blogging — Page 17

Setting A Price: Claiming Our Worth

February 10, 2015 at 10:05 am by Claudia

2-10 lr

These photos have nothing to do with this post. Just the living room captured with my camera this morning.

I’m thinking on my feet here.

I had to do a bit of negotiating yesterday with the theater. At the end of the phone call, I brought up the daily fee for my services and I was quoted a very lowball number.

Ummm….no.

I tend to give theater companies a bit of a break because I know that budgets are tight. But this particular number was way too low. So I responded with a number that was twice what they were quoting (yet still less than I can get elsewhere) and added that I wouldn’t work for less. I was told they would get back to me. I went into the living room and told Don and he wholeheartedly agreed with me. Unlike Don, I don’t have a union representing me. It’s me, myself, and I.

Here’s the interesting thing about placing a price on your expertise: I think many of us tend to undervalue our skill set and don’t always feel comfortable in any sort of negotiating situation. I speak for myself when I say that, for years, I tended to undervalue my work. That doesn’t include those times when I accepted a low salary simply because I needed the experience and I was building my resumé. I did that deliberately because it was about beginning a career.

And it wasn’t an issue when I was teaching full-time and coaching on the side because the combination of both salaries was more than adequate. However, since I’ve been freelancing for the last 14 years, I’ve had to learn to be firm when it comes to quoting a price for my work. It hasn’t been easy. I tended to be self-effacing and insecure and that carried over sometimes into an almost apologetic price quote on my part or a willingness to accept less than I deserved. When you freelance, you are often faced with no work on the horizon, and any offer of work is all too easily grabbed like a life preserver. That can end up biting you in the tush if you’re not careful.

It took me a while, but I am now proud of where I draw the line. I’ve also come to the point where I can do it without any sort of emotional attachment. I think of it this way: I’ve been working in the theater for well over 30 years. I’ve been coaching for almost that long. I’m really good at what I do. If you want me to help you out, you have to be willing to pay.

And let’s be honest here, no job in the theater pays all that well. It’s all relative. You have to love working in that medium, you have to love working in the arts. Without that love, you’ll always be frustrated because you’re never going to earn big bucks.

The theater was doing what they have to do, trying to work within a budget. I absolutely understand that. In the end, they agreed to my figure and everyone is happy.

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I see the same thing happening in the blogging world, which, let’s face it, is a bit like the Wild West. As more and more bloggers start to do sponsored posts and/or work with certain companies, there are lots of discussions about just what to charge. Because bloggers can be taken advantage of quite easily, with the assumption that they’ll work for free just for the opportunity to attach their blog name to a product. I have turned down many, many offers like that. Are you kidding? You want me to write a post for you, for free?

Blogging takes time and energy and lots of thought and planning and quality photos, so a good camera has to be invested in, and editing and editing again. If the blogger wants to grow a readership, then time is spent on that, as well. I could go on and on and, as you know, I’m not as invested in SEO and social media outreach – those things do take time and lots of it – though I do care about ad income. I will say that bloggers need to be paid for those services mentioned above, just as I am paid for my coaching work. Since very few blogs are viewed by paid subscribers, the content is free. Imagine. The reading audience gets to read fresh content, see beautiful photos, learn new things, and all they have to do is click on the post. All of that is supplied free of charge.

Would a magazine allow that? Absolutely not, nor should they. Would I allow that when it comes to my area of expertise? No and no.

But blogs are free. And that’s really wonderful. That’s what we love about the Internet. However, we have to be aware, as readers of that lovely free content, that a blogger’s time is also to be valued and honored and compensated. So, though frowned upon not all that long ago, ads are now a matter of course. And though sometimes it seems that all we see is sponsored content, remember that bloggers are trying to wrestle with creating a living wage in the wild west of blogging. And they deserve that.

If I added up the amount of time I spend on writing posts for this blog and my book blog, the hours I put in on a daily basis – taking photos, writing posts, editing constantly, replying to comments, researching, corresponding with readers, and in the case of the book blog, buying and investing in books that I review and share with my readers – if I totaled that all up and then compared it to my ad income? I can’t even go there. Much too disheartening. Depressing, even. If I earned, on a daily basis, the same amount I can charge for my theatrical work? Goodness, I’d be thrilled. I’d be beyond thrilled. I could earn a living with this blog.

But I do this because I love it. Truly. I love blogging. And most bloggers blog because they love it, as well. It’s fascinating, watching blogging evolve, seeing how it has changed. Bloggers are coming to terms with the same issues that a freelancer, such as myself, has to deal with. What is my work worth? What is my time worth? What is all the time I spend editing photos worth? What about the gas I put in my car to travel someplace, take photos, write a post and share it with my readers? What about the photo editing software I’ve had to invest in? Or, in some cases, the cost of running a self-hosted blog? What is my name recognition worth?

