>Kathie Lee Gifford doesn’t get it. The Today Show’s Hota Kotb doesn’t really get it, either. Three well-known bloggers took some time out from BlogHer Business conference to sit down and talk about blogging for the Today Show. They were introduced as “mommy bloggers” — as in “Oh, no, not the mommies!” The feature was edited to make the women sound like they sit around all day chatting online and make a living doing it.
The lovely Mir was initially concerned about the final production making her look “like a dork” in public. After the feature aired, she was more concerned about the obnoxious “Tell me your secret!” emails that were the price of her 15 minutes of sound bite fame. No one editing the production realized that these women are the exception, not the rule, of the blogging world. They don’t make a living talking about diapers. They make a living as freelance writers; their clients are often online. Believe me, they work. How would I shop for Christmas and birthdays without Mir’s Wantnot?
Punditmom gets it and explains it well. Many women started blogs because they were not finding their voices and those like them in mainstream media sources. We may or may not be moms, and we may or may not blog about our children. We do, however, have a voice: a strong and ever-growing collective voice.
Jenn at Mommy Needs Coffee (I think she’s my doppelganger with a Texas twang) wrote about blogging for passion or products. If a blogger writes only for the products, the writing doesn’t stay fresh long. I don’t know anyone who subscribes to a feed reader or bookmarks a blog just to read paid posts or ads. It’s the personal nature of the blogosphere medium that makes it interesting and exciting.
I liked Mir’s comment that blogging is cheaper than therapy. It’s the reason I started reading blogs and writing my own. I continue because I enjoy it. Getting the occasional free book to review and winning a prize now and then are bonuses.
To read a summary of Mir’s experience and to view the clip, check out The Business of Mommyblogging on BlogHer. It’s worth it. You’ll get it.
>There are plenty of us out here. They’ll “get” us sooner or later.
>Hopefully they do get us..especially the non-mom’s. The other thing the media tends to do is lump “bloggers” into people that blog about politics…hmm. I don’t think so. It’s like if you are not a mommy blogger you blog about the govt’.. I can’t believe for once in my life I am “ahead of the times”..
Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting!
>I’m suspecting most bloggers’ families don’t “get it” either! But it’s nice when someone in my family reads a posts and actually admits it strikes a chord. Whatever works! K.
>I went to an event for bloggers last week, and saying I was a “mommy blogger” had a bad sound to it.
>Just yesterday when I told someone I’m a blogger (trying to make it sound like a vocation) she said “We have to figure out some way that you can make money at it.” I explained that early on I felt the same way, but then realized that making money was not why I started in the first place. That was very liberating. And besides, after 9 months of being part of the BlogHer Ad network I DID make a whole $27.43!