During the 2010 International Food Blogger Conference Amy Sherman of
Cooking with Amy displayed a slide in her presentation on "
The Art of Recipe Writing," where she declared to food bloggers: "DO NOT GIVE YOUR RECIPES AWAY FOR FREE." While I respect Amy greatly, I disagree. I saw the slide before the talk and welcomed the debate, but have been surprised by how strong and
long-lasting it has been. Some of the best debate has happened on the
blog of
Dianne Jacobs, who was also on the panel.
Disclosure: I have a very strong feelings about this subject and a clear self-interest in my point of view. I am building a business, Foodista.com, based on the generosity of people giving their time, knowledge, and in some cases creative works. Still, there is a lot of power in giving and I fear many took away a message from the conference that will deprive them. So, I'm offering the following thoughts...
What is Free?
One problem with much of the conversation has been that it's been based on the notion that
free = I give rights without receiving cash. In truth, people who give rights or licenses to their works often receive significant financial benefits in return. Similarly, it's not altruism that drives the multi-billion dollar coupon/product sample industry and Justin Bieber will tell you that posting his videos on Youtube for "free" has worked out pretty well financially. Here are some benefits that food bloggers may get from giving away blog posts:
- More people to read your work and give you feedback
- Build your brand/resume/portfolio
- Have professional editors help improve your work
- Connect with potential clients/publishers for related services/work
- Receive a public stamp of approval from respected authorities
We recently announced the winners of "
The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook," a competition where over 1,500 people submitted blog posts in the hopes of getting published in a printed book, but for no pay (they do get a book). For many, the above benefits are a great value exchange in return for a blog post. Similarly, if you use
Blogger.com (Terms),
Wordpress.com (Terms),
Posturous.com (Terms) and other blog platforms, you give them rights to your posts, including the right to sell advertising on your blog, in return for the service of hosting.
But What About Love?
Several attendees said they only blog because they love it, which I applaud. Others went so far as to be offended at the notion people would blog for money or care about traffic. However, I have a hard time reconciling that feeling with the paid advertising and popularity badges I found on their blogs.
Still, I agree that there can be great personal benefit to creating and giving away work for no money or promise of money, including:
- Personal satisfaction of having your work seen
- Social status
- Advancement of your values/beliefs in society
- Sending traffic to friends' blogs
- Promotion of products and services you like and support
Of course, I also don't see a conflict in doing something both for money AND love!
What About Society?
Some went so far as to say that it's wrong to give away recipes because it hurts other people and that's it's wrong for companies to republish content they didn't pay cash for. Again, I disagree and would use the free software movement as a comparison. Twenty-five years ago there was very little free software in use, today
we are ALL using free software on the Web. Some of that software was created by companies in the pursuit of money, but much of it was written by individual programmers who contribute to projects for the simple love of doing the work...often anonymously! Without their efforts, we would all be much poorer (if this is making you feel guilty, you might want to consider donating to the
Apache Foundation).
My big takeaway from this conversation is that there are many motivations for blogging about food and that they are all valid. Finally, I am thrilled that this conversation is happening! We are collectively exploring new territory and leading the way for future generations of food writers, bloggers, journalists, photographers, editors and READERS!