In the recent media kerfuffle about mom bloggers last week, I forced myself to read the comments on sites like the WSJ and the Huffington Post, mainly to see what those outside the community make of news stories-that-aren’t-really-news-stories-about-blogging.
(And believe me, this isn’t to dredge up this topic again when we have real news to focus on. Like the Michael Jackson civil trial.)
It became abundantly clear in comments: most people still don’t know what the hell a blogger is. They especially don’t know what a mother who blogs is.
In fact, it was all summed up pretty well by the same tired dig that we’ve been hearing for years: Aw, these bored, nazel-gaving housewives want to write lame stuff about their kids, get some free stuff, and hope for a sponsor to validate it all.
That’s when it hit me: Of course it’s hard to understand what a blogger is. Because a blogger is not really a blogger anymore. And a blog…well, it’s a lot of different things
A blog is nothing more than a self-publishing platform. I didn’t make that up! Check the dictionary.
You can use it to keep a journal, you can use it to write about causes you care about, you can use it to hone your writing skills, you can use it to grow a publishing network. You can use it to post photography, and you can use it to steal other people’s photography and pass it off as your own. You can use it to demand free ugly shoes from a PR exec. You can use it to make friends, you can use it to promote your books, you can use it to make enemies (sadly), and it’s 100% entirely absolutely true–you can use it to get unsuspecting marketers to send you a free electronic nose hair trimmer (and one for your readers to be used in a giveaway) that you will happily promote to your 47 readers in a totally unbiased “review” in which all opinions are your own.
So are there bloggers as those commenters describe? Just here for some gift cards and swag? Absolutely.
Not just “mommies” however, though we do seem to bear the brunt of that media perception for years now–with journalists who are also moms often our own worst enemies.
I recently had to do a project with a series of fashion blogs, and looking through the recommended list, I was horrified at what passed for tops in the network: poorly crafted paid “reviews,” no real curation, writing on about a 6th grade level, and lots and lots of gushy reports about junkets and free handbags. Lots.
As for the world of tech journalism, the most dangerous place in America is arguably the space right between a tech blogger and the free buffet at a private CES press show.
If there are free cocktails? Steer clear of the perimeter entirely. Pro tip from me to you. Gratis.
So what is a blogger anyway? How do we define it?
That’s where I’m a little at a loss.
It became clear this week to me that if you look at the so-called top bloggers, they tend not to be people who simply publish a blog. In fact, if you’re attending a professional conference like Mom 2.0 this week, you will meet hundreds of women, and a few men, for whom a blog is rarely the end, it’s the means.
That’s a huge shift over the last 5 years.
Gretchen Rubin: Not just a blogger. At all. Photo via Mom2Summit on Flickr
With CPMs falling from $25 to $2 if you’re lucky, ad networks chasing the long tail, and really lucrative sponsored posts limited to those blogs with exceptional traffic and engagement, a blog is not likely going to be your primary source of household income. (I think the ads on Mom-101 do manage to pay for cat food some months though, so my cats are my biggest supporters.) That said, your blog can be a platform for visibility, a place to connect with your community, a demonstration of your writing chops or digital prowess–all of which can lead to those actual career opportunities
There are obviously a ton of examples of Not Just Bloggers like Guy Kawasaki, Perez Hilton, Xeni Jardin. And of course, can’t forget each of the Real Housewives. But I think for some reason it’s harder for the world at large (hi, big media!) to identify the complexity of our professional roles when we also define as parents.
A blogger may run ad sales and brand relationships for a publishing network, like Julie Marsh.
A blogger may be putting together network development deals like Rebecca Woolf.
A blogger may be a brand strategist at a major agency–her own–like Shelly Kramer.
A blogger may be a respected PR exec who works with other bloggers, like Stephanie Smirnov.
A blogger may be a successful podcaster like Kristen Brandt and Erin Kane.
A blogger may run a content marketing network like Danielle Wiley or Sheila Dowd, Stefania Butler, Kristy Sammis, and Cat Lincoln
Now I’m not mentioning these women in some defensive attempt to say oh, look at all the great things these women bloggers are doing that being ignored in favor of the more condescending hall of shame linkbait stories. (Although these women are indeed doing great things. You go, women!) I’m mentioning them because it’s important to recognize that these are not things that these women do in addition to maintaining their blogs; these are things they have been able to do in at least some part because of their blogs.
Simply put, a blogger is now more than her blog.
Marketers are increasingly understanding this. We understand this. Our readers understand this. The media…well, not so much. Because it’s complex. It’s nuanced. And America overall doesn’t do so well with complex and nuanced media. (See Also: CNN during political season.)
You may be a blogger who chooses not to take part in any of this, by the way. But if you do, if you want to be successful vis a vis a bloggging platform, there are things you can do to make it work for yourself.
When I spoke at the Dad 2.0 summit earlier this year, our panel discussed turning your social media and blogging experience into more lucrative opportunities. But the conversation was hardly around banner ads or CPMs and I don’t think the idea of “brand ambassadorships” even came up once. In fact, at one point I blurted out to the room, “no one wants to pay you to write about your kids” which was met with varying degrees of skepticism.
(We can arm wrestle about it later if you want.)
What we did discuss–we being author/advertising brand strategist Craig Heimbuch,; corporate blogger Jason Avant; Blogher Social Media Manager Diane Lang–are the many, many ways that a blog, if you choose, can be a platform for doing other things that bring you fulfillment, success, “famous on the internet” attention if that’s of importance to you, and yes, income.
It’s essential to get out there in person and make connections. Relationships are the core of any business and there is simply no substitute for in-person meetings. And yes, the networking events and shows, the respected professional blogging conferences facilitate those opportunities greatly, whether you indulge in the $8 minibar peanut MnMs or not.
How deals are made in any industry. Via Mom2Summit on Flickr
If you want to be successful, stop chasing sponsors to send you on junkets or get you into movie premiers. Start figuring out where the actual career opportunities are for your passions and skills. Start figuring out what you do for free and what you don’t. And stop devoting time to efforts with no ROI. I give you my word that paid text links and Acai Berry affiliate ads will not figure prominently into your business plan.
Just look at all those bloggers I listed and the things they’re doing. I learn from every one of them, all the time.
Let me assure you, none of this is to diminish those women (and men!) who are happy to just write about their kids. I still love reading a lot of those blogs best of all. God bless Metro Dad, when he does actually publish (ahem), for keeping it awesome and ad-free, and doing it for the love. I adore reading Josette Plank and Wandering Scientist who write to write, to get feisty, to share their ideas, and to honor and trust us with pieces of their lives so that we may connect or gain or or heal or empathize.
But if you’re a blogger who somehow engages or intersects with brands and sponsors, we continue to have this overall PR problem that we can’t seem to shake.
Or can we? Can we change this generalization that parent bloggers are particularly bored or narcissistic or swag whores?
Eh, we keep trying.
All I know is that for the media to lump every mother with a blog into one happy, convenient stereotype about “bored housewives” cranking out dreck…it’s like looking at prefab boybands and using it to define music as a whole. It’s like calling the knock-offs in Forever 21, fashion design. It’s like looking at Saved by the Bell reruns and assuming that’s what it means to be a TV writer. (What? Zach has two dates in one night, AGAIN?)
For years, there’s been a joke that what actors really want to do is direct.
If you’re a blogger, what do you really want to do? Is your blog a springboard for something else? Or are you happy blogging for its own sake?
For me, I suppose it’s a little of both.
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