Why Bloggers Should Be Paid More, Part I: Blogging is Tough
That bloggers don’t get paid enough is a common refrain, but having just spent nearly an entire week with blogging as my primary source of both work and income, I am putting my foot down in a three-part series.
This series is going to cover three common myths about blogging that contribute to the low-payment factor, to wit: that blogging is easier than writing other kinds of copy, that blogging takes less time than other kinds of copy, and that bloggers are a dime a dozen.
I do not market myself as a blogger. Largely, I write other kinds of copy, most of them much longer than your average blog post. Universally, I find other kinds of copy are also better-paying. This shouldn’t strike anyone as peculiar.
What will strike most of you as peculiar on a level that merits Dr. Seuss’ attention and (one can only hope) illustration, is that projects that require more time and more words are actually less taxing.
Let’s do basic math for a moment. I could write website content worth $1,500. Or I could write 30 blog posts at $50 apiece (which is, incidentally, a good rate. It makes the math easier). Ostensibly, since they command the same price, both the website content and the blog posts should require the same amount of brain energy.
When I blog (and this is no exaggeration), I find myself completely incapable of doing anything at all for the next few hours. Oh, I can watch TV, read a silly book, or eat something. But I cannot focus serious energy on another project until I’ve had quite a bit of time to recharge.
Before anyone says things like, “Wuss” and forces me to challenge him or her to a duel, I’d like to point out that science (for once in my life) is on my side.
Think of your brain as a very complicated computer. A laptop, say. Think of your brain as a laptop, if for no other reason than that it will be more convenient for me to execute the following analogy:
When you take your laptop on an airplane, you think you’re going to work on it. Your battery ostensibly has three hours of juice, which means you can work all the way from Seattle to Los Angeles if you factor in the time it takes airport personnel to decide that your laptop is not going to veer the plane off course.
Anyway. You have your laptop. You are going to use it. You have three hours of juice.
Your computer decides it’s out of juice an hour and a half into the flight. This could be because your computer engineering company has decided that flying should be as insufferable an experience as possible.
It could also be because before you started working on that Word document, you opened up iTunes. And you checked to make sure you had the right specs by opening up your email. And you watched a video for a little while.
Opening and closing all of those applications, as well as switching between them, made your computer use up more energy. It ran out of juice in half the time you thought it would.
Yes, that’s right. Half the time. Crazy, right? I should be able to have lots of apps open without losing that much power! It is one of my inalienable human rights to write and rock out, damn it!
This is why all airlines should have power outlets. And honey-roasted peanuts. Those dinky plain ones don’t cut it.
Now here’s how that applies to blogging:
When bloggers blog, they constantly open and close applications in their brain. Your brain can, technically, only focus on one thing at any given moment. One thing is easier to focus on than multiple things in rapid succession. What we call multi-tasking is actually your brain switching from one thing to another in rapid succession.
This is also why multi-tasking is so stressful.
Your brain considers each blog topic to be a separate item to focus on. If it wants to focus on a new topic, it has to shut down that first topic and open a new one. This requires energy. If it just had the one topic open, your brain could focus on that for hours. But when you switch focus from one thing to another, you make your brain work harder.
When you blog, your brain runs out of juice more quickly. Just like your laptop ran out of juice on that flight.
If I am, say, working on web copy, I can write the first draft of content for a whole website without my brain getting grumpy and tired. This is because my brain considers that website to be a single application.
It’s only one topic, and it doesn’t require my brain to shut down on one application and open up a whole new one.
Not so for blogging. Every post has to be unique. Each should all touch on some new aspect, some new topic, come at an old topic from a new angle. All that newness freaks the hell out of my brain.
Bloggers who blog all day perform some of the toughest multi-tasking this side of short-order cooks.
They might have to write three unique posts on one topic, then switch to a new topic in a completely different field, then go back to the old topic to finish off the run. They write about cars and meditation and butterflies and sex lives and orthopedic surgery, all in one day.
They have to research, read, look stuff up and tax their brain to come up with a new take on the research, all to create one post.
Back to my $1,500 worth of website copy and $1,500 worth of blog posts. Which one of those projects uses the most brain power?
The blogging. Every time. So why is blogging so undervalued?
Coming up in the series: Why Blogging Takes More Time than You Think It Does. Tune in next Wednesday.
66 Responses to “Why Bloggers Should Be Paid More, Part I: Blogging is Tough”
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Tei, that is the best analogy of multi-tasking I have ever seen, and a brilliant explanation of why I can work on one thing for hours but can’t write more than one blog post at a time.
It’s been really frustrating me that I couldn’t write several blog posts in a day, and now I know why. You’re good. Thank you.
Melinda´s last blog post…Monthly Book Giveaway – Becoming an Online Business Manager
Multi-tasking *sighs* easy for you women to say (and do). Unfortunately us guys are just not wired that way.
OK maybe no human is wired for multitasking strictly speaking but still there is copious amounts of (scientific) evidence that proves that women are better able to manage multiple tasks than men.
Now that my inner geek has had his daily outing…
Excellent post Tei. Shines a new light on things. Maybe we should start a movement for promoting the longer blog post, 500 words at minimum
Mel: Do you live on this site or what? Hitting F5 every few minutes. I mean this post hadn’t even registered in my reader and you’re already here!
