I'm kind of on the fence on this issue personally. I see that the PR could be well worthwhile in establishing one's business and I understand that most of the people in the organization are unpaid volunteers, but it makes you seriously look at your own business to decide how much you can do for low cost or free. I can't count the number of people that approach me about the "opportunity" of doing work for free for them. We just bid a job for a California company that they wanted live in 2 weeks, it was a huge bid with the time crunch and what they wanted and they turned around and asked if we would do it as a portfolio piece. I politely said that while exposure is great it hardly feeds my kids or accounts for working 12 hour days to help him build his business. We will always try to help out small companies and we believe in startups, but we are a small company too and we do this for a living, not just for fun. So I say if you have the bandwidth or the bank account to do the work for free, do it. If you don't have it, weigh the benefit of the exposure. Best wishes, Paul Stallman Managing Director paul at alias-solutions.com 413.364.6147 alias|solutions www.alias-solutions.com -----Original Message----- From: hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] On Behalf Of Tish Grier Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 1:07 PM To: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net Subject: [SPAM] Re: [Hidden-tech] Re: PR opportunity for web designer ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. ** If you did, we all thank you. Jeff makes a really good point here. The Ad Club is a long-established organization. Least they can do is give a free year's membership for whomever does the work. Still, they should expect in return the type of work that the year membership cost would cover. This raises a larger issue though: how much should one do "for free" in exchange for p.r., for one's "portfolio," or other perks? It's one thing to give some basic advice here and there, another to give away services or more in-depth guidance. Tish --- On Mon, 12/1/08, Jeff Hobbs <jeffehobbs at gmail.com> wrote: How is it possible that the Ad Club of Western Mass, the "largest advertising/marketing company in the region," doesn't have a couple hundred bucks to throw to a web designer? Design is hard work, and in my opinion, once you start doing it for free, that's what your rate becomes. ~Jeff --- On Mon, 12/1/08, Jeff Hobbs <jeffehobbs at gmail.com> wrote: > From: Jeff Hobbs <jeffehobbs at gmail.com> > Subject: [Hidden-tech] Re: PR opportunity for web designer > To: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > Date: Monday, December 1, 2008, 12:08 PM > ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the > member's area. > ** If you did, we all thank you. > > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: > http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech > Discussion list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to > the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members _______________________________________________ Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members page on the Hidden Tech Web site. http://www.hidden-tech.net/members