Writer Wrangler

  

Often as writers we end up with a batch of articles that we’ve had printed, the buyer only wanted specific rights, and we’re left with them taking up space on the hard-drive.  There are magazines that take reprints if you want to explore that option, but check out Constant Content first.   This site has been around a few years, and unlike many others, it has actually decreased the amount of commission it takes from the writers.  There’s no fee involved to the writers for using the site, but if you sell anything CC takes 35% of your sales price.  This seems a lot, but you have to weigh that up against the fact the articles are already wrote and are currently not earning anything!   The negative side of the side isn’t the commission you have to pay, but the time it can take to get the articles loaded up.  At one time there was only the owner who received the articles, approved them, and it took about a day before you could see your stuff live at the site.  The site’s grown however, and now they have a team of editors who ensure that work meets a certain standard before it is approved for the site.  Overall this is a good thing because it means the site gets a reputation for providing quality work, which sets it apart from the sites that allow anything to be published, but it can frustrating for the authors who must wait to see if their article will be accepted or not.  Another downside is that they have a $50 threshold so you don’t get your payment until you have that much in your account (although they will sometimes release on request if you ask). 

The positive aspects of are the site are many and include: 

• It’s free (except if you sell when you’re paid your set fee minus CC’s commission)

• You get to choose the fee you want for the work – which means you can get paid more for the reprint than you did for the original in some cases

  

• You can choose what rights you sell on the work – and set different prices for each category of copyright you have available on each article

• You can choose to only submit work you have already done

• You can choose to submit on spec for buyers who put in a request for articles on a certain subject area

• Payment is monthly via PayPal

 When CC first started there was very little in the way of requested articles, now this is becoming more of a feature.  With everything from product descriptions, to reviews, and from feature articles to blog entries being requested, there’s a lot of variety for anyone who wants to gamble on submitting something that fits the request but which may not be chosen.  The amount that clients are willing to pay varies with some clients wanting to pay $5 an article, and others willing to pay $100-200, for the same size article!  It doesn’t matter so much what the client is offering, but rather what you want to be paid for the article because you control the fee setting, not the client.  If you don’t want to work for $5 an article, submit the work but put a higher fee on it.  That buyer may not buy it, but another buyer in the same product area might.   Navigating the site takes a bit of getting used to, it used to be so much simpler, but technology improved and with it an abundance of features that can make for a more efficient system, only you have to learn how to use it first!  Take a tour around the site, read the forum posts that deal with the new system and see how other new authors have had their queries answered – if you’ve got a problem, you can guarantee someone else already had it and has an answer!  If not, then put a note in the forum and ask!  One thing that is very much a constant at CC is the friendliness of writers.  Here you will find the kind of community-ship that the writing professional is known for – those with experience offering advice to those who need it.  Although writing on spec isn’t such a good deal unless you know that what you’ve produced is good enough to outclass anything else that may be submitted from the other writers, Constant Content is a great place for putting your reprints.  Yes it takes time, but once you’ve done it, they stay there until you take them down – and they sell over and over again especially if they’re in the “hot” topic areas.  You’re not likely to get rich at CC, but that’s not really the nature of the site.  However, what have you got to lose but a little learning and input time – and take a look at the top author stats, those writers may not be earning a fortune, but with hundreds of article sales to their name, they are certainly earning a great deal more than little pin-money! 

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