by remoteriverman on Thu Apr 02, 2015 7:39 pm
Hi Pellucidean -
My sales rate while I was writing for CC always hovered around (or slightly above) 80%, but I think that kind of rate was easier to achieve back when there were more consistent writer pool opportunities. Because of a range of issues (poor admin communication, strange site glitches, horrible pay rates for mass low-quality requests, etc.), I longer write for CC. Funny thing is, as soon as I stopped writing for them, created my own writer website and starting pursuing my own clients (both through my site and through LinkedIn), my writing career took off like a rocket.
Just two months after giving up on CC, I was pulling in between $4000 and $8000 a month from a small handful of high quality clients (online retail, insurance, app development, etc.) and have been basically writing non-stop since October. Instead of the $900 USD a month I got for my best 2 months at CC, I'm on track to make about $40,000 for roughly 7-8 months work this financial year (I travel the rest of the year).
So at least for me, it wasn't about improving my sales rate, it was about improving my income as a whole, which could only be achieved by abandoning CC altogether. The difference between charging 25 cents a word for clients who value your worth and dealing with sporadic email responses, bizarre editorial whims and crummy income potential on CC has been like night and day. Even when I was writing for CC, it was more of a 'filler' site for a few extra bucks while I went after better-paying and less 'nitpicky' work. These days, CC simply isn't worth the trouble. There are plenty of better ways out there to make a reliable income from writing - and thanks to the joys of PayPal and Skype, your client base can include businesses in any English-speaking country on earth.
Cheers,
Kevin Casey