When I was in highschool and on the job,  there were a few people I did my best to avoid. It was the girls and women who said what was on their minds, no matter how much it hurt. Not only did I find their manner abrasive, I felt they fed into that catty woman stereotype and gave women a bad name in general. They didn’t agree.They excused their rudeness by saying they were honest. I have a nephew who does the same thing. He’s rude, but feels people need to get over it because it’s the truth and that’s always a good thing. I’m not feeling it. I never though honesty was an excuse to be rude and I’m not a fan of the tough love approach to blogging. I feel there are ways to tell the truth or to get a point across without being mean or hurting people.

Bloggers need to be honest with their readers, for sure but I also feel we need to think about our delivery. Indeed, I’ve had a few ranty moments here myself but I find that angry posts only lead to angry responses. Negativity breeds negativity. Who needs all that?

Bloggers can still be honest without being rude or abrasive.

• Present the facts: Even the most popular bloggers can’t reach everyone. Like highschool cliques, we all have a community of people who think the way we do but we also have people who disagree. There’s even folks who (gasp!) don’t like us at all. Getting all preachy and angry won’t convince anyone outside our cliques to drink our Kool Aid. Presenting facts and discussing issues in a respectful manner works better than raising our voices.
• Intelligent people know how to use words rather than insults: To say the people who don’t think the way we do are idiots or don’t know any better shows a lack of intelligence. Certainly there are better ways to convince others to see things our way? If I was to read a blog post and the blogger said anyone who felt a certain way is a moron, I wouldn’t want to come back.  However, if a blogger presented his case in a respectful manner, I’d be more inclined to tune him in. Maybe instead of turning me off, he’d at least give me something to think about.
• Positivity breeds positivity: As bloggers we’re in a position to reach people. The blogs that do the best are the ones that empower people or make them feel good about themselves and the world around them. If our tones are negative, brash, condescending, lecturing and “blunt” all the time all we’re doing is promoting more negativity.
• There are no experts: There are no experts. There are no gurus. Only bloggers who share ideas. We know what worked for us and we’re sharing it with others. It doesn’t mean our way is best. To get all tough love and my way or the highway on our communities only displays our ignorance. Intelligent bloggers may know when to share an idea, but they also know other people are allowed to have ideas too. What a sad place this world would be if everyone had to follow one person’s rules. Oh wait, this does happen and it’s called communism.

Talk to me. How do you feel about “tough love” bloggers and blunt honesty? Which bloggers illicit the best response -positive posting or an in your face approach?

If you’re not reading this through a feed reader it’s safe to assume the person who posted this is a content thief who is too unoriginal and untalented to come up with his/her own ideas. Feel free to report this slimy splogger to freelancewritinggigs(at)gmail(dot)com.

I have freelance writing on my mind today, or rather, the freelance writing niche. For those of you who haven’t been with this blog network from the beginning, Freelance Writing Jobs started out as a single standalone blog posting job leads every day. From there, we branched out to having some advice posts on the weekend, then a mixture of the two during the week. Now we’re a full-fledged network of eight blogs.

Here’s the interesting thing. This blog/network has been around for about four and a half years. We have some regulars who have been with us since day one (thanks, guys!) but for the most part this is a transient niche. It’s an interesting thing about blogging, some niches do very well, others do OK, and some only have a few loyal readers. While the FWJ network does better than I ever expected, I do notice the names and faces change often. This is a different experience than some of my other blogs. Here’s why I feel the freelance writing community is different – a transient community.

• Unlike many writing niches, this niche is freelance writing jobs. We handle everything you need to know about finding and keeping freelance writing work.  Because of this, many of the freelance writers who visit FWJ are new. As they advance, they move on.
• Freelance writers either move back to day jobs or they move on to bigger and better clients. As their level of success grows, they don’t exactly need blogs like mine anymore.
• Folks come here to find work. Once they have a decent amount of clients, they’re to busy to spend time at blogs.
• As freelance writers become more successful, they build a word of mouth business.

