Pricing of articles - Who is selling for $1 - $5?

[Word Gypsy]

I think that sales like this do hurt all of us in the end. I used to be able to sell a lot of fashion, beauty, vitamin and supplement articles for $20 to $25 usage rights. Now that this other author has hers listed for $7 or less, I haven't been able to sell anything in those areas even if I drop the price to $10 usage. This forces me to move into other topic areas, encroaching on someone else's area of expertise. Anyone want to volunteer their area of expertise to me? I could use another one! I might be saying this facetiously, but I am partly serious. Sales like this belie Constant-Content's claim to quality content. What's the point of going through a stringent editorial process if an article is going to sell for less than $3.00? It smacks of certain other writing sites where the lowest price gets the sale. Even ac used to offer more for an article at usage rights. With prices like this, authors might be tempted to move elsewhere if sales don't pick up.I worry that this practice "cheapens" cc's reputation.

On the topic of "Best Offer," I would like to say that this feature annoys me to no end. I refuse to use it as I am a firm believer of setting a price I think to be fair initially. Yet, I am inundated by requests to take less for a specific article through the inbox system. The only waffling I want to do is with fresh waffles and ice cream. Let's have a party! This isn't to say that I think other authors shouldn't be able to use it, because they should have that right. I just dislike the fallout.

Let's hope for a better month this month and encourage each other to march our fingers out onto our keyboards and write that article that someone is going to purchase at our quoted price simply because it is fabulous!

[Ed]

I don't like to see anyone underprice themselves here, and it's unfortunate to hear that authors are getting offers for their content when they are not using the best offer feature.

I see some very bizarre pricing when I'm reviewing articles. For example, for a recent requests, most responders asked around $20 for 30-word poll questions. Probably not a very good experience for this customer. On the other hand, it appears as though authors are afraid to ask more than $150 for an article, whether that article is 1500 words or 3000 words.

I know it sometimes seems that you are shouting into the dark, but I have been keeping up with this thread. I do agree with Celeste in the idea that cheap articles selling for usage rights only is not a bargain for people who are serious about appealing to search engines - and therefore, they aren't a threat to writers who offer full rights at fair prices.

Ed

[vjlenin]

Is it possible for CC to interfere with too low priced articles? Because otherwise CC itself will be screwed by such sales...

[Celeste Stewart]

In any business, there will always be cheaper competitors and customers that want rock bottom prices. Are these the customers that you want to spend the bulk of your time serving? If so, then worry about these $2.75 usage sales. CC has many wonderful customers who are willing to compensate us fairly for our expertise.

[Lor]

I had a lot to say, but it took me too long to say it and it disappeared in the stupid log-in time. It hasn't done that in a long while, so I didn't save it on notepad as I should have. Here's the short version.

Anyway, yes competition is a good thing. It's healthy in any business, but monopolies aren't.
They push out the competition altogether. Just look at Main Street, America -- empty stores and shoe repairs, all thanks to much cheaper competition.

I have to agree with wordgypsy, Hayley and others. The articles they write and have written get lost behind the $7 ones. This isn't competition. It's a monopoly. And it's unfair.

Lor

[HayleyWriter]

Hi All,

Thanks for the comments in support of my original posts on this topic. The fact that this thread has picked up so many responses means it is something that is affecting other authors. I don't mind some authors going for the bottom of the market here, but it does make it more difficult to sell decently priced articles. CC portrays itself as the best website for buying QUALITY articles, but these sorts of prices do not reflect this. I hesitate to write articles in some categories where I know Dr Kristie has, as Rain put it, a monopoly - or at least so many articles priced so cheaply that no customer will consider paying proper rates for my articles when they can get hers so cheap. I find, with Word Gypsy, that it is extremely difficult to generate sales in those areas.

I believe that it is demoralising both to authors and customers to see so many articles selling at a pittance and encourages customers to believe that the going rate is smaller. For authors who do not get many private requests, or who are building up a reputation on this site, it is hard to compete against it. Authors who get lots of private requests can negotiate with their customers for decent prices, and can afford to wait for other higher priced articles to sell, knowing they have 'guaranteed' sales coming from the private requests for the month. Authors who want to make sales quicker will certainly consider putting lower prices on articles to compete.

