Being paid to blog for a "competitor", WWYD?

[MrsMargoLeadbetter]

Hi

Interested in your views.

I am a marketing freelancer with a particular niche.

I have a range of clients from retained to those I deliver one off projects for. I am generally good at finding work for my pipeline, although it has slowed a bit as pregnant.

About this time last year I started an e-newsletter. Each one contains 4 blog articles about my niche area. It is my main form of marketing aside from a few speaking opps at niche related events.

I have got good direct feedback on the e-news and the subscription list is growing organically. However, I don't believe it has directly brought me business.

I have been approched by the person that runs a small company (let's call it B) which runs the only niche related awards and a website which is trying to be an info hub for the niche. They want to know if I want to produce a fortnightly blog entry for them. They said they'll pay and it would be attributed to me.

It is also worth noting that Company B was set up (same person I am talking to) as a sideline/pipeline generator for Company A, which serves the same audience as I do. However, Co A is bigger than I am and has a wider range of services.

So my issues are:

1. I am potentially helping them generate business for A.

1. I sometimes struggle to think up 4 ideas for my e-news, I fear they'll end up with my best articles.

but I really do understand/see the value of being positioned as an"expert" etc. And accessing a new audience, even if under Co B's brand. Extra money would be nice too.

So, do I give it a go?

TIA

I think you need to look carefully at the amount of work you need to do.

Can you re-blog articles you've already produced, or does it need to be new content?
Can you re-use any new stuff for them on your own e-news or do they want exclusive rights, if so, for how long?

Do you see what I mean? If you can treat it as two channels for the same content, it could work for you especially if they'll attribute you as a expert visitor/editor/consultant. But if it has to be two completely separate lots of content I think the conflict will be too great - essentially you're generating business for a competitor.

Thanks Wilson for your thoughts.

Lots of interesting points about ownership/reputation. Will need to think about that if I go for it. I got the sense they'll be flexible but I'll need to see...

Cheers

To be honest I wouldn't - that was my gut reaction and I thought "am I being selfish or petty to think that?". But upon reflection no.

1. I would not want to boost someone else's business DIRECTLY!
2. You say you struggle to find fresh ideas yourself - which is going to leave you in a really shitty position of either giving them all your great stuff and leaving you short, or vice versa - which will give you a bad feeling of delivering crap and you won't exactly boost your own reputation either will you? People will read your stuff and think "well duh, I'll go with the competitor then".

If you're getting lots of warm leads then I think you need to look at how to convert those rather than going out and generating these lovely warm & fuzzy leads for someone else!

You've clearly got a product or service which is proving of interest to your customers, now you just need to get their signatures on the dotted line - I would be inclined to invest my time & efforts in to working out how to do that! :)

I would ask what attribution involves.

If they'll let you say "MrsMargoLeadbetter is a marketing freelance working on xxx and her details and further blogs can be found here" - with link to your website (where your blogs also appear?) or whatever - and some articles at least can be re-used, I'd go for it.

I would look at the amount of work involved for the blog posts and how much money you are being paid, plus the amount of traffic you could gain from business B and even possibly A.

I personally would trial the blog posts and assess how much your own business gets out of it. Also as you are pregnant this may be an easy way to earn money during this time and also when when you are looking after a newborn. It is really hard finding work to fit in around family and work!

Hope it works out

Suz

Thanks all.

Have sent a proposal for what I consider a good but fair fee and have suggested how I'll be positioned. I have looked again at Org B and actually the mentions of Org A on the website are minimal. I guess there is marketing that goes on behind the scenes with the data from Org B, but I cannot worry about every aspect!

Ra having something that suits being pregnancy/on mat leave (using a KIT day) is definitely a deciding factor.

They now may of course say "No, too expensive" or we have changed own mind!

We shall see!

Thanks again for your views. I'll let you know what they say!

change our mind!

A quick update.

I submitted a proposal, they agreed to a trial entry. However, on submitting my draft they said they were looking for something else. On discussing it, they actually wanted somebody who was very cutting edge on social media & my niche.

My experience of orgs in my niche is that they are slow to take up new social media. For me to deliver the sort of blog entry they were looking for would take lots of research and talking to orgs to get their feedback - basically a lot of work for not that much money.

So I have now turned them down. I am glad I did do a trial though, as it would have been on my mind if I didn't. It obviously wasn't meant to be!

Thanks again for your input whilst I was deciding.