Recently, my writer's group was given an opportunity to write for a company who owned a travel website for our city.
The offer was this:
The website generated 30,000 hits per month from travelers interested in what to do, where to eat, and what to see. The company was hoping to get some local writers to give the website an edge over the competition. How much more interesting would it be to visit a website and get personal travel tips and ideas from locals?
On the downside, no monetary compensation could be offered at this beginning stage of the site development.
Sadly, my group voted to turn down the offer. They didn't believe that "writing for free" was a benefit to them. I don't know most of the group members well, but I didn't imagine most of them were getting 30,000 monthly hits on their personal websites or blogs - I don't yet - but even if they are, they were unable to see the value of 30,000 ADDITIONAL readers.
I understand not wanting to give your work away, but I'm not sure how 30,000 guaranteed readers can be a bad thing. The company was willing to give us our own spot to promote our blogs and websites for free. Seemed to be a fair trade to me. We weren't being asked to write novels for nothing...just short pieces to give tourists an insider's view.
It seemed so easy to me. Put 250-500 words on the page, draw new readership to your blog, and increase your visibility. A half hour to an hour you've got it written and proofread. As a local, there shouldn't be much time taken up with research - we already know what we like. I recommend things to newcomers all the time.
I still don't understand the argument made against writing for this website, but I've gained a new insight into what writing should be. Let us not, as writers, ever become too big for our britches or too important to write just for the love of it. Once in a while, it's OK to give back.
3 comments:
You make a good point. Though the whole working for free in exchange for a theoretical raising of our profile is kinda dodgy. I can't pay my bills with that, and we've gotten to the point where so many organizations are expecting writers to work for free.
If you're adding value to a website, then you should be paid for it. Yes, it's not much work, but neither is copyediting blog posts for a catering business and I get paid to do that.
I don't know how many folks in the group are making their living with their writing. A few of them might be but many of them are not. I know I'm not.
I do agree that if your writing is paying the bills that paying gigs are a far better use of your time. I also agree that there are a lot of places who take advantage of writers by trying to get copy for free. But once in a while, I believe the risk is worth taking.
For those starting out or trying to build their platform, this could have been an ideal situation. If it wasn't bringing us readers as promised, we could have cut our losses and moved on. It was certainly worth a try.
To coexist happily in any group, the members need to see eye to eye. If you aren't on the same page, the group isn't the right match. This group has many wonderful writers, but based on their unanimous decision to turn down the project, I've chosen to move on.
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