Tips for Keeping the Nose to the Grindstone?

[Debbi]

I think I went from the very bottom ($1 an article) to the very top ($100 an article at CC) without trying anything in the middle. Now I know about DS but are there any other high-paying sites anyone knows about, at least $15 per sale? I am still too slow and not stockpiled enough at CC to even consider revenue share sites, though at some point I might give that a try.

[Lysis]

Debbie, I play around with lots of sites. I played around with Helium today. It's a huuuuuge learning curve, and the site has a bad reputation, but I got approved for their Marketplace, and the publisher I was approved for buys articles at $36 an article. I just submitted my first one, so we'll see how that goes. Their Marketplace is actually very good money. Perks are very low competition since not a lot of writers can get access to their approved Marketplace category. Downside is the publisher has to pick your article, similar to here, but my thoughts are that I'll submit anything that doesn't sell here or add it to my Suite101 portfolio.

DS is more guaranteed, so I still fall back on them. I've been sticking with Livestrong, which seems to have the most professional editors compared to eHow.

Debbi, you have a psych degree, so your credentials meet Livestrong requirements. Livestrong requires a degree in the health industry. Mental health counts, I think. Write editorial and apply. It's $20/article and much less hassle from unprofessional editors.

[ScottRC]

Lysis, Oh no - you have to have a degree to write for Livestrong? I just checked out DS yesterday, sent my resume and writing sample in this morning ... but, as a college drop-out, I may be limited in what assignments I can get. I've also been accepted at Suite 101 but haven't started submitting there yet.

On the bright side, I just saw that my FIRST CONSTANT CONTENT ARTICLE SOLD! It's the first one I wrote for this site and I actually didn't think much of it. And it was only a 20-bucker. Still ... progress!

[HayleyWriter]

Well congratulations on the first sale. It just goes to show that patience wins out. It took me six weeks to make my first sale, but since then I haven't looked back! I find that submitting regularly here works wonders. You may not sell every article straight away, but eventually most sell. I just figured out that I'm sitting on a rate of 87% - that is - I have sold licences equalling 87% of my total accepted articles here. Some articles sell on the first day, others have sold after several months, so the longer you keep submitting articles on CC, the more you will make. It seems that sales go up at the end of the month - I've sold 7 articles in the past two days!

Congrats on the first sale - I sincerely hope it is the first of many sales here for you Scott.

Kind regards,

Hayley

[Lysis]

Lysis, Oh no - you have to have a degree to write for Livestrong? I just checked out DS yesterday, sent my resume and writing sample in this morning ... but, as a college drop-out, I may be limited in what assignments I can get. I've also been accepted at Suite 101 but haven't started submitting there yet.

On the bright side, I just saw that my FIRST CONSTANT CONTENT ARTICLE SOLD! It's the first one I wrote for this site and I actually didn't think much of it. And it was only a 20-bucker. Still ... progress!

Scott, first, grats on your sale! It feels so good. It's not always about the money. It's like you feel validated as a writer when someone buys your work.

Don't worry about Livestrong on DS. There are other articles for eHow to go around. They have several areas of expertise. My area is health, so I was just giving one example. They also have home improvement, Overstock.com and gardening. I imagine they will get more.

Suite101 takes a long time, but if you know SEO, you'll do much better. Suite101 is the most enjoyable site I write for. You can write about anything you feel like and the editors are just plain ol' nice people. CC is enjoyable too, but Ed is tough so you really need to be on your best behavior. I was approved for health on Suite101, but I've been working with the tech editor to diversify my work. I was flagged a lot, but I got his style down now and I'm cool. Something I love about the site is that I can take a month off and still get my monthly payment. Downside is that the pay is crap. Average is that you see about $1.00 an article per month after you hit your 50 articles and get your 10% contributor bonus. Another bonus is that it's a good place to showcase your portfolio. Many of the jobs I've gotten have been after linking my Suite101 portfolio. I think it's a great place to get your byline on articles and show your work to better paying jobs, and you get a little money in the process.

Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask me about the ropes if you get approved for DS or Suite.

[ScottRC]

Thanks, Hayley and Lysis!

This has been really invigorating - this thread, the sale, the info about other sites. The possibilities are endless!

[Debbi]

Scott,

Congratulations! Was it the "Healthy Changes in Your Diet" one? If so, did you write it for that Changes public request. I wrote one fot that request but it was never even looked at

Lysis,

How do you apply for LiveStrong? I should make my Psych degree work for me somehow. I always tell my kids (who are both techs with a 15 years of experience but no college degrees) that I wish I could give them all my degrees so they could get the jobs they deserve.

[Lysis]

Debbi,

Contact editorialteam@demandstudios.com. I app'd about 2 months ago and just got approval about 2 weeks ago. I was denied at first, so I'm not sure what changed. One day about 3 weeks ago, I got an approval letter after being denied. I wrote them with a strong app letter and sent them examples of my eHow health examples along with some Suite101 examples and an overview of my background. I treated the email like a job application for writing. The worst that can happen is they say no. I imagine they need qualified writers. I'll take sloppy seconds in this case.

[ScottRC]

Debbi,

Yeah, it was the "Healthy Changes" article for the "Changes" public request. I still haven't gotten an e-mail from C-C saying that my article has been sold. I was just browsing the "Recently Sold" page while talking to my sis on the phone last night and saw my title there! Nice little surprise. I'm kind of sad that my Amsterdam article didn't sell. It's my favorite of the ones I've done here so far, but since it deals with a March holiday maybe it's just a timing thing. I'm also wondering if the stylistic precociousness I've brought to the Amsterdam and dog/asthma articles might be hindering me. Most of the articles that sell here seem to be pretty straightforward in terms of style, as my Healthy Changes article was.

Lysis,

I can see how $1 an article could add up over time; it would be nice to get that for your backlog of work. I've really got to get going on Suite 101. As for DS - I put a writing resume together rather quickly for them and, since I've done very little professional writing, it wasn't very impressive. Sent the dog/asthma article as my writing sample. Hopefully I'll get approved and will no doubt pester you with questions if and when I do.

[Debbi]

Scott,

I wrote a saitirical article called "Why You Should Spoil Your Kids" which was a lot of fun, but I doubted it would sell. A month later a magazine for moms bought it and I've seen it on their web site. Not every buyer wants a cut-and-dried article, some like pieces with a twist, a sense of humor, an out-of-the-ordinary approach. So don't worry about your Amsterdam and dog articles. Like most articles on this site, they are likely to sell eventually, as soon as the right buyer comes along.