A couple of years ago, a friend asked me a favor. His corporation was holding a golf tournament to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Would I mind writing the copy for the brochure? He was willing to pay my going rate, but as he was a friend I told him he could have a discount. After researching the tournament and reading all the information from Habitat for Humanity, I learned of all the major corporations and individuals donating time or goods to this worthy cause. How could I possibly charge money? I wrote the copy and told my friend it was on the house.
Exposure to What?
I don’t believe in writing for free, you know that. I believe telling people to work for exposure is akin to giving them a middle finger salute. No one would tell a plumber he has to fix toilets for free to get started. No one tell a bank teller her first month is on the house until everyone knows her name. Yet there are plenty of people who feel writers need to give up the goods to gain experience. This is far from the truth. While my first jobs weren’t the highest paying gigs, they weren’t the lowest either. I learned you gain exposure by building up your reputation and gaining the trust of your clients.
While I don’t believe in writing for free, I do believe there are times when you can donate your services. See the difference? My gig with Habitat for Humanity was a worthy cause. I was donating my service to benefit a charitable tournament that would help pay for badly needed housing. I wasn’t building Joe Webmaster’s website for free. I wasn’t helping Joe Publisher launch his magazine at my expense.
What’s in it for you?
If you’re going to write for free, think about what you’ll truly gain from the experience. Will you really gain exposure from some brand new website no one has heard of? Probably not. There’s a good chance you’ll gain exposure donating your services to a major charitable organization, however. Satisfied clients are happy to offer recommendations to others.
Now it’s your turn. When do you write for free?
Discuss…
Deb
See my other blogs:
I write for free on (both) of my blogs, though I do have plans to monetize in the near future. I also write a weekly blog on MySpace advocating for animal rights with a focus on no kill (eliminating killing in animal shelters).
In many ways I feel that being able to write well is a gift that is meant to be shared, so while I do charge my clients for copy, I’m more than happy to write pieces that further causes I support.
I’d write for free for donation, like you mentioned, or if I knew that the end result would lead to money flowing in other ways. For example, I’ll write a guest blog post for free for a friend on vacation because they’ll do the same for me when I’m on vacation. Or, if I will lead to a link back from a major site (if Perez Hilton wants to link me on a post, I’ll totally do a guest post for free)!
I write for free on my blog and on Broowaha. I guess I never thought it would actually be looked down upon. Every since I have been reading your blog, however, I get the impression that my writing for exposure is bringing every other writer down. I just look at it as a chance for me to write about anything I choose, anyway I want to and I benefit from the writing practice. Am I really bringing down the payrate by doing this?
I recently started writing for one of my favorite websites. They don’t pay, but since I enjoy what I’m writing about so much it’s more of a hobby thing for me. Plus, it gives me something else to show potential clients for the real paying stuff.
It’s probably the only free writing gig I’ll do though, besides my own blog(s).
I write for free on my blog also. I look at it as investing in my future. I have set up affiliate links with some ads that will help but I know it takes time.
I too would write for free for a good cause.
Only when writing up school basketball report when I was coaching and our team’s bowling report — wait, I get a beer now and then for the second one so it isn’t really free
So far I don’t believe I have written for free (other than my blog), but I have only been freelancing for a few months. I would write for our local schools, church, or another worthy cause if I deemed it to be a good way to support it.
I should have said I don’t intend to write for free the other times — hopefully, I’m getting paid for the ones I’m supposed to be paid for!
I write fiction for free – it’s a rare publication that pays for short stories. I write my own newsletter and for friends. for free. I’ve just concluded that if the only thing that differentiated me from anyone else was price, that would be a losing proposition – someone will always charge less. I’d prefer to make make my selling proposition quality and unique content and hope that my confidence in my work (and of course samples) will win the day.
And another thing though….I just noticed the automatic linking on my blog comment – e.g,, the word “course.” I ran across this on another site where it seriously detracted from an article I’d written. Not that this blog posting of mine was such deathless prose, I was just surprised to see it.
I’ve never written for free before, to tell the truth. But I’m very close to following Erik’s advice and lend my help to community service. It’s a great way to start grant writing too.
I don’t think writing for free for your own blog counts. To me it’s like writing in my diary. The thing that really gets me is when I respond to an ad looking for a writer and they writer back telling me that I should be happy to write for them for the exposure! I HATE that and lately it seems like there are more and more of them, or maybe they are the only ones responding to me! Anyway, those people looking to HIRE a writer should be ashamed to offer exposure instead of money. Exposure doesn’t feed me!
