Article - Content is King!
By: john wilks
| Posted: 17th February 2006
Content is King
Introduction
A pencil. Yes, a pencil. In my opinion, every great
idea has started with a pencil. Sure, lots stay in
someoneÆs head, but to me a great idea doesnÆt have
any value until itÆs written down. Until itÆs written
down itÆs just dust I the wind: here today and quickly
forgotten tomorrow.
But, every great idea needs a little something extra.
Maybe youÆre great at design, but you simply canÆt
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 wouldnÆt mind getting a
little something in return.
The website IÆm 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
itÆs core, itÆs about allowing people to play to
everyoneÆs 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 donÆt find what
you need!
ItÆs 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, IÆm an author. IÆve written articles,
reviews, tutorials and curriculum for magazines,
universities, booksà You name it, IÆve done it. For me
the two hardest parts about being an author are
exposure and a revenue stream. Either you canÆt find
enough work, or the work you find doesnÆt 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, itÆs 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 itÆs 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 youÆve 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 wonÆt
find it elsewhere. The flipside of this is that the
content is very well priced: often in the 10-20$
range, which isnÆt bad at all. If youÆre 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.
ItÆs 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 donÆt 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, youÆll 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
youÆll 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 canÆt
figure out what you want to write about, or youÆve
written tons of stuff that nobodyÆs buying. After all,
we canÆt all be John GrishamÆs (nor do most of us want
toà though the 3 boats wouldnÆt 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 IÆve just got "kicking around". I havenÆt
sent it to anyone, it isnÆt published and itÆs
basically just gathering dust. I can submit the piece
to the site and just sit back. Sometimes IÆll get
purchases fairly quickly. But sometimes nothing will
happen for a few months. Somehow thatÆs even more
gratifying. The fact that I can submit content, and
have it pay me for years to come isnÆt 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. IÆve referred several friends to Constant
Content. Every piece they sell, I get 5% for. Yeah,
thatÆs 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%à I could practically retire.
You Too Can be King!
While IÆd hate to be really clichÚ and say Constant
Content provides a win-win situation, I really have
to. If youÆre a webmaster you have access to a growing
repository of reasonably priced content. If youÆre an
author, you have an easy forum to not only let your
writing speak for itself, but to make some decent
money while youÆre at it. Visit Constant Content now
at http://www.constant-content.com to find out more
and to sign up for your account.
Jeremy C. Wright is an Author at constant content as
well as the owner of http://www.ensight.org. You can
download more of his free articles at http://www.constant-content.com
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Tags: little bit, revenue stream, magazines, gist, website owner, pencil, universities, curriculum, flipside, beck