blogging – Page 12

gets popcorn

Posted on June 7, 2012June 11, 2012

This might be worth watching. Come join me on the couch and bring some popcorn.

Earlier this week, Cape Town Girl popped this post on her blog, putting forward – in her own succinct style – the viewpoint that brands in SA are taking bloggers for a ride by getting free publicity for products from posts and mentions. Bring forth the drama:

There’s a word for working for free, it’s called “slavery”. Last I checked, slavery is illegal. It doesn’t matter how big or small your blog is, if a PR company / Advertising agency / brand manager contacts you asking for coverage through something YOU have created and invested your time in, they should pay you, at the rate you decide the attention of your audience is worth.

I’ll admit that the cynic in me (yes, there is one of them) did wonder if CTG was concerned that her (wholly commercialised and brand-plastered) blog was missing out on revenue because PR people were going elsewhere where they could get exposure for free.
But like I clearly stated at the beginning of this paragraph, that was just the cynic in me.

Now, Saul on loosechange.co.za has come forward with an alternative opinion: Charging For Your Blog Is Career Limiting. This is a blog post which while commending CTG on her stance, contains this line:

There is one problem that I don’t think CTG has considered: she looks like a brand whore pedalling other people’s crap.

Ouch.

But do you know what? He’s right. It does look that way (although I’d have perhaps put it a little more politely).
That said though, is there anything wrong with blogs like that? Well, no there isn’t, because we’re not stupid, are we?

You know those annoying 30-minute fillers on TV where a family of four talk about how much they love Maggie Two Minute Noodles? Everyone knows that’s an advertorial and the same goes for magazines, newspapers or radio. Anyone with more than two IQ points knows that the moment you’re basically putting a rate card on your blog the content becomes bumpf and insincere. Charging for your work is great, making yourself look like a gigantic billboard is really silly. As someone who has worked in real online publishing I’ll give you a tip: begging is probably more lucrative.

That’s why the blog reading audience of SA looks at blogs like CTG and 2OceansVibe and (hopefully) takes what they read about brands and products mentioned on there with a pinch of salt. We all know that they are being paid to say the nice things that they are saying, right?

Right?

I should probably set out my stall here. I’m not completely blameless in this. Yes, I have Google ads on here, but they only pay when you click them (something that I am not allowed to tell you to do) and yes, I have put adverts on my blog before and obviously, I have charged for them. They mostly just sit in the sidebar and they don’t do any harm. If they get in the way of the content, then I’m doing it wrong. I know this because I once made the mistake of writing a post about a product as well. In my defence, I thought that it was a kinda quirky Xmas present idea and it really was more of an experiment that anything else. The reaction was so shocking that I haven’t ever done it again.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t get a lot of a PR stuff sent my way. And yes, sometimes I’ll share it with you, if I think you’ll be interested. And no, generally I don’t charge for that. But that’s my decision and it’s based not on payment, but whether it’s something I feel is worth writing about. I will ALWAYS tell you on those rare occasions when I’m writing about something where I have been given payment or goods. Otherwise it devalues everything else I write.

That’s why I launched the 6000 recommends… category, which, as I pointed out when I launched it, only contains stuff that I have done, I am doing or I am going to do and that I think you should do too. Money does not change hands for anything on there and that’s why you should value and cherish it and do those things, because I recommend them.

If you want to make some money out of your blog, then that’s just fine. If it’s your sole source of income then it’s more than just fine: it’s your job. It’s no secret that bloggers charge for exposure: for example, 6000 miles… BlogRollee Life is Savage put his huge numbers right out there this week “for transparency’s sake”.

But if you are going to take every cent that is offered to you to peddle stuff on your blog, then please don’t expect people to take your content seriously.
Oh, and don’t expect every other blogger to want or have to do things your way.

Blogging frustration…

Posted on April 17, 2012

When you add this:

One of the biggest eye-openers you can have is seeing a story in the press which you have personal knowledge of.
When you read the article, you can marvel at just how inaccurate and mis-representative the reporter or journalist is being.

and this:

Occasionally – just occasionally – there are topics which I would LOVE to blog about, but am unable to. These are generally specific and local issues which are linked somehow to what we in the blogging sector call “Real Life”.
One of the rules that I have laid down for myself and to which I still rigidly adhere is that my blogging must not negatively impinge on my “Real Life” or that of my family or friends (and relationships with those individuals).

Argh.

My kingdom for a post…

Posted on September 4, 2011

A post, a post… My kingdom for a post. According to Mr Shakespeare, so speaketh Richard III back on Bosworth Field back in 1485, although in the throes of battle, he was misheard and his request was mistakenly thought to be for a horse. Looking back, just speakething (albeit boldly speakething) about wanting a horse would be a rather short-sighted thing to do when one considers that if he were to blog about it his need, he could then tie it in to Facebook and twitter, reaching a much wider audience and hugely increasing his chances of securing some equine transport.
Richard III was a canny fellow and what he really wanted was a blog post – and through that, a horse, escape, freedom and the chance to fight another day.
Sadly, Richard III was with MTN and had failed to activate his roaming option before arriving in Leicestershire. Thus, there was no connectivity, no chance of any blog post, no horse and – as history tells us – no chance to fight another day.

So it is with me. Because of my enforced bed rest, I haven’t been doing anything and moments of inspiration for suitable blog post topics have been few and far between. This explains why inspirational blog posts have also been few and far between.

However, there is some good news: @JacquesR came to the party with some inspiration via Facetube earlier and a link to some very interesting long-exposure pics on design milk:

The pictures are taken on the New Transit Yurikamome – a rail system in Tokyo, Japan and are by Flickr user AppuruPai and there’s plenty more Yurikamome goodness in her Yurikamome set.

Theatresports

Posted on August 25, 2011July 22, 2015

As this post publishes itself (via the magic of WordPress), I will – if all is going according to plan – be lying on a bed in an operating theatre in a hospital deep in the Southern Suburbs (no, not that one – I want a decent chance of survival) with a highly accomplished and highly expensive surgeon delving inside me like they do on Grey’s Anatomy.
I’m not particularly looking forward to this. My last “proper” op was when I was 7.
The aim of this one from my point of view is twofold: it will hopefully sort out the medical issues I have had recently and it will give me a chance to flirt with the nurses on the recovery ward.
In addition, I’ll be handily placed for the local A&E department when my wife reads this.

Pre-posting this is a bit of a risk: previous pre-posts about big events backfired spectacularly. I can only hope that that incident was a one-off. I can’t afford similar disasters with today’s operation.
Although the thought has occurred to me that it would be unlikely to be cancelled because of heavy snowfall.

Anyway, I digress. Often. And this time it’s probably because of pre-op nerves. See, much like when one reads a newspaper story about an event that one witnessed and one realises just how inaccurate the papers are, so it is with being a patient in a hospital when one has, for much of one’s life, worked in and around the medical profession. That smooth veneer of cleanliness, knowledge, professionalism and caring that you see as an outsider actually often covers a multitude of sins. I would prefer to be ignorant of these things for the next few days.
Indeed, the run up to this op has been plagued by poor service, misdiagnoses and ineptitude at virtually every step. It doesn’t fill me with confidence.

Still, it should all be plain sailing as long as the bloke with the knife has had his morning coffee (maybe the pre-op nil-by-mouth thing goes for surgeons as well).

All being well (but most especially me) I should be back blogging “soon”.
Maybe even sooner than that if I manage a couple more pre-posts before ~~Thursday~~ today.
You’ll never know the difference.