October 2009 Get out of a Price Rut Challenge - Who's In?

[Debbi]

That's a great idea, Celeste. Cuts out all the calculating!

Of course it will also cut out all the buyers who search by price range only, but who knows how many of those there are...

[Celeste Stewart]

Buyers search by price range?

[Nessiee]

I suppose that checking the Best Offer box might work in this case, Celeste. I think I'll give that a try for a while - on my "already sold" articles anyway. I played with the "Best Offer" feature a while back, but gave up on it when the only offers I had showing up in my inbox were ridiculously low. There was no way I wanted to give up full rights for such horrible offers, but the decent offers didn't seem to be venturing in my direction.

--
As for the buyers searching by price - I know there used to be an option to sort articles ascending and descending by price, but I don't think that can still be done. I believe the buyers can now type in a minimum and maximum price when they are searching, so that only articles within that range show up.

[eek]

I like your logic, Celeste! No to a damaged-goods image!

I set the usage price with the idea that if the article goes for usage the first time, it won't ever sell for full rights, and that one sale might be it's only shot. If I put a lot of work into that article, a usage sale is something, at least. I like the idea of selling an article many times over, but I've only had a few articles with repeat (2-3 times) sales. So I don't usually dink with the price - except for that one time, that I recall.

On a related note to something Nessiee said about assuming an article, if offered for usage only, has been sold elsewhere:
Recently I put on article on CC (not published elsewhere) and immediately got an offer from a customer who said he liked the angle. I think I had $50 on it full rights and he offered $20. I hadn't chosen the best offer system. I might have said yes if he offered $40, but less than half? I turned him down. I really liked the article. My husband/writing partner had praised it highly, which he almost never does. I don't know why, but I quickly changed the rights to usage only. Couldn't stand to see that piece go out and have someone else put their name on it. If one customer saw it as a good angle, someone else might too. Hasn't sold yet, but that was just last month.

That's one example of this challenge, though it has more to do with how I valued my work than getting out of a price rut. There are so many reasons for how you price your work, and sometimes the strategy has to vary per piece.

[Debbi]

Buyers (or anyone) can search for articles by Content Type, Category, Rights Offered, or Price Range (where you type in your min and max prices) in the Advanced Search option. You can only find the Avanced Search by doing a search and clicking on the Advanced Search link on the search results page. Thats where I was suggesting to put a search option for "Best Offer" checkbox for the buyers to use.

[Celeste Stewart]

Maybe we should rename the challenge to the "valuing your work" challenge Curious, why not go with a unique license on that article, eek? Your name would stay on it wherever it ends up.

I'm like you, I price usage higher than many do with the same assumption that the article may sell only that one time, maybe twice. Could be why I don't sell many usage licenses but then again I wasn't selling many back when I was pricing them much lower. I mainly do it to discourage usage because I'm not a big fan of that license. However, this strategy has paid off from time to time. For example, I sold one usage article twice so far for $65 each time. Nice! I was asking $120 for full rights, so I have earned more than expected. Am I going to drop the price because it has two customers? Nope. It may eventually sell again for $65 but I don't think it will sell ten times over if I priced it at $6.50.

[eek]

I must have understood that license wrongly, then. I thought the client could remove the name, they just couldn't change the text. Fuzzy on that - guess I'll go check that out!

[Ed]

I think you already do this, but just make sure that your name is in the document if you want credit.

[Celeste Stewart]

Eek,
From the CC FAQs:

What is a Unique Purchase?
A Unique Purchase is when you buy outright the information desired. The author and Constant Content will not sell this article to any other customers. However, you are restricted to reprinting the article in its original form, including the authors byline, if a byline is included.

[HayleyWriter]

This has been an interesting discussion! Just a note on valuing your own work. Yesterday, I received an offer for $10 for use for an article. I debated accepting it... the article had been viewed over 80 times with no sales, and I was working on the assumption that $6.50 was better than nothing. (I can see a lot of you nodding in understanding as you read this - we've all been through that negative thought process at times!) However, then I read the forum and decided that I was undervaluing my own work and that I could wait. That article sold today for $65 for full rights! Now, I feel vindicated on putting a higher price on my articles and for valuing my work at a decent price.


Hayley

[Lysis]

This has been an interesting discussion! Just a note on valuing your own work. Yesterday, I received an offer for $10 for use for an article. I debated accepting it... the article had been viewed over 80 times with no sales, and I was working on the assumption that $6.50 was better than nothing. (I can see a lot of you nodding in understanding as you read this - we've all been through that negative thought process at times!) However, then I read the forum and decided that I was undervaluing my own work and that I could wait. That article sold today for $65 for full rights! Now, I feel vindicated on putting a higher price on my articles and for valuing my work at a decent price.


Hayley

hehe good for you. This has happened to me several times.

[Celeste Stewart]

That's cool, Hayley! You would have not known otherwise, huh? So it's neat that the full price sale happened so quickly after the lower offer. Thanks for sharing that.

[Celeste Stewart]

Buyers (or anyone) can search for articles by Content Type, Category, Rights Offered, or Price Range (where you type in your min and max prices) in the Advanced Search option. You can only find the Avanced Search by doing a search and clicking on the Advanced Search link on the search results page. Thats where I was suggesting to put a search option for "Best Offer" checkbox for the buyers to use.

Ha! Learn something new every day By the way, when looking at the recent search list, disregard the search for "possums." I'd hate to see writers writing up articles about possums based on my experimental search.

[Debbi]

Yeah, I wish the searches by authors could be filtered out of the keyword search page somehow. Possums would be an interesting topic to write on though! I'm just not sure how large a market there is for possum articles. Nasty things, possums.

Darn it! Now I'm thinking of all kinds of articles to write about possums.

[Nessiee]

When I make my experimental searches, I just search for one of the queries that are already on the recently searched list. All that does is move the 'already been searched query' to the top of the list. Plus, if you happen to copy and paste the latest entry on the list into the search box, nothing changes on the recently searched page and you can be all covert about your experiments

This doesn't work however when you need to search something that isn't currently on the list. It would be nice though, like you've said, if our searches didn't show up in the list. Not sure if that is possible, but it'd sure be nice