Eventually I would also like to research and write new articles for this site, but before I begin I'd like to get a better idea of what types of articles sell best and for how much. I'm hoping that Constant Content has compiled statistics on this, or if not, would be able to do so? I've looked around a bit but have not yet found any such statistics publicly available.
Statistics I would personally find useful:
Articles sold, for each Sub Category:
- Total number of articles sold in that Sub Category
- Average word count
- Standard deviation of word count
- Average price for each rights type
- Standard deviation for each rights type
- Average price per word for each rights type
- Standard deviation of price per word for each rights type
- Average days on market (time elapsed from when an author uploads an article to when it sells)
- Standard deviation of days on market
These same statistics for each other major content Category (Reviews, Tutorials, Blog Posts, Photography, Illustrations, Video) would probably also be helpful for many.
Similar statistics for Requested Content plus statistics on what percentage of requests result in actual sales would be great too, but I understand that this would be much more difficult to compile if there is currently no system in place to link content requests to consummated sales.
If Constant Content doesn't have these statistics readily available, would you please consider calculating them and sharing them with us? Please forgive my impertinence in suggesting a new project in my introductory post, but I am so impressed with the potential I see here that I can't contain my enthusiasm for finding ways to maximize it!
If you don't have these statistics yet, but you do have a big database of all sales (including category, sub category, word count, sale price, rights sold, date uploaded, and date sold for each individual sale), I could probably help you crunch the numbers by either doing it myself or explaining how to do it in Excel. It might also be possible to extract additional useful information if we play around with some regression analysis. I could then write up something explaining what the results mean. I'll volunteer to help with this project because I personally would find this information very useful for directing my own work, but I assume that Constant Content won't generate these numbers just for me or let me look at your data unless I give something back to the community.
You could also get a clever web programmer (alas, I am not one) to set up a statistics page that automatically updates this information periodically (daily, weekly, or monthly) or with every new sale.
On the flip side, current or potential content-buying customers would probably find this information useful as well. In addition, they would probably appreciate a second set of statistics about content currently on the market as well. These statistics could help them quickly figure out what they should reasonably expect to pay for different content types, topics, lengths, and rights. If you were also able to put these statistics right at the top of their respective Category and Sub Category content listings, that would give them the information right when they need it most.
I sincerely believe that compiling and publishing these statistics of demand, supply, and market prices would be a win-win-win for Constant Content, its authors, and its customers. Constant Content could use this information to further refine its business model, seek out new authors for undersupplied Categories and Sub Categories, and seek out new buyers for Categories and Sub Categories with surplus content. Authors would be able to better focus their research and writing efforts towards what the market demands and pays best for. Buyers would be able to quickly determine whether Constant Content is likely to be capable of meeting their content needs for quantity and price. Both authors and buyers would benefit if their expectations for prices were better informed with actual market price data.
If this sounds like a good idea, please put me in contact with your database geek(s) to discuss details. Although I am not a database programmer myself, I have worked with databases and database designers enough to have a general grasp of database concepts. I also have a BA in Economics, which required me to take several statistics and econometrics classes, so I have some skill for extracting useful information from large data sets as well.
If any of you -- especially the more experienced authors -- have other ideas about statistical information that you think would be helpful for authors, buyers, or Constant Content's management team, please reply to my post! I love discussing clever ways we can make data work for us.
