Are You Writing For Others For Free?

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This subject came up on a coaching call a few weeks ago and I’ve had it on my mind to take time to write and get some opinions about it.

If you are a skilled and personable writer, you are in high demand on the internet.

It doesn’t take long for a good web writer to get noticed and  invited to contribute content in a variety of ways.

If someone asks to reprint your writing, that’s a pretty easy decision to make - the more sites that carry your content the better in most cases.

But many will ask for exclusive content - and that is where you need to get choosy.

Optimally, you’ll be invited to write for pay - but often you’ll be offered something else in return:  Exposure, Branding, Links, Reputation, etc.

These are indeed commodities on the web, but they are harder to assign a specific value to - and this is what I want to talk about.

If you ask me to write something for your website and offer me XX dollars for XXX words, I can easily decide if you’re offering me what I feel that I’m worth.

But if you ask me to write for your site and offer me ‘Exposure’ for XXX words, I will need to do some investigating to decide if the exchange is a good one.

Just how much ‘Exposure’ are you offering?

Will you take my exclusive content, search engine optimize it and bury it in your website? Or will you publish it on your main page for a period of time and invite your list to come read it?

Will you use a standard dull author box or will you publish my head shot with the article and write a little blurb about why you wanted to feature my content for your audience?

How long has your website been around? How much traffic do you get? Do you reach a target market that I’m interested in reaching?

Just to be clear, I’m not particularly worried about size - you don’t have to be huge to invite me to be a guest blogger or columist. But I would like to see signs of stability and commitment.

And I’m not even talking about me here. I’m more concerned about the new web writers who are up and coming in our community today. I have seen these gals being taken advantage of and it worries me.

If you are approached to become a ‘regular contributer’ for a project, I encourage you to take a step back and look at the opportunity being offered.

In one case, a gifted writer was invited to be an ‘advisor’ for a website. She had to contribute original content every week as well as provide moderator services on a forum (which really meant posting 25-50 new posts a week to stir up conversation) in order to ‘earn’ her right to be called an advisor.

She was not to publish her content anywhere else, not even on her own website. She was offered no payment for this at all.

I visited the website she was associated with and was appalled to discover that she was not only NOT featured in any way on the main page of the site but that her content was being published without an author box or outbound link to her own websites.

Side Note: I have invited several topical experts to write content for my own website projects or to provide audio expertise - but I always offer them main page exposure as thanks for their contributions!

This budding young writer was being milked for at least $250 in writing and forum posting services each month and being given nothing of any real value in return.

Why did she agree to it? Well, the site owner talked a great game and promised her that the ‘exposure’ was worth more than money. Truthfully, the site was so new - even if she were getting links and a good personal byline - it wouldn’t have been worth it.

I advised her to drop out of the arrangement immediately and refocus her efforts on her own website content and more useful article marketing. And in the future to evaluate guest writing opportunities to make sure that she would be getting more in return for her skill and time.

How about you?

Do you offer your writing services to others for exposure or reputation?

How do you decide what to say yes to and what to turn down?

What contributes to your decision?