Yahoo Invites Users To Become Unpaid Freelancers
Is this the new model for creative work? Yahoo invites users to create ads for them. There are no prizes or awards available, but they are hoping to get some great creative content. Please, if you have an ounce of talent, don’t submit anything.
It seems like a lot of new web services are popping up with a business model that consists of:
1. Build an online repository for content
2. Get people to fill it full of creative original content and promote it to all their friends
3. Build an advertising business around the visitor traffic
4. Keep all the money!!!
Item 4 is the one that makes me uneasy. It’s one thing to outsource work to qualified people in countries with a lower cost/standard of living, it’s quite another to just assume you don’t have to pay at all. This business model counts on creative people making a living some other way and producing content at their own expense. It also devalues similar creative work and makes it harder for everyone to make a living – it makes everyone who participates into a hobbiest.
I hope the trend is short lived. In the world of video, it probably will be. Cameras and editing software may be cheap, but it still takes a lot of work to get together a crew and cast to make a video. Not too many folks will do that for free very long. It may be a different story for writers, graphic artists, etc.
Do you want to help shorten the lifespan of these businesses? Then don’t send content to anyone who doesn’t offer you something of value if you earn money for them. It could be a per-use fee, advertising credits for your business, access to useful content or tools to help you with your work – it could be anything. But, they should be willing to acknowledge that your work has value and offer you something.
If creative people, who want to earn a living with their talents, only contribute to websites that recognize the value of their work, it won’t be long before the business practices change. Or, these types of websites will become flooded with low quality work by kids – sometimes interesting, but not reliable in my experience.
What do you think about this trend?
The Go-To Guy