This isn’t only FWJ. I notice this about many writing forums too. The regulars particpate heavily for a while and move on, I hope because they’re advancing in their careers. Every now and then I’ll bump into someone from here or “the boards” and learn they’re just too busy to socialize as they used to. Transience isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I may lose members of this community as they branch out, but that’s a very good thing.

What are some other transient blog niches you can think of?

I regularly receive emails from bloggers asking me to promote a new service, review ebooks, donate to their contests and post affiliate links. Many of these requests are from very popular bloggers who I haven’t heard from since the last time they had something to promote.

I also hear from friends who haven’t had the time to chat or email in years, but now they’re wondering if there isn’t something to this making money online thing or they’re out of work and wondering if they should write.

I don’t mind helping. I enjoy promoting products I feel are a good fit for this community and I like helping my friends. I especially enjoy promoting books and ebooks from members of this community. However, the words “friend” and “relationship” indicate a two way street. I’m not saying anyone owes me anything, but sometimes I wonder about the people who only contact me when they need something.

If you’re looking to reach out to bloggers for help, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Contact your blogging friends every now and then to say hello and not because you need something.
• Become a part of the other blogger’s community. Build relationships with others and join in the conversation, they’ll be more likely to check out your product or service if you’re a friend or productive member of the community.
• When that same blogger reaches out to you for an interview, ebook promotion, or just to say hello, don’t blow him off.
• If you haven’t spoken to a blogger in years, you may want to take time to reconnect before asking for favors.
• There’s a difference between networking and using.
• If you see your blogging friend at conferences or networking events, make a point of saying hello or inviting him or her to a meal or cup of coffee. You don’t have to buy, but it’s nice karma to reach out.
• Even if you don’t have time for lots of chit chat and small talk, say hello on Twitter or Facebook now and then.
• Link to the bloggers who help to promote your stuff. It’ll make them at least feel as if you appreciate their efforts.

I know blogger outreach is important for promotion and networking. I’m all about it. For heaven’s sake, stop only contacting people when you want a stumble or ebook review. We’re all busy people and don’t always have time for online socializing, I get that. If you contact your blogging friends for other reasons than promotional requests they’ll be more likely to help you out.

There are some interesting discussions going around now regarding the purpose of contests at blogs, especially contests building community. Is it bribery or buying community to offer a contest encouraging community?

As you know, the FWJ network is having a comment contest for the month of October. The reason for this contest is:

• To encourage long-time members to come back into the discussion after recent negativity.
• To encourage visitors to each individual blog to visit the other blogs in the network.
• To encourage newer or lurking members of the community to add their two cents.
• To give something back to the community after a very good month.

Am I buying my community? Perhaps, if you want to see it that way. I prefer to think of it as a reward or incentive for contributing. Blogs have contests all the time, many give away sponsored prizes. I never thought of them as buying comments as much as I thought of them as tools for building traffic and encouraging community. I can’t afford to do this often, but I thought it might be a good way to invest back into a community that’s been so supportive over the years. I could have said “well, the 60th comment gets the prize” but that’s not adding much in the way of substance.

Some blog posts at FWJ receive 50 comments and more. Why not reward our top commentators somehow and encourage them to keep doing what we’re doing? We have other ways of building community here as well. For example we offer stimulating content and useful resources while encourage everyone to add their two cents – and many do. I’d like to encourage others to weigh in too.

Now, I can’t speak for other bloggers, but this is why I have the occasional comment contest. Why do you have contests at your blog?

What do you think – are blog contests a way to buy community or are they a useful tool in motivating a sleeping community – and rewarding them for their loyalty?

Writers often ask each other about their “passion”. Passion is what leads us to write about what we love every single day. Passion is what makes us good at what we do. Passion makes us who we are. My passion is blogging. It’s an addiction.  I wake up and all I want to do is blog. That may sound silly to some, but it’s what I love and what I hope to do forever.

