“Could you write a guest post for our corporate blog?”
“Sure, I’d be delighted. How much are you paying?”
“Sorry, we don’t pay. You’ll be getting a lot of exposure.”
This organisation had a profit of over five billion dollars last year. Imagine how much the outfit would be making if the managers and executives contributed their time for free in the hope of getting some “exposure”?
It’s nice to be recognised as an expert, but if you’re not going to make a living then it’s just an expensive, time consuming hobby.
There is an insinuation in your article that I fully agree with. No one should expect a professional to work for nothing, no matter how great the exposure. At the same time, I feel a great deal of irritation that people belonging to a large firm with a huge turnover are so arrogant they would think this was plausible and so mean they couldn’t see their way clear to paying what you are worth.