I may mutter and roll eyes at my inbox regularly but taking to my keyboard to complain I should probably do more often.
Twice in the past 24 hours commercial brands have asked to republish my content (recipes and prose) within their Facebook apps. Both claim they have “no budget” for these projects.
We have “no budget”
Brands often tell bloggers they have “no budget”. But brands invest heavily in their Facebook presence. They have a budget, they’re just being picky who they spend it on. Facebook is a difficult platform for brands to get traction on and even smaller brands are likely to have budget to accommodate this. Big fat brands on the other hand? No way do they not have budget for Facebook.
Now I have a line in my personal blogging sand. If a brand wants to give me samples of their product in the hope I’ll promote it on my own platform that’s one thing. Assuming the product is relevant to my audience and/or the brand makes it worth my while I am often happy to do this.
But say the same brand wants me to provide creative material to publish on their own platforms – their website, their publicity materials, their email newsletters, their Facebook apps, whatever. My bottom line is if a commercial company wants to use my material on their stuff or to benefit them, they have to pay me*.
Everyone else is being paid…
The reason I’m annoyed here is that everyone else in this commercial project is getting paid. The software developer creating the Facebook app gets paid. The agency looking after the brand’s communications is paid (a hefty sum covering several peoples’ salaries). And in this case, the person curating the content for the brand’s Facebook app is getting paid. So doesn’t the person actually creating the pretty content that folk are reading deserve to get paid too?
I have the same view of any third party publisher who wants to publish my material without paying a decent fee for it. Why should I spend 5-6 hours creating engaging content when the person spending 10 minutes copying and pasting it into the back end of the other website gets paid but I don’t??
And what I’m going to say may sound harsh. If you are someone who persists in doing stuff for brands for free or extremely low compensation, you’re undercutting the market for everyone else. “It’s the amateurs who make it tough for professionals” as Harlan Ellison so eloquently expressed in this viral YouTube video I’ve embedded below.
I’ve not reached this conclusion the easy way. On occasion, it’s dawned on me half way through projects that whereas everyone else on the team was getting a salary or a daily freelance fee for their contribution, I was the one trying to catch a few fish biscuits.
…So why am I the only one not being paid?
A few years ago, I gave up an entire Sunday to “work with” a particular supermarket on a Christmas publicity exercise. I’d agreed to spend a day working in their premises, for their benefit and didn’t agree a fee for my time. Stupid eh? During the day it occured to me the foodie celebrity drafted in for the same event regularly benefited from paid commissions in their magazine, the magazine editor was obviously on a sizeable salary meriting working out of hours and the two home economists were definitely on a paid fee that justified them working all day on a weekend.
What did I get for donating my precious weekend family time to this multi million pound company? Not even a sodding DIY Christmas cake kit. Thus I resolved that if I were ever asked again to contribute to a commercial project where everyone else taking part was on a pay roll that I would not work without there being a tangible benefit to myself.
Not everyone has had their fish biscuit awakening.
There will be bloggers flattered by big companies who take the bait how being “featured” will bring blog traffic – which incidently, (even if you are displaying monetised ads or selling e-books etc etc) is never going to come close to converting into the market rate for your work.
Don’t fall for the “exposure” pitch
Exposure doesn’t pay the bills. Next time a PR says you’ll get lots of exposure why not point out to them that being promoted on social media instead of being paid is like their boss offering to recommend them on LinkedIn instead of getting a salary. Sure you’ll get lots of “exposure” – to other brands who see you as a sucker who’ll do stuff for free. Why would they pay you either?
Here is a wonderful post that spells out why bloggers should be paid for their work.
And you might have seen this video before but it’s the last word on paying for creative work. Watch this video and you’ll NEVER AGREE TO WORK FOR FREE AGAIN.
*Preferably money although on occasion I’ll trade my time for gift vouchers or gadgets. But never fish biscuits.
Would you give away your work to commercial brands?
Very well put Sarah, thank you. You are absolutely right. I’ve been lured, on occasion into giving my recipes away for free and have never had anything back, not even the promised traffic. Mostly when I mention my time and payment, I never hear from the respective PR again. Even when doing reviews for low value products BUT because they fit with my blog, I’ve had grief from PRs because they don’t like the way I’ve done it – grrrr. More power to Blogger’s elbows I say and if we can all stick together, we might get somewhere.
There’s nothing wrong with reviewing a low value product if it’s of use to you at home. But it makes sense to weigh up time spent vs value. This is where a monthly round up post of smaller products is a good idea – you can still instagram/tweet/tumblr it with a time investment more appropriately matched to the value of what they’ve sent.
But if it suits you to feature it in a post/series of posts – like I did with the quark – go with it. But never be bullied by PRs into granting a full post for one titchy product because they’re trying to make you feel obliged to do so. If the quark PRs had chased me before I’d published I’d have only tweeted the stuff on principle that they were being cheeky to expect more for £5 worth of product.
Just watched the video – fantastic.
Excellent post and it’s not just bloggers this applies to. I know so many people who virtually give cakes away as it’s just a hobby for them, but those of us who want to make a living are being told we’re too expensive. People should value their work and think about what effect they’re having on their wider community.
Sigh. I know exactly what you mean. A large chocolate cake can cost £25 in ingredients yet the ceiling in my area is £35 to £40 with many people not understanding why you’re so much more expensive than the £10 birthday cake in the supermarket that has a 30 day best before window.
I really enjoyed reading this and it has got me thinking. I have been blogging for almost a year now. I have on several occasions been sent baking ingredients to make something with and blog about. Is this something I should be paid for? What kind of payment is appropriate to request if so? There is no how-to guide on this for new bloggers so it is hard to know what to do.
For me the line here is whether it’s for my site or theirs. And bear in mind, when they “send baking ingredients” they generally mean cheap stuff like flour and sugar whereas the blogger has to provide their own expensive fresh stuff like butter and eggs. Gram per gram butter and eggs cost up to 10 times more than flour and butter. So I get quite annoyed by the well known baking website that offers to “send baking ingredients” to bloggers because they’re sending very little in value but getting a lot back in return. These brands prey on new bloggers knowing they’ll be “good value” because they’re flattered to be contacted.
I think you have to weigh up, for you personally whether your time and effort is worth the value of what you’re getting, how easy the post is for you to do, whether it’s something your family would be eating anyway, whether the product given genuinely saves you money you would otherwise have spent i.e. I wrote 4 posts about quark desserts after receiving £5 worth of quark because they were fast and constituted dessert in our household for a week.
But if the person contacting you is being paid, is asking you to spend time/money/effort doing something then you shouldn’t be afraid to demand something appropriate in return. And if it’s for THEIR platform, you absolutely should get something tangible out of it and accept “exposure” alone. I would say that to anyone, however long they’ve been blogging and however many people read their site. Don’t forget that even if you have tiny new audience, if your content is good you save that brand just as much money on content creation regardless.
Very well said!
I get emails occasionally from people wanting me to link up with their product or their website and so on and I always say no.
Those people who fall for the flattery and give their creative work for free or for the “exposure” are just foolish. Flattery and exposure don’t pay the bills and only lead to a queue of other people wanting it for free.
Thank you, I couldn’t agree more.
Loved this. I actually can’t wait for the next email from a brand asking me to work for free! I look back at some of the things I’ve done and I get cross because like you I’ve realised half way through that everyone’s getting paid except for me. It does make you angry but you soon wise up to it!