A Buck a Word

I wrote a column for MediaPost today entitled, 'Compensate Citizen Publishers Like People, not Websites.'  In it I posit a new model for how citizen publishers should be compensated:

• The value of citizen publisher content to advertisers or sponsors should be no less than the value of freelance writing contributions for publishers. The industry standard for freelance writing is $1 per word. Blogs, then, should be valued, on average, at $1 per word.

• The word-count contributing to this value is to include comments on the site. Blogs richer in conversation are considered valuable by all measures, and the writers who stimulate and sustain that conversation should be likewise compensated.

I don't know for certain if this is the right model, or the right benchmark. But I do know that using AdSense or another CPC model to monetize blogs is a gross disservice to much of the rich content out here. It devaluates the whole sum of it. At the very least, writers who ply their craft on a blog should regard their own work as valuable. Are you worth more than $1/word? Good - hold out for it. Maybe a smart advertiser will find you. Maybe a new network will recognize your worth and will be able to convince a smart advertiser for you. Maybe a publisher will pay you like a freelancer, in exchange for syndicating your (unedited) content on its site or its magazine or newspaper, or to simply sponsor your work like an advertiser might.

Maybe you don't want the money and you're writing for another reason. But maybe whatever reason or cause you're writing for would benefit more from $1/word than $.13 per click.

Maybe you'll take down your contextual ads and insist on being treated like a person, not a website. Because that's what is different here. Nobody has a conversation with a website.

Comments

[Gregory Narain]

I definitely have to agree. We agree so much we started a service specifically to help bloggers sell their content. It's called xposted.com.

To make this comment even more relevant, we've been developing social software for the event and tradeshow business which is what prompted us to pursue this new tool.

We're quite squarely in the syndication end of things. We don't fix the pricing so it's really at the discretion of the content creator how much their content is worth. We are working on algorithms that account for the other metrics you mentioned.

I'd love your feedback.

[Mike May]

You mentioned xposted.com once here previously, but the site wasn't up yet. I'm glad to see it is now.

And thanks for the comment. If I'm able to get this blog sponsored, your comment along is worth 21 times what I've earned through AdSense over the past 4 months.

[BZ]

Seems like you're mixing things up a bit. The buck-per-word fee is paid by an editor to a writer to produce something intended to appeal to an audience that an advertiser wants to reach. If the blogger and his/her respondents are the only writers, their verbosity or succinctness may have something to do with the blog's ability to attract and retain a desirable audience - or not. The $1 per word idea is not really on point.

The operative question is the one you ask about a bank's willingness to sponsor a pertinent local blog. The answer depends, again, on whether the blog has attracted a sizable and desirable audience AND on whether the blogger has gone out and MADE A SALE based on the blog's and the audience's value. The way you present the sponsorship opportunity makes it sound more like a blogger entitlement, not, as it should be, the result of someone's effort to create a remunerative business from their dedication to their blog.

If you put in the effort with your blog and your selling, you should be able to close some sponsorship deals. And that is a great idea. Otherwise, AdSense still makes good sense for bloggers who do it for the love of it anyway.

[Mike May]

I think we agree, BZ. For Bloggers who can sell as well as they write, they should be able to go out and close sponsorships. All I'm adding to the debate is the starting point of the negotiations. If it's not $1/word, it should be much closer to that than what they're getting through AdSense.

But most bloggers aren't salespeople, and don't want to be. And shouldn't be, because it would detract from the blogging they're (ostensibly) good at. I think by throwing up some AdSense code, too many good writers are saying they'll take what they can get, instead of holding out for what the content is worth. And it's worth a lot. Its value suffers mostly from a supply glut, but also because since so many settle for an eCPM of $.13 or whatever, it's hard for anybody to position what they write as valuable.

I think publishers will get this first, by the way. They have more to lose to citizen publishers, as blogs chip away at their audience. And it's usually a fear of loss that drives innovation faster than an opportunity for gain.