Blogging Job: And why I won’t apply

I was cruising the job boards today, and came across this blogging job for Geek Girl on the Street.

Geek Girl on the Street (http://geekgirlonthestreet.com) is a new web publication focusing on geeky adventure and storytelling. Launched in January 2010, we are thriving and growing, attracting +1,000 weekly visitors (we anticipate hitting our goal of 50,000 monthly visitors by December 2010). We are in search of writers who are interested in submitting geeky rants/opinions, vlog posts, interviews, product/event reviews, fan-fiction, original artwork and photography for publication. We also secure interviews/press passes to some of the country’s geekiest events for our writers – including SD Comic Con, C2E2, MacWorld, GDC, BlogHer, Maker Faire, APE and others… GGotS is a great indie publication to showcase your writing on!

Sounds pretty hip, and like it would have an easy, laid-back tone. Just my kind of thing.

But… Then it came to the compensation.

Here’s the OMG: We PAY FOR SUBMISSIONS.

(Granted it’s not a ton o’ $$ – but, in this economy something is better than nothing!)

Um, actually, no. What this ad says to me is that GGotS is going to vastly underpay any writer that is hired, and make that writer feel lucky for getting anything at all.

Now, in their defense, they haven’t actually mentioned a price, so it might be in line with other blogging gigs ($25-50 per post, depending on how much research and social media pimping is required). But it sounds more like the kind of place you should be grateful you’re hired at. Almost like an internship with a prestigious magazine.

If you are new to the blogging-as-business scene, perhaps this gig might suit you, if only to pad your collection of clips. But for me, and for other professional bloggers, it looks like too much effort for too little pay.