Two years later and my Tumblr blog has grown into a full-fledged multimedia website called Top Shelf Gaming. There are a billion and one small video game coverage sites and more spring up every day, but TSG is set apart for several reasons. Perhaps one of the most unique qualities about my site is that the majority of its content is written by unpaid interns.

I mostly wrote all the content for the site by myself but was unable to keep up with all the incoming gaming news. I knew I needed help but also knew it would be difficult to recruit writers without a budget to pay them. My solution was to provide an internship where students could receive college credit as a form of payment.

As it turned out, the career center wasn’t exactly down with current students sourcing interns for their side hustles. I presented my case, assuring them that I wasn’t using the internship as a way to give my friends free credits. Reluctantly they allowed me to take on interns because there weren’t any rules saying I couldn’t. They promptly amended their bylaws to make sure no other student could get away with what I did.

Top Shelf Gaming is the most ambitious project I have ever taken on, though quite the conservative endeavor compared to some of the talented people in my life. When word spread in my circles about my budding internship program, my entrepreneurial minded colleagues began to inquire how I received permission from our school to recruit interns.

Person after person with their own passion projects have approached me asking how I was able to get free interns. This has always made me uneasy because the implication from my end always seemed like they were looking for some eager college students to do their busy work without an expectation of paying them, like they’ve found some golden loophole for getting decent labor. I know their intentions aren’t malicious, but if I serve as the inspiration for these thoughts then I feel it is my responsibility to set the record straight once and for all.

So here’s my secret to recruiting talented and hardworking free interns: I don’t. While I do not offer financial compensation to my interns I devote myself to their academic and personal success. I run my internship like a class that has an actual curriculum that I refine every semester. I hold weekly meetings where I give lectures on the fundamentals of internet writing. I work with each and every intern I have to develop them into more confident, critically-minded professionals. I provide them with opportunities like attending gaming events as press with special access to games and developers. I even invite a career educator every semester to speak to my interns and critique their resume-writing skills. I’m not messing around, and I’m sorry if I led anyone to believe that I was making out like a bandit profiting off the blood, sweat, and tears of unsuspecting college kids.

I don’t believe in working for free and I have dissuaded many people from accepting unpaid job opportunities. A lot of companies offer free internships promising that the experience and connections they gain will make up for the lack of pay. This may be true for some internships, but in my experience most places just take advantage of their interns, sucking out their souls and then hanging them out to dry. I don’t want that for anybody. In fact, just the opposite. If someone is willing to volunteer their talent and time to aid in the success of my project, I want to provide them with everything in my power to show my thanks.

Running my internship program actually takes a lot of time, energy, and even money. It would serve me well to devote these resources directly into growing my site. Instead, I offer the Top Shelf Gaming internship as a means of giving back to the college community that poured into my life unrelentingly for years. All of my meetings are even held on campus which eliminates the barrier of transportation. So to those of you asking how I get interns to work for me for free, I don’t. I work for them.

Top Shelf Gaming is currently recruiting interns for the Fall 2016 semester. If you are a current Chapman University student and are interested in writing about video games, please visit our website.