How many views do you get on an article before it sells?

[PowerWriter]

On average, of course. I'm a new writer here, with my first two articles selling less than 24 hours after being accepted, with 14 and 16 views in Personal Finance and Self Improvement categories respectively. These were published on 6/30 and 9/15.

My latest 7 articles, however, have 18, 1, 2, 1, 31, and 1 views with no sale. Their categories are Personal Finance, Self Improvement, Holidays (Halloween), Freelancing, Dating, and Holidays (Christmas) respectively. They were published between 9/29 and 10/4.

I can't detect a difference in quality of content, but that may just be because they're all written by me What do you all think?

[Lysis]

Some will never sell. I have 2 articles that got 750 views before they sold.

[cmcmahon66]

It really is a mystery. I have had some articles that have sold with 1 view, within an hour of being posted. Others have hundreds of views and are still sitting. There is no "magic number". Actually, I take that back, the magic number is 1 -- you need 1 viewing from a person looking to buy what you are selling!

A few things I have learned though:

--The more articles you have, the more likely sales will happen. I know from my own research and surfing of the site that there are certain authors who are prolific and whose names I recognize because they appear so often. I imagine it's the same for many of the buyers.

--My sales have increased since I moved away from asking a lower price for usage rights. I find that when I have tiered prices, with usage prices costing less, it's not hard to get that first usage sale. But in most cases, that's the only sale that article will get. Anything after that is gravy, and usually only happens if the usage price is really low to start. Most people want original content that won't be anywhere else out there. Plus when an article sells quickly for a full rights license, it is 1) proven to be popular and 2) gone from the catalog. Time to rework the material into another article!

One thing that frustrates me is that you can't change the usage price for an article that has sold once. If you get a decent price for it the first time, it is less likely to sell again at that price. The other strategy is to price usage super-low and count on multiple sales. It would be nice if you could offer a reduced rate for second and subsequent sales, but multiple appearances of an article on the internet would reduce the value for the first person who paid the higher price, so that's probably why that happens.

I don't know if people can actually make offers on an article that is only available for a usage license but I always make sure that I have checked the "best offer" box on those articles.

If an article has languished forever at the bottom of my catalog, I take it down and either do something else with it, or rework it with a new title and maybe a new slant to the content and resubmit it. When it is accepted again, it gets that initial burst of views that newly posted articles often have, and sometimes that results in the sale.

Hope this helps!

--If an article isn't getting views, I try moving it to another category where it also fits. Sometimes that helps. Sometimes it turns out that the topic just doesn't have demand.

[PowerWriter]

Wow, thanks cmcmahon66! Great advice. I never thought about reworking content and resubmitting it or moving categories. I think I'll set it up so once the views reach a certain number and they still haven't sold, I'll try one (or both) of those methods.