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Content is King
Introduction
A pencil. Yes, a pencil. In my
opinion, every great idea has started with a pencil. Sure, lots stay in
someone’s head, but to me a great idea doesn’t have any value until it’s written
down. Until it’s written down it’s just dust I the wind: here today and quickly
forgotten tomorrow.
But, every great idea needs a little something extra.
Maybe you’re great at design, but you simply can’t write worth a darn. Or,
maybe, you have the best idea for a website, but no real way to get the word
out. Either way, we all have different skills and we all have something to give
and wouldn’t mind getting a little something in return.
The website I’m
talking about today is really about just that: getting something valuable in
return for something valuable. Whether you are a website owner or a writer, this
website has been rather successful at giving you what you need, when you need
it.
Constant Content is all about giving webmasters the content they need
to make their sites great while at the same time giving authors the exposure and
income they need to keep doing what they are great at. At it’s core, it’s about
allowing people to play to everyone’s strengths.
The Gist of the
Gist
There are really two parts to Constant Content. If you are a
webmaster, there are hundreds of articles available for you as free content,
licensed content or exclusive content. Constant Content will even have content
custom written for you if you don’t find what you need!
It’s a little bit
like having hundreds of writers sitting around at your beck and call. Some would
call it spoiled, but I call it a dream come true.
?The flipside of this
equation is for authors. As you can tell, I’m an author. I’ve written articles,
reviews, tutorials and curriculum for magazines, universities, books… You name
it, I’ve done it. For me the two hardest parts about being an author are
exposure and a revenue stream. Either you can’t find enough work, or the work
you find doesn’t pay you often enough or well enough to make life
easy.
For writers, this is where Constant Content comes in. It provides
you a place to showcase your work, to license it (lots of people buy, lots of
money for you) and even to sell exclusive, lucrative, licenses of content you
prepare.
As I said before, Constant Content really is about connecting
webmasters and writers up to form a team. A very cool concept which works very
well.
Webmasters, Put Your Hands in the Air!
By now any smart
webmaster should be aware that content is what makes the site go round. Even if
all you have is an Ecommerce site, it’s still ultimately the content on that
site which gives it legs. Your users need to know certain things, and content is
what fills them in. Whether it’s articles, reviews, tutorials, essays or
editorials, every site benefits from new, professional content.
Before we
get in too deep to how you can get that great content right now, let me go
through some of the basics of how Constant Content works for site owners. The
process is fairly simple. You go to the Constant Content site. Then you find the
type of content you are looking for (there are several ways of narrowing it
down). Once you’ve found a piece you like, you are able to see a preview of it
to make sure it fits with the overall tone of your site.
You then have a
choice. Do you want a “Usage” license or a “Unique” license. A Usage license
basically means you are allowed to use the license, but so is anyone else who
buys a Usage license. It gives you the content you need, but does not guarantee
you won’t find it elsewhere. The flipside of this is that the content is very
well priced: often in the 10-20$ range, which isn’t bad at all. If you’re
looking for exclusive rights to a piece of content though, you will need to
purchase a Unique license. This will guarantee that nobody else buys the piece
in question. It’s a bit like buying a print of a famous painting versus buying
the original. Both are great, both will work, it just depends on your
needs.
Ultimately, there is only so much content on Constant Content
right now, as it is a fairly new service. So, what happens if you don’t find the
content you like? Well, you can either submit a Request for Content and hope
authors help you out, or you can apply to have a piece custom created for you.
Sure, you’ll pay a premium, but you will also work with the author to make sure
the piece is ideal for your project.
?Whether you choose to buy content
already on Constant Content or get it created just for you, ultimately you’ll
find what you need, at a great price, delivered with a smile. Constant Content
allows you to play to your strengths, without having to worry about all the
extra hassles.
Authors, Princes Among Men
Being a writer is tough
these days. Either you can’t figure out what you want to write about, or you’ve
written tons of stuff that nobody’s buying. After all, we can’t all be John
Grisham’s (nor do most of us want to… though the 3 boats wouldn’t be
bad).
Working with Constant Content has several key advantages, at least
in my experience. First, it helped get my name out there. I submitted several
articles for free which are now in use on dozens of sites. It gave me exposure,
and several times has given me opportunities to write custom content for a
decent fee!
The other area Constant Content has helped me is in writing
that I’ve just got “kicking around”. I haven’t sent it to anyone, it isn’t
published and it’s basically just gathering dust. I can submit the piece to the
site and just sit back. Sometimes I’ll get purchases fairly quickly. But
sometimes nothing will happen for a few months. Somehow that’s even more
gratifying. The fact that I can submit content, and have it pay me for years to
come isn’t a bad deal at all. It feels a bit like some of the royalty checks for
book contributions that I get.
Besides the ability to submit free
content, Usage content, Unique content and custom content deals, there is one
other great thing about Constant Content: referrals. I’ve referred several
friends to Constant Content. Every piece they sell, I get 5% for. Yeah, that’s
right. Sometimes I wish real world publishing worked like this, because I know a
lot of authors. If every time one of my friends got a big signing bonus for a
book I got 5%… I could practically retire.
You Too Can be
King!
While I’d hate to be really cliché and say Constant Content
provides a win-win situation, I really have to. If you’re a webmaster you have
access to a growing repository of reasonably priced content. If you’re an
author, you have an easy forum to not only let your writing speak for itself,
but to make some decent money while you’re at it. Visit Constant Content now at
http://www.constant-content.com to find out more and to sign up for your
account.
By Jeremy C. Wright?http://www.ensight.org/
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