Don’t Get Exploited

When you are starting up as a web writer, group blogs are a great way of getting your name known. A well established blog asking you to contribute on a regular basis can make more people aware of your work and drive traffic to your own website. If no Fairy Blogmother descends to offer up the invitation, start approaching the medium and large sized sites to see if they’d be willing to showcase some of your work.

Once you have established yourself, you can choose to stay with the group blog, leave, or negotiate to stay for a fee. It all depends on the relationship you have with the owner of the website, or the “blogfather”, as to how you will proceed. Is there something that benefits both parties? If so, you might remain without changing the terms. If you have outgrown the parent site, and have in turn driven more traffic towards it than it has to you, you can ask for a stipend to remain – anything from a flat fee per article to a weekly amount for which you will contribute as and when you see fit.

But what happens if you are already established and popular, and a group blog asks you to join them as a regular contributor? The first thing you need to decide is if you have the time to invest in another website. Then find out if there is a payment involved. There is no point in jumping at the cash before finding out if you can even meet the posting deadlines they have in store for you!

Show Me The Money

I have contributed to many group blogs on a regular basis for free. If the blogfather comes to me and asks me to join the team, and is honest with me up front that it is a non-paying gig, I make the simple yes or no decision.

I have also had established blogs with many contributors ask em to join them on a paid basis. And at least once, I have screwed up. I didn’t get terms clarified up front. I was excited to be part of the gang, and jumped in without getting the facts. I had no idea how or when I would be paid. And when I began to question this after a few months of providing quality news content with an SEO focus for advertising, the goalposts kept getting moved. I was told everything ranging from “provide 20 posts for free before we start paying you” to “you will be paid for every 20 posts you write every month.” Suffice it to say I never got paid. For anything. And this was a large, established blogging community that had hits upwards of 10,000 hits per day!

Pleasant Surprise

Another group blog experience turned out very different, though. I was asked to start a blogging community, using my already established name to help get things off the ground. I signed a contract regarding originality of material and agreed to post twice a week. Then the checks started to arrive! I had no idea that this was to be a paid gig – I was doing the exposure/pay it forward thing!

There are always going to be people who surprise you – for good or for ill. The best thing you can do is get everything in writing before you ever log into their site for the first time. Eliminate the chance that you’ll be caught off guard – or exploited. Working for free is only fun if it benefits you, not when your content is virtually robbed with pretty promises and ribbons.