Well-meaning friends and strangers have asked me why I blog. And I confess that sometimes I ask myself that very question. Also:
What on earth am I hoping to accomplish here? Or maybe that was what I wondered when I used licorice-bribery to get Susan on the potty this afternoon.
Various Reasons People have Suggested for Why a Female Mammal With Offspring Would Blog
Do I plan to become a real writer someday? (Do you plan to become more attractive someday?)
Do I just want to chronicle my family life? (Do you think scrapbooking would cure that?)
Do I hope to make money someday? (Do you want to hear about how much mother-work is worth?)
Do I think blogging will cure cancer in the near future? (Do you really think Ivana Trump’s fourth husband married her for love?)
So Why Blog?
Some days I think I will stop blogging, or stop viewing my blog as a letter to world. It can be very discouraging if you are not The Pioneer Woman getting 10,528 comments on your ode to John Denver and Zune (which didn’t discourage me from entering her Zune contest!). Or I can get discouraged because I don’t think I’ll ever write something as simply moving as Conversion Diary’s last post (via Rocks in My Dryer).
But every time I get especially down at the fact I have not brokered world peace yet, I get an email or a comment from a friend, family member, or stranger, and whatever sweet thing they say makes it all worthwhile. I think that this would happen even if I weren’t blogging — I think God expects us to minister to each other by encouraging and complimenting, but as writing becomes more and more something I want to be, nice things said about what I’ve written mean a lot.
Beyond Writing
Content comes first on a blog, but then you can consider design and marketing. I’d rather not discuss design, what with my complete lack of talent and patience with art and computers. Marketing is interesting, though, and not just because advertisers sell everything from cigarettes to hockey sticks with the same lie that both will make you more attractive to the opposite sex. If they’d only promise to make you more attractive, sympathetic, and obey-able to your children, I’d start smoking — herbal cigarettes, at least.
It doesn’t take an FBLA alumna to realize that the marketing of your blog and the marketing that businesses hope to do on your blog are pretty significant. I think the BlogHer Adnetwork is pretty cool because they combine these two things: When I place BlogHer ads on my site, my post headlines get placed on other blogs. I don’t know what that means in terms of readership or money yet, because I’ve lost my BlogHer password. Probably a big check is in the mail.
Your Input Needed
Next week I’ll be participating in a panel at the Blogging for Business Conference in Salt Lake City. I tried to demur, but thanks to the generosity, gullibility, and/or desperation of the conference organizer, I will be on a panel with Laura Moncur to discuss “Pitching to Bloggers: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What Will Get You in Trouble.” The other speakers include such luminaries as Brian Critchfield, Charlie Craine, Christopher Barger, Cydni Tetro, Dave Bascom, Jake McKee, Jason Brown, Rand Bateman, and Tom Pick. I have no idea who any of these people are, nor indeed how brightly their lumen shines.
Basically, I am so flattered to have been asked to participate that I have turned in my picture and bio on time not yet begun to figure out how to make what I have done for the past ten years sound remotely business-ish. I do, luckily, have some experience with being pitched to by companies that sell everything from fabric wallpaper to parenting magazines. Most recently I was asked to review a new LDS movie. Dick has been wanting to see it, so I said, “sure,” although the last Mormon movie I tried to watch was a serious contender for the Worst Movie Ever title.
I do have definite ideas on how businesses should pitch to bloggers, and almost every pitch that I’ve received could have been more effective if the PR person were more familiar with blogging. The overall impression I get is that PR people don’t know whether to approach bloggers as 1) journalists interested in press releases, 2) businesses selling ad space, or 3) human lab rats.
If you have any thoughts on this, I hope you’ll share them with me. I’d ask for wardrobe and hair help, but it’s probably too late for that. It’s probably also too late to lose that 20 pounds.
Your Take on Bloggy Pitches
What mistakes do companies make when they pitch to you?
What would/do you like to see in a pitch?
What motivates you to review/recommend a product or run ads (free review products, money, free products for giveaways, money, etc)?
What’s the worst pitch you’ve ever received?
Thanks!
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Thanks for the link!
I’m not sure if this addresses any of your specific questions, but I might recommend that anyone who is in charge of pitching to bloggers be required to set up and maintain a blog themselves. I think that there’s a lot that you can’t understand until you’ve done it yourself.
Glad to have discovered your site!
Jennifer (Et Tu?)s last blog post..The story of a friendship
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When I was first asked to review products, it was stuff like lotion and dishsoap, and I was happy to do it just for the free stuff. Until I realized what a conundrum it is trying to review something I got for free that I ended up hating. If a company is going to ask people to review a small item there ought to be more compensation involved, free soap just doesn’t replace the lost credibility.
I was given the Sony Reader to review though, and was THRILLED because I knew I’d love it, it would be easy to write about, and a free $300 item is excellent compensation. It was great that everyone responded really well to the review, with a lot of interest. The PR company was happy, I was happy, readers learned about a very interesting new product.
The worst one I ever got was from a major publication. They sent me an email asking me to promote a contest they were holding, a contest that was really laughable at best, with absolutely no compensation of any kind. I didn’t even bother to respond.
Memarie Lanes last blog post..My poor nerves!
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Jane, you nailed it on the head when you said that PR folks pitching to bloggers need to be blog-literate. It’s like Dooce’s interview on the Today show where the hosts just didn’t have a true clue about blogging, just a list of talking points.
Bloggers are busy not just with writing content, but with all the tech stuff behind the scenes. I think PR people need to grasp that when you approach someone who blogs successfully, you’re approaching not just a good writer, but someone who is very smart and savvy about the Web, communication, and marketing, and design.
Successful bloggers are bright folk; come with your best, most informed offers, PR reps.
