crunnerprofileWe continue to enjoy rapid growth and we have all of you to thank for that! Here in mid July there are 575+ users and well over 800 writers that have created accounts on Content Runner. To accommodate our users and writers we continue to add new features to help them collaborate and work together in a (mostly) seamless manner.

User Centric Projects

From the very beginning we went down the road that all other marketplaces have headed, cater to your paying user base (primarily agencies for us) and let them establish the parameters (price, word count, deadline, instructions, etc) for projects. This strategy has worked well as it allows agencies to connect with writers and get the content they need for their clients. While this has been effective, we knew there was something missing and in January 2014 we started development on Offerings – our new service to give control and pricing power back to writers.

Writer Centric Offerings

The majority of online marketplaces are user centric and that makes sense (for the reasons illustrated above). The problem with the current status quo of user centric marketplaces is that many talented writers are scared off if they see too many projects with prices way below what they typically get paid.

To counter balance the user centric focus, we made the decision to empower writers to create their own personalized store front on our marketplace – we call this new feature Offerings. Users can continue to post their own projects, but now writers can use Offerings to display their talents. We wanted writers to be able to:

  • Set their own price
  • Show off their skills – particularly in an area where they have deep subject matter expertise

Giving the power back to writers to showcase their talents and set their own price will allow Content Runner to attract writers that were disenchanted with the many user centric marketplaces already operating.

In this first week of launching we have heard from writers (we got some great publicity from Media Bistro with this piece) with specialties in: wine, outdoors, travel, sports and many other areas. We are looking for very deep (and don’t worry if you think it’s bizarre) subject matter experts.

What changed on the Home Page?

Users can still post projects (from the button on the home page or from the “Projects” tab in your Dashboard), but now Writer Offerings will be the first thing you see on Content Runner. You can browse writer offerings and connect with a writer that provides the exact skill set you are looking for.

Can All Writers Create Offerings?

Selected writers will have access to Offerings during our Beta period which will last for ~3-6 months. If you are a writer and think you have a great idea for an offering send me an email at info@contentrunner.com and I will let you know if we can get you access (the more niche the better!). After the initial beta period we plan to open Offerings up to a larger pool of writers.

How Will Pricing Work?

Writers post their Offerings and Content Runner will mark it up by 15%. For example if a writer creates an Offering for a $200 press release for financial services clients, the user would see the price as $230 and the writer would get the full $200 price tag they created for their Offering.