Canada’s meeting place for freelance writers and creators

Established 2010

Blogging can be a thankless task. Depending on what your blog is about, finding an audience can be hard, and keeping them engaged is a lot of work. But some writers manage to start something great, attracting healthy traffic and building their own online community, one blog post at a time. Some make a bit of money, some don't.

Pay a Blogger Day aims to reward people who create great online content, "because they want to, not because of money and fame." The site asks readers to do something on November 29 to give back to bloggers, either by donating cash or buying merchandise from their site.

The site's Bloggers page lists blogs that accept donations, including sites like The Oatmeal and CitizenReporter.org, and smaller sites, listed on the "recently added" tab. You can add your blog to the list from the Bloggers page, after taking a short test that estimates your blog's earning potential.

The company behind the site is Flattr, a "social micropayment" service that lets users click on a button to make a small donation on blogs and websites to support content they like. As a direct-payment system, it calls on readers to put their money where their mouth is (or where their eyes are), and it encourages writers and creators to make the internet a more compelling place to be.

And, perhaps most importantly, it recognizes that blogging takes real time and effort and that writers and other content creators deserve financial compensation for their work, online and off. Asking readers to pay up one day a year isn't really enough, but getting them thinking about the value of online content—and the people who create it—is a good first step.

Michael Geist is writing a series of posts called The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter. Beginning October 3 and right up to today, Geist is presenting the arguments that various organizations have made publicly against the idea of digital locks, which Bill C-11 would protect, making it illegal for Canadians to circumvent them. (More background on C-11,…
While it gets harder and harder to make a living as a journalist, as jobs disappear and more people vie for paid freelance gigs, awards and contests that offer a professional and financial boost are more important than ever. Keeping track of all the deadlines and finding new opportunities takes time, though. So thanks are owed to the people at the…
What you missed at last night's professional development event. View the story "Tweets from a PWAC panel " on Storify]
By Emma WoolleyThe Huffington Post is evil, right? It makes a lot of money from content it doesn’t pay for. It exploits writers and undermines their right to earn livings. It contributes to the overall devaluation of writing and especially web writing. I knew all of this and I still wrote for the Huffington Post.Most of you probably want to know…
[caption id="attachment_2185" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Screen shot from Freelancethanks.com."][/caption]Working independently has its benefits, but consistently receiving encouragement and thanks is not one of them. Editors don't always take—or have—the time to give positive feedback and, when dealing with freelancers, some…
Even if you don't know his name, if you're interested in the media, you've read Jim Romenesko's work. For 12 years he's written about media goings-on for Poynter.org, but last night he ended their relationship. And for good reason, say many other members of the online media.Poynter Online director Julie Moos wrote a post that said "Romenesko’s…
I was having coffee recently with a colleague.Okay, actually, in my case, it was hot chocolate. Hey, it was cold outside and I needed a sugar hit. But we freelancers haven't yet come up with a better expression than "having coffee" to denote a casual meeting. "Having tea" sounds too lightweight. "Having hot chocolate" sounds too juvenile. "Having…
What is a journalist? What is a journalistic act? What's the best way to protect the rights of journalists? Can we trust journalists to identify and monitor one another?This Saturday evening, about 50 journalists and people concerned about the state of journalism today packed into the Upper Library at U of T's Massey College and discussed these and…
The Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario are wrapping up their Design Thinkers conference today, and the Canadian Writers Group helped make it another successful industry event. As the RGD's official content sponsor, CWG contributed heavily to the conference's materials. The agency's writers had a big hand in crafting the Design Thinkers blog…

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