Anyone writing for constant-content?

AC does have specific guidelines to follow in order to be published. It requires perfect structure of the article and linking correctly to your sources. They are strict, but that only makes for better writing. Right?

 

Constant Content is not a waste of time or a scam. It's a website where you can make decent money if you're a good writer, and put in the time and effort. When I decided to give online writing a whirl, I wrote 6 articles for Textbroker (UK) and made a grand total of $29. I decided that wasn't going to cut it, so I gave Constant Content a shot. I sold my first article there (1510 words) for $100 (I netted $65) the same day I wrote it, and 4 or 5 more articles that same first week on the site. In the combined months of Nov/Dec 2013, I made $1880 USD (about $2100 in my Aussie money), by writing 71 articles in 61 days, selling 57 of those articles (@80%) and doing it while only writing about 20 hours per week. There are people on the site who do better than that, charging over 10 cents a word (most newbies price their articles at 6-9 cents a word). The trick is to proofread articles at least 3 times before submitting, and to grab every single Public Request you think you can write. Once you get 10 articles accepted and have an acceptance rate above 60% on the site, you'll be invited to participate in Writer Pool requests, which are virtually guaranteed money ( I made $325 in three days on one of these, writing 10 articles in a row about carbon monoxide poisoning).

Though I had written 4 print books before I joined CC, I had virtually no online writing experience at all, yet I did much better than the average person does during their first couple of months on the site. (Self-promotion alert!) - I've actually written an eBook (for Kindle and other devices) on how to succeed quickly on Constant Content, called 'The Freelance Writer's Guide to Making Money on Constant-Content.com'. You can find it on Amazon by searching for the title.

I think it's important to thoroughly read all the writer's guidelines on the site (there's a useful Author Tutorial page worth checking too) before you even think about submitting your first article. I list a lot of the most common beginner mistakes that writers make on CC in my book, and provide several useful strategies for upping your profits.

I've written over a hundred articles for CC and never had a rejection due to spelling. Just use Word's spell-checker, proofread diligently and keep the dictionary handy. I'd written close to 50 articles before I had my first grammar issue with the editors - I capitalised 'National Parks' in a sentence where it shouldn't have been capitalised.

So if you have the time to churn out a decent volume of articles, you write well and you have a solid grasp of grammar and sentence construction, Constant Content is worth a try. I've made $583 this month so far without really even trying (I was busy working on other things, like dealing with the IRS from Australia to get my EIN number, so I could sell my eBook on Amazon.com without getting slugged for so much tax...).

Cheers,
Kevin Casey
remoteriverman.com

 

Constant Content is a pretty good site. Don't rely on it for a full-time income, as that will probably not happen. However, if you can write high quality articles, don't be afraid to give them a try. There's only a few cons I can think of.

It seems that the editors don't have very uniform opinions. Whereas one editor might reject an article, another might pass it.

The only other problem that I have is with the formatting. Perhaps they've changed their rules a bit, but when I was writing more seriously there, all the articles had to read like essays. I love to write essays, but articles written for the Internet shouldn't necessarily follow that format.

 

You have to depend on luck for your articles to get accepted at CC, which therefore means that the site could only serve as a `side income`The site`s editing team has ridiculous writing standards, yet the rates are nothing to be excited about, not unless you`re a $2 writer.My advice is that you can make more with such articles elsewhere, and you`ll also not have to depend on luck to make money.
From what I can see on the posts, people have to wait up to 4 days for an article to get reviewed.This further cements my point, that CC should be best used as a side-income.

 

Has anyone made any money out of constant-content?
Yes, I've made a lot out of them. I checked my stats and have sold about 55 articles on there and made... er... I don't know exactly how much, but hundreds of (or probably over a thousand) dollars with very little work (measuring by quantity).

How easy or hard is it to earn from the site?
Depends. If you write popular subjects and good titles, it's easier than if you write bizarre micro-niche topics. I've had articles sell in a couple of days, while others have sat for months.

