There seems to be this perception that once you take up blogging and get involved in the world of social media everything all of a sudden has to be free. The Blogging Purity Patrol® will chastise a blogger at the drop of a hat when the idea of using their blog to create a direct revenue stream. Anyone trying to provide a web service in the social media ecosphere believes that if they don’t offer their hard work for free they won’t get any traction.
This is just so much bullshit it is hard sometimes to know where to begin; but Mack Collier does a good job of tackling the issue in a post today.
We create content on our blogs and give it away for free. Nothing wrong with that and I *love* doing this. I love sharing with others and learning from them. But when someone tries to monetize their blogs, a lot of people crinkle their noses. Why? Because social media is supposed to be ‘free’ and ‘pure’, right?
Another analogy that Amy had is being a library versus a bookstore with your social media efforts. Many people are trying to make money off social media, but they position themselves as being a library that gives all the value and knowledge away for free.
But what’s wrong with being a Barnes N Noble? A place where everyone comes to hang out, read good content, drink coffee, have a snack, meet with friends, and still MAKE MONEY? When did wanting to be a Barnes N Noble become an evil thing? Why can’t ‘social media people’ do the same thing?
Again, let me be clear before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion in the comments, but I *love* how open and sharing the social media space is. Seriously, the best people in the WORLD are in this space, and I really do believe that. But at the end of the day, bills still have to be paid, and I don’t think it’s a crime for people to want to make money off their efforts. I don’t think it’s a crime for people to want to promote themselves.
The big problem though when it comes to trying to monetize our work is that the moment we do we are tainted by the people who have tried to game the system in ways that have alienated people. The very idea of running ads on our blogs is almost guaranteed to fail because of those before us that have polluted the environment with excessive ads; and ads that often had little to do with what was being presented.
This kind of pollution is the whole reason that things like ad blockers and ad blindness has occurred in the first place. In some way I think those that try to create a honest revenue stream from their work are already starting with a big black mark against them that the other freebie-ites don’t have to struggle through.
Just as there is nothing wrong with giving content away for free there is also nothing wrong with wanting to try and create a revenue stream from that same work.
cartoon courtesy of Dave Ramsey
Gizmodo is still a powerhouse of a blog even after seven years and more than a few ups and downs in the blogosphere as a whole. Gawker Media, the parent company of Gizmodo, is now the company behind 7 other blog titles other than Gizmodo and sees 353 million pagesviews per month across those eight blogs.
