Don’t you just hate it when people who owe you money doesn’t pay up? It could be a friend who borrowed some cash, and then keeps putting it off paying you back, or a client ignoring your invoices. If it’s the former you’ll have to be careful not hurting the relationship, although your non-paying friend sort of already’s doing that by not paying you back. Still, you can chose to be the bigger person, if you can afford it, and not make a big deal of it. Whether you remind the friend in question of the debt or no, you have personal things to take into account, and that’s makes it a bit tricky, and - hopefully - the actual money owed, the cold hard cash, is the least of the problem.

Owed money in business is far easier to handle. Just push forward, reminders, final notice and so on. If a client isn’t paying up for the hired work or product, you don’t have to particularly careful when claiming them. After all, it’s just business.

The blogosphere offers new challenges when it comes to money owed. People who are your online friends can become your clients, and when they don’t pay up you find yourself in the middle of a friend owing you money, and a business client not paying an invoice.

I hate it when that happens. As of right now, I have two outstanding debts, originating from written work within the blogosphere.

One have been reminded, and then reminded again and again. It’s not the money, it’s the poor handling of things. The other is pretty much the same, but I didn’t feel like nagging about it, so I just didn’t bother after a reminder or two. I don’t think this particular person even remembers that he owes me money, and while I value him as a friend, I thought more of him before this. Live and learn, eh?

Personal issues, tragedies, plain ol’ forgetting about it, lack of funds presently, and whatnot - all are both explanations and excuses. I can relate to all of that, and I’m not cold-hearted. I can wait, but tell me when you’ll pay me, and then don’t forget about it, push it forwards, “I’ll do it on Monday post-haste”.

Sure you will.

The blogosphere is very personal and transparent, yet I don’t feel I’d like to take this post all the way and point fingers, publishing names. That’s a bit hypocritical of me, I think, since they’re doing me a disfavor by not paying up, and I have all these friend-issues that stops me from demanding my money in the proper, business-like manner I’ve had to put forth on a number of occasions over the years.

This whole personal blogosphere, where a visitor to your blog can become your employer an e-mail away, sure offers some new aspects of old problems, doesn’t it?