Job profile! Digital Journalist: Make money online with blogging & content marketing

Who as Online being a freelance journalist Money earned, has to consider many things: For example, he has to pay taxes on income and when blogging and online Marketing Watch out for various legal pitfalls.

Digital journalism and the tax

As a blogging, self-employed online journalist with various sources of income, you can fast caught between all stools what income tax, Value added tax and social security. ME this is because the legal situation is simply light years from the actual professional reality of many People lagging behind in this country and the development of the Internet.

Tips from the tax advisor

All the more I was glad that tax consultant Rüdiger Schaar has dealt with this topic in great detail in a really good guest post on mediadigital.de, the blog of my colleague Ulrike Langer. For example, he also deals with the tax treatment of people who blog while working hard.

Schaar, who for Freischreiber, the professional association of freelance journalists, has a hotline for everyone Ask of tax and the artists' social security fund, also comments on the sales tax of social payment services in the article.

Social Payments are VAT-based

According to the expert, their revenues, even if they are surrendered from abroad, are still subject to VAT in Germany, with 7%.

After yesterday, with Ulrike Langer, a brief, lively discussion at Twitter about sales from abroad, I was briefly a bit confused, as the now looks with advertising revenues, for example of Google Adsense or revenue via Paypal.

Revenues from abroad are not equal to foreign revenues

After some research and thinking, I mean the riddle Solution to have found - but I would like to be taught better by experts and would then update this post accordingly:

If I have understood that correctly, the obligation to pay sales tax in Germany only applies to social payment services, because the money here ultimately comes from abroad Performance - i.e. the writing of the texts and the payment by the reader - but took place in Germany.

VAT Act §3

In the case of advertising income, on the other hand, you provide your service for someone based abroad Companys, so sales tax also applies there. Advertising is also listed separately as other services in paragraph 4 of the Value Added Tax Act 3.

I found more useful information on Meetinx. Of the Article is already older, but this fact has apparently remained the same. Mediafon.de offers more information on the new / old regulation of the sales tax law, unfortunately without explicitly going into the subject of advertising.

At the very end of the contribution Schaar goes to a very different point: The trade tax liability, which arises in advertising - albeit starting from a net profit of 24.500 Euro a year.

Social security for self-employed online journalists

The books on the subject (advertising)

Much more problematic could be for freelance journalists who use the artists' social security fund insured are, the advertising revenue in terms of social security law: Schaar writes:

“If the (advertising) circuit yields a profit of more than 4.800 euros per year, the 50% subsidy from the artists' social security fund for the Health insurance. However, a subsidy for the statutory pension insurance remains.”

Even if I would basically agree with this, the KSK website says something else: A business registration is just as little a requirement for compulsory insurance under the KSVG as it is a reason for exclusion. So maybe first ask the KSK in individual cases and describe your own situation?

copyright and broadcasting law

In addition to taxes and social security, copyright can also Problems make. The Ideato make money with blogging to earn, is also so popular because everyone can just get started: set up a blog, write something interesting in it, build up your reach (e.g. with Twitter) - done... or something... That could change soon, however, if these freedoms are restricted. There are already approaches to this.

You might know: You clicked on a certain video on YouTube, maybe because foreign friends posted you on Facebook thereon I aufmerksam made – and then: “This video is not available in your country”. Reason: copyright claims. Well, you think, with a few videos it doesn't matter, there are still enough free offers on the net, just click on.

Net neutrality in the discussion

Unfortunately, it might look different soon. For some weeks now, the topic of network neutrality is being actively discussed not only in Germany. In short, this means that all content / data packets are no longer being transported in the network at the same speed.

This could mean for readers in the end, that content in the end is no longer used to - how this can look in practice, netzwertig.com has aptly described (and for the insiders: Yes, I have read the discussion about it whether it really is a true restriction of net neutrality, but it is a good example to demonstrate the effect.)

New evidence for an old debate

This restriction of freedom is not nice for the reader, but for bloggers it could mean even more: namely, their own blog clear becomes slower, readers and thus income are lost. The debate about net neutrality is not new - recently, however, there have been various attempts by network operators to restrict it, as netzwert.com shows in an overview: the Spanish telephone company Telefonica, for example, announced that it would ask content providers to pay.

telecommunicationsExecutive René Oberman defended differentiated pricing of data transmitted in the telecom network. And Google allegedly negotiated with the US telecommunications provider Verizon about a preference for certain data in Verizon's networks for a fee.

