this woman’s work

You are browsing the archives from 2006 November.

They only take blogs that meet a certain traffic/page rank criteria. I’ll happily take the rejects. Their goal is to help companies increase their search engine placement (one of the founders is a search engine optimization guru). My idea is about getting real people talking to their virtual and in real life communities about new products. I think that PR people have different goals and there’s room for both — but can I convince bloggers of that? Are they going to look and think I’m pocketing the money for placement? (The other site pays pretty well — I’ll send you the link if you want it because I have no problem with people working with them and me both.) But it’s a different business model. I don’t get paid per order. I’m going to charge a flat fee to access the database (a relatively low fee).

I found a business that also sets bloggers up to write reviews and their model is very similar to the one I’m working on. Big huge difference — they pay bloggers for each review. The pay for post model is obviously really controversial and I don’t think every blogger is willing to basically write ads on their site. BUT the site doesn’t demand positive reviews and does say each paid for post needs to say something like, “This is a sponsored post.”

Now as a blogger in the free world, I think having options for bloggers (and marketers) is a good thing. There are bloggers (like me) who will take ads but wouldn’t write a sponsored post but would be willing to review a product if approached to do so. There are other bloggers who will take ads and write sponsored posts but wouldn’t review a product “for free.” It takes all kinds. (And I also think a sizeable chunk of bloggers would be willing to sign up for both services.)

But here’s the problem: This guy has way way way way more money than I do. He’s got venture capital funding, a staff, a salary, a graphic designer, a programmer, and an advertising budget. I have me, my laptop, a hacked shopping cart program, and the $3.20 I have left over from my blogads in my paypal account. (I spent the rest on the domain name and another hack to make loading blogs easier.) Can I compete? Should I bother to try?

I’m trying to be all bright side about this. Like I’m proud that I obviously nailed this idea and it’s a good one or else this other company wouldn’t have such deep pockets. I feel like I went really far for a mom working around her busy toddler’s schedule. That’s pretty darn great. Here let me pat myself on the back for a minute (pat pat pat).

I do think there’s room for both because, like I said, I don’t think every blogger willing to write reviews is willing to get paid because it would be outside of their ethics. Also I know PR people would like this service because I’m not charging NEARLY as much (right now I’m not charging anything) and because not every company is going to WANT paid-for reviews.

On the other hand, the blog world is changing in weird and wonderful ways. I think a pay for review model is going to help push blogging into something else — what I’m not sure. Technorati is having trouble weeding out the Sblogs; more and more people are willing to accept ads in sidebars, headers and now content; corporations are paying people to write what look like “grassroots” blogging — I don’t know what’s going to happen to the blog-world. It could be that a pay-for-review site will water down blog opinion-makers enough to make my review-and-keep-the-sample-but-don’t-get-paid site obsolete.

I’ve spent a lot of time on this and I feel like I can give it three months before I can really know for sure if it’s worth it BUT I also have no money coming in for the first time in … a long time. (Can’t remember the last time there was no work on the horizon.) I’m feeling absolutely muddled about what in the heck to do with my life/career. I’m hoping the conference helps and all the good thoughts/prayers I’m sending out into the universe. But I thought for awhile that Get Them Blogging might be it. I thought I could have fun working with bloggers and PR people (because I really do think marketing is fun) and make a part-time salary doing it. And now I’m thinking maybe (probably?) not. So what next?

I’ve had kind of a set back with the Get Them Blogging and I have to decide whether or not to keep working on it. I really need more bloggers and this particular set back has me worried about whether or not I’ll be able to get them.

Ugh. I’ll have to see how things pan out over the next couple of weeks.

Brett and I had one of our old school heated discussions, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since my days at ePregnancy — love or money? It’s always about revisiting the balance of our lives.

I’m cross-posting there as moominmama (same as my livejournal handle). FYI. (We’re all about making things easier for our esteemed readers!)

Swiped from Gezellig Girl

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
I don’t remember thinking. Usually if I’m looking in the mirror it’s to put on moisturizer and I do it fast, fast, fast because Madison is next to me futzing with things on the bathroom counter. (The other day I looked down and she had Brett’s contact case open and was trying to put them in her eyes.)

2. How much cash do you have on you?
Nothing. I gave Brett my folding money because he was going out with his dad tonight and I gave Madison my change because she got a new piggy bank at a garage sale today.

3. Whats a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
FLOR

4. Favorite planet?
This one.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
I have no idea; no one ever calls it. (It’s for emergencies only.)

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
Ring tone? I barely know how to answer the thing.

7. What shirt are you wearing?
A ratty t-shirt.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
No, but I shall: Fresh, unpasteurized. Best if used within seven days of opening.

9. Name the brand of your shoes youre currently wearing?
I’m not wearing shoes. (I’m about to go to bed.)

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Bright kitchen, dark bedroom.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I envy her her fancy glasses.

12. What does your watch look like?
I haven’t had a watch in a long, long while.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
That’s a good question. I do believe I was wishing I would fall asleep soon.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
I don’t think our phone takes text messages.

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
Probably a mile and a half southeast of here.

16. Whats a word that you say a lot?
Madison!!! (Close second: Noah!!!)

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
Miss Maddie. (Just before that: Noah)

18. Last furry thing you touched?
I just put away a slew of stuffed animals.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
Unless caffeine and ibuprofen count, none.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
More accurately — I haven’t printed out digital pictures since Madison was about a year and a half. (sigh) Our photo albums are a mess.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
I must have liked being 27 because I used to forget I wasn’t 27. Then when I was 32 I must have liked that because after that I used to forget I wasn’t 32.

22. Your worst enemy?
Myself on bad days.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
What Gezellig Girl said: Some abstract something that came with the OS.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
“Are you going to hit it?” (I was asking Brett if he was going to bed.)

