What risks should bloggers consider?

Advertising investments in the content of opinion leaders are growing, and blogging has long been informally considered a full-fledged profession. At the end of 2023, deputies, officials and industry representatives discussed a differentiated legal framework for the blogosphere and the information business market. Parliamentarians propose to begin market standardization with the development of a separate OKVED code for bloggers. How to learn how to make money from blogging today, choose a platform for training and understand the requirements of advertising regulation, read the article by Kommersant.

Is it possible to learn to be a blogger?

The Russian influencer marketing market (promotion through opinion leaders, including bloggers) amounted to 30 billion rubles in 2023. against 15 billion rubles. in 2022, should from the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA) estimates. Increasing investment in content by bloggers is attracting new people to this field. In recent years, hundreds of courses and schools for bloggers have appeared on the market. Educational products were launched by the platforms themselves, for example VK and Yandex.Zen, they are developed by EdTech companies, as well as individual popular bloggers and industry experts.

Brand Director of Netology Ivan Chirkov says that blogging can already be considered as a full-fledged profession that includes many specific skills. “It is no longer enough to simply have a device with a camera and Internet access in order to compete in this area. It is necessary to understand trends, have screenwriting skills, photography and video shooting skills, editing, and copywriting. In order for blogging to generate income, you need to be able to attract investment, look for advertisers, understand the law and promote your own content on third-party platforms,” he says.

“Today, the most important thing for social platforms is the viewing depth of one video and the viewing depth of the entire profile. In simple words, this is how a blogger knows how to retain an audience. Therefore, you need to choose courses that teach you how to write strong scripts using marketing formulas and dramaturgy, and also help you navigate the needs of the audience of each specific site,” comments Levina Smart Team founder Ilyana Levina.

At the same time, finding a universal educational product, according to Ivan Chirkov, in this area is difficult, because the scope of content is very diverse: “Some specialize in photography and videography from a visual point of view, some in short humorous formats, some then – at large historical analyzes. Everyone here will require a different skill set.” When choosing a course, you should start not from the desire to become a blogger, but from the need for realization through creative potential and a knowledge system that already exists, added Ivan Chirkov.

Non-fiction editor of the Liters group of companies, Elena Tarasova, noted that the competencies needed by a blogger can be developed with the help of books: “There is a large amount of literature on the market about copywriting, storytelling, public speaking, social networks and blogging. Among the most popular books about social networks in the Liters service over the past 12 months (by the number of book copies sold) are books by Kirill Artamonov and Ruslan Farshatov, as well as Damir Khalilov’s book “The Slippery Hill Method. Storytelling for Reels, Stories, TikTok videos and other formats of social networks.” In the narrower category of books directly about blogging, according to Elena Tarasova, “Attention Capture. How to become famous in your niche and influence millions” by Alexander Borisov and “Telegram tycoon: Launching a successful channel, attracting subscribers and monetizing content” by Artem Demidenko.

How to choose a platform

As the influencer marketing market grows, platforms compete more for quality content: each social network offers its own support measures for authors. Sponsorship and support from readers are available on all platforms, but there are also payments from the platforms themselves. VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Zen, Yappy, Rutube have their own monetization programs available to Russian bloggers.

As experts say, the choice of the “most profitable” platform depends on the author’s ability to create content that resonates with the audience of a particular platform and on the monetization strategy. “Whether you make efforts on blocked social networks or not depends on your target audience and advertisers,” says Evgeniy Chuvashov, digital director of the Igronik group of companies. At the same time, he first recommends focusing on one platform, and then distributing content to other platforms to maximize coverage.

First of all, you need to start from the format in which the blogger sees himself, because your viewer can be found on almost any platform, says Anna Kozyreva, head of the social media marketing department at OMD OM Group. “For those who are ready to shoot long videos, YouTube is certainly suitable – now the algorithms there are unstable, but promoting a beginner channel is possible. If we are talking about monetizing content, then it is better to think about several blogs at once,” notes Ms. Kozyreva.

