Thanks for keeping the conversation going ~ I will mull this over (and if I can articulate anything substantive it may come up in tonight’s show too).

Please come visit.

x Laura Agustin Border Thinking on Migration, Culture, Economy and Sex at http://www.nodo50.org/Laura_Agustin

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, because, of course, I’m in school for journalism. Which means I do want to get paid for writing. And now that I’m starting to, a bit here, a bit there, I hold things back from the blog so that I can write actual paid articles about them. My blog is still there and still important to me, but if I’m going to spend an hour writing something and there’s a check at the end of it for me, I’m going to put my time into that first.

Like you, I’m a bit uncomfortable with the term “brand” but it’s kind of what we have. Maybe “persona” is more what I want to call it, because I do have a persona I sell. It’s the person that’s on the Web and even the one that goes to parties and meets strangers. The person that my real friends know is a different one. Even though I write about honesty and I try to spill it as much as I can on the page, I do consider what I write and who’s going to read it.

Now I’m just writing the world’s longest comment, but in essence–I agree. I’ve done a heck of a lot of work for free (for reference) and at this point I need to put the brakes on that and write for money, or for myself. And for myself means no deadline, no limits, nothing but what I want to put out there.