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Jul 31, 2007

Make Money From Blogging – But How Much?

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No one likes to talk money. It’s impolite to imply you need or want money, right? Fortunately, I’ve never been a faithful follower of Emily Post, so let’s discuss it.

Clearly many of us want more money. (And if you don’t, that’s OK, too!) One of the hot topics of this year’s BlogHer was the monetization of blogs. Many wanted to learn how to make a little cash off of this massively time consuming hobby we have.

But the issue of money and blogging brought up several sub-topics of conversation:

  • Are ads OK on mommyblogs, and if not, why are they then considered more OK on blogs about politics, technology, or cats with bad spelling?
  • What about product reviews? Are we selling our souls in return for a free Swiffer? And how do we get PR reps to realize we do more than clean and bake when it comes to free stuff? (For the record, a few of the PR reps I know clearly understand us better. Just see the iPod review I did, and check out David’s blog. He’s one of the good guys.)
  • What about paid writing advertisements, like PayPerPost?
  • Are we selling ourselves and our blogs at too cheap a rate?

While each of these sub-topics could take up an entire post on their own (and I may get to them, someday – go ahead and write your own feelings on them if you don’t want to wait for me), the last question really got me thinking.

I’ll start by saying up front that I am all for blog ads. Newspapers, magazines, and other writing outlets have ads. It’s how the writers get paid, and how the price of subscriptions remains relatively low. Bloggers, who have no subscription fees, are an amazingly talented group of writers – why shouldn’t their words carry the same value? If the writing is good enough, and the traffic is there, and someone wants to pay a blogger for ad space or pay them for their writing, then good for them. Capitalism is alive and well.

However, there is also the temptation in the blog world to take any bone thrown in your general direction. (Sometimes it doesn’t even have your name on it.) Liz covered this beautifully in the Professional Blogging panel. She told the room that it is ridiculous to give up large areas of your blog’s real estate to advertisers and get pennies or nothing in return. “You’re worth more than that.”

Many of us have Adsense on our blogs. How much have you earned from your Adsense? Did you know you need at least $100 earned before they will give you a check? I can tell you that after two years of large Adsense ads on my blog, I’ve earned less than $100. Unless your blog gets really good traffic (1,000+ unique hits per day, and several good visitors who are kind enough to click on your ads), you’re not going to make enough to get a check anytime in the next year. Is it worth it to let them have their ads on your site while you make nothing? (For the record, I’m close enough that as soon as I hit that first check, I’m taking down Adsense ads.)

Aside from Adsense, many bloggers don’t know where to go next for ads. It’s tough to find which ad companies are legit, and it’s even tougher to figure out how much you can expect to make. I was excited to sign up with BlogHerAds last year because they gave us the pricing structure right up front. No hidden pricing that you have to already be signed up to find out, no sliding scale magical algorithm that makes it impossible to get a straight answer on what you’ll be paid. It’s simple, it’s laid out in the application materials, and it only relies on page views, not clicks.

Which is another thing: advertising that pays only if people click on the ad is not worth it! Companies pay thousands of dollars for newspaper ads and billboards on the highway. Do you think the newspaper is told, “We’ll pay you for the ad you print, but only after 100 of your readers sign up with us because they saw the ad.”? No way, the company would be laughed out the door! You should be paid for having the ad on your site and not based on click-thrus.

During the Professional Blogging panel, I thought about the fact that I don’t know what to charge for ads. What is the going rate? One reason so many bloggers sell themselves short is probably because they don’t know what a good rate is for their blog, worried that if they say something too high, no one will ever approach them again, and if they say something too low, they’ll never be able to make more than that low rate. It’s a topic that leaves many newbies in a panic attack.

It would be helpful if more bloggers shared what their advertising prices are. Of course the rate for a blogger with a high readership will be more than that of someone with a lower readership, but it would be a good place to start. Some now share how much they make from blogging, and I hope this trend will continue.

I learned a lot this weekend about monetizing my blog, and I’m glad I did. It’s looking pretty certain that I’ll be quitting my part time job at the end of maternity leave because the cost of a good daycare equals my monthly salary, and I can’t find any way around that. It may be impolite to say, but we need the money – we’re not poor at all, but continuing to pay all the bills is a Good Thing in the eyes of the credit bureaus. In place of my job, I’ll be focusing my work time on my writing here, on my reviews blog, at Family.com, and maybe a few new places as well. Hey, it’s better than selling everything we own on eBay.

I don’t plan to clutter up my blog with more advertising. Instead, I want to switch to smarter advertising. I want to support smaller companies, run ads that are relevant to my readers and tasteful in design (thank you, BlogHerAds!), and make sure I’m not whoring out my blog for $.05 per thousand views. Because I am worth more than that.

Filed Under: BlogHer, mom blogs, money ·


Jul 31, 2007

BlogHer 07 Musings

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I still can’t quite put together fully coherent posts yet about BlogHer. It was a great trip, and I’m already missing everyone and wish it could have been a week long, although my liver would prefer to keep it at two days. So until a few longer, well-thought-out posts can find their way out of my head and through my fingers to the keyboard, let’s just go with bullets, OK?

  • This being my sophomore year of BlogHer, I attended fewer sessions than the year before. It wasn’t that I was disinterested in the topics – I was actually sorry to miss some of them. But there were so many fabulous women to see, and so little time to do it. Some of these women I saw last year, and really wanted to reconnect. Others were attending for the first time, and I could barely contain my excitement to meet them and put a face to the person I’ve been reading about for so long. I’d link them all here, but every word would be a link.
  • One of the best schwag items: the jump drive from AOL (and it’s a 128, not a 64!). