Makeup Minute

She Unlimited: A Sad Tale

by Shannon on January 11th, 2007

This is something I’ve been meaning to write about since the day She Unlimited launched their online magazine. For those who have been around here long enough, you will have noticed I posted much excitement over their launch and my weekly posts there….only to delete the post hours later. Something happened that left a very bad taste in my mouth and I soon learned how some people can stab you in the back so quickly in this industry. This is my first lesson in being careful with who I do business and it doesn’t feel very good. This will be a very long post, so I hope you will read from beginning to end.

It all began mid-August of last year, prior to becoming a b5media blogger and Pierce Mattie blogger. I was just a mere Country Bunny Bath & Body rep. with her blog A Girl’s Gotta Spa! trying to make it in the world of beauty blogging and trying to increase my sales to contribute to my family income. It’s every blogger’s story and mine really was no different. I had a podcast going through Odeo and one day received an email from the new CEO of She Unlimited, Veronica Marie. She had listened to one of my podcasts and left me a comment. This began us emailing each other back and forth.

Her second email offered to interview me to bring me more exposure for my Country Bunny business. She wanted it to be a live and written interview. In turn, I offered for her product review editor to come to Country Bunny’s product launch last summer to see the products first hand. The third email said, “I wanted to invite you as a columnist for our new magazine launch (for our new launch). The interview, live and written, great exposure plus if your interested as a columnist a great way to do an introduction.”

The interview never happened and please note she said she wanted me to be a “columnist.”

About a week later I received another email stating that their expectations of me as a columnist would be to either write weekly or bi-weekly columns and if I wanted to do a beauty or fashion podcast, it would be a great asset to them.

In my excitement, I told my close beauty blogging friends, who issued caution. They told me to find out what was in it for me, as I shouldn’t just put in work that would only benefit them. So I inquired about being able to link to my blog and was told, “Absolutely, you can embed your links directly in your posts.” I further inquired about my responsibilities as a columnist and how I would benefit and was told, “For the column; for an example 300-600 words about once a week, you can pop in and do blurbs if you come across something you want to write about it. There will be a space for your bio/intro but you can give them an overview in the first paragraph , talk directly to the SU readers. I will give you a banner for advertisement as well for compensation.”

So it went from weekly OR bi-weekly to just weekly and the understanding was I would get free advertising for my CB business with a banner ad, as evidenced in an email a few days later also implying possible future payment for my column…“I can offer you free advertising with a banner. 226×64, I think this would be a great deal for you, exposure plus we start these ads at $600 a month so you will get that for free.” I quickly emailed her my Country Bunny banner hoping the free advertising would bring me some income. I was also told that I could use affiliate links in my posts since they were not paying me, but that if I were to get paid by them, I could no longer use the links. I was also asked for information for a bio page, which was later posted on their blog. Again it was my understanding that this bio page would also be in the magazine so that all readers could come to know more about the columnists.

In regards to possible amount I could end up getting paid…”That depends, fee’s vary but it is between lower end is 8-12 cents a word. Mid is 15-35 and Hi is 35- 60 and published authors usually require 50-100 a word.” As someone who had never been paid for writing, at that point I thought 8-12 cents a word was a great deal, my friends who are not published authors, explained how they have always gotten between 50-85 cents per word. They again issued caution and did not want me to get taken advantage of. I ignored them, thinking that I could go it alone and also believing that She Unlimited would be launching any day.

It was almost one month before I heard from Veronica again. This time giving me my author login information and setting up my email account with them. Another week and a half after that I emailed her inquiring when we would launch and was told it would be soon. Of course I was never given a definitive date, but it was implied through her emails that it would be within a few weeks. I was also told that once details were in place, I would be offered to come to a press event where they would pay for my hotel and “limo” ride from the airport. I never heard about that again. I was also warned against working for Pierce Mattie PR, but explained my rocky start to knowing who they were and how eventually everything was resolved. She brought up controversies and I explained them and how they too were resolved. I told her that I was comfortable with them and knew what I was doing.

The time between that last email and the next was about a month. I was told they would be launching on Nov. 24th and to make sure I was getting my posts in. I noticed at this time that she started calling me a “contributor” and no longer used the term “columnist.”

During all this wait time (August-Nov), I became a blogger for both b5media and Pierce Mattie and inquired if links to those blogs could also be incorporated into my tagline at the end of my columns. I was told yes.

November 24th came and went and no launch. I was then told we would launch on December 1st. Around 8pm on December 1st, I emailed to inquire why the site was still not up, I was told that they were still testing servers.

A few days before Christmas, the magazine launched. I only glanced it over, saw it looked fabulous and posted my excitement on all my blogs. I was even given a picture by Veronica that I could include in my posts, in which she was fully aware that I would be posting it on ALL of the blogs I write on, and even thanked me for the exposure. I really didn’t spot the things wrong until a few hours later.

Those things were:

* I was now only considered a contributor
* My Country Bunny banner was no where to be found
* My bio was no where to be found
* They only linked to my spa blog and not my others
* A link to my column was at the very bottom of the page in the “Sizzling Topics” section, which made it almost appear to not be affiliated with the site.

I emailed Veronica my concerns and she told me she was looking them over.

Veronica’s dealing with me (or lack thereof) and the Editor’s response will amaze you. That deserves its own post entirely. That will be posted in an hour or so…

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POSTED IN: About Me