Over the last ten months, I’ve written around 175 articles of varying quality and length. Looking back on this time and effort, I’m astonished that I got through writer’s blocks, time constraints, and various personal/professional issues to keep publishing. As I quickly approach a year of Frugaling, I wonder if I should adopt the “writer” identity. It’s humbling and anxiety provoking, as I question what makes a writer.
When does one become a writer? How much should be published? What degrees/professional experience must one collect? How much money should one make? What hoops must be hooped?
All I know is that people in my life — friends, family, and other writers — are telling me that I’m well on my way. This writing journey is not simple; rather, it contains a variety of choicepoints. One of the biggest forks in the road for writers is to write pro-bono (without commission) — otherwise known as guest blogging. That brings us to the question of the day: Should you ever write for free?
Build and diversify your audience
When you have no audience, brand, and/or name on the Internet, it can be supportive and constructive to write guest articles. If you’re just launching a new website, potential readers don’t know your voice or content. Well established websites can feed incredible amounts of traffic your way, and suddenly you have diversified your early audience.
Writing is potentially one of the strongest meritocracies today. You don’t have credibility–you build it. When offering up a free guest article to another website, it’s advantageous to have a little collection of articles for new readers to see in the beginning stages. These should be strong and exemplify what they could see in the future. This is the sweet spot for new traffic and subscribers. You will gain credibility.
Early days are characterized by single and double-digit days, where it can feel pointless writing a new article. The motivation wanes and many stumble here. The traffic of a guest article is tremendously reinforcing when starting a website. Having a big influx can encourage you to persevere.
Potential opportunity to move from free to freelance
A few months into writing I reached out to a writer in the personal finance community. As a top representative of this niche, I asked him for some writing advice. He made an offer I couldn’t refuse: write a strong guest post and then we’d see about freelance writing opportunities. I immediately said yes.
I wrote my one and only non-paid story, benefited from a little boost in traffic and was offered two, paid articles at 10 cents per word. Suddenly, my free went to freelance in the span of an article. These offers do happen, and they’re essentially trial runs as you build your voice, writing resume, and experience. The important aspect was the early disclosure that this could turn into a regular spot. Without that declaration, the offer of a free article would’ve been less interesting for me.
One of the most important pieces wasn’t the money or coverage; instead, it was this blogger’s advice and experience. He taught me beginning social networking skills and carefully critiqued my writing. He was an experienced editor who gave me priceless information about what succeeds online. I should’ve been paying him — heck, many people do!
What are you worth?
NOT long ago, I received, in a single week, three (3) invitations to write an original piece for publication or give a prepared speech in exchange for no ($0.00) money. As with stinkbugs, it’s not any one instance of this request but their sheer number and relentlessness that make them so tiresome. It also makes composing a polite response a heroic exercise in restraint. — Tim Kreider, NYT
The preceding quote is from a writer that regularly gets paid for his words. He found that many people assume that good writing can be done for free. Many people take that for granted and ask him to share his wisdom for nothing. Tired of the countless asks, he decided to write a scathing critique of this ineloquent demand for more free stuff.
If you’ve been writing for years, I’d be cautious giving away your ability. If you’ve built an audience, being asked to write for free can be insulting. If you’ve honed your editing ability, another person’s perspective may be frustrating. Point is, writing a free, guest blog isn’t for everyone and it frequently comes down to timing. Where are you in your writing career and how is your website performing?
Honestly, the question comes down to your worth. Writing a strong guest post takes time away from other aspects of your life — things you could be doing. Writing 700+ words could take hours. Giving away this time doesn’t come easy for me, and I’d discourage anyone to jump at these free writing opportunities with glee and benevolence for website owner.
Strike a balance and be demanding
Writing is a difficult craft with countless critics. I frequently screen and censor comments that lambast guest authors’ and my work. It’s painful to hear the hatred and tests of ability. It hurts to hear some anonymous person rip out your soul, spit on it, and cast your work aside. There are many judgments, and few answers about the power of your work.
Early in your writing career, guest articles for other sites may build and diversify your audience. Secondarily, they may help you write better content through editing and feedback sessions. There are real reasons to share freely and write without payment in mind.
Strike a balance, and gain that traction that makes you desirable. Just know you’re worth more than $0 — I can guarantee that much. Eventually, you must demand more for your work, because you are worth it!
Some further reading on free writing (there’s a significant debate about this):
Tim Kreider: Slaves of the Internet, Unite!
Matt Cutts: The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO
Matthew Yglesias: People Writing for Free on the Internet Is an Enormous Boon to Society
Writing can take a lot of effort, and if it is good I think it should be compensated. That’s fantastic that you had a mentor to really help you through the process – I want one! I’m figuring things out as I go, and also emailing other freelance writers for their advice. I think honing your voice is key, as it really helps you stand out.
Honing your voice (I think) takes a lot of practice and published material. There’s no point in having a voice if no one ever hears it! When you’re able to develop one and then have a wealth of material – that seems like a sweet spot for success.
I’ve done some free guest blogging and I’m glad I did because it drove some nice traffic to my site from those sites. However, I am trying not to do as much anymore for free because a) I’m starting to get offers for paid work and b) I’ve got a lot on my plate with creating posts for my own site at this point. But I think in the beginning it’s pretty important.
