Selling Approach?

[JShade]

Hello!

Jake here, your always befuddled friendly freelancer. While I am waiting on my first review(rejection) from the crew I was wondering what is the better method of starting your catalog.

When one starts should you focus on selling usage or full/unique rights?

By focusing on usage, I automatically build a catalog rapidly even though it is less initial money. On the other hand, if I focus on selling articles for full rights, I could potentially make more initial money, but it will take much longer to develop a catalog so that when content buyers find me, they will probably only buy one article.

As I don't really know what I'm doing yet, what is your thought processes on this conundrum?

[Celeste Stewart]

I recommend going for full rights and sprinkling in a few of your existing articles for usage (if you have some that you hold the right to, of course). As you build your portfolio, you'll get a better sense of what rights customers are buying from you and then you can adjust accordingly. It doesn't hurt to resell some of your usage articles here, but it's not the way to make a steady income here in my experience.

[Phil]

[Texas Drawl]Hold on there missy. You mean to say I can take articles I have published elsewhere and put them on CC as long as it's usage rights only? Somehow I had the idea that was not allowed. [/Texas Drawl]

Do we make a note in the short summary or something? I'd hate to log a rejection when the site does the .... uh what was that word ...... Ithenticate?

[Lysis]

Phil, it depends on the site. For instance, I write for Suite101 and although you own the copyright, it's against their policy to sell the article somewhere else for a full year.

[nichewriter]

Phil, it depends on the site. For instance, I write for Suite101 and although you own the copyright, it's against their policy to sell the article somewhere else for a full year.

Lysis, is Suite101 back to being a paying site again? I was a Suite101 writer and managing editor back in 2000. They paid $10 an article back then and when they re-organized/re-structured, they stopped paying. Granted $10/article isn't much, but it was better than no pay at all so I quit, and haven't been back there in years.

[Celeste Stewart]

[Texas Drawl]Hold on there missy. You mean to say I can take articles I have published elsewhere and put them on CC as long as it's usage rights only? Somehow I had the idea that was not allowed. [/Texas Drawl]

Do we make a note in the short summary or something? I'd hate to log a rejection when the site does the .... uh what was that word ...... Ithenticate?

Phil,
As long as you haven't sold full rights to your article elsewhere, then yes, you can post it here under a usage rights license. For example, if you posted an article on your personal blog and want to resell it here, then go for it. If you sold it to Associated Content under their "non-exclusive" license, that would be allowed, too. It really depends on the rights that you retained with the original publishing of the article.

Normally you do not need to alert Ed in the short summary. However, it must be obvious that you own the rights when you do this. For instance, if I submitted an article that appears on AC under my pen name of Celeste Stewart, then Ed can tell that the article is mine. But if I sold non-exclusive rights to it to Joeschmoe.com and Joe Schmoe failed to include my byline, then Ed has no way of verifying that Celeste wrote the article, not Joe.

[JShade]

Thank you for the reply Celeste, I will focus per your recommendation.

[Phil]

Dot Ham!! (in case the kiddies are reading this) That is good scoop. All of my other content is either my blogs or "revenue sharing" via adsense sites. I will have to check em out carefully and see if any are worthy. Thanks Again! - Phil

[Celeste Stewart]

Again, make sure that it's obvious that you own the copyright to the content. If it can't be readily verified that you own the rights to whatever.com's blog post on whatever, then you're not going to be able to post the article here. These requirements protect us all. After all, if we want other sites to be diligent in not posting questionable content, we definitely want CC to do the same. If your previously published content is not attributed to you, then you're likely out of luck as far as posting it for CC usage rights. On the other hand, if it is, then you could earn a few extra bucks with minimal effort

[Ed]

From a recent update to FAQ:

I submitted an article to sell for usage rights only. My articles was rejected for originality, but I am the original author of the content.
We can only accept articles that are able to be verified as original to the author. If you choose to submit content published elsewhere by you, please submit articles that are clearly credited to you with your name or the pen name you use on Constant Content. Articles that cannot be verified as original to the author cannot be accepted. If there is no name on the original publication, if the article is credited with a name that does not match your given or chosen name, or if the author's name is not easily located on the page of original publication, the article will be rejected. Do not include location of previous publication anywhere in your submission. Please note: When you submit an article that has been published elsewhere, you may ask usage rights ONLY for the article.

[Lysis]

Phil, it depends on the site. For instance, I write for Suite101 and although you own the copyright, it's against their policy to sell the article somewhere else for a full year.

Lysis, is Suite101 back to being a paying site again? I was a Suite101 writer and managing editor back in 2000. They paid $10 an article back then and when they re-organized/re-structured, they stopped paying. Granted $10/article isn't much, but it was better than no pay at all so I quit, and haven't been back there in years.

No, it's still rev share. There's been a lot of hoopla over there because one of the business writers made $5k in a month with 220 articles. I have to admit, it was pretty impressive, but I'm sure you know, making money on Suite is about the area in which you write. Business/finance people make good money over there, but I write health articles, so I'll never see that kind of income. I write there every once in a while.