August 8, 2008

You do the Work, I'll keep the Pay...

Blogging - for those of you who may not have tried it yet - is hard work. You're basically a tech-enhanced Author and face the same challenges every brave soul who has ever taken up the gauntlet has encountered. Every day, that stark white 'page' stares at you, daring you to sully it with what you may be misguided enough to regard as worthy content. And somehow, we manage it.

Being a blogger is still considered a radical, uber-modern activity and some less-than-scrupulous media managers are now trying to lure people into Blogging for free to line their own pockets. The latest culprits are L.A. Weekly. Their new site, "Real Talk LA" is adding a blog section and needs interns to write stories on LA-related news, community events and the local Arts scene.

And they expect you to do it for free.

"No pay but an excellent opportunity to learn and to get posted on the web...." says their post on the LA portal of Craig's List. So not only are they so utterly self-centered they expect intelligent people to spend all week gathering and writing stories for them to publish and monetize at no cost, but they can't even summon the empathic acumen to pay for the ad?!

And "an excellent opportunity to get posted on the web" is a hook-line worthy of a Nigerian email. There are far less exploitative ways to start Blogging...Like creating a site here at Blogger and writing for your own benefit, rather than to line the pockets of avaricious ingrates who clearly regard the rest of us as merely the unpaid help.

If anyone can show me an ethical, viable way to create sustainable income from this curious addiction, I'm ready to listen. But one thing's for sure -- RealTalk is not it.

No comments:

Creative Commons License
Ma.gnolia
blogarama - the blog directory


Powered by WebRing®.

Business Affiliate ProgramsDiscountsPersonalsAdvertisingShopping




This blog is written by Michael J. Austin.
Created in Linux, with Open-Source software.
Contact me at: HarlequinMail @ GMail.com