By the way James, she’s showing off about being the first commenter again
Marc – WelshScribe´s last blog post…How to Destroy Your Chance of Getting a Link to Your Website
You’re just jealous Marc *preens*
Melinda´s last blog post…Monthly Book Giveaway – Becoming an Online Business Manager
I’m going to take a marginally contrary view to pry out some aspects of this.
Maybe it is just me (probably is), but I think it is often easier to knock out little tasks one after the other than one big one. I tend to find myself bogging down in a big job, but when I have a little one, I can see the goal and hit it within an hour. Every task done with gives me more energy to keep working.
That said, it does require proper planning and may often be very different for a “professional” blogger who makes their money from writing for multiple blogs. If you know the extent of the work in advance, you can plan it. So say you need 10 posts in a blog, you can sketch them out in advance so it is similar to one bigger project, but now broken down into achievable milestones.
However if you are writing for multiple random blogs on short notice without being immersed in the topic (i.e. it is not your blog but many blogs belonging to different people), I can see how planning for this would be difficult and it would be taxing.
Also… I may be jumping the gun here, but I actually do think that bloggers a dime a dozen is true and is not a myth. Not in quantitative terms, but in terms of uniqueness. A lot of people are not using blogging effectively to make money because they are simply repeating what others have already done. The actual people who do do something unique may stand a chance of doing better, but it probably will not be along the lines of “write a blog about making money from blogging and run an ad and affiliate revenue model”.
However, it is definitely the case that the bloggers out there who are actually doing something truly unique are in the minority, considering that there are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there and the majority of monetised ones are about making money from the internet…
Phew!
I think blogging is undervalued because it is seen as disposable.
Old posts aren’t as valuable as old magazines. I know some people who collect old magazines and will reread them. Yet, I never hear about people reading old blog posts.
There always seems to be a new post to read. There is no reason to search for an older post. These old and forgotten posts seem to have very little to offer, which of course isn’t true. it’s just perceived that way.
I really don’t know how to tackle this problem because I like my old posts and want them to be valued and useful to the reader.
Chase March´s last blog post…A Day in the Life of a Supply Teacher
@Chase Featured posts. Samar over on The Writing Base has a great example of a widget that highlights posts on her blog.
You could also make a regular feature of it. Once a week promote an old post of yours or something.
Then there’s the Most Popular Post type sections. I know WordPress has such a widget does Blogger.com also have one?
Marc – WelshScribe´s last blog post…How to Destroy Your Chance of Getting a Link to Your Website
There’s been a few posts here lately at Men With Pens about how to resurrect old posts, too. Look in the archives for May.
I guess it’s just the nature of the market, and what folks are willing to pay, no matter how difficult the work.
I don’t know – how long did it take you to write that $1500 of copy?
Let’s say it took you seven 12-hour days to write that copy. Is that a fair trade? I guess that’s up to you, the client, and the market.
The reason I picked seven 12-hour days is because I’m a nuclear engineer, and about two years ago I was the project lead on a job to replace the window on the world’s most radioactive hot cell.
As in, 30 seconds inside of it would kill you, no saving throw, no resurrection.
Seven 12-hour days where people could have been killed, and I was responsible for around 30 people’s lives.
No one was injured, nothing went wrong.
And you know what?
I cleared about $1500 for that work, after taxes.
Was my job harder than yours? I don’t know.
Should I be paid more? Should you be paid more?
If either of us says “yes”, then maybe we need to change something.
By the way, I did like your post – because creative writing is not easy. I know, I do it in my spare time when I get home from work
@ Melinda – For myself, I know that I have a limited period of creativity to work with. My best time is about two hours after I awake and lasts about four hours. That’s it. Battery’s out, the juice is gone.
And if I do nothing in that period and try to use my four hours of juice in the afternoon… forget it. Energy source fail. I have to do work that doesn’t require my creativity at that time.
@ Marc – Personally, I don’t like to read short posts. I feel like I’m getting… cheated, somehow. I don’t like three page reports, either. Thing is, I read posts to learn something, most often. I can’t learn something new and have it well explained in 350 words. I *can* learn and come away full satisfied and smarter in 600 or more words.
@ Patrick – I think there’s a difference in the type of work being done – sit down and write ten posts and tell me how you feel. Now sit down and perform ten business-related tasks that don’t involve writing and tell me how you feel. Most likely, the latter leaves you feeling pretty good, like you’ve accomplished something. And you don’t feel drained. The former will leave you feeling like a Mack truck hit you broadside and took no prisoners.
I also agree with Tei that writing 10 blog posts is far harder than writing 10 pages for an ebook, for example. The ebook is on one subject and typically flows. The ten posts may have an umbrella topic but are each on a different subject with stops and starts between each.
Oh, and bloggers *are* a dime a dozen. But that doesn’t mean they’re good ones…
@ Chase – You have a point. Blog posts are very frequently disposable content. There’s too much of the same overlapping and repetition between them to make them valuable as a long-term keeper. Lost that great post on X? S’okay. You can find another with a Google search. Kind of… yucky, no?
