Today.com Lowers its Pay Rate for Bloggers
A month or two ago we started seeing a lot of ads looking for bloggers for Today.com. They promised $5.00 per post, guaranteed for three months, plus bonuses now and again. The past couple of weeks, we noticed ads for Today.com changed from $5.00 per post, to $1.00 per post plus bonuses. So they lowered their rate of pay significantly in only a matter of weeks.
I heard from many bloggers today that Today.com sent them a note telling them their rate has been lowered to $1.00 per post plus $2.00 per thousand page views. They said this was based on a monthly review and hopefully things will change in the future.
Now, if Today.com promised their writers $5.00 per month for the first three months, they’re in breach of their contract to lower the pay to $1.00. Also, many of these bloggers just started working for Today.com. Is it fair to have their rate of pay lowered after only a few weeks of blogging? Everyone knows it takes time to build up a blog and bring in the traffic.
I encourage any Today.com blogger who signed on at a rate of $5.00 per post guaranteed for the first three months to show their agreement to their editors. I also encourage the Today.com bloggers to read their contracts. Did they say rates can be raised and lowered arbitrarily after each month’s review?
I don’t agree with the practice of raising a bloggers base pay up and down like that - and so significantly! It’s a big difference from $1 to $5. Why not $2 or $3 or $4 based on performance? Surely everyone doesn’t have the same exact traffic. Is it $1 because now Today.com is advertising for bloggers and only paying them $1?
Please, Today.com bloggers, shed some some light on this and tell us your thoughts.
How To Look Like A Smack Amateur
Don’t note your sources.
For crying out loud - this is blogging 101. This weekend I did my weekend prowl for cool news and other items, and must have seen at least 40 blogs with items, pictures, and quotes, yet not a source among them.
If you didn’t build it, make it, think it, create it, let me know who did. Nothing is more obnoxious than a blogger showing a house or cool art creation and not sourcing it. None of the blogs I saw tricks like this at were network based, but some were client owned blogs, or blogs for profit. Some of the blog were bigger names in their niche too. Shame on them. I’d list them, but don’t want to give them any link love.
If you are posting images or statistics or quotes with no source it’s not on the up and up where legalities are concerned, and worse, it makes you look lame and uninformed - read this: Blogs and Images.
Ok, rant over; I guess it’s just that few things make me as mad as finding a cool house I can’t mention or link to at Offbeat, simply because the blogger didn’t source it. Back to our regularly scheduled nice friendly tips.
Sneaky Clients - Acts That Should Make You Run for the Hills
Sneaky clients at best are somewhat silly to obnoxious, and at worst may want you to break the law. I’ve never had a network ask me to do anything questionable, but stand alone clients have been another story. Here are some things that a sneaky client might try.
Give you a demotion for low stats early on. First off, ask if you can have access to stats, then it’s easy to know where stats stand. Also, unless it was in your contract, you shouldn’t get a pay cut, especially not if it’s a new blog. It takes a long time to build stats, some clients aren’t smart enough to know this. I know one blogger who took a pay cut once on a blog because stats were low, but she already had a good long-term working relationship with her client, and there were other circumstances. In most cases if you do your job, you need to get paid.
Tell you to buy photos for posts. If it wasen’t agreed upon in the contract, do not pay for premium photos. There are places to find free images, and if it’s something like celebrity photos, that often do need to be bought, the client should pay, not you.
Tell you to take photos or text from another blog without permission and post it at their blog. Um, yeah. Don’t ever do this. Furthermore if a client asks you to do this run; run fast. You don’t want your name and rep as a blogger associated with them.
The twist on the above sneaky act is when clients add questionable stuff to your post after the fact. If your name is on the post, you could get in trouble for stolen content.
Wants you to post each day without fail at 3pm. You agree. Then they change it to 5am, then 10pm. You’re not a traffic guinea pig. If your client is being obnoxious with timing, don’t put up with it. There are plenty of clients who won’t do this.
Asks you to wait to agree on a pay amount until they see how you do. Don’t work for free - period. You could start your own blog “just to see how you’ll do” and make more money.
Changes your work and then tries to not pay you. I used to have this ghostwriting gig for a client. Until I know a client, I save posts in Word, which is a good thing, because this client was going in and changing my posts. Cutting words, cutting photos; and I had no clue. Then comes payday, and I get an email that says, “Due to you not following our contract, no pay” - I got pretty snippy and actually I did get paid, but I was just lucky. Of course I quit. Having gone through that, I’d suggest you pay attention to new clients until you know them.
What sneaky client acts have you run into?
Should You Sign a Confidentiality Agreement?
I received an interesting email the other day and its author agreed to let me reprint some of its contents as long as I didn’t mention her name. In it she wondered about confidentiality agreements:
The contract for this network comes with a non-disclose clause which makes me pause. Does this mean the business has something to hide? Why is so terrible for me to discuss compensation or my issues with management with other bloggers? Should I sign a contract with a confidentially agreement?
Here’s the way I see it…
Successful businesses are successful for a reason. They do things others don’t. If their business model or "secret" formula was released to the general public, would they continue to be so successful? If the Colonel publicized his secret recipe, would KFC be the popular chicken joint it is today? Just because a company is asking bloggers to keep their inner workings to themselves doesn’t mean anything unsavory is going on. It just means they’re protecting their assets.
Should You Sign?
Of course the ultimate decision is up to the blogger, but I don’t see any reason one shouldn’t sign. Especially if it’s a reputable business with a good name. When I worked in corporate America I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement for almost every place I worked and most of my clients request one now. I’m more concerned about why the author of the email thinks it’s not good business practice to sign a confidentiality agreement yet mentions she would discuss "management issues" with other bloggers. If a blogger has internal issues it’s a better idea to talk to superiors. If there’s an issue with an editor, talk to another trusted editor or manager. There’s no reason to talk about network business with those outside the network. If they trust a blogger enough to hire him, they’re trusting him to keep certain details to himself.
Non-disclosure clauses aren’t anything out of the ordinary. Businesses are protecting themselves by asking you to sign, they’re not trying to hide anything.
Blogs and Images
For many network bloggers there’s no topic more confusing or controversial than where to find images. For many, it’s just a matter of not knowing the legal issues regarding regarding image use. The bottom line? If no one said you can use it, you probably can’t. The problem is, most network blogs require an image with each post. What do you do?
Read your guidelines
Your network should list places with which they have agreements in place, or stock agencies offering free image use. Be sure to properly source and credit the photographer and agency.
No matter how tempting, don’t steal
If you don’t have permission don’t right click and steal the image. Not only can this prove troublesome for you, but your network can take a major hit. They (and you) can get slapped with fines and end up the subject of a nasty and expensive lawsuit.
