When to Cut Bait

[Greg Melikov]

I've posted a half-dozen first-class articles and haven't had a nibble. I've noticed that the recently sold articles are not even close to my subject matter. I've reduced the price across-the-board several times so my question is: When do I cut bait and bail out? Frankly, it appears I'm wasting my time since I'm doing well on my own. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[J. A. Young]

It took me nearly four months to sell my first article--and then things began to snowball. Similarly, I wrote about five articles and when nothing happened, I drifted away. Then, I made that first sale and that was enough inspiration for me to send in more. I've since written and sold articles in many different categories--some categories worked for me better than others. I sold many in one category and after a few months--no more luck there even though I'd certainly prefer to write more on the topic.

I look at each new week as an unpredictable market. I'm frequently surprised by what others sell and what I may not sell.

Hopefully you'll rack up a sale here soon, but I wouln't get too discouraged. It takes time to become established at any new venue. --J.

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi, while articles I write on topics of my own choosing do eventually sell (usually 1 out of 4 will sell according to my calculations) I have a much higher sales ratio when writing for specific requests.

Right now there's a ton of work on the requested content section and quite a variety of topics. You might give that a try.

[MarikaRamos]

I'm kind of new here, so I may be wrong, but I've found that the things that sell the fastest are the subjects in the request board. If you've been writing your articles based on requests and no one is buying, either they've already bought enough articles to fill their request, or they just haven't seen your work yet. I'm still working out the kinks here myself, though.
I wouldn't quit just yet. Give it some time and see what happens.

[damyanti]

From my experience, most articles, unless they are written on absolutely niche, specialised topics, sell eventually. Give it time. Write in for requests, and when things don't sell, consider it a matter of time. I have had articles sell over an year after they were written.

[Alexandra Heep]

I am still fairly new as well. While I reached my payment threshold really quickly, it's all dried up now and nothing has sold in a while.

I have only written for public requests so far. Maybe now it's time to submit some other articles.