What makes me not so passionate is all the “I’m so not like you so I’m going to do everything I can to trash you and bring you down without actually mentioning your name” blogging that’s going on among my peers. It makes blogging less fun, less enjoyable.  I’m guilty of it too – I’ve used “certain bloggers” or “some bloggers” when I disagree. I’m pretty sure those bloggers know exactly who I’m talking about. I also know when they’re talking about me with their swipes, especially when they quote specific words from my daily arsenal. I read your message loud and clear.

All this anger and swiping at people who don’t agree is making blogging lose its luster. Can’t we all get along?

Here’s my vow: no more swipes at “other bloggers.” If I disagree with something, I’ll do so in a respectful manner. I’m not out to ruin anyone’s reputation. I’m not on campaigns to knock anyone down a peg or steal away their community. I’m not boycotting anyone or encouraging others to do the same. I’m not doing searches on other bloggers’ blogs to find stuff to throw in their faces or hold against them. That’s not me or how I work.

I’m happy if I have 10 visitors or 10,000 as long as they’re all positive members of this community.  It’s hard to lead by example when in the middle of cat fights and disputes over wages, sponsorships or writing for free. I’m putting a stop to it on this end.  It’s too silly and too petty. Everyone has good advice and valid points. I’m not going to discourage anyone from taking another blogger’s advice because everyone brings a valid point or opinion to the table. I think we get so caught up in making sure our message is the right one, or that our point of view is the one that counts the most, that we lost site of what’s most important – helping other writers and bloggers succeed.

Life’s too short for negativity.

No more swiping. At least not from me.

I find myself having to defend my comment policy from time to time. I’ve been accused of editing comments so only the rosy ones come through, or being biased about who is allowed to comment at the FWJ network. None of that is true. I have a comment policy in place and like to abide by that policy, it’s really nothing personal. I just don’t feel rudeness or personal attacks have a place in an intelligent discussion.

Here’s the thing, some commentators don’t know how to disagree respectfully. Instead they throw in barbs and digs and downright nastiness. I don’t feel this is necessary for getting one’s point across. The nastiness that sometimes comes through in the comments turns off other members of the community and some leave for good. So yes, I think for a community of this size, a comment policy is necessary.

Why should you have a comment policy?

• It’s a good troll repellent
• It keeps your community happy
• It keeps discussions on topic
• The crankypants who insist on ruining a conversation for everyone will (hopefully) crawl back into their holes
• If there’s too much controversy, folks stay away. When folks stay away, advertisers stay away. Free for all comments are bad for business.

What should you consider when creating a comment policy?

• Your community comes first, if rudeness or vulgarity makes them uncomfortable, ban the offending parties from your discussions.
• Disagreement isn’t the same as abuse or attacks. Folks should be able to disagree all they want as long as it’s kept respectful.
• It’s your blog and your community and you can manage it as you see fit. If others don’t like the way you control your comments, they’re welcome to go elsewhere. If you feel you need to moderate a comment, that’s your prerogative.
• Contrary to what some disgruntleds will have you believe, comment moderation is not censorship. Your blog is not the government, it’s your blog. You’re welcome to keep your comments positive  if that’s what you choose to do. You’re also welcome to keep your comments unmoderated, if that’s what you choose to do. To remove an abusive comment isn’t censorship, it’s good blogging.

Some things I do here at FWJ:

• The first comment for any new community member is held in moderation. Once that is approved he is free to comment as he likes. This helps the deter hit and run trolls or the folks who like to post hateful comments using proxies. I do note IP’s and user names of various repeat offenders so their negative comments can’t get through any more.
• Anyone with a history of negativity or abuse is entered into the moderation panel. They are no longer allowed to take part in a discussion without having every comment approved first. Harsh? Perhaps but I like it a lot better than name calling and meanspiritedness, and so does this community.
• I make mention of FWJ’s comment policy every time a discussion starts heading towards a bad place. The reminder gets everyone back on track

On the other hand…

Someone once told me FWJ has a “hostile” community. I disagree. I don’t believe every comment has to be a happy “ I so agree with your greatness, oh Writing Guru” comment and I appreciate all sides of the coin.  If one of the FWJ bloggers posts something a commentator doesn’t agree with, that person is also welcome to present his point of view, respectfully. To disagree doesn’t make one hostile. To be passionate doesn’t make one hostile. I have never seen a more helpful community. The writers and bloggers that visit this network are so quick to help with advice, tips and commiseration. The comments here are much more than “I agree” or “I disagree”.

