Blogging Takes Talent
One of the challenges I deal with on a daily basis is trying to effectively communicate both the complexity as well as the challenges that come with social marketing and blogging. For people who are not entrenched in this medium, I think it is very hard to understand what it actually takes to be successful. I just don’t think that a lot of people really “get it” yet and I look at that as a challenge for both myself as well as the other marketers trying to introduce new and innovative ways for their clients to market to their customers.
This issue was really punctuated for me when I reading a post on Weblog Tools Collection. If you are not familiar with this site, it is an excellent site for anything and everything that has to do with WordPress which is what I use for this blog. I was checking out some new themes when I noticed a link that read “WordPress Blogger Wanted” under the job section on the web page. Just for the hell of it, I decided to click on it to check it out. I am not going to post a link directly to this job page, but this is what the job post said:
“We pay per post you make to one of our WordPress blogs and you can write about anything except porn, gambling, drugs, hate, it just has to be original writings and of course make sense. No links can be in the posts and all posts have to have a minimum 150 words. We will pay anywhere between 25 cents to $1 dollar per post.”
They will pay between a quarter to a dollar per each post?!?!?!? Earth calling person who does not have a clue, come in clueless. You have the audacity to pay someone a lousy quarter for 150 words?
So in other words, someone is going to take the time to sit down and using only this person’s intelligence and talent and write four 150 word articles and he or she might just be able to afford a Snickers bar? I understand that whomever placed this ad could never write a blog for himself as he has the intelligence of a door knob.
Do you have a clue what kind of not only talent, but absolute dedication it takes to make a successful blog? Look at the guys who are flourishing at their blogs. They dedicate hours upon hours of not only writing, but reading and researching so they have new and innovative posts day in and day out.
I was thinking if anyone is interested, a bunch of us could get together and write some of the worst posts we absolutely can come up with and submit it to this idiot and see what his reaction is. What do you think? Maybe we can come up with some titles of posts that we can write?
Here’s a couple of the top of my head.
1. My Laundry and Me – A Dirty Tale
2. Where does the Sun go at Night?
3. How to Spell Mississippi.
Give me some of your ideas of great titles.
Technorati Tags: social marketing, blogging, WordPress
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I’m guessing this is someone’s way of getting copy to put on spam. If it’s original and makes sense, it has a better chance of beating the filters.
But… I like the game, so I wanna play!
1. Dick and Jane: The Romance Behind the Story
2. How To Make a Bed in Just 10 Easy Steps
3. “Why?” And Other Questions Asked By Kids
4. My Favorite 150 Words
Hot water is hot.
This just doesn’t apply to pay for post writing either Cord. Not sure what you do for your survival pay (assuming your not independently wealthy at this point and blogging is just fun and games for you at $.25 a pop!), however, in the tech job arena it would blow your mind what EMPLOYERS (and I use that term cautiously!) will ask for when looking for either an employee or someone to do a single gig.
I really think they simply go to the specification pages of web related technologies, copy and paste all the buzz words they can find, regardless of their applicability, and fashion an ad looking for that professional to do it all. I’ve been in this game since the game became a game, and I’ve yet to meet someone that is an accomplished graphic artist (emphasis on ARTIST), who can code in three or four languages and knows how to present it all via xHTML for cross browser/cross platform display.
However, ask me how many just such job ads I’ve seen. More than a few.
I’m not going to count the number of words here, Cord, but you owe me a slurpee!
$.25 is a lot of money in some places. Well, not a lot, but if someone in India earned $6-$8/day, they could do worse.
Additionally, you’re assuming that “the employer” actually cares about what the content is. If they just want posts about a bunch of crap, who’s to say you can’t create it dynamically.
I don’t endorse either, but that might be the way some people make money at it. Anyway, I’m off to buy a Snickers.
James, you really missed my point here. Why is that good that someone is being paid anything to just got to some page and copy and paste or throw together some buzz words?
My point here is if this guy wants to build a blog than he needs to put the necessary resources and MONEY behind it to actually do the thing the right way. Paying someone a quarter is not going to deliver quality and we need to raise the bar and not lower the bar.
Jeremy,
Yes, I am assuming the employer actually cares about the content. If you don’t care about the content, you are not in anyway going to be successful.
I guess my question back to you is why are you ok with someone who just wants to post a bunch of crap? We should be better than that.
You have lost your snickers privileges for a week!
Who says I’m okay with it?
Your argument was that $.25-$1.50 was a waste of time. I’m providing examples that show how “some people” could actually buy a week’s worth (maybe even a month) of Snickers bars (i.e. their economy is so depressed that they low rate is till worth something or they spam posts dynamically).
Is it going to be high quality? Of course not. Will anyone read it? Probably not. Can I see a reason for some people to do it? Yes…they are just really stupid
Ah, but I think you are missing my point! I am condemning the tech
hiring practices by some so called employers, that they just create
unrealistic job postings and then expect they are going to get all
those skill sets for little to no money.
I guess I have to work more on thinking through my comments. I
actually completely agree with your assessment of the dork that you
were referring to in your post.
Jeremy – Ok, I hear you, but you have still lost your snickers privileges for the rest of the week.
James – I am with you my friend. Thanks.
I see both points, but offering that little pay for posts takes away dignity from both blogging in general, and the potential employee. Anyway, to continue with the title posts game:
- How to scramble eggs
- Which to use first, shampoo or conditioner?
- Why my left shoe can’t fit on my right foot
- 99 ways to support ‘Green is Universal’ better than what NBC Sunday Night Football did (turned off some of the studio lights).
– The Best Places to Watch Ice Melt
– My favorite mousepad
LOL..now that would be funny. I agree with you totally. It amazes me how often I’ve gone to freelance sites or even in forums and seen people posting “job offers” where they want people to write articles or posts..not just random stuff either, some stuff that you’d really have to have knowledge or do research on a subject to write about, sometimes wanting 350 to 400 words and specifying things that need to be included and offering 1.00 a post ..and people are actually jumping at it and doing it. It always makes me think, “what are you people smoking?” Granted, the people who respond may be from a place where 1.00 would be like 10.00 here, but it doesn’t make it right. ,,,, mmmm Snickers!!
I blog as a massive part of my job in email marketing and to be offered a quarter to write about anything? Well, my first thought was: “Ok now lets talk percentage of ad revenue.”
My immediate second thought was: “what revenue?” A decent blog needs focus and direction not random acts of thoughtlessness typed out. I am curious as to how they’ll drive traffic to their site like that…
My third thought was: “Awww, no gambling, porn or hate…” Shucks, who needs ‘em anyway.
and here’s how to pay for blogging:
Smashing Magazine