Facebook Is No Longer Free

I’m sure I’ve complained about Facebook before: as a content provider – i.e. someone who actually writes original stuff that other people want to read – I have had my blog feeding to FB for a while because of the demand and the reach, and while I never liked the idea that FB was getting the advertising dollars in exchange for my content, I didn’t have to pay to have it there, so I had it there — for the ease of access for my readers.

However, that’s just changed. Now, because of FB’s new “promote” scheme for those with pages, only 15% of my readers who have “liked” my author page will see my posts on a regular basis. Instead, FB wants me to pay to promote my posts so that more of my “likees” (i.e. readers) will get to read the content they intend to read by liking my page in the first place.

But unless I pay exorbitant amounts – the people who want to read me there effectively can’t, and won’t, unless they make a point of clicking on my page.

Which is pretty much the same thing as people making a point of going to my blog to read it.

I will give them a chance to re-consider this policy, but if this continues, I will stop feeding my blog to FB entirely.

Your options, however, are good: you can instead subscribe to my blog via the subscribe box at the top right side of it , and you can choose which of my categories of posts to subscribe to. So if you read my only for trans issues, you can get only my posts marked trans. Likewise for politics or music or NYC or any of my other categories.

That way, you don’t actually have to click on the blog to read it, although of course that’s very welcome as well. More traffic is good for bloggers as it often brings in (in my case, tiny amounts of) ad revenue. So it’s a good way to support any and all of your favorite bloggers, including me.