rss feedA blog request to write about a company I don’t know, plus a wok and bowls
Years ago, a friend and I were traveling through China and stopped in Xining in the highlands of Qinghai province.
My friend had just taken a long, bumpy ride in a vintage-era Jiefang truck from the mountainous areas of neighboring Sichuan province. It was a brutally-cold winter.
The driver had loaded the truck’s open cargo area with dead yaks – their skins were headed to market. I never asked whether this was permissible. The goal, especially for my friend, was to stay warm.
And, as my friend recalled, a ride in a vehicle out of the mountains was so coveted that people sat on top of the dead yaks for a ride to Xining.
After we met up, my friend and I went to a market when a Tibetan trader looked at my REI Novara waterproof jacket – it was the type that bicyclists wore, red and similar to this one - felt the material and realized its strength.
Through a translator, he asked whether I wanted to swap – my waterproof REI jacket for his long, fur-lined coat.
I respectfully declined. As I recall, his jacket had yak blood on it – and I probably didn’t want to tackle that at that moment. But at least, he suggested a trade of one jacket for another.
That wasn’t really the case when I received an email on Tuesday from a U.S.-based food supply company to write a blog post about its Web site and its section devoted to supplies for an Asian restaurant.
The request came from a blogger who writes for the company. The writer seemed to be well meaning. I don’t think it’s necessary to name the company or the writer.
The writer sent me an office address and telephone number. I looked at the company’s Web site and it looks like a legitimate business. It even has its own blog section.
If I wrote such a post about the company’s Asian food supply area on its Web site and sent the URL address, the blogger said I would be entered into a drawing to possibly win a cookware set worth about $1,295.
The person also asked for my feedback on the Web site.
I raise these examples for a basic reason – which I’ve written about before, in the form of The New World of the Free (as in the online world).
On that chilly day in Qinghai, that Tibetan trader offered me the jacket off his back for the one I was wearing.
In the new online world of the 21st century, a blogger whom I never talked with in person asked me to spend my time and skills to review the company’s Web site and its Asian food supply section for – get ready for some capital letters – the CHANCE to win cookware.
I certainly like the new in whatever form it might take. Its potential as a shaper of politics, economics, commerce, culture, art and just basic communication is powerful and attractive.
But I’m kind of an old school person in another sense: I’m willing to operate in a market economy.
I never had a role in the discussion as to whether the United States would be a free market capitalist society. But it is.
I see much strength in this model and am aware of the pitfalls. One of the strengths is that people ought to be paid – by that, I mean with money – for the goods and services they provide to other people.
It’s not really a complicated idea, though there is much history behind it.
Yes, bartering takes place in free markets. People can volunteer their services or donate goods. Or they agree to be rewarded in non-monetary ways.
But most of the time, money changes hands in market economies.
In other words, “chance” does not play a role that money or goods will change hands. There is a contractual obligation that money will circulate in the transaction. This leads to a greater certainty that market economies will continue in the future.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I strongly support donating goods and volunteering services – especially to organizations committed to serving the public good and helping the overall well being of a community improve.
But it’s hard to agree to an unsolicited pitch from a food supply company – which is charging money to people who want to open restaurants – to write about it for no guarantee of fair compensation.
By the way, did you know that those rolling carts used in Chinese dim sum restaurants can sell for over $1,000 for a basic model and over $3,200 for types with ranges on them?
Think about it this way: My thought about this request would be much different if a larger portion of the free market worked in a way in which other people or companies gave away their services and goods for no cost.
Say, if I could walk into a big-box retail store and hypothetically say: “I’d like to use your goods, at my house for an indefinite period of time, in exchange for the CHANCE of me writing about your company on my blog.”
Or, if I could go to the airport and approach a ticket counter for a flight from Seattle to Paris (or Beijing, Hong Kong or Honolulu) and say: “I’d like something that your company values – a flight on one of your airplanes – for free and I might pay you in the form of a blog post, should I decide to write about the experience, aircraft and customer service.”
I’d be shown the door – quite fast.
I don’t have anything against this food supply company or blogger, who was trying to drum up attention.
I’m sure there are some bloggers in the market place who would think that the offer is suitable and accept the request terms. In this case, supply (labor) and demand (the request) would meet at a given point.
In the past, when I was a journalist, I often received unsolicited emails and phone calls from public relations agencies to cover events or products for certain clients. I understand that.
But also, in the old days and even to an extent these days, the sure-fire way to get your message across (in a free market) would be to purchase an advertisement in the good, old mainstream media. Or even in the New Media.
Or, these days, you can even go around the mainstream media and head to Craig’s List or just go viral with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. By the way, this food supply company is using Facebook and Twitter to spread the word.
Now, if the United States was founded on the economic idea that autonomous collectives were sustainable and ideal for communities throughout the country, I’d probably have a different response to this email query.
The exchange of money for goods or services would not be such a high priority under this model. Rather, the well-being of the overall community would have higher value.
But this economic model has been tried in other countries before. The results, well, have been mixed and never really found firm roots in the United States.
At least, what the blogger sent me wasn’t spam.
Oh, and by the way, if you’re a blogger and write about this food supply company (because you’ve read this blog post), send me your URL link and I’ll forward it to the business.
And if you win that cookware worth about $1,295, I’ll have to request a commission of 50 percent.
Why? As a referral commission.
That’s only fair. Right?
Using your half, you can post an eBay note to sell your portion of the cookware.
If you sell your portion for about $650 cash, that’s actually pretty solid compensation for writing about a food supply company and its Web site.
Speaking of cooking supplies, I thought I’d post some photos of what we have.
My brother-in-law is such a considerate guy that he sent my family this black wok (pictured above and below) from China years ago to make sure that we have something reliable to cook with in the United States.
And my aunt gave us these beautiful bowls, complete with images of a Chinese dragon and phoenix on them.
We appreciate the thoughtfulness and kindness of our relatives.
Oh, yes. Since I’m talking about interesting things in life these days, I leave you with this famous clip from Seinfeld – the one in which George sports a wig.
Yes, I understand the issue of using information for free very well.
The best I can say in this case: My site remains free of advertisements and I post my thoughts to continue my creativity and writing, photography and video skills.
And circular thinking, really, is good.