@ Brett – Part of my issue with rates for writers (and other types of freelancers) is indeed that other careers out there (doctor, teacher, police officer, firefighter) pay less than what I make. But, too, these people are typically employed by others – freelancers can charge what they want, in truth. Does that make it right? No. Of course not.
But therein lies choice. If you choose employment and know going into the game that you’ll be paid X dollars for the work you do and your skills, then do you really have the right to complain? I’m not sure there either. Then again, are you being paid X because people undervalue the level of training required for the job? Probably.
Is there an answer? I doubt it.
But to respond to your comment:
This is why we freelance. Because we can – and frequently do – change something.
I still dunno James. I see your point, but as a lawyer I’m trained to pump out different letters in 6 minute timeblocks. I’m not trained to write books.
One of the techniques we use sometimes is to dictate letters orally rather than try and write out things first. Then it’s not so writing but rather thinking.
@ James I hear ya. It’s something I’m being reminded of a lot these days as it seems to be a topic all the blogs in my reader are discussing – lengthier posts on a less frequent basis
Marc – WelshScribe´s last blog post…How to Destroy Your Chance of Getting a Link to Your Website
I knew it! There was a reason I couldn’t write more than one post at a time while all those blogging e-books and countless blog posts told me to crank out more than one blog post while I was at it.
Hello? My steam runs out at blog post #1! I squeezed myself dry writing and sceduling post for 3 weeks while I was on my break.
It.Just.Does.Not.Work.
Phew. Thank you Taylor for the wonderful analogy. You are my heroine!
Incidentally, most of my work involves blogging (staff and ghost). And I don’t drink coffee. Suddenly, I feel like super woman
Samar´s last blog post…When paper works better than a word processor
@James,
Oh, I agree with you completely, so I hope it didn’t sound like a complaint. It is up to each of us to change. So if we are employed by someone else and want more money, there are ways to change it – and there are always trade-offs.
Same thing for freelancers.
Maybe a way to look at it is this – something I read a while back. I won’t get the quote quite right, but it was something like this:
“You are the best bargain your employer could find.”
Basically, they couldn’t find anyone who gave the value they needed for a better price. This doesn’t mean you’re the cheapest, mind you – just that the value equation was right, for the person paying the tab.
It is complicated, for sure. Often times what happens for the “employed” is that the bargain changes part way through the “contract period”. We signed up to be paid X dollars for the work we do and our skills, and we end up having to do Y instead, with the expectation that the financials remain the same.
(I know that happens to you guys too, and it’s not right.)
For instance, I didn’t sign up for that high-risk work. It just happened that way. Now, I suppose I could have “renegotiated” things – just like a freelancer might – there is always choice.
I suppose the first choice “the employed” might make is to think more like a freelancer, even while they are employed.
Not an easy thing to figure out – but an interesting discussion!
I fully agree with this analogy. I write many blog posts every day, both for myself and others, but I do find it exceedingly draining. It is the switching tasks, not the writing. When I’m writing just to write, say if I actually have time to work on fiction, I can easily double the word count. Blogging is exhausting.
Writer Dad´s last blog post…The Journalist’s Secret to Adding a Creative “Spin†to Any Product or Service
The market is blind to hard work, otherwise garbage collectors, artists, teachers, cops and firefighters would be better paid than money-lenders.
Is writing high quality articles difficult? I can work from anywhere, at anytime; there are no deadlines, no boss…I’m trying to think of something that’s easier or more fun. Perhaps position 12 in the Kama Sutra…
Kaushik´s last blog post…“Cease to Cherish Opinion†– 6th Awakening is Simple book excerpt
@Kaushik,
Exactly.
(People often do not value truly hard work. Perhaps writing creatively, consistently is “hard”, but is it as hard, say, as being in a fire-fight with the Taliban?)
Good stuff! ….and over too soon. I wanted more!
Thanks for posting this. I look forward to the next installment.
Question: when you speak of website copy are you narrowing that down to strict copy (with basic CSS/HTML formatting), aside from design and any possible backend programming?
Mr. Nuggets´s last blog post…Icky Slapdashery
@ Mr. Nuggets – Website copy means words only. We’re not even talking CSS/HTML formatting
I agree that blogging is more difficult than many types of writing.
For most other types of writing I am dealing with facts, often in a somewhat impersonal way. (A lot of what I do is writing study guides or technical writing.)
When I blog, I also deal with facts, but add just enough of myself into the post to make it personal (hopefully without seeming too full of myself). Also, some blog posts are mainly my opinion (I try to identify those).
After a while, putting yourself out there in a personal way can be tiring.
Also, I’ve found that I tend to be more passionate or interested in certain topics. I have to make sure that I don’t blog those topics to death while ignoring other topics that my readers might also find interesting.
Laura Spencer´s last blog post…(Un)Healthy Comparison
I’m game with this analogy. Add in the 4 kids I usually have competing for my attention, and I have to start and restart my engines quite frequently. The best time for me to write is usually late at night when everyone is asleep, and I’m too tired to focus on anything but one thing — my blog post.