This is right on the money: really early on, it matters a lot. By writing guest posts, you will undoubtedly see a boost in traffic, but at some point you’ve got to focus on your main goal. Thanks for your thoughts on this!
I started out with guest posting, but now I’ll only contribute an article for free for a site that I know will bring in huge traffic numbers. Otherwise, I gotta make a living.
Hah. Very true! I’d say the same thing, too. If the website was a huge news corporation or highly trafficked blog like Lifehacker, I’d definitely write an article. Otherwise, it’s not a worthwhile investment of time and money lost.
I actually just had this conversation with my blogging mentor yesterday! We were talking about the value of guest posting when I’ve gotten a lot of freelance work lately. He made a good point that once you get to a certain point, you should be “share” guest posting. If someone asks for a guest post, they should be able to do a swap with you. Just posting one post will get you temporary traffic. But posting a swap with a bigger blog or site will get you double.
This is a fantastic point that I totally forgot to mention. The reciprocal guest posts can drive traffic both ways – sending new readers in both directions. Haven’t done this much, but I’d definitely try it out on another website of equal traffic(ish). Thanks for sharing that idea! 🙂
I think it’s really great that you’re encouraging people to write for more than $0. Unfortunately so many people are getting used to free content and it’s really hurting publishing. When we writers give our skills away for free it devalues the work across a whole field. After all, people are only reading magazines/websites/etc because of the content — why shouldn’t the writers of that content be fairly compensated?
Writing articles is a lot more work than I originally anticipated. I think writing a guest post has to really be beneficial before you chose to write for free. I don’t know about everyone else, but my posts don’t come together in 5 minutes! They take time to write and craft!
Right you are! Writing takes a lot of time and effort – possibly research depending on the topic. Most of my articles take about an hour or more to write, and that is quite a bit of time. There’s definitely a balance in value. Like I’ve said, if you can get a huge pop in traffic, do it! Write a guest post. Otherwise, stick to normal networking and building your own voice on your site. Eventually, you’ll start to get your own paid offers from top content producers. Thanks for your comment, Liz!
I only write for free if I know it will benefit me. I will guest post for the connections, but also if I can get my website and my services visibility. I do this for some of the larger online publications out there. It has done wonders for me.
I just turned 18 and have only been blogging for a little over a year. I have been paid for some of my writing, but that is rare. The truth is that many successful bloggers have given me the opportunity to write for them starting when I was 16 years old. In my position I see them doing me a huge favor. It doesn’t bother me that I normally don’t get paid although now I will normally only swap posts with other bloggers I know and respect. This definitely gave me something to think about!
I’m super impressed that you started so young, and have taken to writing about your own financial journey! I’m glad to hear that this experience has been beneficial. 🙂
Prior to Young Adult Money I did some blogging, but mainly for fun. Through my political blogging I met a personal finance blogger and did SEO/social media work for them, as well as commenting. I did write a few posts for $25 a piece, but only a few. Fast forward a couple years and I started Young Adult Money. I’ve never written a guest post and only did one ‘blog swap.’ Once my site got bigger I hired a couple of writers and I started to receive unsolicited offers to write. I said no to most of them but finally got a good offer I liked.
I wouldn’t recommend writing for free. I think you’d be better off just starting your own blog. You have a whole website full of examples of your work and eventually you should get an offer. Plus, other blog owners and media companies are likely to hire you if you already have a blog – at least that’s been my experience.
This is a very interesting take on guest posting. I’ve seen lots of general advice endorsing the merits of guest posting especially if you own a young, fledgling blog. The benefits of gaining exposure, temporary bumps in traffic, networking, etc. are real. But, as you point out, what is the opportunity cost? I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks for blogs that are still in the early stages of growth. After the site has matured, though, it probably isn’t a good idea to be doing much writing that isn’t compensated.
One thing you didn’t mention, though, is that guest posting can provide your site with “dofollow” links (or, should I say, non “no follow” links). If your guest post is published on a reputable, high page rank/authority site then that could give you a bit of “link juice.” One or two guest posts probably won’t be enough to make much of a difference, but if you’re able to selectively target well-established sites for your guest posting, you could end up with some SEO benefits.
Sam, a thought provoking article for us bloggers. The Money Principle is exactly three years old; for it I’ve been writing three-four times a week and this made me a better writer than 20 years writing acdemic articles and books (and experimenting with other writing).
I do write for free. I see it as a gift to the other blogger, as a way to make friends (establish collaborations), showcase my ideas and extend my reach. I’ve been getting offers to write paid posts and have done some; still gifting is something I really enjoy.
It is about personal choice, I believe. Anyhow, generousity always pays back.
Maria! I love your perspective and altruism to your writing. This is truly inspiring. Thanks for your comment.
That would be nice, wouldn’t it? To reach a point where you, as a writer, could demand more for your work because, true, writing does not come that easy. The inspiration and the drive has to be constant.
I’ve been thinking of guest posting now that I have built up a number of articles on my blog. But I completely agree with the last sentiment, a guest post can take a long time, my blog is still new enough that I think the exposure is still worth the time to write a free post.