Exposure

So this is how I break it down. I am a writer. (and a photographer!!) Typos be damned. I really am, I was and always will be a poet first though. So it’s a given I like metaphors.

So go with me.

I did a lot of performance poetry. I started off in 1999, and I loved it. I went to every open mic I could, all the time, at least four days a week. I wrote poems polished them, with the intent to share them. Went to open mics paid my fee to get in, and spit. (definition: Spit 1 a: to eject (as saliva) from the mouth. 2 b in relation to spoken word to say what is in the mind or on the page without further delay ) After a while people would see me at a poetry event and ask with enthusiasm “Are you spittin tonight?”

That was a cool feeling, for people to be coming to the open mic with hopes that they would hear me perform. And I did that for a while, paid my five bucks then performed. Got better, tried new things, it was a cycle, one I enjoyed.

Then one day someone approached me and asked me to feature, or headline, in more laymen terms. I was stoked. I took my nifty little thirty minute spot, ripped it, and happily pocketed the forty or fifty bucks, and kept going about my day. Before long it seemed insulting that I would pay money to get into to an establishment that I was the entertainment for the evening. Ironically, the host of the night saw me coming in the week I had this revelation and told me to keep my cover charge – he was glad I came. I never mentioned my revelation and I never paid another cover again. Eventually the people approaching me to feature were throwing parties with hundreds of listeners who were paying ten dollar cover charges. Eventually when the promoters approached me with what appeared to me to be paltry offers of, “I want you to feature for forty bucks, its great exposure..” sounded to my business savy ears as though they were saying. You are JUST a poet. Poets are a dime a dozen. And if you won’t feature somebody else will. Which is fine really. But I turned down features that didn’t at least start negotiations at a respectable level.

Its a matter of principle.

yes you can find someone who says they are a poet and writes a poem to read at your event. But you asked me for a reason. Cause I’m good at it. This is not a matter of ego. Its simply an observation. you didn’t ask me cause I was the first poet you came across, you asked me because I am good. And it takes good work to get people to part from ten bucks a head.

Why do I say this?

Where am I goin with this?

Oh dear internets. The blogging world has slowly come under the same type if misuse as the poetry world. Those who want to.. ah hem.. “help us” get “exposure” and reap the benefit of said “efforts”.
Because the same bigger than you mentality is starting to find its way into the blog world. Bigger (yet struggling) old school newspapers and people who have figured out how to creatively use code are trying to in effect, get us to perform for “exposure”. They are the new “promoters” and while I am all about the paying of dues (aka PD), truth is. Longevity indicates that we as bloggers have, and do daily. We pay for our hosting, we write the posts, we converse with the commenter’s, we build the relationships, and yes there will always be some newer, greener, blogger willing to bend over for PD and thats fine but eventually they will all get fed up and get sick of just taking it, for exposure. Cause unfortunately exposure don’t pay bills, it don’t feed kids, and once you get past the pretty lights and glamorous recognition (there is nothing like the first time you get stopped and gushed over or asked for an autograph) its all just a tool to get you where you want to be.

so to all the bloggers who say “I just blog about my cat, this doesn’t affect me” today you may not care, but what happens if one day you do? What happens if your blog ‘A tale of two kitties’ skyrockets in popularity and cat lovers around the world want to read about your….um… cat and you spend all your time talking about your… kitty, shouldn’t you be able profit if you choose to and not if you don’t. Should if you decide to make a livin pimpin your kitty to the internet, should any money made from your cat be yours? Isn’t the content yours to decide who gets to make a buck on it? (I’m all about the metaphors baby)

That is the why you should care about this at all. When someone else takes your work, no matter how small you think your value is, and assesses a value to it and then collects that value, it is wrong.

It is not all about what you want today – its about protecting what you may want tomorrow. If you don’t care today – sign up for a BNN (the site which sparked our debate today) and enjoy, but be aware of what is goin down, what you want and why you blog, and be mindful of how that might change.

For me and my house don’t scrape our feeds, we need our feed for our kids.