I do have to disagree with Chase’s value of print mags. I have a stack of about 30 on my endtable right now that I *might* get around to reading … someday. My RSS feedreader, however, gets my attention first thing every morning.
Also, with the beauty of SEO and Google, I see a good amount of traffic to my oldest blog posts each and every month. My highest-earning post? A roundup of simple home remedies for sunburn… gets popular this time every year. (But do you remember a similar article in that one parenting magazine from two years ago? Or would you know where to find it if you could? Didn’t think so.)
Awesome post. Excited to read parts II and III.
Linsey K´s last blog post…Ways to Make Extra Money: Share Your Tip to Win $10
Melinda – Blog posts are rough. You can develop the habit, but I highly recommend writing, say, two a day for a few weeks, and working up to three and four.
Marc – It is true that women are better at multi-tasking. It’s a biological imperative, apparently. We have more endurance for switching our attention because we need to switch our attention more frequently. Biologically, we’re the ones who care for the young, so you’re constantly moving your attention from the task at hand to the little one. Do that for enough millennia and the female brain’s going to get some endurance built up.
Patrick – This is true for “little tasks”. I remind you that it’s about thought, not necessarily about having a job to do. They’ve also shown that checking items off your to-do list gives you momentum for larger tasks. However, those little tasks don’t necessarily require much of your brainpower. Blogging does, because you need to create essentially a short article, in which you think a topic through in-depth in a short period of time. That’s a quick, short blast of brain energy. Washing the dishes or taking out the trash doesn’t require that energy. Some emails do, though, which is why many people find it so hard to keep up with those.
Professional bloggers are not, in fact, a dime a dozen. There are startlingly few real bloggers out there. Many people keep a blog, and even more submit blog posts that are complete crap, but this is like saying that since everyone writes, there are unlimited writers available. Not so. Blogging professionally is far different than, as you say, imitating what others have done.
You make the point that you’re supposed to churn out letters in short periods. I used to work as a legal assistant, so I’m going to say with some authority that most of those letters are carbon copies of the previous ones with different names and dates sewn in. That’s not new, original thought, that’s just applying information to a template. Not that I underestimate the difficulty of your job, but the letter-writing isn’t where the difficulty lies.
Chase – The news is also disposable. So are condoms, for that matter. Disposability doesn’t matter when you need something here and now. Old posts may not be frequently re-read, but that makes their presence no less valuable today. Also, many people do read the entire archives when they find a blog they enjoy.
Brett – You should be paid more. Period.
And my point was actually that theoretically, $1,500 worth of writing work should take me approximately the same amount of time whether it’s blogging or copywriting. It doesn’t, though. The blogging always takes longer.
Samar – Try building up some endurance. I started taking a break after every single post and taking a walk around three or four blocks. It helps.
Writer Dad – Writing to write should be near effortless. That’s when you’re not trying to corral your thoughts toward someone else’s goal, just letting them do their own thing. It’s a huge relief.
Kaushik – Garbage collectors are actually paid really well. The rest of those aren’t, though. Money-lenders do tend to have the advantage of being right next to the guys who make the rules about money-lending, so they command higher salaries. It’s a poor system, but you can see how it happens.
Writing high quality articles is difficult, yes. That was sort of my point. It seems like a cakewalk, which is why it’s paid so poorly. “You’re having so much fun, you should be paying ME!” Bullshit.
Also, you are misinformed. There are both deadlines and a boss. Your client is your boss. And he always has a deadline.
Mr. Nuggets – Copy hasn’t anything to do with design or formatting. When I write copy, I don’t ever think about the programming aspects. That’s someone else’s job. I’m sure they’re not paid enough for it either.
Laura – Also true. Blogging is supposed to be interesting and entertaining, which is not necessarily the goal of other kinds of writing. More stress on the old brain!
Linsey – Very good point about old magazines. I keep all my Esquires and re-read them occasionally, but that’s because they have such a delicious writing style. I don’t think I’d often try to hunt down practical advice in a magazine, even if I knew I had it . . . here . . . somewhere . . .
At the risk of ruffling a few feathers, I’ll go out on a limb and say we (the Royal “we”) need to get over ourselves.
Like Brett says, it’s all about the market. Supply and demand.
As much as we like to think we’re special, and have something unique to offer the world, there are a bajillion bloggers out there who think the exactly same thing. Who all want to make money working from home, tapping at their keyboards.
But just how many Bloggers is society willing (are able to) support?
Outside Blogo-Land, I bet you 95% of Joe Public wouldn’t even know WHAT a blog IS. (Let alone would care to read one).
So sure…it would be nice if Blogging paid more and more of us were able to earn a decent living doing it.
But reality check, it will probalby not happen (unless you’re one of the lucky few A-Listers). There’s just too many of us, and not enough cilents.
That’s just the way it is.
Like the dime a dozen comment
OK – I think it was Mark Twain who was quoted as saying;
“I don’t have time to write you a short note, so I will write a long letter….”
I’m paraphrasing there!
Elliot Ross´s last blog post…When Words Lose Their Meaning
Afraid I’ll have to disagree with you, Friar. The market currently has little to no idea what blogging is. Something like only 34% of people have ever read a blog, and only a quarter currently read one. Of that number, few understand what makes a blog popular and marketable.