Well said. I don’t think “exposure” could pay my increasing electricity bills, thank you very much.
I have been getting some requests for that also so I’m glad I’m not the only one. It’s nuts that they think they are doing us a favor with exposure. Maybe they hype it up because that’s all they have to offer.
I wrote for free in the beginning, as I focus on mainly (about 90%) soccer articles, so no paying sites were willing to take me on without some examples of previous work. After building up a catalog of my work I started my own free blog on Blogspot, and eventually moved to the site you can see by clicking my name here.
For me writing is a past time, rather than a way of earning a serious living, as in my field I have not seen too many (high) paying gigs.
I think blog writing is the exception to the “Don’t write for free” rule. Even the best optimized blog makes little money at the very beginning. But, like starting a new business, it’s an investment of time.
Sandy
I write a column, “Richard’s Ramblings” for free for my hometown publication because I was told they didn’t have the budget for a columnist. Exposure was key for me.
The only time I have not only written for free but insisted on it being free was a column about bullying for a non-profit Website. I entertwined my experiences with the tragic story of Connecticut adolescent J. Daniel Scruggs, who committed suicide because he’d had it with his school’s pathetic attempts to deal with the problem. I felt that taking payment for an issue like this would like be accepting blood money.
I’ve written about this before, but I think writing for free is valid if it is on your terms. I wrote for two local newspapers (the kind that report upcoming events, not timely news) for free in exchange for a byline for a few months when I first started. I think that if you need to build up your clips, writing for local organizations is a good way to do it. VFWs, churches, women’s groups, and lots of other groups have newsletters that you can contribute to in exchange for a byline. It’s good community service to donate your writing to one of these types of organizations, and good business for you, too.
I’ts neither community service nor good business to write for an unknown website in exchange for “exposure.” It’s simply wasting your time. If it benefits anyone at all, it only benefits the person who owns the website.
I still donate my writing services to my church and to my local woman’s group that I’m a member of. And if I saw another opportunity that I felt was worthy, I would write for others without being paid.
Most professionals give away some work pro bono. I think it’s completely valid for writers to do so, too, but to a worthy organization.
I’ve jumped in on this conversation before. I think the only writing for free should be for a non-profit that you wish to work with. They are the only ones who truly need your talents for free.
Any other FOR PROFIT business for whom you write for free is just taking advantage of you since they are in business for PROFIT, you are just contributing to their profit with every word you write for free.
If a business doesn’t have the budget to pay you, how long do you suppose they will stay in business? If they are operating on such a small budget, they will most likely be out of business before you can ever gain “exposure” from them.
If they are a company that has been around for a while and have a good operating budget, then don’t accept the old “I don’t have it in the budget to pay you” routine. If they want your talents, they need to cough up the money to pay you, just like they pay everyone else.
Writing for free for a company that obviously has the money to pay you is a slap in the face to you, to your fellow writers and to the profession of writers as a whole. It only encourages more businesses to try to get a “free ride” and cheapens our profession. KEYWORD= PROFESSION.
If you are in this as a profession, expect to be paid as a professional, if you are doing it as a hobby, that’s an entirely different matter.
Non-profit does not mean “no money.” These organizations have money. If you want to be on a list of donors in order to attract business from other corporations there, that could be a viable business decision–but you have to ask yourself whether it is the most productive use of your time. Maybe just for the warm fuzzies or potential new business–it is. Maybe not.
I was contacted by a print magazine in late July, after sending in a resume/samples. I was asked if I live in LA, and I responded no. No one contacted me. About two weeks later another editor (from the same publication) contacted me about writing. I said yes I was interested, and again, never heard back. WTH, right?! About a week ago, the editor-in-chief contacted me about writing “for credit.” I politely said I would need some sort of fee, even if it was a small amount, and since they use MANY advertisers, surely they have some sort of budget for writers. He responded with, “I have plenty of competent writers who will work for credit.” At first I was bummed because I do not have a ton of print clips, and am always working towards more, but now I feel like he only would have used me. And while working on something for them most likely would have taken a small amount of effort, it is still WORK, and I should be rewarded as such.
I have donated my time to a local non-profit when they need an occasional press release or someone to proof some copy.
