I know it sounds ridiculous to start thinking about Christmas so early, but market trends show people are shopping earlier. Whether it’s the result of earlier advertising or not, copywriters should starting thinking now about what kind of articles they will be writing to put up for sale.
Why Write and Sell Articles
While freelance writing boards can find you some good work and watching for and applying to ads can get you even better work, we all have downtime. You can turn that downtime into profitable time by writing evergreen articles focused on the current hot topics and post them for sale. There are three basic ways you can do this.
Article Retailers
There are only two such websites I am currently aware of and only one of them is really worth my time. They are dailyarticle.com and constant-content.com. I just learned of DailyArticle today and have been surfing a round for fifteen minutes or so. You can pick up some free articles and bargain articles for under $10. The first article listed on the front page has a typo in the title, so I’m thinking quality control may be an issue here. In addition, navigation…is…so…incredibly…slow. If I were a buyer, I would have clicked off by now. The site is a great idea but needs a bit of work.
Constant-Content is at the other end of the spectrum. Do not confuse them with the email-marketing firm Constant Contact. Although the site itself is a little simple for me, it’s a big jump over the format they used only a year ago. Quality control there is so good that it pisses off many writers. If you keep sending them articles that need revision, they will ban you from the site. In exchange for your perfect proofreading and grammar, you get to sell articles starting around $15, up to around $85.
Webmaster Forums
You can also post messages offering your articles on webmaster forums, being careful to mention them only where allowed or relevant to the discussion. One highly recommended site is forums.digitalpoint.com. Warrior may be another good site, but tread carefully. Personally, this method is too time-consuming for me. Inbound marketing is a better way to go.
Inbound Marketing
To use this method, you need a writing site. You can either link to your articles for sale on Constant Content (you can see I’ve been too busy to put in a lot of effort,) or set up your site to be a store. You’ll need some more advanced skills to make your own site a store, but directing them to constant content can go either way. They may end up buying from someone else. If you want to use constant-content, they’ve just added this handy widget:
Original Articles. Constant-Content.If I were to do it (and I probably will) I would set up the eShop WordPress plugin on my profile site and test it out against constant-content. What I need to figure out is a way to sell the appropriate rights. Constant-Content lets you set three prices for your article: Usage, Unique or Full Rights. They have also added a fourth option, “best offer,” to start a bid for your work. You can also resell your previous work, as long as you still own the rights to it and your name is ascribed to the piece. That service might be worth redirecting potential customers…
Writing Articles That Will Sell
To write articles that will sell, you need to know the market. Please tell me you are watching the market? The data I’m seeing shows signs of recovery appearing in electronics. Polls show that almost everyone plans to spend less this year than last year. Sound like bad news?… You’re talking like a retailer. It’s good news for article writers because shoppers will be closely scrutinizing every purchase. That mean they’ll be looking for review and comparison articles all over the place. Demand = Profit.
Here is a breakdown, courtesy of Website Magazine, of the expected holiday shopping trends this year:
- Apparel – 49%
- Toys – 34%
- Movies – 29%
- Books and Electronics – 28%
- Peripherals, Digital & Video Cameras, MP3 Players – 24%
In my mind, Books, Electronics and Peripherals are all one category. More than half of all sales are expected in those categories and that’s up over last year! So get cracking if you’ve got some downtime, which often happens on Friday’s, does it not?
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