There have been many services that didn’t command the rate they deserved until they were better understood. Until blogging is recognized as a viable marketing tool that earns companies serious money, it will continue to be valued low.
I could, tomorrow, hang out my shingle as an agent. The thing is, I would suck at it. And since actors know they need a good agent to succeed, they wouldn’t hire me.
Right now, companies don’t know they need a good blogger to succeed. They think they just need a blog. With a ton of posts. Grammar optional. They’re wrong.
Blogging productivity for me depends on the day. There are days when I can churn out tons of posts and get myself ahead of schedule… and there are others where I stare at a blank Word document and want to pull my hair out because I just can’t start.
I find it easier to flow when the posts are of similar topics. I tend to stick to writing about dating & relationships (2 blogs of my own and ghostwriting for several regular clients on Elance). When I have to write for other topics, that’s when I lose my flow. I know just as much about K-12 education, but if I gotta write 5 articles about that and 5 about dating, my brain throws a hissy fit and doesn’t want to do either.
Geek’s Dream Girl´s last blog post…Why Scoping Out Your Online Dating Competition Is A Bad Idea
@Tei
Yes, but blogging has been around for quite a few years now. And (as you point out) most people still haven’t read one, and still don’t realize what blogging is all about.
Why is that?
It could be that blogging still isn’t recognized as a marketing tool. Or (at the risk of being labelled a heretic), maybe the average person isn’t really that interested.
Mabye it’s a bit of either/or.
@ Friar – I hear what you’re saying.
Keep in mind, though, that the Internet has only been around for 10 years or so, which is terribly little time. Blogging, perhaps 3 to 4, maybe 5 at most. Something so new has yet to be fully understood, fully appreciated and fully used for what it can do. Even professional bloggers themselves have yet to find the limits of what blogging provides businesses.
Also remember that not all households have computers yet, nor all regions (even in developed countries) have internet connection. You could say that we’re ahead of ourselves on technology, and by the time the world catches up, we certainly should have taken advantage of that by staking a claim of value.
@Tei,
Oh yes, for sure – I did catch that nuance between the blogging and the copywriting (though I don’t write copy, I know what you mean).
And yeah – we *all* should be paid more, I think. I mean, you can see it if you ever *accidentally* stumble upon the rates your company charges for your services vs. what they pay you (like I did one time, and assuming you work for someone else… it was quite the difference!!!)
Good discussion here today.
Getting a blog post just the way you want it can be tiring, sure.
Many of us also uses photos at the beginning of our post. I usually do. And I believe a good illustration adds a great deal of value to a post. In truth, it is part and parcel of the entertainment of the entire piece. It’s no less than the copy.
Not sure this comment is completely relevant to this post, but who cares. Cheers.
Bamboo Forest – PunIntended´s last blog post…The Art of Practicing What You Preach When You’re a Blogger
Finally. THis needed to be written. Big time.
And yes, I posted this morning so that’s all the words I have at the moment.
Janice Cartier´s last blog post…Still Life Structures
Well two things more:
@Patrick- the oral dictation to letter for lawyers, very cool discipline for focus. Would come in handy nailing the point in court too. Like doing quick gestures drawing nudes in my world, prep work for the discipline of really showing up when it counts then and later
@Brett- anything that requires your full presence counts…Fighting Taliban, parenting, installing life saving windows, putting your creating self out there.. comes from the same place.
Janice Cartier´s last blog post…Still Life Structures
Taylor,
So right on the money with this.
When I complete a post, I am exhilarated and drained. I have to recharge the batts or my next posting suffers. Ok, maybe I’M a wuss but that’s ok because I’m self aware enough to know what works for me best in terms of how to produce the best content consistently.
George
Tumblemoose´s last blog post…4 traits of successful children’s book writers
@Janice,
Oh, you are right for sure – sometimes people perceive different types of work to be “easy or hard” (if we take out the life-threatening aspects, to make them a bit more equivalent).
So there’s perception of difficulty, and then there is perception of value.
Why do we pay an investment banker more than we pay a daycare worker, or a soldier, a writer, a garbage man, etc.?
Not an easy question to answer. Says something about the priorities and values of our society, perhaps, and may explain some of the troubles we’ve gotten into over the last year or so.
If we lived in a Communist country, we’d make almost the same money, no matter what we did for a living.
Heh heh. Wouldn’t THAT resolve this discussion, then?
Brett,
Yes. I like to think a baker who gets up in France at o’dark thirty has an essential role and value that would be sorely missed if he ( or she) didn’t get up and do it. So it has huge value collectively.
Have you seen how many baguettes are carried each day under the arm of the citizenry?
The baker adds value. Period. In some case and in some countries, that baker of bread is what makes the difference between life and death.
We’re part of a food chain. Take away some part of it and the chain might not work so great.
Simple concept of broadening the idea of what is valuable. And what goes into creating it… what adds value…even though the $$ aren’t always synced. First step is to recognize the value.
I love that Tei is doing this.
( slides unexpected soap box back into closet.. oops….)
