Comments on: Links are the New Currency

By: Vegetarian Times Magazine

Vegetarian Times Magazine — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:55:33 +0000

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By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:02:40 +0000

Patricia, thanks for speaking up about your potential deal with Recipe.com. Yes, it brings up the age-old problem of who can afford to give away content for free, and whether it lowers the bar.

And you ask a good question about the quality of free material. In the old days, I would have said it’s not going to be the quality of heavy hitters. But now, heavy hitters give away content in exchange of links. of course there’s lots of “close enough” content on the Internet now, and, no doubt, more to come.

I don’t understand the Meredith model. Their site already supplies recipes from these magazines: Better Homes and Gardens, Diabetic Living, Eating Well, Family Circle, Fine Cooking, Fitness magazine, Heart-Healthy Living, Ladies’ Home Journal, Vegetarian Times and Midwest Living. They also include recipes from Parents.com, The Food Channel, and Tyler Florence. Why would they need recipes from food bloggers in addition?

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:13:56 +0000

I have mixed feelings about sites like Meredith’s Recipe.com which want to partner with bloggers to get recipes for free, and in exchange give them links. On the one hand, It could help a small blogger get traffic they might not otherwise get (so it could be good for exposure which can be valuable if not bankable), but on the other hand, who wants to give things away for free?

Bringing freelance writers and traditional journalists into the equation makes it even more complicated. With so much free content out there for these sites to choose from (because realistically for every blogger who says “no, I won’t do it”, there are many others who will and do), it is becoming like a “pink-collar” job (one in which only people who have a second income to depend on can afford to do because they aren’t paid or aren’t paid much).

It does bring up a question of quality – is free content as good as something these companies would otherwise pay for? Overall, probably not. So the bar is lowered. Where does this put us in a few years?

And still, as a blogger one of my goals is to build traffic, so deals like the one with Meredith can look very tempting. Still, I can’t help thinking “If he can get the milk for free, he’s not going to buy the cow”.

By: veron

veron — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:30:50 +0000

Very interesting and controversial subject. I was thrilled when our local newspaper put a link to my blog ( I don’t have ads so I don’t make any money out of it) but I was increasingly disturbed and saddened when they started letting go of their newspaper staff and journalists. I love reading blogs, but I look to the old guard – Gourmet mag especially ( now look what happened to them) for guidance on culinary news and writing. Pretty soon I think we’ll be wishing for the good old days – like you said when writers actually get paid for their content.

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:23:43 +0000

Stephanie, excellent point from Jaden. Thanks.

ParisBreakfasts, yes, I’ve received those emails as well about random links!

Rosemary, you are most welcome. I hope you are right, that companies will eventually figure out they need to pay for creative work, but as long as writers agree to have their content appear on other sites for free, it might not change. And it’s hard to blame them, because just like the rest of us, they’re trying to increase their visibility and traffic.

Colleen, it’s not too late. Please ask for confirmation that it’s only a link, not a whole recipe.

By: colleen

colleen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:57:43 +0000

I was interested to read your take on this as I just received an email from a local magazine’s web staff with the subject line, “food bloggers – we need your recipes.” I was initially irked at the presumption that we would just hand over recipes in exchange for a link, but I wound up participating because I figured if I didn’t, I’d be losing out to “competitors,” so to speak, who did. I’m under the assumption that they are just posting links to the recipes and not the full recipes, but I probably should’ve asked to confirm that.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:18:01 +0000

Dianne – Thanks for your (as always) straight-forward view of “this interesting time we are all just trying to keep up with”. I hope what begins to be missing for companies who want to remunerate with links, is the targeted creative work done for appropriate fee by individuals who can make a marketing point of difference.

By: parisbreakfasts

parisbreakfasts — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:19:03 +0000

Grrrrrrrr…this makes me very angry, especially the Saveur pickups. Oddly I’ve been offered a monetary “donation” to allow links to be placed randomly throughout my content. I nix all link exchanges offers like these. But I’m taken aback that prestigious names like Savour and Epicurious are doing this.
HMPH

By: Stephanie - Wasabimon

Stephanie - Wasabimon — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:05:04 +0000

Jaden was just talking about this and she made a good point. Saveur is screwing up Google ranking by doing this, and it can especially affect bloggers negatively. By using SEO tactics, they effectively compete with bloggers for Google position on keywords when they repost content – so if she had a post for “shrimp pot stickers recipe” and then Saveur takes her post, massages the SEO and then links back to her, they can bump her Google position and take over top ranking. So, they’d rank higher than her even if they didn’t actually host the recipe and just linked back to her. This increases their value and they didn’t have to pay for it at all. All under the guise of “community building.”

So, besides getting FREE content (grrrrrrr) they’re increasing their stats at the expense of bloggers who actually work to write the stuff.

Cheryl, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

By: diannejacob

diannejacob — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:52:13 +0000

Thanks Cheryl. I loved how you defended Katie in the last post. Fearless too, like a roaring mama bear.

Agreed that permitting a link and providing free content are not the same. My point about the NY Times was that they could have paid someone to develop original content about the Bay Area. Instead, they just have links.

Either way, neither the NY Times or Saveur pays for content, and that is the ultimate point.