I don’t have the answers, but I do know that my initial impulse in writing this post was to talk about negotiating fees and claiming my worth as a professional in the arts. And then it morphed into a realization that blogging now involves a similar claim of worth.

It’s got me thinking, that’s for sure.

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Quiet

February 7, 2015 at 8:01 am by Claudia

2-7 still life

Still Life with Camera. I love the light in this shot, the way it hits the pottery, the vivid blue reflection on the wall, the shadows, the darkish form of the camera. It’s a late afternoon portrait of a corner of the den.

I rose at 5:30 this morning – too early – but there you go. I woke up. I felt like I’d slept well and I wanted to get downstairs and see if Scout needed to avail herself of the outdoor facilities. She did. All is well.

Don had a fitful night, as he is in the throes of this not-at-all-fun head cold. There’s been no sound from the bedroom, so I hope he’s sleeping. I love this early morning time, when it’s quiet and Scout is sleeping at my feet. The other day, when Don work up before me, he was actually disappointed when I came down the stairs soon after. He had been looking forward to some quiet time on his own.

I get it.

I’ve found that more and more as I grow older, I crave quiet. It wasn’t that many years ago when I would routinely turn on the Today show in the morning to catch up on what had happened in the world overnight. Now, I wouldn’t think of doing that. I don’t want the sound of the television intruding into my world.

In fact, we hardly ever have the TV on during the day – only on those rare occasions that we feel the need to check on an important news story. Or check in on a big weather event. I suppose the internet has helped with that. We can go online now and read up on the news. Or check the weather. Or choose not to have anything to do with either of those things.

Quiet soothes my soul. Quiet helps me think. I have been involved in music and sounds and words and performance for most of my life. When I am working, I am surrounded by sounds. So is Don. There are times I noodle on the piano, or play music on the stereo, and of course, I love hearing Don play his guitar.

But mostly I love quiet.

Right now, I hear the clicks and sounds of water moving through the baseboard heaters. I hear the creaks and groans of a 124 year old house. I hear the occasional sigh from Dame Scout. Occasionally, my ears catch the sound of a car driving by. But mostly, it’s quiet.

We guard that quiet. If one of us wants to turn on the television during the day for some reason, we always ask the other if it’s okay. We know how important the quiet is – especially in this little cottage – for reading, for creating, for thinking.

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Last night’s sunset

Since the early days of blogging – and I’m coming up on my 7th anniversary of blogging in 10 days – I’ve had the volume turned all the way down on my computer. I only turn it up when I’m watching a video or a movie on Netflix. Otherwise? All the way down. To zero. When we first started blogging, in those long ago days, bloggers often had music playlists on their blogs. Do you remember those? I do. I found them intrusive, simply because I didn’t want to click on a blog and be jolted by someone else’s choice in music. So I learned to turn the volume down. End of problem. I enjoyed the blog post and didn’t have to worry about the music. Then more and more of us began to have ads on our blogs. Most of those ads are simply ads – silent. But some have audio. Or video. Or both.

I never hear them because I keep the volume down.

One of my longtime and dear readers wrote yesterday to say that she had heard an audio ad on the blog and was unhappy about that. I completely understand. I don’t like them either. There’s not a whole lot I can do about it. Ads change on any given blog according to the reader of that blog’s browsing habits. When I click on my blog, I might very well see a different ad than you do, even if you click on the blog at the exact same time. I’m sure you’ve all searched for something on your computer – maybe something like a lamp – and then proceeded to see ads for lamps appearing on other sites, including blogs. It’s unnerving; kind of like Big Brother watching you.

And I have to have ads. If I don’t, the blog will cease to exist. It’s that simple.

Anyway, this is all to say that I don’t have a whole lot of control about that sort of thing. You could write me and tell me one kind of ad is showing when you read the blog and I will check here and not see it. If you don’t like the audio, simply turn your volume down. That will serve you well as you cruise around the internet. Believe me, you can be assaulted by sound on any site.

That’s why I keep my volume down. I like quiet. I like to read. I don’t want intrusive sounds coming out of nowhere.

Which reminds me of the time I was sitting here in the peaceful, quiet early morning only to hear the beep of a smoke alarm. Loud, obnoxious, but not the beep that happens when there really is a problem. No, this one was more subtle. A beep here. A beep there. Then quiet. And then, just as I was thinking that little glitch had taken care of itself, it happened again. And again. It took a long time, but I finally tracked it down to the alarm in our bedroom. Somehow, a fly got in there and it set off the alarm.

Then it was back to quiet.

Happy Saturday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Heading Toward 7: On The State of This Blog

January 8, 2015 at 9:48 am by Claudia

treereflection

Absolutely nothing to do with this post, except to tell you the tree is still up. We like it that way.

Some days, like today, I wake up and have no idea what the hell I’m going to write about. It happened a couple of days ago, as well. And I think to myself, for a split second, maybe it’s time to let it go and move on.

Just for a split second.

