I was recently solicited by a company called Blogmutt; they offered to ghostwrite this blog for me.

Checking them out, I found they would charge a little under $20 per blog post and that they hired freelance writers to do the work.

If the writer splits the fee with Blogmutt 50/50, the writer is getting paid ten bucks per blog post — a pittance, to be sure.

I expressed my dismay at this to Blogmutt, saying that at this pay scale they are exploiting naive writers or wanna be writers — those who don’t have the resolve or smarts to get a fair fee for a fair day’s work. 

A Blognutt representative defended their pay scale, saying writers were happy to take it and it was better than working at Starbucks. Also that their clients were satisfied.

Am I right to think Blogmutt is the bottom of the barrel of the freelance writing game, paying subpar wages to amateur writers?

Or are they providing a valuable service to clients — and an opportunity to their freelancers to write and get paid for it?

What say you?

A hotel in England has replaced the Bibles in its rooms with copies of Fifty Shades of Grey, a graphically explicit erotic novel.

In what to me is a surprise shocker, of 12,461 online readers polled by NBC News, 44% said the erotic novel belonged in the hotel rooms, while only 36% chose the Bible (20% voted “neither”).

I would think parents on vacation would not want their kids to find erotica in the room. I certainly wouldn’t.

Yes, I know erotic movies are available on the hotel  TV system — but I am against that too.

Recently the Jim Henson Company announced that they would no longer permit Chick-fil-A to give away Muppet toys.

The reason: The CEO of the Jim Henson Company supports gay marriage and the CEO of Chick-fil-A does not.

Wouldn’t the CEOs be better off keeping their politics and positions on social issues private?

How could announcing them not alienate at least a portion of their market?

On the other hand, maybe you admire them for taking a stand.

Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, just passed away.

His obituary mentioned that the book sold an astonishing 25 million copies.

Sure, it’s a good business book. But there are lots of good business books. Why do you think Covey sold so many copies?