I also feel it’s hard to convey tone sometimes. Sometimes we take something the wrong way, but it wasn’t meant to be negative. That isn’t an excuse for everyone else to pile on, and again I’ll try to steer the conversation to a happy place. However, once a comment resorts to name calling, abuses, attacks or trolling, I have to draw the line. Disagreement doesn’t make a hostile environment, but mean people do. Thankfully, there are very few mean people here.

Tell us about your community’s comment policy. Do you moderate? If so, what sort of rules do you have in place?

Discuss…

I’ve been doing this blogging thing for about nine years now. Though FWJ is a little over four years old, I have been participating and writing for online communities since 2000. I’ve seen my share of haters, that’s for sure. I collect online trolls like some people collect beer mugs or dishes decorated with puppies.

I’m not going to claim to be a troll expert but I’ve been able to identify some common characteristics. For instance, trolls are almost always anonymous. They’re anonymous because they’re people we know. In many cases we know exactly who they are. They want to pretend they’re our allies. They want us to continue to link to their blogs or engage in discussion with them. How would their community react if they knew they were behind a bunch of vicious trolling attacks?

Why Trolls Troll

Trolls troll because the things we write elicit a response. We inspire their emotions. They react to our words. While this is what writers and bloggers strive for, it’s also a pain in the butt because they’re all negative and anonymous and it upsets the flow of the community.

Trolls mostly troll out of jealousy. If it was simple disagreement, they would say their piece, perhaps engage in some polite back and forth banter, and move on. Jealousy inspires passionate reaction. It inspires what I like to call “keyboard courage”. Trolls come out from under their bridges and spout negativity because they don’t have creativity or talent to write a well thought out disagreement. They use their anonymity to say things to you they wouldn’t say to your face in real life. Yes, they’re cowards.

Traveling Trolls

Have you ever had a traveling troll? I have one I take with me every where I go. Traveling trolls follow you like Deadheads followed Jerry Garcia. Consider it your world tour. If you have more than one blog, they visit. If you’re mentioned at other blogs, they visit. If you’re nominated for or win an award, they visit. Really, you must be a truly great person if this person has to follow you every where you go. Common variety trolls are easy to spot. They sometimes use more than one made up  name, but just like cows in a pasture, it’s easy to pick out particular patterns and habits.

Who are Trolls?

You might be surprised to learn your trolls’ identity. Perhaps she’s a popular freelance writing guide or someone who is nice to you on your favorite forum. Perhaps he’s another blogger in your niche or someone you banter with on Twitter. Your troll might also be someone you never communicated with but inspired passion, nonetheless.

Caring for Trolls

It’s up to you whether or not you want to keep your troll around. If you’d like to have your own pet troll, follow these helpful tips for proper care and nutrition:

1. Trolls feed on negativity. As long as you and your community react to their abuse, they will grow bigger and stronger. To ignore them or delete their comments will only discourage them. Keep them around by allowing their comments and reacting with indignation.
2. Trolls love when you’re upset. To encourage them, show your anger.
3. Trolls are harmless. To make them feel powerful continue allowing their comments and abuse. Engage. Feed them.

Pet trolls don’t like to feel neglected. Make them feel useful. Let them know their words have power. They love this and it will keep them coming for years. You see, there isn’t enough going on in their own pathetic lives which is why they insist on being a part of yours.