Trying to come up with new and original content every day is sometimes overwhelming. At other times, it’s a breeze. But it’s the days when nothing seems interesting or exciting or momentous in any way, where the internet itself gets to me, whether through hacked emails or hacking attempts on this blog or the sheer enormity of the internet juggernaut that seems to be careening out of control, or when I get tired of my own voice – those are the hard days.

I don’t pull content or photos from elsewhere on the web, though I suppose that might make things easier. But I’m an original content blogger. It’s just the way I’m wired. I’m all for adapting and change but that’s one change I cannot bring myself to make. I can’t do it any other way – this blog is my voice, my thoughts, my ‘brand’ if you will, no one else’s. It’s why I consistently turn down offers that come from writers or companies wanting to do guest posts. And, believe me, there are a lot of them in my inbox on any given day. No judgment here, just a sense of what is right for me.

Blogging has changed and change can be good. I recently read a great post from a well-known blogger, Tsh Oxenreider of The Art of Simple. Here’s the link if you’re interested. In the post she explores the way blogging has changed in the eight years she’s been at it and proceeds to clarify her blogging intentions.

It resonated with me because these are the things many of us wrestle with. I’ll admit it: I liked her conclusions.

What’s changed?

Comments are down – Yes, they are, though I am pleased to have a loyal group of readers who comment on a daily basis. But I only have to go back about a year ago to see that I used to get many more comments. The reasons cited? Lots more blogs out there, lots more social media that competes for a reader’s attention. I love the conversation that goes on here and I answer almost every comment. But I’ve been a less than constant commenter on other’s blogs. I need to work on that. Let me add that I appreciate that you read the blog whether you comment or not. Truly. Don’t feel you have to.

Threaded comments (which allow the back-and-forth conversations we have) are one of the best things to happen to this blog, in my humble opinion.

Attention spans are shorter – Oy. Don’t get me going on this one. It’s true. Many readers seem to want to read things in shorter doses. Or they prefer Instagram or Facebook. Or Twitter. I use all those platforms, but very sparingly indeed, because I’m all about the power of the written word here on this blog. Not captions under Instagram photos, though I certainly enjoy seeing them. Not whatever the word limit is on a tweet. And Facebook is nice, but if I have a choice to write here on the blog or post an update on MHC’s Facebook page, guess what’s going to win out?

If you have a short attention span, you’re probably not going to keep reading this blog. I don’t care that the conventional wisdom seems to be ‘write shorter posts.’ That ain’t me.

As for Pinterest, I constantly read how much traffic it drives to blogs and I know it’s true. It’s a fact. I use Pinterest, but not very often. And I find I use it because I feel I ‘should.’ That’s not a good reason to spend time there that I could be spending elsewhere in my life. So no more ‘shoulds’ for me. I’ll only be there when I want to be there. If I have less traffic, so be it.

Ad income is down – Yes, it is. Ads, especially banner ads like those on this blog, are not as good a source of income as they used to be. Advertisements on blogs are evolving. It’s troubling for those of us who count on ad income to help pay some bills, so many bloggers are doing more and more sponsored content and I totally understand that. I don’t do very much of it here, just the occasional post. These are all things I have to wrestle with as I move forward. I will explore other options as long as the integrity of this blog remains my first priority. I’m heading toward my seventh anniversary of blogging (on February 17th) and I’ve put in a lot of time and effort to bring the blog to where it is at this point in time. It must be my authentic (a word that is overused these days, sorry!) voice. There’s no other option.

Tsh says, “As for me, I’m all over old-fashioned blogging.” Me, too. That, for me, means original content, longer posts, posts where my voice is the one you’re hearing, not that of a sponsor (unless it’s something I really believe in and even then, you’ll hear my voice.) I post every day. That may change, it may not. If there’s a day where I simply can’t come up with anything, I’ll take it as an indication that I just might need a day off.

I used to post about blogging more often. I used to post tips about photo editing and all sorts of things related to blogging. I even had plans to start a blogging-help-kind-of-blog. But two things made me stop doing that. Number one: There’s already a lot of content out there about blogging, lots and lots of blogging advice. I also realized that I’ve grown averse to giving advice because there are as many ways to blog as there are bloggers. My way is most likely not your way, nor should it be.

But here’s the other thing: A lot of my readers don’t blog. They like reading blogs but don’t really care about they whys and hows of blogging.

So, my friends, posts like this one will be few and far between.

I’m in a reflective stage as I head toward my blogging anniversary on February 17th. Seven years. Who’d have thunk it? It has been a joy and a challenge. It has been very hard and effortless. But above all, it has been a tremendously rewarding creative outlet for my thoughts and ideas. It has been the writing discipline that I needed. It has taught me the joy of the camera. It has brought you into my life.

So thanks for your patience as I sort through and clarify my feelings about this blog and blogging in general.

I’m still here.

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Setting A Price: Claiming Our Worth

Quiet

Heading Toward 7: On The State of This Blog

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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