doesn't always work. However, if you do put high prices on the articles, be prepared to wait for the buyers. I know some authors have been discouraged lately by the low prices offered by certain requesting customers, but rest assured, customers are still purchasing the quality articles at higher rates. It has taken me several months to build up my portfolio but sales have definitely kicked in for me in January and February, with articles that were written in July, August, and September selling as well as recent articles. I think patience is the key to success here (that and submitting quality articles often!).

Hayley

[Amy W]

I take the same route as Jane - I just price based on the CC suggested prices. My theory is this - if everyone used this same pricing scheme, then all writers here would make a decent wage, instead of working for sweat shop wages - $1 articles. Obviously, I'm going to have to wait a lot longer for a 1500-word article to sell, but I'm willing to wait and see what happens.

Amy

[dsletten]

I appreciate all the responses. It's always interesting to hear how others feel about pricing articles. It is also good to hear that everyone experiences long waits for quality articles to sell from time to time. I've had articles over a year old suddenly sell and am always suprised when it happens. Thanks for sharing, everyone. :)

[BarryDavidson]

I'm one of those weird ones. I usually base my prices off of actual writing time (and that includes any research I may have to do), as well as what type of article. Let's say that I write a general 350 word article in fifteen minutes on a topic i know backward and forward, and that I write four of those throughout the day. In my mind, 30.00 to 60.00 an hour is a good wage.

Now, I could sell each of those four articles for 15.00 each, and still get above my minimum of 30.00 per hour. Sometimes I will do that - especially when it's just a general article and not a tutorial. My best time to earning ratio to date has been 65.00 for an hour's work. Well, the article only took about 45 minutes, but I counted it as a full hour. I could probably earn a better "hourly" wage, but I just haven't written any in-depth pieces which require a lot of research.

Something (I think it was Ed) someone wrote in the forums caught my attention. I'd suspected it for years, but it was refreshing to hear it from someone else. The average internet reader reads at the equivalent of a 6th grade level and attention span. Most of my articles are in language the "average" person can understand or relate to. Stereo instructions mean absolutely nothing to the average person. So instead of thirty words on where a screw is, I just write that it's the big silver screw on the top-left of the case.

No matter what way you choose to price your articles at, put yourself in a buyer's shoes. If you were to buy content for your magazine or website, you will only get what you pay for. Would you be willing to pay a bit more for quality, or would you let your publication die a slow death due to lack of readership? Personally, I'd pay more. The old sayings: You get what you pay for, and quality is better than quantity is absolutely true. Ten-thousand readers of five articles is much better than five readers of ten thousand.

[dsletten]

Wouldn't you know - the day after I ask this question several high-priced articles sell. You just never know what will sell and when!