Happy Sunday, Y’All!
This week, I wanted to talk about something that came to mind earlier about exposure and how there can be two different kinds of it.
A light side, and a dark side.
Let’s tackle the dark side first. The dark side of exposure is commonly found in those places where someone wants you to do some work for them…without paying you for that work.
“Oh, you’ll be doing it for the exposure,” they’ll say. “We have thousands of readers (or viewers, or whatever). Just imagine how many people will see it and follow you to your other work. You can’t put a price tag on that kind of exposure.”
Actually, yes. Yes you can. And you should.
Why?
Because your time is valuable. And you should absolutely be compensated for your time. The time you spend creating something for someone else – something that you will probably be signing away rights to, at least for a little while – is time that you could have been using to create something that would generate revenue.
But, what about all that exposure? Isn’t that worth something in terms of potential sales?
No.
The key word here is “Potential.” something that could happen, but hasn’t happened yet.
Something which might not happen at all.
You can’t spend exposure. You can’t eat it, you can’t take it to the bank, and you sure as hell can’t use it to keep the lights on, or pay the rent.
Exposure is what kills you out in the wilderness.
And those folks that want you to work for free will tell you damned near anything to get you do just that.
Stick to your guns. Your time has value, and you should be compensated for it.
Remember your Malcolm Reynolds:
Let me make this abundantly clear. I do a job, and then I get paid.
So what – exactly – is good exposure?
Good exposure is an investment. Most of the time (though not always) it will be something that you initiate yourself.
Keeping a regular blog, an active social media account, things that will put your name out in front of potential readers. Self promoting is a form of good exposure.
Blog tours are another form of good exposure. I just wrapped up a small blog tour last month. It started with an idea about possibly expanding blog readership – putting my name out there in places where it might not normally be.
I asked some friends if they’d be interested in participating. There wasn’t any mention of payment, no promises that they’d have thousands of readers generating potential sales.
It was simply, “Hey, I’m going to do this. You think you might be interested?”
The folks that were involved – Janet Walden-West, Pat Esden , and Anne Raven all decided to invest their time and participate.
Sure, there was a little bit of work involved, but there’s that whole investment thing. We were each investing in ourselves.
And I think it had a positive impact. Janet reported that her site traffic tripled over the course of the tour.
That’s what good exposure looks like.
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Be sure to stop by the Freebies page for story Excerpts.
I’ll see you on the 19th for the next Five Thing Thursday.
Until then…
Be Safe, Y’All.
Time: 11:45 am – ish
Music: Blind Guardian – Mordred’s Song