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
I don’t need a million; I’d like just enough to pay off my student loans.

26. Do you like someone?
Why, I like (almost) everyone!

27. The last song you listened to?
I’ve been playing Beecharmer nonstop lately.

28. What time of day were you born?
Noonish. PST.

29. Whats your favorite number?
Whenever I’m supposed to pull a random number, I always say 48 so I guess 48.

30. Where did you live in 1987?
I was 17 and for most of it I lived with my mother in the condo where she still is.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Remarkably, no. (I’m a pretty jealous person.) (And except for the aforementioned pretty glasses.)

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I’m sure Brett is deeply envious that I am on the computer and he is eating stale popcorn.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
In our old house, in the office, reading email.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
1. Take it as a message from god that my body does not need any processed food/beverages at the moment. 2. Feel put upon.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Not lately.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
If I HAD to? Oh lord. I don’t know. I’m not into the whole inked skin thing. Ugh.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Yiddish so I can grow up to be a bubbe.


38. Would you move for the person you loved?
Yes, but my mother would kill me.

39. Are you touchy feely?
Only in print.

40. Whats your life motto?
“It’s not the journey; it’s the destination.”

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times?
Besides the smallest sticky child? Not a damn thing.

42. Whats your favorite town/city?
I don’t play favorites.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
A grungy piggy bank for the littlest one and a turtle pin for the biggest.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Likely not in the 21st century.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
Yes but that’s why Brett was invented.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That he was an actor in a video installation shown at MOMA.

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
On one side way way back (pre-Pilgrim) and the other side only to when Bubbe crossed over. (She got sent back once but they let her in eventually.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
I wore a nice, simple black dress to go see Barbara Cook with Paige.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
The middle toe on my left foot. And I have a chronic neck injury that’s always a low-grade ache. (Except when I was getting acupuncture 3 years ago.)

50. Have you been burned by love?
Well, sure.

I’ve had two PR people contact me about Get Them Blogging! I didn’t have to seek them out! Now let’s hope they decide to come on board and send some samples!

You know, the one sad thing about this is that I obviously can’t list my own blog (conflict of interest) so alas, no more samples for me. (sniff) At least I still get free review books from other gigs.

Ok, so I was limping (my foot is about 90% better) but it’s the first time I’ve been out and about this much since I broke my toe.

I just got off the phone with my friend who does fashion PR in NYC. He’s moved around a lot in the industry (he started out being one of the guys responsible for putting the wings on the angels at the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows) and I wanted his take on Get Then Blogging. He was encouraging and had some good ideas about generating buzz. I’m going to start working hard on bringing in PR people to start using the database now even though I originally wanted to have more blogs in there. So I’m going to keep bringing in bloggers but I’m going to start working on my pitch to the PR people.

If you’ve got friends who blog or on an email list where a bunch of folks have blogs, will you spread the word? Why thanks!

Thank you for the jokes! They worked! I’ll call up that post anytime I’m feeling gloomy. The bicycle one was my favorite because I love really stupid jokes. (My favorite for years: Why did the monkey fall out of the tree? Because it was dead.)

Even after the election, Deborah Pryce was smearing Mary Jo Kilroy. We don’t know who won yet but Pryce, heard on our local NPR station, was claiming victory and saying “shame on her” to Kilroy for not campaigning hard enough. My god, it’s been an ugly election. But at least Blackwell didn’t win. Oh my lord, at least Blackwell didn’t win!

And we raised the minimum wage — that’s something.

This was pretty much my vote. I was afraid I’d screw up the no on 4, yes on 5 because you know how if you think about something too hard (like how to spell “embarassing” “embarrassing”) that you end up doing it the wrong way? Plus I had this squirmy, ever-curious child sitting at my feet who kept popping up on her knees and saying, “You vote, Mommy? You voting? What’s dat?” But all that training came in hand ‘cuz I nailed it.

It was nice to walk to vote instead of driving and I have to say, I liked the new machines. They were easy to understand and I liked seeing my little receipt printing out to show my vote.

Well, I know plenty of my (democratic) friends voted absentee so here’s hoping Kilroy sneaks by.

My mom has this theory that all women have mid-life crises when they’re 36, which I am. I told her (when I was 33) that I wasn’t going to have one because I already had my crisis — secondary infertility — and was just fine now, thank you. But now I’m thinking I was wrong.

I am simultaneously horrified by the passage of time and thrilled that time is moving by so quickly. On the one hand, for the first time in my 36 (and a half) years, I’m really worried that I won’t have time to do all the things I meant to do (fueled, I’m sure, by our scanty retirement account). I am also very very aware that my youthful, dewy-eyed (and dewy-skinned) years are behind me and despite being a person with very little vanity, I’m mourning the loss of it more than I expected. On the other hand, I am very happy to know that I will never be mired in parenting an infant again and I am also counting the days until (as Leslie says) even my littlest kid knows how to pour her own juice.

It makes me schizophrenic. I go, “Less than two years until Madison is four and can be trusted with toys that fit into film canisters!!!” And then I say, “Oh god, and I’ll be that much closer to forty.”

(I’ve been trying to write this for ten minutes — in ten minutes I’ve been interrupted by screeching, by the urgent need to hold someone down and wrench the die — as in dice — from her mouth, to remind someone that we do not hit in this house and to kiss a bonked nose.)

And you know — I’m not going to get to finish it. The screeching, die-eating, hitting, bonked person is hanging on my elbow and weeping. (sigh)

Ten years it’s going to be so much better but if I haven’t gotten anything done by then, I’m gong to be so much more depressed.

Hey, if you’re so inclined, will you leave a stupid joke in the comments? A chuckle or two will do me good.