All Work & No Pay Makes Bloggers…Carry On?
photo credit: Alex E. Proimos
I read a blog post over the weekend on Men With Pens. In it the author argued that Blogging is Turning Into a Sweatshop, with people working their butts off for little or no money. I’ve been doing this blogging thing now for over 7 years, and really I’d be lucky to make a year’s wages in my 7 years if I was to quit now. I’m not really too bothered, as I do get a lot of pleasure from blogging. Also, I am a firm believer in alternate forms of building income, and surely the fact that running a fairly successful blog for 7 years shows for something to potential future employers, doesn’t it?
Anyway, I understand that not everybody feels the same, and a few bloggers are questioning the fact that they are giving away all this free content, with very little return. Personally, I think the fact they’re questioning it shouldn’t be an issue. Nobody is asking them to be a blogger, so if they don’t like it, leave, or if it’s worth it, continue with guest writers, paid guest writers.
However, if you work for free on your blog, you shouldn’t work for free on other people’s blogs. Freetards have annoyed me recently, and here’s why.
I’ve done a website for somebody as a freebie, a friend (at the time) who I built a pretty good WordPress blog, with 3 hours of training on how to use it. It lay dormant for a year, during which the friendship between myself & the person in question broke down. The first I’ve heard from him in a year was a text earlier today asking how to access the website, as they’ve “forgot”. I’m apprehensive in doing so, so much so that a “google it” email will be sent if he pushes.
I’ve also been marking a few comments as spam for people who have been giving personal attacks because my wordpress plugins won’t work on their setup, despite emails trying to sort it. At the end of the day, I’m only one person working on the plugin. I can try to help, but I will only do so much for free, please understand that.
I’m a firm believer in what Aaron Wall has said on his website – that he cares more for money than links, so much so that there’ll be a bunch of things I’ll be working on with my plugins in the next few months, to hopefully streamline or eliminate a lot of the technical support requests, I’m actually genuinely excited for these, so I’ll be happy to support a lot more after this.
Will they be paid for support? Maybe. After what Gaping Void said not so eloquently in a tweet: I’m not paid to write software, but I should be paid for answering your problems.
Tags: Blogging, plugins, wordpress | Comments: 6 Comments
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay. 
Rhys,
An interesting and fair point well made post. I think you guys who ‘really’ know what you are talking about when it comes to SEO and Blogging have to make a choice of what your ultimate aim is. I see your blogs, posts and tweets as adding real value to other peoples activities and at the same time positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
As for your (ex) friend I see that as a real shame as it makes it very unlikely that you will be inclined to ‘help out’ others in the future.
All the best
Lee
Not sure if it’s what your “google it” quote was referring, but i love this site:
http://lmgtfy.com/
purest genius.
Definitely frustrating to be “working for free”, but I guess I’m of another mindset – if someone asks for help, then I give the help. Maybe something happened with your friend/ex-friend where he was simply not able to start using the blog you made, but if he’s taking an interest now, and you’ve already put the hard work into it, what will you accomplish by not “giving him the keys” so-to-speak?
Also, I think free content is good as a way to gain trust, but then having a product to sell as a “premium content provider” is probably the way to go, the way Darren Rowse does. I’d like to head in that direction myself, but am really still in the early stages of my blogging, so I can’t very well release much if I don’t have any traffic to find it!
A blog is merely a tool we use to achieve certain ends. Some aims to monetize from it while others are just using it to express themselves. Whatever our purpose in blogging we should always respect reasons other than our won.
I often feel like friends, clients, etc. expect me to work for free. As a blogger/webrepreneur, people think I’m just hanging out playing games in my pjs all day. It can be frustrating.
I also agree with Lee above; blogs add value and help your followers get to know you better.
I suspect that many free blogs will eventually require a subscription to participate. I’ve already encountered a few and if the content is good and the following is loyal, a blogger can make a lot more “guaranteed” money than relying purely on advertising. Plus, the participation on those sites is a lot more interesting. There is no spam because spammers don’t pay to become members, but since real people did pay to participate, they speak up a lot more and it makes for a fun environment. Get ready. The days of everything being free on the internet are rapidly coming to a close.