Ad-hoc teams, producer coops quickest way to better freelancers’ lot
I’m still catching up from being out of town last week which makes this my first chance to react to a discussion on TechCrunch about efforts to unionize bloggers. The discussion was provoked by articles such as an (click here) Associated Press account that suggested there is a labor glut in the blogosphere:
“About 11 percent of American Internet users have created Web pages or blogs for others while eight percent have created their own online journals or Weblogs . . . with pages focused on everything from bird watching to celebrity footwear, more than 120,000 blogs are created every day and more than 58,000 new posts are made each hour . . .”
The post drew many dismissive comments but German-born, Los Angeles-based freelancer Janko Roettgers observed in his riposte that a union for work-from-home scribes could begin with subtle but effective moves:
“One example: I’m a member of the German Verdi union that offers freelancers a simple online forum to anonymously post their wages, which proves to be a great tool for negotiations. “
The German example is interesting and I wish the U.S. organizers every success.
That being said, I think the shortest path to increasing one’s labor power is to team up with other people who can add value to your work or vice versa. Put your energy into cooperation rather than confrontation and I suspect more of the output of time and labor will redound to your benefit. (I have written one, two, three postings on how a producer’s coop or guild would enable independent operators to combine their efforts to better their circumstances.)
Thanks to Greg Sterling for pointing me to the TechCrunch post and the ensuing discussion. He keeps a blog on the search engine space at Screenwork.com.
If you didn’t stop to scan it earlier, the AP article is quite good. Here is another chance to click through to it.
Hi Tom! actually, one of the things that bloggers can do to help and support one another is to not give free content (as in blog posts or short articles) to mulit-million dollar publishing concernes. Recently, I’ve been approached by a number of outlets asking me to “contribute” something to their online efforts in exchange for “traffic”–which is kind of like when old small presses would pay in copies. Often, these concerns also ask for all rights on the free content, that can also be re-published whenever they want. This is a far cry from other bloggers asking to contribute to their blogs (although some corps like to make that comparison.) I’m not sure a union will help us with something like this if we don’t start drawing the line for ourselves first.
Tish, thanks for this note which is so timely for me, personally, as I got an email last week from Noncy Ross @ Newstex.com which arrived when I was super busy at work and which I promptly forgot about till this morning when I saw your comment. I *think* Newstex is a cut above the “offer” you recieved. Or else this comment that I just plucked out of the e-mail is plumb wrong:
“We pay you a 30% royalty of the gross subscription revenues based on your royalty pool participation for each product your posts are included in, and we maintain a hyperlink to your homepage in our dateline so you should see increased traffic. Some bloggers who post regularly and frequently on topics relevant to our clients have the potential of making $10 – $500 per month. ”
Even at the low end that would be $10 more than I’m making now
Anyhow, this conversation makes me wonder wheher there may already be a place where bloggers can find out who is paying what in the cyber realm; and if there is not such a spot, is it possible your “beat” at Poynter would allow you to invent such a topic?
If freelancers in the US started posting their pay rates, wouldn’t that run afoul of anti-trust laws?
Indeed, it might. I hadn’t thought of that. Of course the German example occurred within the context of a union which would be a shield against antitrust, but I fear that proprietors, LLCs and incorporated writers or publishers would be businesses subject to collusion laws. I believe that a producer’s cooperative, however, allows for both the shield against collusion of a union while allowing the private ownership interests to carry on.
Actually, it’s easier to find info on freelancer rates than on problogger rates. The ASJA and several writers’ unions offer services that help track freelance rates, as a way of making sure all writers aren’t getting low-balled for their work. Some unions require proof of only three published articles in one year. I think the ASJA is bit more stringent.
With bloggers, however, it’s difficult to figure out what the correct, or what a reasonable, rate should be. Problogger lists a number of blogging jobs, with varying rates. One I looked at offered $100 a month for 3 posts a week. Marshall Kirkpatrick blogged today about introducing bloggers he knows to businesses that are looking for bloggers. And suggested that probloggers be paid between $5K and $8K a month. Although I think most would be hard pressed to find that from one contract. Perhaps a few cobbled together, but even that’s hard. Many people who want to hire bloggers want them to be specialists–tech bloggers, fashion and beauty, and stuff like that. And they want them to be exclusive.
As for Newstext, I’ve been with them for close to a year now, and haven’t even reached the $25 that would kick out a check. I know that my stuff is fed thru Lexus Nexus, but I think most people searching there are looking for original content–or news–and not thoughts on the news. Same thing with BlogBurst. Only there, I believe clients wanted content that had a local focus. Not living in a major metro area is, for me, a deficit.
So, lots of what someone makes as a problogger is based on the relavence of their content to what clients want (whether Newstex or other problogging concerns) And the type of content they want is pretty limited. Funny thing is, all most are looking for is the content production, and not any of the other social skills that make up blogging. Or at least I haven’t seen too many blogger ads yet that advertise for social as well as writing skill (hence why some actually request journalists to write for them.) And when they do think social, they think social news, like Digg, Reddit, etc.–as in they’d like you the blogger to go on and promote your own posts. Kinda weird, and, I think, not social -news friendly.
slight correction: that’s three published articles in one year to be considered for membership.
[...] a bit more from Tish in the comments section of my Unite Differently post but I thought these the most generally useful nuggets. If you have more money-making tips or [...]