What is your CC "Eureka" moment?

[HayleyWriter]

Hi,

I was looking for a part time job I could do from home and utilising my writing experience seemed smart. I did not have time to market my work, nor did I want to spend hours writing for no gain. At least Constant Content pays when customers purchase my work. I do not have to worry about marketing, writing agent's letters etc.

I have now been writing for Constant Content for about three months. The first month I did not earn enough for the threshhold, and I was starting to get discouraged, especially when I had a spate of articles rejected by our faithful editor. Once I re-learnt the rules for commas, I started to get articles accepted again. I'm glad now that Constant Content has such stringent writing rules, because it forces me to write better!

I sold a few articles in the second month and crossed the threshhold, so received the payment.

My Eureka moment happened a couple of days ago when an article I submitted was purchased for full rights within two days of being accepted on the site. This was my largest sale and will put close to $80 in my pocket this month, not counting all the other articles I have also sold.

Constant Content is certainly a cheap way of marketing my writing. For the small percentage the website gets, I get free access to hundreds of people who want articles written. If they like my work, I get paid. I also thoroughly enjoy the freedom of writing what I want to write, when I want to write it. I will definitely be staying with Constant Content and look forward to making even more sales. Thanks for the forum too, it makes interesting reading!

Hayley Writer

[cgardener]

EUREKA! There is a request for a press release, and even though I had never written one, I looked for some tuts online, and gave it a shot. It was just approved, and although I really doubt they will pick mine, I'm glad to know that it passed muster. Now I have another outlet for sales.

[Celeste Stewart]

I just have to say once again that I love CC. Even though I'm overloaded with assignments, this morning I wanted to write something just for me and exercise my creativity a bit. I figured doing so would give me a bit of a breather and a change of subject. On a lark, I wrote an article that I dreamed up this morning. I didn't expect it to sell right away; in fact, I figured it would take a while. Eureka! It sold within an hour of acceptance! It's a fun reminder of how well this system works for writers.

[JoHunley]

I just had my first freakin' "Eureka!" Finally finished a painstakingly long and researched article on the housing market collapse (yeesh) and logged in to submit it, when lo! What does Jo behold? Three more sales. THREE. By gods, THREE. All on spec. Wow. I had my first sale just days ago, followed by this... I mean, I could make money at this. I can DO this. I'm a real freelance writer! Woooooo!!

Pardon the Capslocks of Exctasy, but I'm a tiddly bit excited. A drink to celebrate!

[JanH1961]

I'm waiting for it. :-( These stories are encouraging. 500+ articles online and cannot get those here passed so I'm not sure.

[Celeste Stewart]

Jan,
Why not try creating something from scratch for CC? It's often hard to get previous material accepted due to guideline preferences. For example, if your other articles are in first person, contain links, etc., they will not conform to the CC requirements without reworking them. Pick a public request and write something fresh and see if you can't get it approved. You'll have the added bonus of being able to price it at a higher rate (unique or full rights) and get a better feel of what CC is all about. After writing a few articles on spec, reading articles by the other writers, and double checking all guidelines, you'll understand what types of articles are a good fit for the site. Then, you can go through your other articles and cherry pick the ones that meet CC's guidelines.

[BarryDavidson]

The first three articles I posted were rejected for one reason or another. I went back to them later, along with writing several others, and all of them were accepted. I have a bunch of articles I can sell here for usage rights only, and I do post them for filler purposes. Celeste's advice on writing fresh material for CC is a darned good one.

My "EUREKA" moments happen at odd times. It is for that reason that I have a journal in every room in the house, as well as my cars. That's how inspiration comes to me. An idea pops into my head, and if I don't write it down immediately I'll forget. I know most of you are used to typing everything up. My wife can pop out a 100k manuscript in under six weeks while working full time. My problem is that I'm not always around a computer with Word opened.

Honestly, I recommend everyone buying several journals. I get them at a discount of bargain prices. One of the advantages of working at a book store. 33% off a 3.99 journal is a good deal in my eyes. A ream of good paper costs about the same, but people are usually more careful with their printer paper. Another advantage of using a journal (be sure to date the entries) is that you have a hard copy - just in case you need to produce one for copyright reasons.

[HayleyWriter]

Hi all,

I guess I just had another Eureka moment! I got paid for the month of January, which was a month with heaps of sales. This was my highest ever payment from CC (over $500), and boy, it feels good! Being Australian, I also get a very good deal on the exchange rate at the moment, so for me the recession has receded from my door, thanks to CC! A few articles sold that I'd pretty much given up on, as the articles had been sitting around for a few months. I also sold some articles as soon as Ed approved the articles (or within the same day at any rate!). It was a terrific month, and I hope the future is as bright.

I also made the highest rate per word this month I'd ever made, with some articles selling at very high prices, which makes making a profit from writing much easier.

I love writing here, and I love the benefits. Support - congratulations on the changes to the request system and the website, you have done a huge job over the last couple of months.

Surely there are some other happy authors out there? Share your Eureka moment to encourage everyone else here too!

Kind regards,

Hayley

[Cheanque]

Just sold one right after Ed's review. What a surprise! I wasn't even sure it was marketable - it's a stand alone article, but I wrote it with the intent of writing a series, so maybe I can make a bit more on the idea.

Got paid for January. It wasn't much, as I joined in January and only sold two articles, but it warmed my heart and added a little to my dwindling bank account.

Want to thank everyone for their friendly support. Keep on writing!

[FlyingVegan]

My moment was yesterday. I discovered CC just about a week ago and decided to register and submit some articles. First I had to get by the trusty gatekeeper. Of course I didn't read the submission guidelines thoroughly so I had one rejection over first person. Next I had to sort out my software and so 2 more came back because of formatting. Persistence. I reformatted, rewrote and resubmitted. Came home yesterday to see it I had made it through. All three had been accepted and low and behold one had already sold for full rights! Baby, this could be the beginning of something beautiful...

[Cheanque]

Way to go! CC can be confusing to get used to, there's info scattered everywhere. Your fellow writers are great at answering any questions and alleviating any concerns you might have. I've found a checklist compiled from tidbits gleaned from the author's tutorial, writer's guidelines, submittal guidelines, FAQ's and blog, plus the forums, can help you submit content with a good chance of acceptance first time around. Might want to try something like that.

[VanessaB]

I haven't really had my Eureka moment yet I guess. I signed up with CC last year, although I was always so afraid of rejection that I never submitted anything.

Anyway, I finally got over my fears and submitted my first article this week and it was accepted in just a couple of days! My Eureka moment may be still coming, but I am definitely glad that I finally took the plunge at CC. The posts in this forum are awesome. You all have really inspired me to get writing and submitting more and more:)

Thanks!!

[jak]

Good on you, Vanessa, and welcome to the fold. May there be lots of Eurekas ahead.

[Suzyarie24]

Eureka!!

I just had my first eureka moment. For starters, you know CC is getting under your skin when you get up at 3.30am to write an article that you can't get out of your head. So I turned on my computer to write it, and lo and behold, another sold article! I sold my first ever article for a request just this week, and this second sale was a non-request article - $30 full rights! :)

Starting to believe that this might actually be a viable way to supplement my teeny income... and I love doing it! Thanks CC!

[jak]

Congrats to you, too, Su. (I wrote those rhymes quite unintentionally.)