How to avoid legal risks

In 2023, criminal cases were brought against several Russian bloggers. Elena Blinovskaya, Valeria and Artem Chekalinakh were accused of tax evasion. The founder of the Like Center business school, Ayaz Shabutdinov, is in custody on charges of fraud on a particularly large scale.

“We can say with confidence that lately the state and public associations have been paying attention to bloggers,” admits Alexander Aronov, managing partner of Aronov and Partners. First of all, he believes, this is due to the fact that the income of bloggers has increased significantly and simplified tax regimes have become inapplicable to some of them. “Some did not have time to switch to the main tax system, others were not sufficiently informed about the need to do this, and some did not want to switch to the main tax system, and therefore underpaid significant taxes to the budget,” the lawyer comments.

Lawyer of the Yakovlev and Partners group Igor Kharitonov recommends that novice bloggers take into account the key risks for violations:

• legislation on intellectual property (copyright, trademarks);
• advertising labeling requirements;
• requirements for labeling information (foreign agents, prohibited organizations, etc.);
• requirements for establishing rules for holding shares (when they organize competitions, etc.);
• requirements to protect children from information harmful to their health;
• tax legislation;
• rules entailing obtaining the status of a foreign agent.

Nadezhda Polishchuk, a lawyer at the Genesis law firm, believes that bloggers should register their activities legally from the very beginning. For example, open an individual entrepreneur and pay the taxes established by law on the profits derived from the activities of the individual entrepreneur. The key risk for bloggers, according to Nadezhda Polishchuk, remains additional tax charges on the following grounds:

• artificial division of business;
• non-inclusion of cash in revenue;
• requalification of transactions.

“Measures of possible liability for non-payment of taxes may be different – for example, additional taxes may be charged. These amounts depend on the taxation system and the amount of revenue (declared by the blogger and imputed by the tax authority). Minimum – 6% of revenue under a simplified taxation system (Article 346.20 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). Maximum – 40% under the general taxation system in the case of charging VAT (Article 164 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) and income tax (Article 284 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) without applying tax reconstruction. A fine of 20% to 40% of the amount of additional taxes assessed may also be imposed (Article 122 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation),” says Nadezhda Polishchuk. Criminal liability is also provided for crimes related to taxes, including evasion by a citizen or organization from paying taxes and fees by failing to submit a tax return or including knowingly false information in it (Articles 198, 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

How to start working with advertising

On September 1, 2023, a new law on the labeling of advertising on the Internet came into force: all advertising materials posted online must be clearly labeled and distinguishable from regular content. Labeling is mandatory for all bloggers, regardless of the size of their audience, reminds Igor Kharitonov: “Control over it is gradually increasing, and bloggers, as advertisers, bear the main risks of liability for its absence.” The lawyer gives the following recommendations about advertising in blogger content.

• If you work in tandem with editors, illustrators, and others, be sure to correctly transfer copyright to you.
• Monitor the preparation of primary documents.
• Use the free and open tax service “Transparent Business” to check the financial condition of your advertisers – whether they can pay you.
• Check what you advertise because not only can your reputation suffer, but you yourself could be held liable.
• Pay attention to how the rights to your image and your content are distributed under agreements with advertisers.

Anna Kozyreva formulated a basic list of rules that should be followed if a blogger starts working with advertisers.

• It is worth enlisting at least minimal legal support. Illegal advertising may result in severe fines and account blocking.
• You need to be aware of copyright when integrating a brand and not use popular images and music that can be used in unbranded content.
• Products that a blogger takes into advertising integrations should be checked first and find information about the advertiser. If the product turns out to be of poor quality or the statements have nothing to do with reality, cooperation with such a brand can cause significant damage to the reputation of even a small blogger.
• Advertising laws, including labeling, must be followed. It is important not only to apply a token and a disclaimer to the publication, but also to submit data about the advertisement to the ORD. It is a mistake to believe that small bloggers do not pay attention to the supervisory authority and therefore the label can be ignored. All precedents related to fines were provoked by users who filed a complaint about the publication with Roskomnadzor.
• Check the content as a whole for compliance with legal requirements (no libel, etc.).

Valeria Lebedeva