Anybody Sell For Usage Rights?

[undercoverwaitress]

Just wondering if it is worth it to upload well-written content that has been published before. Do people buy usage rights? Or are most buyers looking for unique and full rights? Thanks.

[Sharion]

67% of my sales have been for usage rights. However, they are not articles that I wrote someplace else and then uploaded to CC. They were virgins at the time of sale.

One of those articles sold twice; the rest have been onesies.

[jellygator]

I've been freelancing for a couple months. So far have sold 4, all for usage rights. (No repeat sales.)

[undercoverwaitress]

Thanks, guys. @jellygator, were the articles virgins? or were they only offered for usage? I sold an article that was offered for full rights for usage; was a little disappointed, I must admit.

[chessgolf]

I wouldn't be too disappointed! Remember that articles sold for Usage can be sold again and again.

I have only written 28 articles on CC but have made 36 Usage sales and only 2 Full Rights.

One article sold 6 times another 5 times and another 4.

Repeat sales on Usage articles can sometimes be more profitable than a one-off sale.

John

[jellygator]

Mine were virgins. I sell full rights at no less than 10 cents per word, and usually closer to 15 cents, depending on the value customer can gain, how long it takes to research/write, and whether I'm likely to be able to resell it.

I've noticed a scary amount of articles here go for pennies a word for full rights, which does us all a disservice. I hope writers will come to at least require that people who pay very little should have only usage rights.

[jak]

One of the advantages of selling for usage is that you can place them elsewhere, for example on revenue sharing sites that accept non-exclusive work, as well as leaving it in your portfolio here. I have sold a few several times over and am still earning from them on other sites.

[chessgolf]

Jak (or anyone else for that matter)

Is it advisable to post CC Usage articles on other websites for Revenue Sharing?

Is this permissable in CC terms and conditions and would it be counter-productive bearing in mind that google seeks out fresh, unique content?

These are not opinions, just questions!

John

[jadedragon]

If you are offering Full Rights and Usage obviously you should not be posting elsewhere. If you have a usage sale, now you have an article you can post elsewhere yourself - in fact I recommend it. Put on your blog or for rev share (that allows non-exclusive) or add an affiliate link and post on article directories. Just be sure you pay attention to the TOS of each site. You took a usage sale. go use the article yourself too. Just don't try to sell the copies as an original.

[undercoverwaitress]

I never though to post my usage-only rights articles elsewhere. (Duh!) Great idea, but sites I am familiar with require original content. I am familiar with Suite 101, HubPages, Bright Hub, and InfoBarrel although I have never written for InfoBarrel. (My blog is relatively niche and some articles would be too off-topic.)

If you don't mind my asking, what sites allow you to post articles that may appear elsewhere? Without doing a complete rewrite, I mean. Thanks.

[jadedragon]

Here is a whole article on how to make money from articles you already sold usage rights for. Any other ideas - love to hear them.

[undercoverwaitress]

Thanks jadedragon!

I will add something about Suite 101: depending upon when you joined, you may do whatever you wish with an article after it has been on Suite's site for one year. I joined in February of 2009; I can do anything offline with any and all of my work regardless of when I posted it to Suite, and can sell online for usage after one year. The article must be original when it is posted to Suite.

I am not sure when they changed their contract with writers, but somebody else following this thread may be able to enlighten us on that.

I started this thread wondering if it was worth it to post my articles from Suite here for usage. Don't know if anybody would want them since they are not new, but perhaps it couldn't hurt to try.

Best.

[jadedragon]

Yes, I was thinking about Suite 101 writers who have the right to reuse articles and CC writers who have had sales for usage.

I would NOT post the Suite 101 articles at Constant Content because after 1 year+ there is a really high chance the Suite article has been copied or spun and it will not pass checks. I would rather, do some of the other things mentioned where controls are a lot less stringent. Write virgin articles for CC instead.