Janice Cartier´s last blog post…Still Life Structures
I think casual bloggers have it easier here. I no longer blog on the demands of others and instead write only when I feel particularly motivated to do so. I can respect those who bring in an income from blogging on a daily basis.
Andrew´s last blog post…The Death of Snail Mail
@Friar,
You still see that in some of the socialist-leaning countries anyway, where they tax the higher income people more heavily. That way you know someone is a doctor or a dentist because they like to do that, not because it gets them a bigger house or a nicer car
And in some cases where countries went from that to economies more like ours (i.e. cut the taxes on the richest people), well, the social programs went out the window, unemployment went up etc.
@Janice,
Exactly – everyone plays a role.
The concept of the grey collar worker. The people in Fight Club who pump gas, take out the trash, watch us while we sleep, and so forth. Some folks may look down on them, but without them, the system grinds to a halt.
John Galt, stopping the motor of the world.
Hmm… I’m not sure if I agree. I *don’t* think that a writer or a designer should earn more than a doctor. I think that many people in these trades (or arts, for the arTEESTes out there) really need to take a good look at their ego in the bigger scheme of things.
That said, I’m a total hypocrite, if one looks at my rates. I *do* sit here and say, “We should earn more. Raise your rates.” – with good reason, mind. I think the $5 blogging has to stop, and only bloggers can stop it. I don’t think that paying $5,000 for blogging is justified, though.
But saying that, I realize it’s murky waters. What makes the loaf of bread and the baker less financially valued than the copywriter and his website copy? Supply? Demand? Perception of value alone? Quite possibly.
James,
Well that’s where context comes in. Say you are not a doctor, but you are are scientist who blogs about, hm, mosquito nets and how to use them to stop kids from dying of malaria.. and you do it really well so that people see it….and someone sees that, and says.. hey I am a Hedge fund expert and I know where the money can be found.. and I know or can find the people to put this into action and so so and so on until the nets are up and people aren’t getting sick from something we know is preventable.
Value of blogger = to value of doctor?
Janice Cartier´s last blog post…Still Life Structures
Tei,
I was going to say something brilliant. Then I got to this comment:
and I totally forgot what I wanted to add. I am so easily distracted. LOL.
Regards,
Kelly
P.S. If CommentLuv behaves, you should find the stats you referred to at a post I wrote last week. Click below to read…
Kelly´s last blog post…Experience Design, Bloggy-Style
This is an interesting topic, and this couldn’t possibly be solved in a day, a week, a year.
Perception of value.
Both by the person doing the work (and receiving the pay), and by the person paying for the service.
I remember we chatted about this at this blog a while ago, about not attaching self-worth to what you make.
But maybe for some folks, that’s all they have as a measuring stick.
Let’s say you do work that isn’t very fulfilling. Then maybe you need to be paid more to feel good about it, about yourself.
I can choose a real example – a personal one – for this, but maybe not everyone has had this experience.
Anyway…
Many moons ago, I worked in and ran a machine shop. I was project manager. I designed and built things in the shop, with my hands.
It was good. At the end of the day, I would look at what I had done, and smile. I looked forward to going in the next day, as I knew I’d be doing something concrete. I could see the value.
Fast forward 15 years. The salary has tripled. The same man, me, pushing papers for projects that might or might not be executed, 20 or 30 years from now. Millions of acronyms.
Big pile of baloney. Not satisfying at all.
You could double my salary right now, and I might *still* be unsatisfied. I have to attach money to this work to make my day seem okay.
(People might wonder why I left that other job. Well, getting married, starting a family etc. sometimes requires more money…)
Another real world example, from the other side. There’s a small group of skilled people where I work, who are reasonably well paid, but not treated very well by their management.
These fellows are THE ONLY PEOPLE ON THE PLANET who can do the work they do.
If they quit, if they die, the work WILL NOT GET DONE because it takes about 4 to 5 years to train them to this level.
And the managers at the company – who make about three times the salary of these skilled folks – have not set up a proper succession plan for these guys.
The health of people around the world literally depends on this small group of guys who cannot be replaced.
Yet… the managers, who could be replaced very easily (and many will be, shortly, at the behest of the government) are perceived to have greater value to the company.
Perception of value sucks.
Brett Legree´s last blog post…a tale of two bridges.
Regarding ArTEESTES (of which I do part time).
Again, supply and demand.
Hey, if you manage to convince someone that your painting consisting of one red stripe is worth two million bucks, GREAT! All the more power to you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Fire
On the other hand, if you’re starving, don’t come crying to me. That means either your paintings aren’t good enough, and/or there are too many of you out there doing the same thing. Society doesn’t owe you a living.
That’s why I have a day job and don’t try to live off my watercolors.
(That’s MY level of hypocrisy).
Friar´s last blog post…The Dog who Came Back
@Tei
I do agree with you that blogging is hard work. Just on different grounds.
The hard work does not come from the stop and starts in my opinion, but that each article requires separate formatting, image sourcing etc. Whereas if you have a larger project, or even a series of letters as I made the example of, you have the format already set.
So I do agree on your main point. I just believe the hard work comes from more that you have these little 400 word articles that must each be an entire project – made up of a introduction, body and conclusion, must make a point, and must have correct format. That is hard work, as that is so much work for such a short article.
