business 2.0

I’m a little annoyed that I have to write this post at all, (but then, I’m annoyed at everything lately, so that’s not really a surprise — pregnancy FTW!). Lately, there has been a rash of posts debating the merits of revealing the salaries of mommybloggers. What a revolutionary concept! I wonder why nobody has thought to bring that up before? Or perhaps, why nobody has published a series of posts that revealed actual, real numbers that mommybloggers have been paid for campaigns. Nevertheless, somebody should really get on that.

The discussion that takes place in the comment section of these kinds of posts is sometimes more frustrating that the hand-wringing that happens in the posts themselves. Why should people be required to reveal their salaries? Talking about money is rude! You don’t have to talk about how much money you make, it’s not anyone’s business. Relax there, Copernicus: there are many ways to talk about money in a way that might be useful to the community from which you derive your income without actually posting your tax returns, and if you actually cared about feminism in any kind of real way, perhaps you would explore these. Please see below.

1. Start posting pay ranges for different campaigns.

You don’t have to say exactly much money you made last year, or even how much you make on one campaign. But, you can easily say that a partnership with a brand of X size can expect to earn a blogger of a certain stature between $1000 and $2500, depending on how many posts are required and the other specific terms of the campaign. If you make money from other projects that are blog-related, but not necessarily advertising centered, you can give ranges for those, too. For example, we know from the people that have generously donated their information in the past that the average hourly rate charged for social media consulting in this space is about $93. (Personally, I charge more than that for brands and less than that for bloggers — just so I can show how you can be transparent without completely falling to pieces.)

2. Contribute your information to the salary surveys when they are posted.

Remember when Kim Moldofsky ran a survey to find out how much mommybloggers made for different campaigns? Did you contribute your information then? (I’m guessing not). You must have been uncomfortable with the totally anonymous and repercussion-free aspect of it. That makes sense.

3. Submit information to me, anonymously, for publication here.

As I linked to above, I have had several bloggers give me information on their salaries in the past, with the caveat that I publish their information without revealing their identities. This kind of information is not “speculative [numbers] attached to outlying success stories – and numbers that are based only speculation on ad revenue,” but in fact are real, concrete information provided by women who care about promoting transparency in this space for completely disinterested reasons.

Perhaps you remain uncomfortable with me, personally, knowing anything about your income, rates, or past experience. I can certainly understand it — the beauty of the blogosphere is that there are now several other sources to whom you can submit your information. Next time, maybe check with one of the sites that discusses the business of mommyblogging, and arrange with them a means of posting your information in a way that doesn’t compromise your privacy.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN.

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Viewing “blogging” (or blogging-related activities) as a means of making money is still fairly new. Whenever I’m not sure how to articulate how something should work, I tend to look at the entertainment industry, because I think it is the closest thing there is to how the “blogging industry” (or social media, if you’d rather call it that) might be structured. Below are some examples of the ways I think the two industries are comparable.

1. The people in front of the camera get the most attention.

In entertainment, actors get the most attention. The most popular and best paid actors are usually the ones who get the most attention, because they generally spend the most time in front of the camera. This is also true in the blogosphere, even though access to attention through social media is ostensibly democratic. Some bloggers spend more time in visible places: they have more readers, they have more followers, they attend and speak at more conferences. These people can be thought of as the “talent” segment of the blogosphere.

2. The most attention does not always equal the most money.

As the world of supermarket tabloids and reality TV demonstrates, appearing everywhere does not necessarily mean you are being paid the most. There are certain people who appear everywhere and are highly compensated, but there are also people who appear everywhere for other reasons. They might have a particular train wreck appeal that sells well, like the has-been starlets who frequent tabloids. Or, they might be well-connected and have access to particular outlets, like the socialites who have become famous for, basically, being famous (Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Kim Kardashian). Being visible and being successful are not always the same thing, but because people often confuse the two, sometimes being visible can lead to being successful, both in the entertainment industry and in the blogosphere.

3. There is a whole other universe of jobs that exist beyond those that get all of the attention.

If you live in Los Angeles, there is a good chance that your income is touched in some manner by the entertainment industry. People think of actors, directors, writers, and producers as the key players in entertainment, but they might forget that there are a ton of other people involved: lighting, photography, costuming, makeup, styling, set designers, set builders, publicity people, advertising people, agents, etc. The people you actually can see on the screen are only a tiny part of a giant thing that is the entertainment industrial complex.

The same is true for the blogosphere. Visible bloggers — “famous” or “celebrity” bloggers, whether they make their living from doing this or not, are only one tiny part. There are tons of other kinds of jobs — ad company owners, ad manangers, ad sellers, brand consultants, web designers, conference organizers, app designers, people who match up brands and bloggers for campaigns, PR reps, blog consultants, etc. We don’t really have names for a lot of the different kinds of jobs there are at this point, in fact.

4. Some of the less attention jobs pay far better than the higher attention jobs.

The high-attention jobs can pay very well if you manage to get one of the very top slots. For example, if you are an actor and you manage to make it to George Clooney’s level, then you are going to make tons of money. But not everybody who tries to be an actor is going to make it to that level. Not everybody is even going to make it to George Lopez’s level.

The thing is, there some of the less-attention jobs are far more lucrative than the higher attention jobs, because they involve putting together deals for both kinds of Georges. But to take those kinds of jobs, you have to be comfortable with spending less time in the limelight.

5. The higher attention jobs tend to come with an expiration date and/or worries about over-exposure.

Positions that rely on a lot of time in the public eye are more difficult to maintain for a variety of reasons. It is generally easier for younger, good-looking people to get jobs as actors, and in order to stay on top they need to maintain a perfect appearance and pay a team of experts to manage their reputation. Even with all of these safeguards, an actor has to be careful about the kinds of projects they take and alliances they make, or else they may become overexposed and jeopardize their overall value as a brand.

To a lesser degree, this is also true for popular bloggers. If they do not innovate, they risk losing their audience in the passage of time. If their blog’s story is tied to something that is time-sensitive (child rearing, their youth and beauty), they may have problems maintaining it as the center of a career in the long term. And, finally, working with too many brands, too often, can jeopardize the goodwill they have built up with their audience.

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