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Oh, and I think the, “Why blog?” is the new meta-thinking going on in the mommy blogosphere. I know I’m struggling with defining what motivates me to blog at both my blogs.
I don’t ever see myself as a BlogStar getting loads of comments as soon as I click PUBLISH. I don’t work that hard at placing my blogs out there or promoting them. That aspect of blogging takes a lot more time than I have to give.
What I love about blogging is the writing. Hands down, that’s #1 for me. Blogging has given me an easy way to write in many different styles every day. I’m glad to have finally cultivated a realistic daily writing habit and hope I can jump back into fiction with the same zest.
Oh, and the comment love rocks for me, too.
Congrats on being on a blogging panel – really. That’s big stuff to be a part of and you’ve got a good voice here in the blogosphere. Represent, baby!
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Jennifer — Great idea, and applicable to more things than blogs.
Marie — Thanks for the specific examples. I was telling Dick about your blog (again) the other day, because I like how you’re not a “mommy” blogger, and I think your posts are great in that each is self-contained and could be posted anywhere and provide value. Your posts really are more like articles, in a good way.
Marianne — I agree with both your comments — I think PR people don’t approach their relationship with bloggers as seriously or formally as they do that with traditional media. And perhaps that is because blogging IS often less formal, and some bloggers less reliable. I know I am not always reliable because I have three other priorities that come first; don’t exactly know how to compensate for that, or even if I want to, so it is understandable, maybe, on their part.
It is all about the writing for me now, too. I started out doing “just a scrapbook” after Dick kept saying I should, and it evolved. Unless I needed to really bring in some income, I would never want to spend more time on the marketing end, at least until the kids are all in school and I felt my writing was as good as it gets or something.
Some peoples’ writing is just so fantastic or their hook so original that they gather a huge audience without really trying (at least it looks effortless). Lucky them!
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I’m a newbie to the blogging world but not to the writing world. With two degrees in English it’s nice to see I’m actually using my education instead of wearing it like a medal of honor. However, I would say my main reason for blogging is to feel like I have friends. (wow, did I say that out loud?) Okay, maybe it is just so I feel like somebody else understands what its like to stumble across your 2 yr old son who has recently painted his entire head red.
Since I haven’t been approached about reviewing something I can’t help you there, but I would agree that MANY people don’t understand what the blogosphere is all about and the power of a mommy recommendation. I bought an infant carrier recently based on the comments I received on a blog post, not out of my parenting magazine.
good luck and knock ‘em dead. (I hear fighting over a rocket ship so I’m done now)
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Thanks for the compliment Jane, I’m glad you noticed that I keep my posts contained, it’s what I aim for. I may not always write about the same thing, but I do try to stick to the topic at hand.
I was telling Brad about your book review this morning, I still think it was the best book review ever.
Memarie Lanes last blog post..My poor nerves!
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BTW I just wanted to add that I think PR companies and marketing firms that want to approach bloggers need to understand that when a blogger agrees to represent a product, she is risking her readership. Readers generally don’t like product reviews and are turned off by it. Establishing and keeping a readership is hard work, and risking that just isn’t worth a free bottle of soap.
Memarie Lanes last blog post..My poor nerves!
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enjoyed this post. i’m trying to inform myself on blog promotion and how to deal with offers and requests for site promotions. i guess we’re all trying to figure it out together. i’ve noticed that the people who seem to know how to deal with it or seem to have handled it in a way that benefits them aren’t really sharing their insight with the rest of it.
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i mean to say, the rest of us (last sentence.)
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Beth — I think the community of mom bloggers is great for anyone in need of a little understanding. It’s great to “talk” to someone who really gets how frustrating it can be at times.
Marie — This is a super-good point, and I’ll be sure to mention it. It IS really hard work to develop a readership, and people expect a certain kind of post from you. I think it’s also really hard to figure out what kind of post you want that to be — your voice, I guess.
Chickadee — I think you may be right in some ways on this. It may just be that those who are successful are too busy or too interested in other things to blog about how to make money from blogs. There are, however, blogs out there that do specialize in SEO and ad revenue and stuff like that. One mommy blogger I know who is really knowledgeable and willing to share her knowledge about this sort of thing is Jordan at Mommablogga.com. She’s actually a professional blogger (she writes for MarketingPilgrom.com) and if you click on her “metablogging” category, or her popular posts, you’ll find a lot of information. You can also hire her to analyze and “fix” your own blog. You have to remember that this is a service/product like anything else, and professionals want/need to get paid for their experience and knowledge.
Anyway, it all comes down to what you want to do with your blog. Do you want it to be your part-time or full-time job? To have it generate a little extra cash? Or is it mostly for you to join a community and express yourself and improve your writing? For me the last option is my focus, since I really want to keep my kids as my number one priority for now.
And of course there are also bloggers (moms and otherwise) who are, like I said earlier, just so talented and so lucky that their blogs become popular and almost seem to generate income without too much hard marketing work on the part of the bloggers (as opposed to hard writing work which I’m sure they do).
Good luck, and I’m excited to check out your blog.
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Hi Jane
Great discussion here and today on the panel! You have built a great community and site here, I hope this evolves as you wish/as you determine what that wish entails. I will be back for certain and also thanks for the referral to The Pioneer Woman, I really liked reading her site for a bit tonight.
Also–I wanted to say (regarding the panel) that I don’t believe anyone can ever fully achieve life balance, but it’s the effort of continued growth/goal setting in the direction of it that I encourage and recommend. When people have certain level of balance then (confidence)/only then do I ever encourage them to venture into business because it’s hard to start a business without some level of peace in organization, finances, health, etc. Maybe we could enjoy a nice lunch at Barry’s next time you’re in town.
Make a wish, Make it happen,
Kelly
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