How to Sell More Articles

[Emar]

Pricing has more to do with experience and recognition/reputation. Novices like me, here at ConstantContent, should be less demanding and more concerned about productivity and timely submissions. Although I have vast experience of research writing in academic field, I suppose responsibilities here as a writer of web content are way different. I am nervous, guys. Very nervous. I haven't started yet, but I hope some day I would be able to claim a status of seasoned writer like all of you!

[contentwriter]

I think the article is excellent even though I disagree with one aspect when it comes to me. I prefer to sell full use only. While I have only been on CC for three months, I have been a writer for many years. I am OLDER than the hills! I don't like to see my work on more than one site so full use is perfect for me. Because I write for magazines and co-author books for clients, I prefer to not have my name published with the articles I write for CC. I have only had time to write 29 articles so far but my sale rate is over 50% at full use. So for me it works.

In addition to considering your time when pricing an article, also consider your experience and education. If you have a degree in computer science you are going to write articles that surpass the less techie articles written by an internet user. In my opinion, the more complex the articles, the more they are worth. Also, here's a little hint about research learned from my years in journalism. NEVER research ONE article! If you do research for an article on "Building a Green Home." Make sure your research includes enough information to write articles on green kitchens, green laundry rooms, green landscaping, etc. If you are spending two or three hours researching a topic you should have enough material for several articles. That makes that research "expense" a lot less per article.

Anyway that is my $30.60 worth. (At 12 cents a word up to the $) *smile* Feel free to send donations lol

Words of wisdom there, Judith! I'm starting to like the idea of selling full rights and unique only myself. If I do use "use" license, I will price it as if it were the one and only time it would be sold, so I'll charge the minimum I want to earn from it.

I agree research should be enough for a bunch of articles. Also, I have a "5 article test" where I challenge myself to write at least 5 articles for every idea I get.

Catchy titles and a unique approach to a familiar topic seem to sell well.

[timothywcrane]

Thank you for all of the statistics. I found them very similar to the information I found when I took a look at what the more prolific writers are making and the amount of articles written. I have heard both good and bad things about Constant Content and am quickly seeing the performance distance between the rejoicing and the naysayers. Those who have written the most articles have the most success and those that write little are never noticed. With only a little over a thousand articles topping the major writers here, rising to that level is feasible for anyone who has wasted thousands of articles and more than a few dollars in lost wages working for the content mills. Glad to be here. Now on to read How To Sell more Articles #2.

[TracyEnright]

Hi

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I've had a few rejections recently and we all know how that can affect your confidence. Reading the information here and some of the advice has made me feel a lot more positive, so thank you.

I will now dig out some new ideas and get writing, writing, writing!

[kassiesamp]

My thanks also for this information. I am still fairly new and have only submitted a couple of articles to test the waters and learn the ins and outs of the submission process. I haven't sold anything despite trying to submit to areas listed as standing requests and have begun to wonder whether perhaps I need to lower my price (although I did follow the pop-up guidelines.) It's very useful to know that only a small proportion of those registered actually post something. I find this site excellent having previously undertaken extensive research of internet writing and editing sites.

Karen

[ReneeF]

So if I am hearing this right... $30 per article (roughly $20 take home) at 9 cents is about 333 words long? Those are some short articles.

Its hard to get stuff to sell at 3, 4, and 5 cents per word and I know I am undercutting myself and should sell at a higher rate, but we could really use the income. so is the problem that I am selling them so cheap that I'm not being taken seriously about the quality?

[Lysis]

Personally, I fiddle with price and different approaches with CC and I think costs comes into play to a point. I think over $.10/word starts to have a negative effect. But, if you stick to $.05-$.10/word, you'll do OK. Obviously, if you sell a 1000 word article for like $15, it will probably sell quick but I also don't think buyers are unwilling to buy at higher costs. It depends, obviously, on the buyer. But, if you notice where buyers have purchased batches of articles, they buy based on what they like not on what is cheapest. At least, that is what I am getting out of what I see. I see buyers buying batches of articles and buying articles at $30 and $60, so I don't think cost is the main factor. I think they buy what they like as long as they feel they are getting a deal.

Topics are also seasonal. If you notice from their newsletter, what was selling 6-8 months ago is not the same as now. Tech isn't even on the radar and that's my area of expertise. It's also summer, and summers are usually slower for writing sales from what I've experienced.

[ReneeF]

Summer and winter have always been the off season as far back as when I started content/copy writing in 2001. spring and fall are when the sales start pulling in. I've always held this motto, in summer and winter is when to build the catalog of content because spring and fall is when you'll be working on request. so during summer and winter write mostly for catalog sales (or your own blog) and spring and fall you will be busy satisfying client requests and have no time for it.

[PaulMaplesden]

I've been doing some data mining and analysis of CC sales over the past month, based on the 'recently sold content' information.

Analysis of around 780 articles sold over the last three to four weeks shows the following:

There were around 400 'Full Rights' licenses sold, 30 'Unique Rights' and 360 'Usage Rights'. The average amount paid per license was: Full: $39.78, Unique: $28.11, Usage: $18.54. If we assume around 500 words per article, that works out to 8 cents per word for Full, 6 cents for unique and 4 cents for usage. The total value of licenses sold over this time was just over $23,000 - So there are certainly lots of customers out there with content marketing budgets.

The most popular areas for buyers were 'Business', 'Health & Lifestyles' and 'Relationships'.

This is only based on one month of data, I am expecting numbers to become more accurate as I continue to collect it.

[Lysis]

Those are some interesting stats. To add to the equation though, I noticed that not all articles show up under the writing ideas section. Private requests for instance don't show up. Did you get those stats from writing ideas or the recently sold list?

I've also sold articles that didn't show up on the recently sold list. I'm assuming it's because they got a large number of sales at once or whatever process that shows recent sales got stuck.

[PaulMaplesden]

Just the publically available 'Recently Sold Content' information. I've gone into more detail in a forum thread, here: https://www.constant-content.com/forum/ ... =4&t=76719