"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
30 December 2007Hire standardsI tend to pay attention when Venomous Kate speaks on the question of blogging for bucks, since (1) she makes decent bucks at it and (2) she understands the dynamics of blogdom as well as anyone I read regularly. So when VK says that your paid reviews suck, she's got a reason for it:
Stop writing reviews that sound like Marketing 101 blurbs. Stop trying to act as salesmen and -women trying to pawn off various products to your readers. Stop it, stop it, STOP IT.
Your first duty is to your readers. Entertain them. Inform them, yes, but entertain them in the process. Luckily, if you let go of your delusions that your job is to actually review stuff, you can do both in the process. Remember: advertisers want their stuff to come up in relevant search queries. You can make that happen and entertain your readers at the same time. I must admit here that I do actually review stuff from time to time, though I have the grim satisfaction of knowing that I'm not going to get paid for it. But her point seems clear enough: yes, you can write "A is great" and get a check from A, but everyone, A included, is better served if you explain that A is great because it exceeds the standards previously set by B and because it enables you to escape the consequences when C comes along. Or something like that. In other words: you don't get to slack off on your writing just because there's a price tag involved. Entrance to paid-blogging nirvana comes when the following dialogue is relevant to your post: "But she got paid for that!" "Yeah, so?" (Disclosure: I just turned down an ad buy on the front page. Obviously I'm still seriously diffident about the whole concept.) Posted at 12:55 PM to BlogorrheaMe too, I can't bring myself to put ads on my blog. I've turned down 3 or 4 over the last few weeks, but I hate visiting blogs with a ton of ads & I don't want to be a hypocrite. I DO, however, get paid for my book & product reviews. :) Posted by: aka_monty at 5:19 PM on 30 December 2007You write well enough that I can't see any reason why (unless you simply don't want to do so) that you -shouldn't- get paid for your time and effort. Posted by: unimpressed at 8:32 PM on 30 December 2007 |