Creeping changes

critic fear, however, that the changes will not take place suddenly and unexpectedly, but rather gradually: Sometimes a data package will be subject to a fee, then you will have to pay extra for a service - until finally freely available content as we know it today is a thing of the past .

Long has opposed it Resistance formed: On the website of the Pro-Net Neutrality Initiative you can virtually sign for the continued existence of net neutrality. The fact that there are not even 10.000 signatures so far is probably due to the fact that it has hardly been possible to find a broad public for this important but complex topic.

Twitter is the broadcasting media

Regulatory claims on Internet content, which is spread in blogs or at Twitter, however, there might also be from other side.

The Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer declared in the opening speech of the Munich Media Days on Wednesday that Internet be broadcasting. Private broadcasting in Germany is regulated by the state media authorities. The managing director of the Bavarian State Media Authority BLM, Martin Gebrande, qualified the statement by the Prime Minister on Wednesday at a panel discussion to the effect that broadcasting is a linear medium that is suggestive act must. In addition, in Bavaria there would only be an obligation to provide information for online offers similar to broadcasting, such as web radio or web TV, if they reached more than 500 users in their streams.

5.000 Euro for Twitter channel with more than 500 followers?

The Isar Round from Munich drew the following conclusion from these statements: "Should the Bavarian state government stick to Horst Seehofer's statement and if one understands the statements of the BLM Managing Director, Martin Gebrande, correctly, then a Twitter account with more than 500 be a broadcast offer to followers.” On twitterers with over 500 followers could then Costs of 5.000.

In order to prevent this and to achieve legal certainty, the Isarrunde has registered its Twitter channel, and only this, as a radio offer on the Internet. Michael Praetorius personally presented the managing director of the Bavarian regional center for new media, Martin Gebrande, with the completed form from the BLM website for displaying an Internet radio program. If the BML accepts the registration, the Isarrunde-Twitter must pay 5.000 euros.

What's the point?

But not only: one such decision would probably affect all other Twitter channels as well. So can we all soon pay 5.000 euros? For Prätorius, to whom I asked exactly this question about the deep Sinn of SALE it's about more:

“If the Landesmedienanstallt rejects the application, you can discuss their right to exist as a regulatory authority. If you agree to the application, however, a Bavarian authority will claim Twitter - and you definitely have to discuss that! ”

In addition to various more or less serious forms of advertising, there is also the possibility of earning money through advertising - through public funding or a paywall. Is it worth it?

Public funding as a form of financing for bloggers

Discounts for your success (advertising)!

A form of financing that I haven't tried yet because I hadn't even thought of it: public funds. Of course, the blog must also be in the public interest. The journalist Matthias Spielkamp demonstrated it and thankfully one Presentation published about it. The occasion for Spielkamp's presentation was the future congress of the Freischreiber journalists' association.

This is where Spielkamp spoke in the workshop”Fun can't be eaten – money and business models” about journalists as entrepreneurs. After the panel discussion that followed was criticized by listener Felix Schwenzel, Spielkamp went into more detail on the topic in his immateri blog because he found the discussion unsatisfactory. In the presentation he describes how he uses his platform irights.info on copyright in the digital Welt built. From 2004 to 2006 he was funded for 18 months by the Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture.

Despite the Grimme Online Award and numerous project applications, it was not until 2008 that the Federal Ministry of Research and the Federal Cultural Foundation received new funding. Spielkamp sums it up: it is impossible to get follow-up funding, no matter how successfully and the Projects is. And: The effort involved in submitting applications for smaller projects is too great!

Alternative Paid Content

A few weeks ago, I have rejected a (initially) lucrative seeming offer of 500 Euro monthly, because the marketer was constantly contradictory statements, tried to persuade me with threadbare arguments and ultimately decidedly unsympathetic. Sad thing.

But how do they see it? Alternatives out of? Flattr, for example, is theoretically a nice thing: Readers pay voluntarily with a kind of micropaymentSystem, if they like a contribution - in small cent amounts. In practice, however, it does not work on every blog. And Flattr earns the most himself.

Micropayment service Flattr

One or the other has already seen it: On my blog there is now also the green-white-orange Flattr button, with which readers can donate small sums of money via micropayment if they like an article. Around Honestly I was - and still am - skeptical that this would lead to any significant result on my blog.

