Constant Content

[Bartholomew]

I wrote content articles for an entire summer once, and the pay didn't match the quality of the writing I provided.

Now I'm looking for some work where I can just write, and I was impressed with this website (linked in my sig) -- they let me set my own prices, and they seem to insist on high quality work.

Has anyone thrown spare articles here before? How much is too much to charge? Is it better to throw on unpublished articles, or is catering to their request list worthwhile?

[JenNipps]

I have a few little things up at Constant Content. One of my articles was set as $20 unique use. When all was said and done, on that aricle, I got $13 a month for several months. That works for me. :)

[inkkognito]

Just signed up for yucks. I'm always looking for a little extra $$.

[JenNipps]

Unless you write for their requests specifically, it can take a while for any of your articles to get picked up. This one someone got of mine was, honestly, a couple years old, but it's an evergreen, so there wasn't any time issues that made it irrelevant. If that's the case, I don't know that you would want to include those on CC.

[inkkognito]

It seems like a lot of relationship and self-help articles get picked up, so I'm thinking of focusing on that area and tossing out a few. Maybe some credit-related ones too as those are the ones doing the best for me at Demand Studios revenue share.

[SouthernFriedJulie]

Bart- Your writing is too good for a content site. Try hitting up some of the online 'zines. Might take a bit to hear back, but often the pay is well worth waiting. Plus the names add up on a resume.

I have nothing against content sites, have a few accounts, myself. Just hate to see another writer get stuck in that rut. Happened to me and took a long time to figure out how to get out of it.

Use content sites for articles you cannot sell elsewhere. Then re-read and re-slant. The re-slant is the revenue share of writing!

If you haven't picked it up yet, Bart, get a copy of Jenna Glatzer's book- How to make a real living as a freelance writer.

[AngelRoseDarke]

I just signed up at Constant Content, and I used your link, Bart. That was you get the referral credit.

I've been shopping the request list on there. I may throw on some articles that don't sell elsewhere. I don't see that I'll make a lot of money on it, but any extra cash is always good.

[alexruseell]

go on forums.digitalpoint.com You will be getting lots of projects about forum posting with unique content & article writing.

[April]

Unless you write for their requests specifically, it can take a while for any of your articles to get picked up. This one someone got of mine was, honestly, a couple years old, but it's an evergreen, so there wasn't any time issues that made it irrelevant. If that's the case, I don't know that you would want to include those on CC.

That can happen, yes, but not always. I submitted my first article on Jan 29th. It took five days in review. It sold fourteen days later. My second article also took five days in review, but sold in three days.

I don't write for requests, so far. The reason is that there are usually quite a few authors throwing articles at the requester. You are in competition and chances are that your article will end up in the general pool. Not always, but you can't win every duel. And, some of these topics are so obscure that they won't sell well in the general pool. So, I choose to write what I think will sell from the pool. From what I can tell, The hot selling ideas are pregnancy, personal finance, IT, taxes (for the next month perhaps), and astrology.

[joyce]

Just had to say I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email saying one of my articles had sold. I haven't put anything here for almost two years and couldn't remember what the couple that hadn't sold were about. I saw it was an evergreen gardening article. It was only a $20 surprise, but a $20 dollar surprise is better than no surprise at all. :)

[NicoleJLeBoeuf]

I used to sell articles via Constant Content. But I only wanted to sell under their usage license, because reprints are a writer's lifeblood; and I found out the hard way that CC do not consider themselves obliged to actually enforce the terms of the usage license (e.g. that their customers publish the content only once per payment, that their customers do not change the content nor remove the author's byline, etc.). After I'd emailed them several times about my work turning up on people's websites without my byline (or even with another person's byline, the plagiarists!), they started getting snitty with me: "If it means so much to you, *you* go talk to the web site owner."

Except, of course, you can get banned from CC for initiating direct content with the customers; that would be cutting out the middleman. That's explicitly stated in the forum and in the rules for writers.

I suppose I could side-step the issue of whether CC adequately uphold their own usage license by not using that license anymore--by only using the full rights license and thus forfeiting any expectation of reprints or bylines. But I don't want to not have a byline on all that work. And just on principle, I dislike greatly how writers are expected to adhere to their contracts but customers are not held to the terms of the usage license. And if they are going to set themselves up as a middleman and take a cut of my sales, I expect them to enforce the license they are supposedly brokering the sale under.

So I burned that bridge, and will be eventually reprinting the articles I still have rights to wherever I find an opportunity. Maybe via my eHow account if their contract allows. We'll see.

(Full disclosure: I now do content writing for Demand Studios, who take full rights and pay flat fees on acceptance, payable twice a week via PayPal. I can't reprint, but on the other hand I don't have to constantly police my own "middleman". And there's no waiting around for someone to buy. If I do two articles in a day, I make $30 in a day, guaranteed--no rejections yet, knock on wood. So I find this a more acceptable situation.)

[Ella Riley]

Does constant content pay as soon as the client pays them, or once a month? On the website it says you get paid the first week of the month but I've read on another forum that people get paid more often than that. Maybe the rules were changed?

Does anyone have experience with how you get paid there?

[WittyWordsmith]

From my understanding, they do a payout once a month the first week of every month. The payment from the client does have to clear first, but that makes sense to me.

I haven't been paid from them YET, but I did just sell an article (yay!) and I'll be getting paid next week. I'll let you know how it goes!

So far, I'm loving CC. The editors aren't sadistic and overbearing, but really do try to make the articles the best they can be. I can write what I want and set a good price for my efforts. I only lose my byline if it's a Full Rights sale, which I price high enough that it won't bother me. The forum there is full of helpful people, and the pay is better than I've seen elsewhere for content. It's not the normal "mill," it's a marketplace. So far so good!

[CoastalWriter]

I have just written a 1110 word article for a public request at this company, and the research took me quite a bit of time, as it was a subject I knew nothing about, but I'm happy with the final result.

The lady wants to pay $30-50

One thing I have to take into account is that I am in the UK, so exchange rates on top of the 35% CC take off the payment.

There is:

Usage.
Unique.
Full Rights.

What price would you place all of these at? And as the client has said $50 is the limit, can you place that on the first two and put the full rights higher?

Another thing I have to take into account, is it may not get accepted by her and go into the pool, if this is the case, can you edit your prices later?

Sorry for the newbie questions, but I have never submitted an article to this site before.

[WittyWordsmith]

First, you can always edit your prices, as long as the article is still in your inventory. So if it isn't picked up right away then you can definitely hike them.

Second, $50 for full rights on a 1000+ word article is on the lower end of pricing at C-C. Of course, this depends on the work and depth of the article, but it still seems pretty low for the amount of work you described.

Because it's a public request, I would actually price it at $50 for all three of the rights, because that way you aren't shorted TOO MUCH if she ends up buying it unique or full rights. Also because that's what I would price it for Usage if you don't get selected. Then I would raise it for unique or full rights down the road.

Don't be scared that it won't sell, nearly every article on C-C sells eventually, and you'd be surprised who buys them even when you think it won't happen. Often authors raise their prices on a public request and then are pleasantly surprised when they sell for the higher price.

To get a better idea about pricing, take a look at the Freelancer Hall of Fame there and the author bios under the Expertise section. This gives you a good idea of what the sellers there price their articles at. I do this a lot and am always reassured that I'm pricing well for the market and not under-cutting myself.

Also, the forum on Constant Content is awesome, and goes into detail about just about any situation you could wonder about writing for their marketplace. I highly suggest you check it out and spend some time there!