There has been an interesting story making the rounds. It's about a "mommy blogger" who has imploded and decided to hang up her treacle. Her going away missive is a foulmouthed blast at other mommy bloggers, with lines like "your mommy blog fucking sucks." It can be see here ==> Cynical Marketing Ploy. Putting aside the obvious, which is that this is really all just a marketing ploy to let this chickie obtain instant fame as a cynical anti-mommy blogger, it raises some interesting points that I thought would be worth talking about vis-a-vis this blog. Let us discuss.
For those who don't know, a "mommy blogger" is a colossal bore of a human being who thinks that telling you how perfect her family is is something the world will care about. It is shallowness defined. Well, it turns out (surprise surprise wink wink), that the industry is much more cynical than expected. These professional mommies, often with prior careers in marketing, spend their time in seminars and workshops on how to whore out their blogs and how to connect with the rest of the vast army of mommy bloggers. Naturally, the goal is page views, which this woman says they lie about. Really? I'm shocked! Anyways, here are some things she admitted:
See, we ain't like that.
I have at times received emails asking me to speak about products and I've ALWAYS turned those down. I'm not here for that. If I tell you about a product I like (like Disney or those razors -- still super impressed) or hate, then it's just something I have run across that I think might interest you. It's not anything anyone has asked me to write about and they don't even know I'm doing it. By the way, I've never earned a penny from this blog.
Nothing here is staged or made up either, except I might not really have the physique of a Greek God as may have once been inadvertently implied... whoops. And I will never pull punches to avoid upsetting people. Remember 2012? Yeah, mucho off pissing time. Anyways, I will always speak my mind, just as I expect you folks speak yours. As I see it, we're here for the genuine conversation.
In terms of demographics, I don't do anything to try to drive traffic or grow the site. I figure the right people will find us. Right now, I estimate that we have about 300 regular visitors, though most don't comment. The film site does a little better, depending on how lazy I've been.
So what does our blog contribute to the world? I like to think that we are offering a nice place for rational, intelligent people to come talk about things along with a tad bit of humor and the occasional bit of insight. Your mileage may vary. And in terms of my goals, it's just that: to create a fun place to spend some time online, to get to know some good people and to maybe come up with some ideas that keep all of us sane in an insane world and provide a little hope for the future.
I hope you all had a nice holiday. :)
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For those who don't know, a "mommy blogger" is a colossal bore of a human being who thinks that telling you how perfect her family is is something the world will care about. It is shallowness defined. Well, it turns out (surprise surprise wink wink), that the industry is much more cynical than expected. These professional mommies, often with prior careers in marketing, spend their time in seminars and workshops on how to whore out their blogs and how to connect with the rest of the vast army of mommy bloggers. Naturally, the goal is page views, which this woman says they lie about. Really? I'm shocked! Anyways, here are some things she admitted:
● Their posts are mainly faked. They are written to deliver paid product reviews and are typically approved and edited by the companies looking to reach the supposed audience for mommy blogs... whoever that may be.There's more, but I don't care. What I want to talk about is our little blog here.
● They stage their events too. For example, she mentioned that she needs to stage every photo she takes at family picnics and holidays to make sure that product labels are perfectly visible and that her kids are smiling appropriately. She lies about details like where, when and how things went all in the name of presenting a cheerful image. In other words, her life is manufactured.
● The whole blog was nothing but a marketing weapon, with demographics, data crunching, negotiated rates, reciprocal link agreements, payments to traffic driving sites, hiring assistants to help manipulate search engine results, etc.
● JosiDenise has a potty mouth.
● They engage in cynical participation: "/nobody is reading your shit. I mean no one. Even the people you think are reading your shit? They aren’t really reading it. The other mommy bloggers sure as hell aren’t reading it. They are scanning it for keywords that they can use in the comments. 'So cute! Yum! I have to try this!' They’ve been told, like you, that in order to grow your brand, you must read and comment on other similar-sized and similar-themed blogs."
● They avoid opinions that offend their audience or their sponsors.
● Mommy blogging defined: "You’re writing in an inauthentic voice about an unoriginal subject, worse if sprinkled with horrible grammar and spelling, and you are contributing nothing to the world but static noise."
● They don't know why they are doing it: "What are your goals? At all the conferences I’ve attended and in all the Facebook groups, I hear women with the same answers. 'To gain traffic. To grow my blog.' But why? What are you going to do with that traffic? What’s the point of any of it?"
See, we ain't like that.
I have at times received emails asking me to speak about products and I've ALWAYS turned those down. I'm not here for that. If I tell you about a product I like (like Disney or those razors -- still super impressed) or hate, then it's just something I have run across that I think might interest you. It's not anything anyone has asked me to write about and they don't even know I'm doing it. By the way, I've never earned a penny from this blog.
Nothing here is staged or made up either, except I might not really have the physique of a Greek God as may have once been inadvertently implied... whoops. And I will never pull punches to avoid upsetting people. Remember 2012? Yeah, mucho off pissing time. Anyways, I will always speak my mind, just as I expect you folks speak yours. As I see it, we're here for the genuine conversation.
In terms of demographics, I don't do anything to try to drive traffic or grow the site. I figure the right people will find us. Right now, I estimate that we have about 300 regular visitors, though most don't comment. The film site does a little better, depending on how lazy I've been.
So what does our blog contribute to the world? I like to think that we are offering a nice place for rational, intelligent people to come talk about things along with a tad bit of humor and the occasional bit of insight. Your mileage may vary. And in terms of my goals, it's just that: to create a fun place to spend some time online, to get to know some good people and to maybe come up with some ideas that keep all of us sane in an insane world and provide a little hope for the future.
I hope you all had a nice holiday. :)