usage price, unique price, full-rights price

[mattjbiggin]

Hi,

I have just joined and am yet to write an article. I am just wondering what the difference is between Usage Price, Unique Price and Full-Rights Price?

Thank you

Matt

[aprilk10]

Hi Matt! Welcome to CC! When clients buy usage rights, they can only use the article once and have to provide your byline. The article can remain for sale for usage rights only. Unique means (I think) that they still have to use your byline, but they can use the article as many times as they want and you can no longer offer the article for sale or have it published on any other sites. Full rights is complete rights. The client who purchases the article owns the article and can do what they please with it, including posting it somewhere as their own. You can not have the article published anywhere.

Just some advice: Before you submit ANYTHING, make sure to thoroughly read all guidelines, rules, etc. Read the following thread especially:

Must-Read Resources - New Authors: Start Here
(this is under "Questions and Answers" and is the first thread)

Good luck and Happy Writing!

[BarryDavidson]

April is essentially correct. I would only add...

When clients buy usage rights, they can only use the article once and have to provide your byline.

Is correct only if you add your byline in the text of the article. While they're supposed to add it in any event, usage rights has a provision against changing the text of the article. Technically, it would be editing the text to add anything not already there. Most buyers will add your byline. Those who don't generally don't know to add it if it's not in the text, don't know all the rules associated, or are just too lazy to do it. Many authors here search for their articles which are sold for usage rights to see if their byline is included. It's a good idea to just go ahead and add your byline to all your work unless it's for a private request with full rights being sold.

[chrissponias]

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for this information! I came here to look for an answer to another question, but the information I found here was very useful. I’m a new author too. I’ve written and sold only a few articles.

I would like to make another question related to this topic:

Do you believe that we must prefer selling our articles giving full rights (or unique rights), or do you think that we make more money with the same article when the customer purchases only usage rights?

I was thinking that perhaps I should change my prices so that my clients would prefer the best option for me. Which one is usually the best one for an author?

[Judith]

Everyone has different opinions about this. I'm fairly new too but I prefer selling full rights only. Not sure I can give you a reason why but it has been working for me. Others have done well selling with all options open. I think it's a matter of preference. It's obvious you will build an inventory faster if you don't sell exclusively for full rights. That is a problem I am experiencing. I have sold half of my inventory already so I need to increase my writing time if I want to build an inventory, which I do I'm sure you will discover what works best for you and Good Luck!!

[chrissponias]

Thank you!

I’m going to test, and verify the results.

All the best!

[KateL]

If I might hijack this thread for a moment to also ask a question about pricing...

I have only posted a few articles thus far, and in the last two days have received offers on two of them. (I understand this is not a confirmed sale even if I accepted them.) The first is a very low offer for use. If the offer was reasonable then I would have been happy to accept as - judging by the customer username - it is a nice little site. But $8 for 1200+ word article which draws on several years of experience feels a little too cheeky! I have also had a full rights offer for half the full rights price I set. This I am more inclined to accept because it is only a very short article (written for a public request which has not yet ended) but I do think that it is worth more than the price being offered.

Now, I understood when I ticked the offer box that I would get some rather cheeky offers, but I did so because I am still unfamiliar with pricing work for sale online like this. I've never worked for less than 7 cents per word before, but lowered that threshold here. My question really is whether or not you would recommend the "offer" function and if anyone else has found it a useful tool, or just licence to try it on!

I'd not normally consider either offer, but I am keen to secure a sale or two on CC to help build up my profile here and stabilise my position a little. I had a couple of rejections early on for minor issues but am aware that CC run a very tight ship. A sale or two, combined with a couple of long articles accepted first time, might help to restore me! Equally, I don't really want to under-sell myself too much, as if we all did that then I don't think that it would be any good for the site as a whole.

Any advice on this issue would be very gratefully received, thank you.

