No, It is Not Okay to be Paid in Tampons
I went into this whole bloggy world with rose colored glasses on (ok actually I wear Ed Hardy glasses) but I digress. Perhaps because I came into it, as a newspaper columnist and didn’t really understand the unwritten rules and because it was such a new medium I earnestly believed, or wanted to, that it afforded me an opportunity to network with a sisterhood of other women writers and find rich, unique ways to write up the same tired old material.
And so, after coming back from BlogHer 2009 and feeling this sense of excitement about the possibilities blogging afforded me outside of straight journalism, I approached Company X in NYC, and asked if they’d be interested in having me blog for them. I had a really great conversation with the managing editor and he said, “While we have no budget for the website” (famous last words) I would love to have you come one board, blog as often as you like and AS SOON as a paying gig becomes available it is yours.
Saying YES to this type of arrangement, and the aftermath which ensued, quite possibly changed the trajectory of my blogging career. In a nutshell I wrote 49 blog posts for Company X for free. That’s right ladies – I wrote all of that stuff for NOTHING. NADA. ZERO. ZILCH. Only the promise and tantalizing carrot dangled in front of my salivating self that one day in the possible future Company X might actually pay me. And that was my first mistake. Taking a job (and ladies it is a job – and don’t let ANYONE tell you that writing a blog post is not work!) for no compensation. And by the way- TAMPONS are NOT considered compensation, and I say that because I have, in my blogging career accepted tampons in lieu of cold hard cash, and the kicker- I don’t use TAMPONS!
What I did, which unfortunately is a situation most newbie bloggers fall prey to, is agree to this experience, and so many others – whether it was being paid in tampons, or in “promises” of payment in the near future. The consequences of agreeing to essentially work for free is that ultimately I devalued the worth of my words and in doing so, I devalued myself and allowed others, namely the bosses at Company X and other brands which chose to pay me in products, to devalue me too.
Believe me I get it—as a new blogger, you need to get exposure. You want to create relationships with brands, pr firms and companies. Unfortunately, while a link or getting a box of cereal might seem seductive, in hindsight agreeing to terms in which you are not being paid, you are doing more harm than good not only to your brand and reputation as a working blogger, but to so many others who will come behind you and, because of decisions you’ve made, will agree to those terms too.
Honestly, I’m not really sure if there is a one-size fits all solution to the dilemma. All I know for sure is this; at the end of the day you need to ask for what you’re worth. You need to demand it—because if you don’t as a blogger- no one will.
I am still uncertain as to whether I agree or disagree about being paid for product reviews. I for one have right in my disclosure that I will tell you if I don’t like it. that is the chance you take. I don’t see it as I am being paid to review the product BUT when a giveaway is involved, I am being paid to run that giveaway. Approving and checking every comment is tedious and yes, my time is valuable and yes I SHOULD be compensated for that.
I haven started to become very offended with companies offering to throw me free product coupons or getting the time old “share this with your readers” Umm no? Would you even be emailing me if your boss offered you a bottle of shampoo to send some emails? Doubtful!
As someone mentioned previously, I will do things for clients, at no charge, that I have been working with for a long time and have a relationship with.
I am a single mom of 2 little boys and this is NOT my hobby, this is my JOB.
~TL
I hope they were organic tampons – because those are expensive! Seriously – compensation does come in many forms. For some it’s exposure and some it’s community. But, it should never be based on the promise of more because that more will never come. We talk about this a lot on The Blogging Angels since it’s one of the top questions we’re asked by bloggers. My basic answer is that if you feel like you’re being taken advantage of then you are.
see the useful chart here if you have questions: http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2011/01/12/thinking-of-working-for-free/
By the way, Kotex, if you are reading this, I really could use a supply of tampsons LOL
This is going to bring up the old blogging debate. Should bloggers be compensated for reviews? The first two comments seemed to suggest that they expect to be compensated for a review. I completely disagree. A review is useless to me if someone has been paid to write it. That’s an ad. If you just want to promote products you like, that’s fine. But don’t call it a review. As for samples… they aren’t compensation (although you can treat them that way, if you’d like). They’re a tool required to do your job well.
But to Melissa’s point, writing for a company is a job and should be paid. I completely agree with that. I will admit that I will write for certain sites without compensation because it is otherwise beneficial for me to do so. I don’t do it for companies, and I don’t do it with an expectation that they will some day pay me. I do it because of the recognition, traffic, or whatever else.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that some people SHOULD write for tampons. There are a lot of bloggers who just can’t write. It is beyond my why they would choose a career that requires a skill/talent that they don’t possess, but they do. Some obviously do it for the freebies, so the tampons should suffice. For others, it might be time to seek out a different career…
Christy – I agree with you about there being a lot of bloggers who just can’t write. In my opinion though, bloggers are bloggers and writers are writers. Sometimes those two paths cross of course, but the majority of bloggers I know, including myself, came into blogging as a form of expression, but not necessarily because they thought of themselves as writers or writer wanna-be’s even.
I love reading the well-penned witty blogs that are out there. However, for things like reviews I am happy to read a not-so-polished post as well as long as it reads like it is genuine to me.
While I am lucky enough to be a blogger who does get compensated well for many jobs, I also still do several reviews where I just get a sample and that is it. It is a balance that is hard to find and I struggle with sometimes, but in general it is what works for me and my blog so that’s what I do.
Robyn – I have no issue with people who blog to express themselves, but blogging is all about writing. If you don’t do it reasonably well, it’s a bit strange to expect to be compensated for it. I’m not talking about Pulitzer-prize winning work. I’m talking about a basic understanding of grammar, spelling (or spell-checking) and sentence structure. I wouldn’t go into software engineering if I couldn’t program. I wouldn’t become a carpenter if I didn’t know how to measure. If I did, it would be as a hobby and I certainly wouldn’t expect to be paid to do it.
I write reviews on my blog all of the time with no compensation at all (I simply do not consider product samples to be compensation – they’re a fun perk). The compensation for me is traffic to my site, which pays in other ways (whether through ads, or through the work I get through my blog).
I have to add that I am constantly surprised by amazing bloggers who insist that they can’t write, and equally poor bloggers who insist that they can.
“It is beyond my why they would choose a career that requires a skill/talent that they don’t possess, but they do.”
How funny! I just wrote a post that addresses that. In a nutshell, in case you don’t have time to read, it’s because somebody told them they could make money blogging, so they just started a blog. Now they’re blogging for tampons, waiting for the *real* money to start rolling in: http://bit.ly/fs6GSu
What a great post – in the past year since I started blogging I have done *many* things without being paid or compensated that I later wished I hadn’t agreed to do. Because they were so time consuming. And ended up giving me nothing – especially when the post/giveaway was completely dictated how to do – from entries to links.
I think what’s even worse is when you agree to do a giveaway or review of a product and they send you a sample. :/
It’s hard not to just see “Oh, they like me!” when those kinds of offers come along. And it’s hard to get past doing it for free or next to free when a similar blogger will. I’m passing this along to my FB blog readers in hopes we can all get on the same page.
Thank you for this!
A company approached me about writing about their products with the promise that “We’ll provide either one of our products for you to try or to give away to your readers.” Ummm. How can I review your product if I don’t get one? So, basically, either throw together a non-review and offer something to my readers and get nothing myself or get something I don’t want/need. No thanks. So I did this. I offered to have one of my contributing authors (who WAS interested in the product) do a post but that I required a small (seriously, token) fee to take care of editing, hosting, blah blah blah. You know, MY time. His answer… “There are plenty of bloggers who will do it for free.”
Until everyone is on board and says “I don’t work for tampons” then companies won’t get it.