Freelance Writers: Why You Should Never Give Away All Rights to Your Content

Written by Yuwanda Black from Inkwell Editorial on September 3, 2008

There are a plethora of new sites popping up on the web where freelance writers can sell their content. This is in addition to older sites that have become very popular, eg, AssociatedContent.com, Constant-Content.com, Helium.com, etc.

New Sites That Allow Freelance Writers to Sell Content

I reviewed one of these new sites on my blog last week, TheSyndicatedNews.com. One of the things I like about pay-for-content sites is that you can sell your content in a variety of ways, eg, you can sell all rights or limited rights.

For the most part, I don’t believe freelance writers should sell all rights to their content. Before we discuss this though, following is a brief overview of two types of writing rights.

Two Types of Writing Rights

Exclusive Rights: This basically means that you sell all rights to one publisher. For example, the content I produce here on BloggingTips.com can’t be published elsewhere. It belongs solely to this blog.

Non-Exclusive Rights: Non-exclusive rights means that you can sell (or give) the content to more than one publisher. For example, I write articles for AssociatedContent.com (AC). Sometimes I publish these same articles on my blog and distribute them to article directories. This leads me to the main reason I don’t think freelance writers should sell all rights to their content.

Freelance Writers: The Main Reason NOT to Give Away All Rights to Your Content

As writers, it’s our job to figure out how to make what we write as profitable as possible.

When you sell all rights to an article cheaply, that’s time you can never get back. So, if it takes you half an hour to write a piece and you got $3 for it from AC, for example, double that and you’re making an average of $6/hour – which is below the U.S. federal minimum wage (currently $6.55).

Not to knock sites like AC, but most of them pay very little. In the case of this site, the rate per article ranges from $3 to $40. The most I’ve ever gotten from an article I sold to them (non-exclusive rights) is $9. FYI, I have close to 600 articles published on AC. So, why do I submit content to them?

Freelance Writers: How to Make Your Writing Do Double and Even Triple Duty

I don’t submit content to AC to earn what they term “upfront payments” (eg, a one-time payment for an article). I do it to drive traffic to my website and blog, where I sell ebooks and freelance writing seminars. The fact that they pay for page views allows me to earn a nominal amount in passive income each month. This is simply an added bonus.

In essence, the articles I submit to AC do double — sometimes triple — duty in that I also distribute them to numerous article banks and publish them on my blog and website. Hence, the time I spend writing one article for AC serves me in a number of ways.

Note: AC used to offer upfront payments for non-exclusive content. They no longer do. But, you can still earn payment for page views (as of this writing, $1.50 for every 1,000).

Freelance Writers: Maximize Your Time to Increase Your Income

As a freelance writer and web entrepreneur, time is the commodity I trade for income. In order to maximize my income, I must maximize my time. This starts with owning my content.

The Value of Fresh, Unique Content

Every webmaster wants fresh, unique content for their site. It’s what drives traffic and increases online sales. Sites like AC make a lot of money from naïve writers who blithely give away full rights to their articles. This drives the pay scale down for all freelance writers.

After all, why should a webmaster pay $25 for a well-written, 400-word SEO article when they can pay $3, $4 or $5 for unique, fresh content from new writers who don’t realize their worth?

So the next time you put pen to paper, realize your value as a freelance writer. Good writing is a skill that is rarely reflected in how much writers get paid. Hence, it’s up to us as freelance writers to change this. And, it starts with retaining ownership of the content we produce.

Written by Yuwanda Black from Inkwell Editorial on September 3, 2008 | Filed Under Writing

5 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

lissie | September 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm #

AC doesnt pay non-US writers so I avoided their silly low rates anyway! Constant content seems to get much better rates for authors: I am happy to sell an article for $30 ($20 after their commission) which took me 1/2 hour to write. You have to give full rights away though as the value for the customer is tha ability to add their own links and take credit for the writing - which involves full rights AFAIK
Aahz | September 4th, 2008 at 4:01 pm #

I wrote a similar article (with a different slant) last winter titled “Get Paid For Your Non-Sponsored Blog Posts Too” and highly recommend double (and triple) dipping.

However, you state above that “Note: AC used to offer upfront payments for non-exclusive content. They no longer do. But, you can still earn payment for page views (as of this writing, $1.50 for every 1,000).” I still receive a few upfront payments a week from AC for non-exclusive content. The only change I’ve noted at Associated Content is that they now require first publication. You’re still free to submit non-exclusive material for upfront payment as long as they’re the first to publish it.
Yuwanda Black (Post Author) | September 4th, 2008 at 5:15 pm #

Aahz: Thanks for clarifying this point for readers. I never take the time to do this, which is why I overlooked this fact. Thanks again!