Flattr is a neologism of “to flatter” (to flatter someone) and “flat fee” (flat fee). But the question is: is Flattr really a long-term business model - or not much more than a blade of grass in the wind? In any case, it works like this: If you register with flattr, you can pay a monthly amount of between 2 and 100 euros by clicking on the button on your website Choice distribute - provided the blogger or website operator has registered the page with flattr and installed the button. A very good explanation can be found at self-employed on the net!

What Flattr really brings

The problem with Flattr, which is already much discussed on the web, is: You can only donate if you log in beforehand. And exactly that MotivationTo create an account at Flattr at all is usually only brought by people who are already in the blog and Web 2.0 sphere - on pages that deal with precisely these topics.

That made for strong discussion material - and many experience reports on the subject, there are already: about Daniel Fiene. Felix Schwenzel or Stephan Niggemeier. Critical voices can also be heard, such as Netzpanorama, by Don Alphonso or Sascha Lobo. A monthly overview of the most fluttered German contributions Carta offers.

It depends on the target group

If readers are to pay, it also depends on the right target group: the best of HR - Berufebilder.de®, on the other hand, is about classic career topics: My readership is correspondingly broad. And that's why there are many among them who don't know what to do with the Flattr button, simply because they didn't even notice the discussion about Flattr.

Because how little the normal internet user understands the slang of the nerds, I can already tell by how rarely the "Like" button is clicked or what comments I get about navigating the page. This shows how things that are completely logical to me affect some users - and that as a blogger you have to adjust to what is an ongoing optimization process.

Are readers ready to pay for content? Attention audience abuse!

But there's another reason: I'm still skeptical that Internet users are even ready to pay for content on the net. The takedown mentality is quite large - the free culture too!

If so, then only a small part of it that understands that you can't do all the work for free and that sometimes it's nice for bloggers, even a little recognition to get. In this respect, I am happy about every one in the course of the Flattr experiment positive Surprise!

Experience with Flattr

So far, I have mainly been on advertising to earn money - and I still believe that you can get more money together here. That I still have installed Flattr, has several reasons. For one thing, there were some reader complaints about the disturbing advertising. I also found that under the over-abundant advertising, user-friendliness and design suffered a lot. Finally, another aspect is important: to support and network one another - and at the same time to make one's own work transparent. And flattr contributes to that as well.

In the end, I removed the Flattr button again. My test month has now shown that my skepticism was justified: I have taken in whole 74 cents on flattre. I was skeptical from the start whether the principle would work: In order to be able to flattrend as a reader, you have to transfer 1,8 percent of the chosen amount + 35 cent per transfer to Paypal. And even Flattr takes 10 percent of the fees. In plain English: In order to flattren 2 Euro a month I have to pay at least three euros. I think that, to be honest, a bit crass: no wonder that Flattr has prevailed so far only those who benefit themselves from the payment system. What comes out then is what Sascha Lobo and many other prophecies: A system in which the bloggers themselves push the money back and pay for it still fees.

Where Flattr works and where not

To put it bluntly: Of course Flattr works very well for some blogs. Namely exactly for the better known blogs, which are also read in the blogger scene. Or those with whom the readers identify, who have a proper community. This is not the case on my blog because career topics appeal to a different audience. One who often comes via Google and is looking for quickly usable information and tips for his professional life.

But I have also found that the Facebook-I like-button was clicked - an indication that the readers do participate - but apparently only up to a certain limit. Perhaps the technical obstacles described above are also such a big problem that many readers click the “Like” button, but not Flattr? Just because you stop at Facebook is already registered? In that case it could, for everyone Criticism to Facebook, one in the social Network integrated payment system for blogs help. Or is it simply because it doesn't cost anything, in Facebook to click the like button?

Technical problems

Flattr leads darüer addition to other technical problems, with which I had not expected so: The Flattr button made my blog slower as another Java script. And much slower: It took up to half a minute thanks Flattr button, until the site was fully loaded. An absurdity! So go away with the thing and lo and behold, the site loads again much faster.

Because a good idea or not: Surely you can invest and Flattr – if only to support what is actually a good idea. However, if the site becomes slower as a result, which in the end will probably also result in a drop in the number of hits, then not only does flattr not bring in any money, it actually does damage in the end.

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