Even today, my article sold at $45 is currently the highest selling article on the recently sold list, and I consider I sold that article very cheaply. This means that authors watching the list and customers who also see the list (when signed in as an author) can see that the current market for articles is quite low. Authors who consistently sell at these extremely low prices not only undercut the rest of us who refuse to work for a pittance, but effectively bring down the prices that customers expect to pay for ANY article.

Hayley

[Celeste Stewart]

It's tough to see cheap articles. I get that and don't like it either. But it's not really fair to single out a writer for employing a strategy that works for her. She's quietly making a fair amount of money one cheap article at a time. Today, I saw at least 20 $7 articles sell for usage so I assume those are hers. That's $140 for articles that are going to sell several times over. With that other batch from this morning, Dr. Kristie easily cleared $100 after CC's cut. She obviously has regular customers that continue to buy her work. She is one of us. Keep in mind that her earnings are helping to pay for CC staff, hosting, and advertising. Let's try to remember that we're talking about a contributing CC member and a fellow writer trying to make a living in this strange and wonderful frontier of web writing. Her strategy is a complete opposite of mine but she doesn't deserve to be slammed for it.

Customers do not even see the "recently sold list" so unless the customer is logged in as a writer, he won't see cheap sales. Customers have a "view recent submissions" feature that lists latest content submitted. They can view All Content or choose the category. The Health & Lifestyles category is showing a few cheap usage articles as well as a few $35 + articles. Customers wanting full rights in that category are still being served.

While writers are noticing that their articles aren't selling like "before," keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that have changed "before" including this nasty economy. The last few months have been slow across the board and having checked my own personal stats spanning the past three and a half years, March, April, and May have been traditionally slow months for me. I'm seeing that again this spring from ALL of my clients, none of whom is a health and beauty customer. I really believe that the slowdown is seasonal, impacted by the economy, and not DrK's fault.

[topdycke]

There have been lots of good points made in this thread. I have said it before and I will continue saying it...under cutting prices and lowballing hurts every writer. The willingness to take a low price for hard work devalues the work put into crafting an article. It also makes buyers and clients feel as though a writer asking a fair price, of say .10 per word, is being greedy. I've seen this attitude repeated on other sites, where forums allow buyers and providers to converse back and forth. The practice of taking much less than the writer desserves is rampant on the Web and a reason why web writers are often not looked at as serious about their craft.

I understand Celeste's point that this is one writer's strategy, but suppose we all decide to cut into her method of making a fast buck? If every writer on the site decides to price their articles for usage only at $7 or less, how much will anyone actually make? Constant-Content will continue to get their cut, but each person's pay, including Dr. K's will drop dramatically. Every writer on this site is here to make money, whether it's pin money or a mortgage payement, the opportunities quickly disappear with low prices that continue to keep Web writers underpaid. I also believe that the economy and the trends play a role, but $7.00 for any article is too low, regardless of the economy.

The temptation to write for usage only and price UNDER $7.00 is fast becoming more attractive.

T

[Celeste Stewart]

Yeah but... LOL. It cracks me up that I'm defending cheap articles.

Anyhow, DrK has earned my respect for several reasons. 1: She is not the first to try the low usage strategy but she is the first (and only) person that I've seen who has been successful with it here. 2: Her articles are short, interesting, and snappy - she has a formula that works. These are usage pieces that she can sell at multiple websites. 3: She has customers that use her regularly. I personally think that she could do much better here pricewise but if she's happy with her results, fine.

I don't think that the rest of us here would find similar success just by slashing our prices. Check out how many writers arrive from other sites trying to sell their stuff for five bucks a pop. They're a dime a dozen and many never make a single sale. Dr. K has found her niche and a following of regular customers. That's fine. Her customers want usage and they want it cheap and they like her style so they keep coming back. That's her deal and she does it well. She does usage only which is such a small part of the CC experience. With plenty of other customers out there wanting something different, I doubt that a single writer wields as much power over CC's fate as this thread is fretting about. I am confident in the marketplace here and the guys out there drumming up business for the site.