What kinds of articles do publishers usually look for?
The same as anywhere else. Technology, mobile, internet, relationships, sports, pets, whatever.

Do you have any tips that you can offer for authors who wish to sell content on this site?
1. Don't expect to make loads of money quickly: quality sells slower than quantity.
2. Keep track of public requests, what's selling, latest sales and so on.
3. Write really good titles and top-drawer content. Regurgitating the same "What is SEO?" crap won't get you anywhere.
4. Pick one of two strategies: (a) target the best-selling content, write that and price it really high or (b) write a load of stuff in all sorts of subject areas and price it a bit lower.

Personally, I use CC as a place to put content that isn't for a direct client. I don't put much on there, but about 80% of it sells and it always goes for really nice prices. Like any non-direct system, I wouldn't rely on it to generate my only monthly income, but it's a great income stream to add to a regular client list.

And some other comments:

That should be "were". (Sorry, couldn't resist... no offense.)
I have never sold an article for only $10 on CC. My prices are always up in the $30-$40 (net, after CC's cut).

I think you mean for your articles to sell. Acceptance is guaranteed if they pass editing, which is tough but has little to do with luck.

Actually, they have excellent writing standards. They expect content to be very high quality, rather than the junk that other sites accept. And the rates are excellent (see above).

Interestingly, I've had every single article accepted first time in the past few weeks. I guess I must have finally convinced my brain to write in "CC style".

Depends on time of year and the number of people writing. To be honest, I'd rather wait 4 days and earn $40 net for 500 words than have the same thing accepted the same day for $5.

As I've said elsewhere on DP, prices are inversely proportional to simplicity. Higher prices mean more work involved: if you want everything simple, go for a lower-price option and let the site do all the work!

 

Not so positive review :
sophiagubb.com/constant-content-review

 

What a difference a year makes. As you'll see from my previous forum comment here, in Feb. 2014 I was reasonably happy with Constant Content, and made some money from them. Unfortunately, I believe things have deteriorated on the site to the extent that writers should now avoid CC altogether. I stopped writing for them in mid-2014, and actually pulled my eBook on 'how to make money on Constant Content' off Amazon, because I felt I was doing a disservice to writers in recommending this site as a source of income. I no longer sell this eBook.

CC has always had a bad reputation for answering its emails, but this has now become ridiculous. They simply don't communicate properly with their writers. Their 'editor's' suggestions can be nitpicky to the point of being incomprehensible, and the relatively high-paying Writer Pool Requests that made for decent earnings last year have now dried up and been replaced by a far more convoluted system of poorly-paid 'Team Pools' that seem to be all about cranking out fluff at 2-cent-a-word (net) rates.

Not only do endless emails go unanswered (leading some writers to miss deadlines for clients), but there have also been instances of writers being inexplicably dumped from the site for no reason, others who have been ditched because they didn't write an article that CC never sent them an email about in the first place, endless complaints about weird site glitches that make it impossible for writers to submit work, etc. And, from what I've seen, the quality of requests on the site has also gone down - along with the pay rates. Yes, you can still write articles on spec, but because there's no 'bottom limit' on what writers can charge for their articles, it's very much a 'race to the bottom' scenario there.

The CC forum is jam-packed with complaints from their own disgruntled, confused, dispirited and fed-up writers, which isn't much of an advertisement for the quality of their business, I'm afraid.

As a professional freelance writer, I no longer recommend Constant Content to writers. It has become, in my view, an untenable option and no longer worth the considerable hassle to write there. I think all writers are better off avoiding writing sites altogether, to be honest, and setting up their own writer site to pursue their own clients. Since I left CC, that's what I've done, and my income has soared as a result (I made $7200 last month alone).

In my view, Constant Content has become a largely dysfunctional writing site, and I am certainly not alone in this view, as evidenced by comments both inside and outside their very own site forum. This is a real shame, because the premise of the site is interesting. But unfortunately, they have some very serious issues there. As someone who has experienced them first-hand for a year, I'd say stay away.

Cheers,
Kevin Casey

 

I've been using iWriter and have had a good experience with them.