I also will write for free for someone in my family.
With regards to the non-profit organization….they are in serious financial difficulty and they post my business website on their website as a donor….so I do receive free publicity as a trade off for a small amount of my time.
Note to S (above): Tell that client you have not found any recipes for “credit” and your family has this weird eating habit.
S, don’t feel bummed. I’ve never, ever been asked to write for “credit” and I probably would have baffled the editor by making him explain it to me in excruciating detail! I think it’s for the best that you didn’t end up working there.
I used to have a problem where companies I worked clerical-type jobs for expected me to stay late and not write it on my timesheet. After a number of years, I just made it my personal policy that I don’t work for free. Period.
I always say that I wouldn’t dream of asking someone to come to my house and wash my car for free. Why on earth would they think I can write something for free? Or stay late at work for free? On one of those jobs, when I told the boss I was happy to stay late if needed but I’d need to be compensated for the time, I was told, “We can’t believe you’d be so petty.” When at the end of the day my salaried supervisor was running out the door so fast, you’d swear she was on fire!
I have a lot of respect for startup publications that pay $10/story, for instance, rather than paying nothing. It’s a respect thing.
I will donate little odd jobs like brochure design to church or civic groups. I don’t think that’s the same as staying late at a for-profit place because your salaried supervisor doesn’t want to wait for the next train!
I do volunteer grant writing for small 501c3 charities. They usually don’t have the manpower or the resources to pay a grant writer. To me its a way to utilize my abilities to assist in the deliverance of my maker’s work.
I’ve had two gigs where I wrote for free. Both were when I was freelancing on the side of a full-time job and wasn’t as concerned about money. Also, both gigs did give me something in return — I got free books from one, and free play tickets for another. However, once I started freelancing full-time I quit both of these gigs, and I would never agree to a similar deal now.
I write largely for free, in a sense. I mainly write research proposals for myself, and I can be paid from the resulting research grant, but not for the writing. I have been paid to write proposals and expert reports for others.
On my blog, I write about fiction and am working on my creative writing for the first time in about 30 years.
I have written many articles for free for charities. When I am thanked for my work and feel appreciated, that’s payment enough. But recently, I responded to an ad on Craigslist and asked if the listing organization was recognized by the IRS as a charity. Instead of a yes-or-no answer, the editor just assumed I would do the assignment and sent me the name and phone # of someone I should interview, # of words required and a deadline. What nerve! My response was that I was not familiar enough with the subject matter and could not afford to invest the many hours necessary for researching and writing the piece.
Now, for the most part, I do my writing-related charity work by favorably mentioning appropriate charities in articles that I am paid to write. For example, if I am writing about weddings, I will mention a bridal gown charity or a non-profit organization that makes and sells custom invitations.
There’s something that I’ve been wondering. What are the best places to look for the experience that most writing jobs require? Are classes on the specific type of writing enough, or do we need to have work published by others as well? This always frustrates me when I look at job options. I’m new to the whole thing but I look at alot of job postings and think “I can do that. If only I had the experience they wanted.”
So, I guess what I’m trying to ask is what is the best way for someone to break into the freelance writing scene?
Em, in Writers Weekly, they have a list of markets for the new freelancer.
I rarely, RARELY write for free, but I do have one gig for which I wouldn’t accept money even if it were offered. It is for a weekly e-mail newsletter that is written in support of a cause near and dear to my heart. None of the writers is paid, but I feel like I am making such a contribution to a worthy cause that I couldn’t imagine giving it up.
Other than that, I have occasionally done a free gig or two for clients who were first friends. They are both excellent about paying my my rate, so every now and again I throw in something extra without charging.
Other than these, I’m with Deb….WRITERS ARE WORTHY OF THEIR HIRE!
Having worked for nonprofits, I can speak from experience when I say that many truly don’t have any money! I do mean specifically those small, community-based organizations and not the granddaddiess of the nonprofit world.
But I would write for free when it would mean the continuance and/or financial stability of an organization or initiative that I cared about. For example, I’ve been working with our local Farmers’ Market through my job since its inception, but I can no longer devote hours to this (my position is also grant funded). The Market is about to fall apart, and I’m well-aware of the challenges it faces. In this case, I’d definitely work on a grant for free.
But to answer a post for some Market looking for a grantwriter to work for free? In an area of the country that I have no connection to, for people I’ve never met? Nope, don’t think so.