I do think it is difficult to define what is a professional blogger though. Would you include bloggers who do not get paid directly but do blog for professional benefits in that category? There are a lot of those.
Sweet holy monkey biscuits. I leave for a few hours and this is what happens. I swear, you guys. Can’t leave you alone for a moment.
All right. Rolling up the old sleeves here.
Geek’s Dream Girl – it is much easier to flow through similar topics, because you don’t have to open up a whole new application, just a new document in the old application (so to speak). It still puts strain on you, but it is much less.
Friar – Accounting has been around for a very, very long time, and most people don’t see the value of having one, even though the math is there. 99% of people who hire an accountant get more than their investment in hiring the accountant back in money they would otherwise have lost. And yet, most people don’t have an accountant.
Understanding the value is key. Part of that is education. And part of that is how long the thing’s been around. Not all, but some.
If we lived in a Communist country, we wouldn’t be choosing the things we did for a living. Real communists do away with things they decide don’t benefit the common good. Brett would probably survive in his protecting-us-all-from-nuclear-death capacity. We writers? Probably not.
As for the arteestes argument – not sure how we got here. The value of art is near-impossible to ascribe on a global level, since art is related individually. If there is great demand for your work (which is to say, many people want to own it) then you may assume that your value is high. Not that your art is good, but that your value is high. This is a powerful distinction.
People are willing to pay thousands of dollars for Britney Spears’ underwear, but that doesn’t make those panties art.
Who’s crying to you that they should be paid more for their art? With blogging, we’re talking about a business service, on par with any other marketing technique. We’re not talking about a novel or a painting or any other form of art. Marketing isn’t art. Anyone who does marketing is highly aware of that. It’s why most of us have a novel tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Keeps us sane.
Brett – Some people should be paid much more for the service they contribute to the community. Some get paid the right amount. Some get paid way too much. I think that usually, for example, I get paid very handsomely for my writing work. I am pleased with the fees I charge and I think I give good value for that fee. I also very much believe in the free market, but I further believe that the free market cannot possibly be expected to function properly unless those within it are well-educated as to how each of their monetary investments works.
As for your perception of value argument, which I wholly agree with (to wit: it sucks), I believe further that perception of value can be altered, and it needn’t be through propaganda. I can read a pro and con article about the value of getting a weekly massage, but ultimately I’m the one who decides whether it’s worth my money.
However, if I know NOTHING about it either way, I am making my decision about the value of this service based on tidbits of information I’ve accrued throughout my life, or on my own basic assumptions. This is not sufficient information to make a value judgment. I think we often consume goods without the slightest idea of what their value ACTUALLY is. People get ramped up about tax increases, for example, but what if they found that every penny of those taxes was coming right back to them for services they needed, and they were getting more than the value of their taxes back in services? Suddenly taxes don’t seem so bad.
Granted, taxes don’t actually work that way, but if they did, people would still rant against them.
Bamboo Forest – Yeah, I think you’re missing the point on several levels there, hon. And I will argue with you until the cows come home about the value of copy v. photos. Unless it’s a photo blog, the copy is more important by far. The photo can add a little extra something, and that’s great, but it’s icing. And the argument was actually that it’s mentally exhausting to write multiple posts, not that it takes any particular amount of time to get a post juuuuust right.
George – You are not a wuss. Your brain just functions correctly. I’m sorry to be the one who has to break the news to you, but unfortunately you are not a cyborg. I realize this may be difficult, but I assure you that you are not alone in your humanoid, easily-tired-brain status. We’re all here for you.
Janice – You’re wonderful. As for the food chain concept, that’s very true, but often people need to be without some aspect of it to realize how valuable it is. Thus strikes. And very frequently, when some aspect of a food chain goes missing, people attribute the change to some other, unrelated source, so the aspect is never given its due value. Very sad.
That scientist scenario raises an interesting point. One of the values of blogs is to raise awareness of the value of a certain cadre of knowledge.
Now here’s the interesting point.
If the scientist really sucked at blogging, like let’s say he can’t break himself of academic-journal speak and his blog posts are incredibly boring, no one is going to read his stuff long enough to figure out that the scientist does work of value.
So he hires a professional blogger. This blogger’s job is to write posts that are good enough that people will start standing up and taking notice of this issue.
That blogger is worth way more than $5 a post. He just is. Malarial science is going to tax his poor little brain, and he is probably going to have to blog about Sex in the City later, which is going to be a HUGE mind-fuck. That guy deserves to be paid a decent wage for his posts.
Andrew – True. Casual blogging is MUCH less tiring. In part because it’s only the one post, and in part because it’s something you were presumably thinking about anyway, which is why you decided to write about it. Much, much simpler.
Brett and the Friar, Dually – Darlings. I beg of you. Do not start arguing economics here. I will bust out my University of Chicago learnings on you and no one WANTS that. No one.
Kelly – I am a distracting girl. Everyone says so.
Patrick – You’re right that this is another aspect to the hard work, but I believe we’re saying the same thing about the difficulty of creating a new post. Perhaps I should have elaborated more on exactly what goes into a post to make that point, and I actually intend to elaborate further as we go on in this series. We’ll be taking up what makes a “professional” blogger in Part III, so tune in for that.
