Stop Working For Free Online And Show Them What You're Worth

There is truth behind the statement that you teach people how to treat you, which is why it chaps my now raw butt that bloggers at any level of popularity would work for companies for free.

I have read articles that talk about the importance of personal choice and how those who would write articles and do giveaways without pay should be free to do so. I agree. They should be free to do so. That doesn't stop them from also chapping my butt when they do, though, and, I think, for good reason.

There are exceptions to every rule. There are book reviews done as favours to friends and the receipt of a product whose value more than makes up for the work you put into a giveaway. Yay for friends with books and expensive boots you could never afford! *

However, sometimes (read: more often than not) a large or mid-sized company (or any company, really) asks a blogger to:
1) spend time writing for them and maybe also
2) go out to get a product on their own or visit an establishment and maybe also
3) run a giveaway and possibly also, by extension,
4) be given access to all of the blogger's followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook and the readers of their weblog which are personal relationships they've cultivated and probably value, and then the company has the gall to also
5) ask that the blogger to do it for free or for a coupon that is not even near worth the investment of their time, hard work, skills, and personal relationships.

This is what a company tells a blogger by suggesting this sort of relationship:

A company that asks a blogger to work without proper compensation is telling that blogger that it does not value them or their work.

And this is what we tell a company when we willingly enter into this kind of relationship:

Bloggers who give away their time, hard work, skills, and access to their personal relationships for nothing or next to nothing are telling that company that the company's valuation of them and subsequent treatment is appropriate.

I've been approached by Big Important Companies, and it feels flattering that they noticed me and thought enough of what I do to tap me for an article and a giveaway to my readers, but I can guarantee that, in most cases, Big Important Company was not getting the same warm fuzzy feeling for me. They were hoping to get work out of me on the free side of cheap.

The proof of a company's valuation of you is in the pudding, though. Either they compensate you or they don't, and, if not, I'm just not feeling the love.

You represent free outreach that they didn't have to do themselves and maybe a $25 coupon for their own company's product. And you? You just gave away – and, yes, I'm going to list it again – your time, hard work, skills, and personal relationships for a couple of bars of soap or a few free cups of coffee. It's your prerogative to do so, but know that you are, in effect, not only working for free but also transmitting the idea that it is okay for them to expect it of you.

To put it in perspective, if a business in your city asked if you would reach out to potential customers using contact lists that you have personally cultivated over several years, write engaging copy for them, and also manage a giveaway campaign for the super fantastic low, low offer of a $25 coupon that you can only use in their company store, you'd probably hold out for the next job offer, wouldn't you?

I know I would.

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* This alludes to a Dansko giveaway I did late last year, for which I received a pair of boots bearing a $250 retail value, and I felt it was appropriate compensation.