Kevin Brass at the Chronicle has a piece questioning the start-up Austin Post's business model, which is, "Write for us for free in exchange for exposure." Spike Gillespie, a professional writer, understandably takes exception:
"If I want exposure, I'll hop up on the bar and take my shirt off, thank you very much," wrote Gillespie, the author of several books and a columnist with national credentials. "And how soon will the promised exposure net me invitations from still more websites willing to not pay me for my writing in exchange for still more exposure?"
I'm occasionally asked to write for other websites, and occasionally I agree. And sometimes I agree but later regret it.
I'm not a professional writer (except when I'm writing for stuffy old judges), and I've never made any money off my blog. I write just to be read.
So you might think that I view any exposure as good exposure. I don't. Exposure costs. It takes time to write a piece -- sometimes, a long time. Even if I'm doing little more than cross-posting, I have to rewrite my entries for the site's specific audience. The exposure has to be worth this cost.
The kind of exposure matters. Obviously, the size of the other site's audience is important. But it also has to have a bunch of readers who care about the type of stuff I write about. Mine is a niche blog.
And exposure is not the end all and be all. I want people to be exposed to the sum of my work, not a stray entry that they might scan for 15 seconds before the next click. If I can't entice them to my blog with back links, I won't waste my time.
It took me nearly three years to settle on these criteria. But they have helped and will help me ration my time wisely. They tell me that writing for free for a start up with a small circulation is a bad use of my time budget.
If every blogger had my callous attitude, of course, there would be no start ups like the Austin Post.
Shrug.
