Allowing Buyers to Sell purchased articles on this site!

[mattsterrr]

If these were my articles, I personally wouldn't have a problem with it if the buyer feels they can make it work for them. In fact, I'd be quite happy if it meant more sales. I price my work at a level I'm comfortable selling it for so there's no issue there either.

There's certainly nothing anyone can do to prevent it and I don't see how it could be construed as being unethical.

Personally, I'd rather not get involved in the duplicate content discussion. It always seems to end in a heated debate because nobody is 100% certain what Google do and don't include in their algorithms.

Well, I tried not to get involved in it.

[Greg Melikov]

After reading all the banter on this forum, I have again arrived at the same conclusion I did several weeks ago -- usage doesn't make it while full rights is the only way to go.

Ah, but if you go full rights, the buyers are extremely happy bevcause they redo your articles, knock off your byline, take credit for your labor and resell them. fair? I don't think so.

At least with usage, if you're lucky enough to sell some, it's whipping cream on the cake. I sell plenty of cakes on a variety of subjects to clients and many others and make a nifty profit because I'm a pro so it appears I'm wasting my time submitting anything to contsant content because I can't win.

Good luck to your other usage writers. In I do not get at lease a view let alone a sale on any of my offerings within the next 10 days, I'm outta here, will removed my articles, unsubscribe and bid you all adios.

[constant-content]

After reading all the banter on this forum, I have again arrived at the same conclusion I did several weeks ago -- usage doesn't make it while full rights is the only way to go.

You will find most websites are looking for unique content and "most" will not buy usage rights.

Ah, but if you go full rights, the buyers are extremely happy because they redo your articles, knock off your byline, take credit for your labor and resell them. fair? I don't think so.

How is this different from ghostwriting which tons of people use? Also most webmasters who buy full rights really just want unique content and to be able to tweak it to fit their site....

At least with usage, if you're lucky enough to sell some, it's whipping cream on the cake. I sell plenty of cakes on a variety of subjects to clients and many others and make a nifty profit because I'm a pro so it appears I'm wasting my time submitting anything to contsant content because I can't win.

Lost me here.....

Good luck to your other usage writers. In I do not get at lease a view let alone a sale on any of my offerings within the next 10 days, I'm outta here, will removed my articles, unsubscribe and bid you all adios.

Writers come and go all the time, some don't leave ... Either way Good luck!

[Greg Melikov]

I never implied it was unethical -- I just said it's not for me. It makes more sense to publish articles from reliable writers that have credentials in their fields of expertise and rely on quality instead going the cheap route.

I've found over the years that most responsible parties that publish or post articles are looking for experts. My clients agree with my approach and that's why I've done so well while getting paid for freelancing since retiring from the newspaper business more than nine years ago.

I'm always looking to expand my horizons, but I'm not willing to compromise my standards. And those stardards are not exclusively motivated by the buck.

If you don't understand my point of view, don't worry -- you're not the only one. But if you're trying to make mucho dollars solely by freelancing, you'll learn fairly soon that you've made a big mistake.

And remember you can only learn by mistakes and moving on, not by continually butting your head against a brick wall

[Celeste Stewart]

In discussions with some of the customers here that buy my work for full rights, it's not so much that they want to take credit, they want to have the right to make little tweaks, insert keywords or alternate spellings, update info as time goes by etc...

Also in many cases, much of the content is exactly that, web CONTENT as in home page content, about us page content, products and services content etc and bylines really aren't appropriate. It's more of a marketing/copywriting thing in many cases.

For me, I don't care if I get a byline or not because I don't use my real name. I'm saving that for my Great American Novel

Dang it though, when it gets published, none of you will believe it's really me! You'll be "yeah, right Celeste, sure you wrote that."

[Greg Melikov]

One key word has surfaced on this site -- marketing. I'm a writer, not a promoter, and many of the sites I write for DO THE MARKETING for my columns, articles, stories.

For example, my horse racing columns appear on many racebook websites and they do all the promoting, even running my pic: sportingbet.com, allabouthorseracing.com, inspin/wagerweb.com, playersonly.com, etc.

So good luck to all you product promoters and ghostwriters. Celeste, look at it this way: Mark Twain made it big without being known as Samuel Clemens. You weren't born at the last sighting of Haley's Comet, were you?

[mattsterrr]

CC also does the marketing for us. At least, I do a lot, lot less marketing by writing an article, submitting it to CC and then waiting for a sale (currently, that is an exceptionally short wait).

The alternative (without having a website) is writing an article and then approaching numerous websites (after finding sites that are requesting content, of course, because an unsolicited approach would be spam) and other publications and waiting days, weeks, or months for a response.

I apparently write on topics that webmasters need (this is after all, a content site) and my articles are purchased on a regular basis. I'm not particularly keen on selling for usage, but I appreciate that some people like usage sales and I have a couple of articles (one in particular) that has sold several times over for usage.

Still, I for one love that stereotypical writer's ego you're displaying. The implication that you can't make money on CC because you're a PRO is particularly engaging. I suspect, however, that it's because there are very few webmasters using CC that are looking for pieces on horse racing. The majority of gambling articles that sell on here are based on blackjack and poker. I also suspect that your style of writing is dminishing your potential market. Websites, for the most part, look for informative or educational articles or content pages and not first person viewpoints and experience.