@Tei,
Agree with everything you said (wasn’t that easy?)
PS – I have a split degree in Chemical Engineering and Business Management i.e. about 1/2 of an MBA – we might take this reaaaallly off topic
(I’ve done macro, micro, finance, accounting, marketing, you name it…)
Brett Legree´s last blog post…a tale of two bridges.
Tei,
Totally agree. It pays to pay the pro who can to get it out there in a digestible form, especially if it’s complicated or specialized knowledge or God awful boring really hard to easily see what it means to you or me. And it pays to pay them more than $5. Al Gore owes his Noble Prize to his willingness to pay to package his message. There are lots of behind the scenes scientists who have been in the field out there doing it daily, trying to get this out there, but Al goes to the guys who can go all son et lumière on it et voila…epic win. He, not they, got the trip to Stockholm.
It’s not really how hard it is, it’s the improved results it can get when done well. Brain Drain and all. That’s what people are willing to pay for.
Janice Cartier´s last blog post…Still Life Structures
And oh.. you are pretty wonderful your own self.
Janice Cartier´s last blog post…Still Life Structures
Everything you said there is reasonable Tei.
I think your points are strongest when you are talking about freelance writing blogging. In that context, you need to be able to do several complete blog posts a day all finished within a very short time frame.
Conversely when you have your own blog, you can set out a structured plan and break the project into manageable bites. So say you take one Saturday to map out 5 different posts in sketch form, then gradually release them over the course of 2 weeks. I don’t think doing that is particularly taxing, because proper project management organizes things.
Doing the project management approach makes it far easier, but freelance writers may not have that kind of luxury.
Of course, whether freelancers are the only category of professional blog writers comes in to that point you are going to make in an upcoming article.
As to the perceived value. Well it is quite difficult with article writing because the value is not something that’s immediately traceable. With blogs you are giving away free information in return for greater exposure and credibility. With copywriting it is different. You perform a service, client gets more sales – the value can be traced. But how do you trace the value of a blog? It really depends on individual circumstances.
I also think that more people need a better long term strategic vision of what they are goign to do with their website. If you plan something out two years in advance with a proper business plan (which I believe Darren Rowse has advocated), then it is much easier to judge the value of how much the writing component is. Conversely, if you have no plan – you are just throwing up posts to “see what happens”, then you may not have a good grasp on just how valuable any one component is.
Hi, I just found this site through a contributing writer on my site, T. Anne. Very nice and full of practical, interesting information. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Ana V.´s last blog post…Where Does Serenity Find You?
@Tei
Nooooooo!!!
DON’T bust out your University of Chicago Learnings on us!
PLEASE.
Anything but THAT!
(* runs away *)
Welcome to my world.
The challenges of becoming an A list blogger is one of the reasons I now run forums in my specialty. It makes “making a living” much easier.
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog post…Internet use triples in decade; broadband surges
Okay, so I’m sitting here with coffeesister, who is at the other end of the table on her little Macbook, and music is playing on the iHome thingy. I’m trying to do some reading and at a certain point I just turn it off as I say to her, “Getting old, I guess.. just can’t listen to that and comprehend what I’m reading at the same time.”
A discussion ensued between she and I, about the brain focusing on one thing at a time, and how multi-tasking is really a rapid switching of focus from one thing to the next and back again.
So after our discussion I resumed my reading, and the next thing I read was this post.
Validation, anyone?
I do agree with you. I am not a professional blogger. I do own a blog, and I write (or rather used to) for a living, and I took up a course related to writing. It really is hard to think of a topic: how to introduce it, how to talk about it, and how to close it. Anyway, my bottom line is I’m really glad that someone spoke up on how stressful writing can be. Thanks.
I think blogging is so undervalued because anyone can have a go and do it. Just the same as many people now view web designers as unnecessary, there are programs like dreamweaver or open source software out there to setup a shopping cart site that wont cost you a penny so why pay for a webdesigner.
When you pay for a webdesigner you not only get their design skills but the years of experience that they have gained working in the industry to have an end product that’s perfectly suited to both yours and your customers needs.
The same applies for blog copy anyone can do it but it doesn’t make the site worth visiting. When you pay a professional blogger to write your content you know that its going to be first rate that your readers and the search engines will like. The unfortunate thing is many people cant tell the difference between the two, they know that they don’t like other sites because the information is poor, but when it comes to their own site it seems perfectly acceptable.
At the end of the day, it’s about value and value is in the eye of the beholder.
J.D. Meier´s last blog post…Inspire … To Breathe Life Into
Wasn’t it Men with Pens who said if you want to charge for something, stop giving it away for free?
Blogging is undervalued because people do it for free.
Elaine Luther´s last blog post…Call for entries: 30-Minute Necklaces
Elaine,
Oooh, that’s an interesting point. I’m almost with you…
With the exception of personal blogging, though, I’d like to disagree. If you’re a professional of any sort and you write a blog for that business, you’re taking away billable time from other pursuits. That’s not free at all.
Until later,
Kelly
Kelly´s last blog post…Inspiration Points: So That’s What’s Up With Her!