Kate

[Judith]

Hi Kate,
I'm new too, about 4 months now. I have never checked the "offer" box and it has not held me back. I realize my sales have a way to go to even come close to some of the patriarchs here, but I am selling 50% of what I submit. Those sales are based on the quality of your work not on how many articles you have already sold. Otherwise, none of us would make that first sale Don't give your work away is my advice. I price my articles based on the time and research I have invested. If someone wants you article it's because it is good. I wouldn't pay even $5.00 for a bad article. Would you? If that person wants your article so will someone else. Ultimatelt the choice is yours but once you give away your work, that buyer may keep returning wanting the same bargain. Anyway... that's my two cents

[chrissponias]

We receive many ridiculous offers, but sometimes it’s a good idea to accept a few of them so that we may show to new potential customers that we are selling our articles.

Then we can keep our prices at our desired level.

[Lysis]

I quit checking the "Best Offer" option. It's really a waste of time for me. I think I've only accepted one offer.

I don't agree that accepting low offers attracts more sales. I doubt a customer cares how many articles you've sold. Think about it. When you buy a TV, let's say, do you care how many TVs Best Buy has sold over Amazon? Who cares? They just want to see your work.

[Celeste Stewart]

Accept the offer if it makes you feel good about your writing and inspired. Reject it if it doesn't.

For example, if accepting a low offer proves to you that you can indeed make money writing and selling articles on CC, then that's powerful stuff even if you only net a few dollars. On the other hand, if you feel crummy about only making a few dollars for your efforts, then those few dollars aren't worth it. Those negative feelings aren't going to inspire you to write more.

[chrissponias]

How do you think that a potential customer evaluates an author’s profile? If you are a new author and you have never sold any article, you are not showing to your potential customers that you are a successful author. This is not the best image you could have.

I accepted a few offers because I didn’t want to be an author who had never sold anything. Now I’m easily selling my articles, but I had to wait for a while in order to start selling them.

As a matter of fact, the prices I had given before - based on CC’s suggestions - were too expensive. I started easily selling my articles after lowering their prices. Even though I pay two editors to check my articles before submitting them because English is my third language and I have no time to study CC’s guidelines, I’m happy for being able to sell them at prices like $20 or $25. I’m writing only short articles now (500 words) after seeing that they are preferred by most people.

Later I may give higher prices to my articles, I don’t know. However, I think that my prices are quite reasonable, especially considering the sad aspect of the global economy today.

[KateL]

Thanks everyone, it's an interesting topic and clear that everyone has their own ideasabout what is, and is not, the best way. CC's ability to support author preference by giving us some control over our options is part of what makes it such an appealing site to write for.

I don't agree that accepting low offers attracts more sales. I doubt a customer cares how many articles you've sold. Think about it. When you buy a TV, let's say, do you care how many TVs Best Buy has sold over Amazon? Who cares? They just want to see your work.

Though I don't necessarily think that customers put much stock in it if they like the article, it is worth remembering that we do live in an age where "seller ratings" are evermore important. Ebay, amazon, etc etc all allow feedback and ratings, and customers are advised to check for a positive sales history before doing business with them. It would be naive to think that this tendancy would not have some influence on other forms of buying and selling online.

Don't give your work away is my advice. I price my articles based on the time and research I have invested. If someone wants you article it's because it is good. I wouldn't pay even $5.00 for a bad article. Would you? If that person wants your article so will someone else. Ultimatelt the choice is yours but once you give away your work, that buyer may keep returning wanting the same bargain. Anyway... that's my two cents

I think you're right Judith, the longer article is worth much more than the offer for it, but it is nice to know that someone would be willing to pay even a little for it.

Accept the offer if it makes you feel good about your writing and inspired. Reject it if it doesn't.

For example, if accepting a low offer proves to you that you can indeed make money writing and selling articles on CC, then that's powerful stuff even if you only net a few dollars. On the other hand, if you feel crummy about only making a few dollars for your efforts, then those few dollars aren't worth it. Those negative feelings aren't going to inspire you to write more.

I absolutely agree Celeste, and think I will accept the low offer on the very short piece because it will do my confidence some good to secure a first sale here. I will not be accepting the cheeky offer on the longer piece as it would be a little soul destroying to see it go for next to nothing, even just for useage.