Wear your troll as a badge of honor. Think of all the bloggers who don’t provoke a response. Think of all the writers who don’t inspire passion. How boring life must be without the occasional heckler.

Hey! You there with the troll! You must be great at what you do.

If you look at the recent job board listings here at Blogging For A Living, you may notice that community manager, social media, social networking (whatever you like to call it) gigs are on the rise, while straight up blogging gigs seem to be at a stand still.

Personally, I think this is because clients are realizing (finally) that it’s not enough to simply post at their blogs and websites anymore, they also need to promote those posts and build a better community in order for their blog to succeed. Best of all, these clients are up for hiring bloggers to fill this need, which really just opens one more door for bloggers and online writers looking for work. Bloggers who are doing their job well, i.e. promoting, writing quality content, networking, and so on, can naturally transition into a community manager role.

However, if you’re iffy about what it means to be hired as a community manager read on…

The job title: I’ve seen community manager jobs titled community manager, social media expert, forum moderator, online promoter, social networker, and more. The title is less important than the tasks at hand.

The pay: Pay, in my experience is better for community managers than it is for straight up bloggers, and this makes sense because you’ll be juggling many more tasks. While blogging is much more than just posting, being a community manager will involve many more tasks above and beyond what you’ve been doing as a blogger. Depending on time involved you can make upwards of $600-$1000 as a part-time CM and much more as a FT CM. I’ve also seen super PT CM gigs that pay less, ($200-$300) but you’re only putting in minimal time; like two hours per week, and you’re not doing blogger tasks, all you’re doing is building community and followers.

The job description: Deb is actually sort of my go-to gal for CM help and ideas. She’s been involved in CM for a good long while and has a clear idea of what’s involved. According to Deb, (and I’ve added some) the tasks you may be involved in as a CM include the following…

• Building a community at your client’s blog or website.
• Communication with company team members and your community.
• Blogging or writing web content.
• Marketing.
• Reaching out to bloggers, publicists and more.
• Increase memberships, subscriptions, forum participation, and so on.
• Becoming an active presence in various social network arenas.
• Community moderation of blogs, forums, chats, and groups.
• Planning and promoting community events.
• Setting up product reviews when necessary – some blogs and sites run a lot of reviews, and even get readers involved. You may be asked to contact companies in order to gather products for said reviews.
• Following trends in your niche.
• Tracking stats – i.e where are people coming from and how can you use this info to your advantage.

To see a more elaborate description of the above tasks read: What is a Community Manager?

Because we’ve seen such a rise in CM gigs, I’ll be posting more topics related to this in the weeks to come. For now, you tell me; are you interested in CM gigs or are you more concerned with cut and dry blogging and web writing gigs?

On Monday as I was trolling the job boards to drum up clients for my social media consulting business, I came upon an ad for a blogger to help with a marketing campaign. I applied and landed the gig and immediately began wondering if I was doing the right thing. The company appeared to be an advertising agency that printied stuff on cards and poker chips and wanted to create a viral campaign and heavy social media presence. Viral playing cards? Yeah Deb, good luck with that.

As I asked the client questions throughout the day I learned there was a lot more to her company than be-logo’ed playing cards.  My client made personalized cards to send to troops in Iraq or for charitable causes.  She doesn’t charge the folks who are doing good for her designs at all, she has a big heart and does good things with her little company. My client also represents several others looking for social media campaigns and I will be helping them as well.

I could have run at the first sign of a boring gig but instead I took my time. I asked the client lots of questions to find out what was beneath the intial first look. The blog was poorly designed and didn’t have interesting content. I thought I would also have to provide dull content about Texas Hold ‘Ems or pretty poker chips. That’s not the case at all now. By digging as deep as I could to learn as much as I could I now know my client has a wonderful story, an interesting project and now I’m very exciting to help with her social media campaign.

