The food blogging bottom line

Blogger and wknd. columnist Kari Heron tells us about the financial i mplication of a culinary passion

his article has been long in the making. It is one of those that I have drafted and reopened ever so often… now the time has come to put it in print. I have had the privilege of being both a paid columnist for this column as well as a professional blogger with over 17,000 followers for my chefandsteward. com blog over all platforms, and I can tell you that one thing I know for sure is that food bloggers should definitely not work for free. Here is why.

I have been blogging for 10 years, and professionally for six of those. Over the years, I have had many proposals by marketing and PR professionals who are eager to associate with my blog due to the credibility we have developed in the market and our influence. While some of these proposals acknowledge the value of the association, many have assumed that all bloggers, especially food bloggers are in it for a free meal or just “exposure”.

One of the reasons I am so passionate about this topic is because I started out in media pretty early on in life. At 16, I received professional training to become a TV host and eventually made the cut from nearly 300 people who auditioned for a TV show. I got a cheque for each show I appeared on. This was what led me to study Media and Communication up to the graduate level. While in university, I bartered at the largest production training facility to receive master- level training in other subjects like photography, voice and speech. I produced my first TV show, a children’s show, at 19, as part of that barter. Due to all the work I had done before and during university, which I got paid for, I was able to secure a primetime TV job hosting the weather on a national free- to- air station.

I learnt the art of negotiation because I was valued. I was paid. You cannot be called a professional unless you get paid for your work.

There has been much debate on this topic in the blogging world over the years. It seems that the divide is in three groups… Group A: Consists of bloggers who are simply “hobby bloggers”, who do it only for the fun of it and have no desire to ever earn from it. Group B: Those who may eventually want to earn some

day but are trying to build their following in order to attract paid work ( via advertising, brand associations, sponsored posts, etc). Group C: Those who are aware of the costs of blogging and have put a value on their work and expect to be paid for work in cash or kind.

From what I have noticed, for the most part, most bloggers ( including food bloggers) operate from the category of Group A. They are in it for the love and freedom of expression. There is no pressure to create and readership is likely to be lesser than other groups. Many of these bloggers are happy to be read, but are perfectly fine with just the ability to publish. They operate on free platforms and only share the foods and dishes they have either cooked themselves, or bought with their own money.

Those i n the Group B category understand the earning potential of blogging but may just be starting out and are eager to get “exposure”. By this, I mean that bloggers are willing to create content for free in order just to be published.

The last category of bloggers have placed value on their time, energy and efforts, as well as the costs of blogging, including the cost of food for recipe development, the cost of photography equipment, and the costs of maintaining a high quality blog, including do- main registration, self- hosting, and marketing costs.

In order to understand the value of your blog post, tweet or Instagram post, you have to understand that your time has value. Your creative work has value. In essence, “If yah love it, then you got to put some cash on it!”

Make no mistake, blogging is work. Unless you are gainfully employed and have no wish to ever quit your day job — or gainfully unemployed and have no desire to ever earn a dollar — giving away work for free is not economically viable for most people.

“Exposure” cannot pay your DEWA, FEWA or SEWA or phone bills, freelance licence fee, rent or blog hosting fees. You cannot deposit “exposure” in a bank account. And I guarantee you the people asking you to work for “exposure” are themselves getting paid.

When bloggers create content only to be published for free exposure, people who have made their living by providing those services get sidelined. In fact, ev-

Exposure cannot pay your DEWA or phone bills, freelance licence fee, rent or blog hosting fees. You cannot deposit ‘ exposure’ in a bank account

erybody gets shafted. No one benefits when the market is saturated with free content. If publishers get used to not paying for content, eventually no one will get paid, because anyone will do it for free.

Do not get me wrong, I am not knocking the value of exposure. However, there are ways to give away work without payment, without losing out. wifm: You have to ask yourself and the person pitching, what is in it for you as a blogger and for your readers. If there is no value to you or your followers, let it pass. develop a rate card. You cannot understand your value without having a guide to your costs. Itemise costs for sponsored posts, photography, writing, recipe development and restaurant reviews ( if applicable). Get featured instead. featured as the subject of an article, by all means you can and should supply images. By this I mean that you are interviewed ( in person or by written question and answer) and that you are not the one actually writing the article. Charge for recipe development. If you are putting out recipes, then you should charge something at least to recoup the cost of the ingredients and some of your time. For reference, general rates run from Dh350- 750 per recipe. Consider a barter. If it is a brand, product or restaurant you like, consider trading in kind. You need to definitely have your rate card on hand so that you have a frame of reference for the kind of barter and relative costs. ALWAYS disclose any paid work. I am HUGE on integrity and ethics of blogging ( a passion of mine) and feel it is critical to disclose to your readership that the content provided has been paid for or sponsored. Your readership deserves to know.

wknd@ khaleejtimes. com