Interesting topic though, I think that in future I might be less inclined to tick the "offer" box unless it is a short article which I would be willing to let go for less, or an old item with many views but no sales (suggesting perhaps that the pricing is offputting).

[Lysis]

How do you think that a potential customer evaluates an author’s profile? If you are a new author and you have never sold any article, you are not showing to your potential customers that you are a successful author. This is not the best image you could have.

I accepted a few offers because I didn’t want to be an author who had never sold anything. Now I’m easily selling my articles, but I had to wait for a while in order to start selling them.

As a matter of fact, the prices I had given before - based on CC’s suggestions - were too expensive. I started easily selling my articles after lowering their prices. Even though I pay two editors to check my articles before submitting them because English is my third language and I have no time to study CC’s guidelines, I’m happy for being able to sell them at prices like $20 or $25. I’m writing only short articles now (500 words) after seeing that they are preferred by most people.

Later I may give higher prices to my articles, I don’t know. However, I think that my prices are quite reasonable, especially considering the sad aspect of the global economy today.

My first sale was from a public request and I didn't make a sale until article #20. I think customers are interested in product not our stats. Of course, stats help you in CC's little ranking system, so maybe indirectly it helps. I think it may play a role if you only post the minimum requirements and don't show your whole article. That might play a "trust" factor in a sale, but I post my whole article. It also might play a role in private requests, so I suppose in that way it is helpful. Decembers are awful for me, so I'm patiently awaiting January when sales pick up.

[chrissponias]

December is really a difficult month if you don’t sell physical products that could be gifts for someone.

I do many other things online; I have my own business since 2007. I started writing articles for CC only about internet marketing because this is a topic I know very well and I want to help the public, and because I saw that it’s very easy to sell whatever is related to making money online. In my field (mental health) everything is too complicated.

I keep writing daily articles promoting my own business first of all because I care more about selling my ebooks. However, it’s nice to be able to sell my articles too, instead of using them only as a promotional method.

I sold the forth article I wrote for CC only after lowering my prices. Now I’m very easily selling them, so easily that I practically have no articles for sale. I even intend to spend more time writing these articles because I’m selling them so much easier than my ebooks.

Concerning our image, I believe that it is important to show to our potential customers that we are selling our articles. They can see in our portfolio how many articles we have already sold. If I was a customer I wouldn’t purchase articles from an author who is not selling his/her work because I’d be afraid to trust their efficiency.

I accepted two offers that I wouldn’t accept otherwise only because I wanted to have a good image, showing to new customers that many people are using my articles. This idea worked very well because I started then selling all my articles as soon as they were approved by CC, while before nothing was happening.

I don’t accept ridiculous offers otherwise I would work for nothing in the end, but there are customers who make reasonable offers. I intend to always give them this chance because elasticity is necessary in any business. It gives an incentive for customers who are afraid to spend their money buying an expensive article without knowing if it will bring them the positive results they desire. So, it’s a good idea to accept their offers in the beginning, and give them the opportunity to test our work.

The first sale is very, very important. When you sell someone something and they are happy with the product they bought from you, they will easily buy more products in the future, and they will accept your prices (without bargains) after verifying that they are really very good.

This is not my opinion, but a verified truth. Besides my online business, I had two offline businesses for many years, and this is why I know how the selling process works in general terms.

I asked other authors in this thread if it was better to sell our articles giving full rights, or usage, etc, hoping that I would find here authors who would give me information about the way everything works in this site. However, from the answers I had here, I can see that everyone in this thread is far from being an experienced marketer. This is a known problem because writers like to produce, but they usually hate the selling process. So, instead of listening to your advice, I feel that I should give you my advice. This happens also because I’m probably the oldest one here.

According to my marketing experience, I must advise all new authors who are reading this thread to be very elastic, accept offers when they are reasonable, sell their articles also by giving usage rights, and care about showing to potential customers that they are making many sales, so that they may very easily sell all their articles.