Corporate v. Personal Blogging
May 12, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
by Miranda Marquit
Sometimes I feel like a sell-out. I’m a freelance writer, but most of my money comes from blogging. I do have my own blogs, but most of my professional blogging income comes from corporate blogging. Companies hire me to update their blogs everyday. And, since social networking and blogging is the next “thing” in online marketing (in any marketing for that matter), companies are willing to pay fairly well.
It’s a trade-off. I get paid per post for the corporate blogging, so no matter the number of pageviews I get, I won’t get a dime more. But, on the other hand, there is a measure of security. I know exactly how much I’m going to get each month. (Unless they decide to dump me.) However, with social media becoming more popular, I am also expected, as part of my fee, to go out and promote these Web sites. For at least one company, my efforts have paid off. They upped my per-post fee. But sometimes I feel like that the corporate blogging cuts into the time I could be spending developing my other blogs.
Sometimes, when I think of the potential, I wish I wasn’t getting paid per-post. Then I look at the blogs I have where I get paid by ad revenue or by pageviews. Some months I don’t get paid as much for one reason or another. So I am grateful for the per-post payment I get from my corporate clients. But I don’t get the satisfaction I have from my personal blogs — where I can write about what I want, and I don’t have to worry about things like “compliance” and HR people telling I can’t link to certain blogs because they belong to “competitors.”
But do I have enough confidence to ditch the corporate blogging and really develop the other blogs. I’m about to find out. I recently gave one of my corporate clients two weeks’ notice so that I’d have time to work on one of my personal finance blogs. If that goes well, maybe I’ll be able to find the confidence to get rid of the rest of my corporate chains.
Miranda Marquit is a professional blogger and freelance writer. She writes on personal finances for Yielding Wealth and on debt consolidation for Destroy Debt, as well as for numerous other blogs and publications.
It seems to me like blogging for ad revenue only is like working on spec. You never know if you’re going to get paid.
There’s something to be said for a steady cheque. You do the work, you get the money.
Although you’re right, it’s hard to get rich like that.
Hi—-Miranda:
Glad you wrote this post, as i too have the same thoughts and feelings. I also do corporate blogging and maintain personal blogs.
Blogging is ALOT of work, and it is quite time consuming. So it is a tug of war between getting paid steadily and trying to build something of ones own.
As for me, right now, i have my feet in both. I do plan on ditching or selling a few of my blogs, and truly commit to two, and propel them forward. This is possible because of my corp blogging. It pays the bills, so it is not selling out. IMHO.
Good post. I am interested to hear what others in the same boat have to say about corp blogging.
Missy.
This is the eternal tug-of-war for writers no matter what medium they work in. The only way to resolve this issue is start accepting the fact that writing professionally is a business just like any other business, and the object of any business is to earn profits. It isn’t selling out because you need to support yourself and/or your family; that’s reality. The roomantic image of the starving artist sitting in one room, working by the light of a single candle is great unless you have kids. They somehow don’t see the romanticism in not having regular meals. Never feel like you’re not being true to your calling just because you have to balance art with having to pay the electric bill.
Take it where you can get it. Though I’m trained as a journalist, so many pubs are taking contributed content, I’m finding myself writing more on the corporate side — through PR firms. Not blogging, but same basic idea as far as corporate v independent.
My biggest client is a pub on the other side of Miranda’s blog — a collection publication.
I have my own personal blogs that I maintain, however sparsely, but I too feel as though it’s all work and no play! I write primarily web copy for a number of companies. The pay is not great, but it does pay the bills. The only problem is, after writing what you have to all day, who has the energy to write what you want to? A Catch-22 if there ever was one! Thanks for the great read!
I feel your struggle. I have three blogging jobs, in which I update every day during the week. Yet, I haven’t updated my personal blog in about three weeks. Since I continue to receive page views and a little income on my personal blog, I know the potential. I enjoy my blogging jobs. They pay well and I don’t want to give them up. But at the same time, I need to set time aside for my personal blog.
We’re so busy writing, we have no time to write. Right?
I had a conference call cancelled on me today. I decided to take the 1/2 hour I had scheduled for the call and write a poem instead of doing work for clients. Then tonight instead of doing professional reading, I chose to revise, revise, revise.
Feels real good.
But this is not a typical day for me. I get horrified when I pick up my journal and realize I haven’t touched it in a month. If I have to constantly remind myself that if I’m not careful, I could loose my desire to write if I don’t do some enjoyable writing consistently.
Hi Miranda,
Can you show me an example of your corporate blog post? I’m curious to know what it suppose to look like.
Thanks!