2008-02-17 20:15:29
Don't Ever Sell Your Content If You Can Help It
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Let's say that you are a fairly good writer.
You have been writing for years, and a friend of yours told you that you can make some pretty decent money doing content creation for web sites.
Most article writers online make between 3-8 cents per word. If you are really good, you can make around $40 for a 500 word article. This isn't bad. You figure that you can probably easily write at least 4-5 really polished articles per day in your spare time.
This is a pretty alluring prospect for you. Instead of watching TV at night, you can come home from work and churn out a few articles and make some extra cash in your spare time.
There is nothing wrong with this, however you need to understand something.
There is a reason why people are willing to pay you $$ for your articles. It's because they are going to make much, much more from your articles over time. Depending on the niche that you are writing in, an article that you write could potentially makes thousands upon thousands of dollars over time, possibly even more. Suddenly, your $40 that you banked for that article doesn't seem so appealing.
If you are interested in writing content, then I would suggest that you learn how to set up a simple Wordpress blog and post your articles there. Build up the blog through linking, quality content and good old-fashioned hard work.
At the beginning, you will be discouraged. Your articles won't be making any money. The $40 in your pocket wil be very appealing.
However, don't fall into this trap. Your content will be worth MUCH more over time. Think of your articles as mini-investments that will pay off over time. Some investments will break even. Some investments will generate massive returns on your investment over time.
Plus, you maintain ownership over your content. Do you really want to slave away on articles for someone else, only to give up your ownership of that article and watch them potentially make thousands of dollars from that article? That's a double slap in the face.
I can point to many articles that I have written in the past that have generated thousands of dollars for our company. I can think of one article in particular that has likely generated over a hundred thousand dollars since I wrote it in 2003. And it is still generating $ and traffic to this day! Imagine if I have just sold this article to someone else for $20?
Content is timeless. A unique piece of content will likely have just as much relevance five years from now as it does now.
When it comes to content creation, try to avoid cashing in for the quick buck, and instead look to the long-term. I would never even think of creating a piece of content for someone else - not only do I retain full ownership over the piece that I write, but it will still be paying me $$ ten years from now. I like that.
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