By the way, I find that it's just as hard to sell a $10 article as it is to sell a $100 article, so I tend to go for the higher priced ones. Plus, if low priced articles are bringing down CC, does that mean that high priced ones bring CC up? Nah, it looks nice on the recently sold board but customers don't see that anyway. And even amongst writers you get a little grief now and then. I've heard enough resentful comments ala "How come SHE made $XXX and I didn't?" to know that high prices aren't necessarily motivating.

[eek]

That's the thing that bothers so many of us, Celeste. Dr. K has found a formula that worked and we can't hope to compete. (Who of us has time to churn out so many worthwhile articles a day, albeit short?) Thankfully there are still customers who will buy decently-priced articles, but I wonder if, because of the recession, customers and writers will begin to drift downward in price, and then stay there. Kind of like a Walmart that completely changes the financial climate of a small town.

To her credit, Dr. K is not a bad writer. I checked once or twice, hoping to feel better about the situation. Then I wished someone could contact her and try to convince her to raise her price just a little for everyone's benefit. But lately I noticed she posted a few articles in the $20s, and included full rights.

It's really nice of you to champion the underdog, Celeste (or in this case, the successful over-achiever), or rather, the fairness of the system. We can't blame it all on Dr. K. We all have our own style and can only hope to gain attention and sales by doing our best work and coming up with a comfortable personal strategy. Let's hope you are right about things balancing out.
Emma

[Lor]

I'm taking another view of this now, because I'm fair-weathered and fickle. Firstly, I wish the good doctor would step in and add her thoughts to the discussion. It's unfair to do it without her and I think we might benefit. While I still don't like the monopoly her strategy gives her, which I think is the underlying argument, I'm confident that wasn't her plan. The way CC is set up, she can price her articles how she wishes and it obviously works for her. She sells something regularily. And to advocate further, we are not made aware of her relationship with her buyers. Perhaps, the $2.50 articles the other day were for a regular customer of hers and she was giving him/her a break. We don't know.

I looked further at this. She sells only usage and I'm pretty sure she writes what she knows. When we write off the top of our head, we can have it down in 15 minutes. It doesn't take long. Even though those articles sell a few times over, they do expire what with that unique content search engine thingy. So, let's assume each article sells 3 times over a long period (doesn't matter if we look at the big picture.) If she writes 4 articles in an hour, she's netting approx. $55 for an hour's work, theoretically. That's pretty damn good, so why do we fault that? I think it boils down to that monopoly thing again and I personally can't see how that can change. Plus, as Celeste mentioned, those $7 articles could be CC's bread and butter.

And it is tempting to follow suite, especially in areas we can write off the top of our heads. I have sold articles in her areas of expertise, so the competition is still there and most of us are willing to sell those articles for full rights. Her sales are limited, given that they will expire eventually and she only rents them out.

more below ...........

[Lor]

Part, the second ...
I think those of us who are expert in those areas (not me) and can write them quickly need to consider ways to reap those same rewards. I'm not suggesting dropping your prices to $6.90, although it would be fun to watch, but perhaps working on ideas never seen anywhere on the net or simply staying on top of health news -- articles on swine flu for example. Perhaps more scholarly articles, I dunnoh, or serious articles aimed at print publications. Anything other than the usual stuff we read on health related websites like "Ten Ways to This, That and the Other."

I think there may be ways to compete without dropping prices and maybe we should be having a dialog about that. Words like quality, originality, typo-free and timeliness come to mind as well as making regular submissions in those areas. The good doctor submits very regularily. So can others in those areas in order to be visible on the recent submission pages.

Lor

[Celeste Stewart]

Exactly Lor. There are ways to compete without dropping prices.

Many of us are doing well by doing our own thing and meeting the needs of other customers. Why would I want to attract customers in this small niche? They don't pay the prices or buy the license type that I'm interested in. So, I'm not going to cater to that crowd. Plus, usage is such a small part of the CC equation. Most customers want original, full rights articles. Customers ARE buying and they ARE paying well. I know this because I've sold many non-private request articles over the last month or two - several in the triple-digit price range.

BTW, I saw a $49 usage article sell yesterday on yoga. Follow your own heart, write what you love, price your work fairly to yourself and potential customers, and ride out this wave.

[Lor]

<<...There are ways to compete without dropping prices...>>

Now why didn't I just say that. So succinct. What you said in 8 words took me over 2k ... apparently. This is why you get the big bucks. :)

Lor