Binkytowne

Mommyblogging: You're Doing It Wrong

Since yesterday I have seen the same tweet, or some derivative of it, at least fifteen times. It's a link to a post written by a well known (mommy)blogger.  A post that received more than one hundred comments, most of which agreed, strongly, with the writer.

What?

I agree with the post's main point which is this: Bloggers are worthy of being compensated. If you blog, your time and effort are worth something, yes.  

I think that if you were mommyblogging five or even four years ago, your perception of blogging is going to very different than if you started your blog last year or even the year before. Blogging has changed radically and the blogging universe has exploded exponentially.

If you were mommyblogging back then, you were no doubt involved in posts and comments about whether you should or should not breastfeed; Should or should not work outside the home; Should or should not drink during a play date; Should or should not even run ads on your blog. There was a time when running advertisements somehow lessened your blogging cred. (word)

No matter which one of those discussions you may have contributed to, the overwhelming consensus of voices usually chimed in with the response that no one answer existed. Everyone had the right to make those choices for themselves, based on their own circumstances and point of view and that there was no correct way to do things.

So how is this different?

If you have been around since then and you've been writing consistently and well, chances are you have received opportunities. You have likely received some awesome products to review, trips, book deals, sponsorships to conferences or even a paid blogging job.

Unless you have chosen not to. Which is fine.

Because it's your blog and you can do whatever you want with it. 

You can write what you want too, on your own blog.  Mom-101 should blog her frustrations over losing a sponsorship opportunity because that's what on her mind. What I don't agree with is this idea that we all have to stand up and say no to promoting something for a coffee maker or a link. That is not the same as saying that I think that anyone's writing is worth free peanut butter or a link. I don't think that.

Today? For the record: I would say no to anyone who asked me to run an ad for free. Three years ago I probably would have said yes, so desperate was I to keep up with all the activity I could see growing around me.

Do mommybloggers who run links for zero compensation have blogs with 150 comments and a solid readership? A web-business? A book? Several books? Maybe, but I doubt it. I suspect agencies or companies who target blogs like that don't expect to get much for free. Don't we get together at conferences and talk about building positive relationships with companies and agencies? How do you do that if you are a small blog if you only say no, no, no?

I wish if we were all going to do something, we would all recognize that blogging is not (nor was it probably ever) one big-mommyblogging-level-playing-field. I don't think it's fair or reasonable to expect a new blogger who may be really talented and looking for that one way in with a company or just a little more traffic to turn down anything.

Nor should anyone ask them to.

Tell me I'm wrong. I really want to understand this.

Somehow things will work out.

I would have to ask my sister, because she knows this stuff. I'm no good with details.

I think we are fourth-generation Polish immigrants. I believe it was my grandparent's grandparents, (on both of my grandfathers and one grandmother's side of the family) that emigrated to the United States from Poland, or possibly what was then Prussia, early this century. I don't know who or when, but I know that some time in the course of that history, our fore mothers lived in the Gdansk region, which was at some point under Russian rule. As such, while I am certainly of Polish blood, I have taken my own liberty to declare myself a somewhat honorary Russian. That's why I find this story about the plane crash that killed the Polish President and 96 others to be so compelling.

"The president, top military commanders, and the head of the National Bank—they were all on the same plane? My American friends, who keep calling me to express their sympathy, cannot comprehend it. “How is it possible? Whenever people in my company travel to a conference, they put us on at least two separate flights,” one of them observed in disbelief. Yes, they were on the same plane, and it was an old Soviet-made Tupolev-154. It doesn’t take much to imagine it was rusty, right? ..

I come from a country that hates fire drills...and where we do not like to buy insurance. Jakoś to będzie, a phrase that does not translate well into English, but which comes close to “somehow things will work out,” sounds like a Polish motto.

- Magdalena Rittenhouse, The Daily Beast

I have heard enough Polish jokes in my lifetime that I admit, when I heard this news, my thoughts mirrored the ones listed here thinking, you have got to be kidding me-leave it to the Poles to pile the most important people in Polish society and fly them all on one airplane. Is this a joke?

I did not know about the terrible events that happened in the Katyn forest until this weekend and if you would have asked me who the Polish President was, I would not have been able to tell you. I don't follow Russian-Polish relations or Polish current events. I am a million miles away literally and figuratively.

But I imagine that the people in that country, which is about as big as the state where I live,  must be feeling a great deal of pain and sadness today. I wish I would have had a clear head and the mindfulness to wear something red in honor of the people of Poland. But I didn't. Like I said, not so good with the details.

 

"Let's just say she's going commando,"

If you aren't reading Chicken and Cheese these days, here or here, you are really missing out on some good shit. Literally.

I'm going to set aside my kindergarten teacher mentality of everyone is perfect in their own way just for today and award one of these:  for this.

C&C has written some amazing things lately but I was just so wowed by this. It's ridiculous, it's hilarious and it's poignant. Did I mention it's vivid? And about poop? And what a mother will do for her poop-covered child? (They will yell at Russian sales ladies and give up their panties and be smart enough to tie them in a knot on the sides.)

Check it out. You'll be back for seconds.

 

"Let's just say she's going commando,"

If you aren't reading Chicken and Cheese these days, here or here, you are really missing out on some good shit. Literally.

I'm going to set aside my kindergarten teacher mentality of everyone is perfect in their own way just for today and award one of these:  for this.

C&C has written some amazing things lately but I was just so wowed by this. It's ridiculous, it's hilarious and it's poignant. Did I mention it's vivid? And about poop? And what a mother will do for her poop-covered child? (They will yell at Russian sales ladies and give up their panties and be smart enough to tie them in a knot on the sides.)

Check it out. You'll be back for seconds.

 

Particularly Pleasant

Edited to add new pundit preposterousness below:

Since getting up and turning on CNN I can't help repeating this over and over in my head this morning:

Proper preparation prevents poor performance

- Nancy Pelosi, as quoted by her daughter Christine

The sun is shining, we have a female speaker of the house and she's a Democrat.

Happy Wednesday!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This just in from cnn.com:

DeLay: 'We took a whipping'

Boehner's predecessor, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, suggested Republicans were largely at fault for their losses.

"We took a whipping last night, and we understand that," DeLay told CNN's "American Morning." "The Democrats didn't win, the Republicans lost."

Note to DeLay: Yes, they did.

Particularly Pleasant

Edited to add new pundit preposterousness below:

Since getting up and turning on CNN I can't help repeating this over and over in my head this morning:

Proper preparation prevents poor performance

- Nancy Pelosi, as quoted by her daughter Christine

The sun is shining, we have a female speaker of the house and she's a Democrat.

Happy Wednesday!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This just in from cnn.com:

DeLay: 'We took a whipping'

Boehner's predecessor, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, suggested Republicans were largely at fault for their losses.

"We took a whipping last night, and we understand that," DeLay told CNN's "American Morning." "The Democrats didn't win, the Republicans lost."

Note to DeLay: Yes, they did.