Reading between the lines isn't too difficult, and you obviously feel that us "product promoters and ghostwriters" aren't up to your professional standard. Just remember one thing - you're the one complaining that you aren't making sales despite pricing your articles at such a low rate.

I'll be honest, I'm primarily in this for the money and I am in no way ashamed of that. Writing is my living, and at the moment CC is helping ensure that it's an enjoyable and lucrative living. I also have a healthy list of clients that approach me through my site so I am far from being a struggling novice and I am in no way choking for work.

Does my byline appear on the articles I sell here, or even through my other clients? In the majority of cases it doesn't, and frankly I don't care, the credit I want arrives in the shape of meeting my mortgage repayments, feeding the family, and enjoying the finer things as well as through repeat orders and loyal customers.

I know what I'm getting when I sell my work on CC for full rights so is it fair that customers take the credit for my work? Of course it is, that's the agreement.

As for the cheap route comment, the majority of popular writers on this site probably wouldn't consider selling usage for a price as low as you're asking for yours (your cut equates to around 1 cent per word from what I've seen).

Anyway, I do genuinely hope you make a sale of some description on this site in the next week. Perhaps you should consider selling for the license that's one step above usage. I believe it's the Unique License; this means that webmasters can purchase your article so it won't be (and hasn't already been) resold anywhere else but they aren't entitled to remove your byline.

[J. A. Young]

Does my byline appear on the articles I sell here, or even through my other clients? In the majority of cases it doesn't, and frankly I don't care, the credit I want arrives in the shape of meeting my mortgage repayments, feeding the family, and enjoying the finer things as well as through repeat orders and loyal customers.

True enough--if a customer pays what I'm asking for an article they can say it was written by a Smurf for all I care. Selling out? The key word for me is ''selling." It is mainly--even essentially--about the money; however, I won't deny that I'm tickled that I am able to make money writing as opposed to doing something else on the side.

Apart from that--this type of writing which I don't call creative has actually made me a much better writer. One day if CC quiets down, I may give more creative attempts a shot. On the other hand, I want CC to be as busy as ever.

Well, perhaps it's a personal thing. I would just let my stuff sit for months. Perhaps if something sells eventually, it will lead to more inspiration down the road. --J.

[Celeste Stewart]

It's about the money but it's fun too. Who knew I'd be writing about some of the subjects our customers throw our way? JA is right, it helps our writing and *whew!* lately it HAS been paying the mortgage! If it keeps up like it has been lately, I'd quit my day job

Of course, if you're not writing what the current customers are looking for, you're missing the boat. The way I see it, if you have a customer looking for hardware, you don't show him apples.

Sure, you can write your apples articles and eventually a customer will walk through the doors looking specifically for apples and your article will find a home. But for the most bang for your efforts, write what the customer in front of you wants.

[Greg Melikov]

That's one of the reasons why I'm pulling my articles off this site today and unsubscribing pronto -- writers get the short end of the stick.

Use articles don't sell while buyers of full rights articles can knock off the byline, add their own and resell them. Isn't that plagerism redefined.

So long, suckers!

[J. A. Young]

So long, suckers!

I feel you might have responded differently if your candy, so to speak, had gotten a lick. (Where am I going with this...). In other words, if you had sold something. I believe the writers here are not obligated to sell full rights. I may be wrong there, but I do know they get to name their price. You should just let your articles sit here and see what happens. However, if you are determined to think ill of us poor saps who sell our stuff only to see our names crossed off the articles and our words attributed to someone else--you can. As an intelligent person, this is a bargain I enter into and agree to. The price paid to me is adequate reason to see my name disappear. (often the buyer still leaves it on)

I don't think I will rue the day my article on sprinkler systems was attributed to the customer that bought it. But you never know. For now, I will comfort myself with the happy toys I can buy my son for Christmas. I just bought a set of architectural blocks--with Grecian columns, bridges, castle-tops. Totally cool.

So farewell to you and to each his own. --J.A., a cherry sucker if there ever was one.

[Celeste Stewart]

Call us suckers if you want but my last CC paycheck was quite handsome --

You're getting advice from three of the top ten authors here - currently J. A. Young is #3, I'm #5 and Mattsterr is #7. I'd say between the three of us, we know how to work this system. You can take our advice or leave it, that's your perogative for sure. But we're all three sitting pretty.

I prefer cherry suckers by the way

[constant-content]

That's one of the reasons why I'm pulling my articles off this site today and unsubscribing pronto -- writers get the short end of the stick.

Use articles don't sell while buyers of full rights articles can knock off the byline, add their own and resell them. Isn't that plagerism redefined.

So long, suckers!

I love these posts... Its funny these past two weeks we paid over $13k to writers. Thats in one week....

By the way no one is reselling articles, that’s a really silly idea that has no proof.

[Thea]

I thought one of the authors posted in a forum that she sometimes buys articles here, "cleans them up" and sells them again here.

[Ed]

Thea,

The issue on this thread was for a different situation.

Just price your articles appropriately and you won't have to worry!

Thanks,
Ed