It doesn’t matter if you’re acting as a blogger for hire, social media consultant, community manager or the person who washes the dishes. Everyone has a story. Every business has an angle. Don’t take your clients at face value, dig deep and find their essence. Learn what drives them and find out what the public doesn’t know. I thought I’d have to blog about poker and find communities interested in playing cards, but there’s more to my client than that. Now I am in the throes of what is turning out to be a fascinating and lucrative project.

How much time do you take to learn about YOUR client?

Improving the job market for bloggers and online writers is a big task. Since I started posting gigs here daily I’ve noticed a slew of terrible jobs and a much smaller selection of decent jobs that actually pay a fair wage. I don’t think the fault is all on the lame clients who offer low-pay jobs though. A lot of it is dependent on us, the folks who want said jobs.

For example…

1. Apply for work IF you’re qualified: I was chatting with Deb yesterday and she noted that she was shocked by the amount of people who applied for a blog job she posted who had no experience blogging at all. Worse many told her this straight up when they applied. If you’re not a blogger or have no idea about what a blogging gig entails make sure you learn something about it before wasting the client’s time, and all the other qualified applicant’s time. It’s lame to have to sort through crap applications to have to find the qualified apps – it’s no wonder potential clients end up writing ads with all sorts of bogus rules. Blogging and online writing gigs are very different from other sorts of writing gigs. To improve the market, we need more qualified applicants and less junk applicants. To learn about blogging and online writing gigs (BEFORE you apply) start your own blog and read:

• Blogging for a Living: Don’t Enter into it Blind
• Can you blog your way to a writing job?
• Beyond Blogging: Using Your Blogging Skills for Bigger and Better Things
• Do You Need to Be a Good Writer to be a Good Blogger?
• The Warm & Fuzzy Side of Blogging for Others
• Top 11 Reasons Why I Might Quit Blogging & Open A Candy Store

2. Be confident: If you apply for a job, apply with confidence. I’ve talked to way too many blog clients who say they get non-cofident applicants which one, makes them uncertain that competent bloggers and online writers exisit and two, lets them know that lower wages are a-ok. You’d never go to a job interview in person and say, “Oh, well I’m not sure I know what I’m doing, and I’m not that good at my job, but hey, hire me anyhow.” At least I hope you wouldn’t. Be confident. If you’ve got the skills – show that you know it. For help read:

• Pros & Cons of Being A Confident Blogger
• Admit what makes you a good blogger

3. Work for good clients: There’s more to a good client than pay. If a client pulls sneaky suspicious acts or never pays on time, they’re just going to keep right on doing this if there are writers willing to write for them. Put your foot down when clients treat you like crap. This benefits all bloggers and online writers.

4. Only accept decent wages: I almost don’t want to mention this, because we mention it ALL the time here, and still it seems people aren’t listening. That said, I’ll say it anyhow; don’t work for pennies. A recent job listing (bid gig) shows that people are willing to work FT (30 hrs a week) for anywhere from $2.22 – $3.11 AN HOUR. Really? People are also taking up clients on all those crappy revenue only gigs. I’ve personally talked to clients who say that to get a gig, bloggers and online writers will offer to work for free. It’s totally insane and makes the market a very bad place.

If you went job searching for a job outside of your home (a non-writing job) would you seriously take $2.22 per hour? Even tax free that’s a crap living. It’s not even a living. Aren’t you better than that? If you think, “No, I’m not” then quit applying for writing gigs. Your time is more important than this. Other writers time is more important than this. Clients will NEVER offer fair wages for work if the workers are willing to do it for free or cheap. And keep in mind that real bloggers and online writer don’t work for nothing. Most of us have learned to score decent paying gigs and top bloggers are paid even more. To learn more about fair blogging and online writing wages read:

• Typical Blog Wages – How Much Money You Should Make Blogging
• Calculate your hourly blogging rate
• Dealing With Blog Compensation Offers – Clients Who Offer Too Much Money

Now, what do you think will help to improve the job market for bloggers and online writers? Let us know in the comments.

Note: Sorry if you came by earlier and the links were not working – not sure what’s up with the site, but it should be fixed now.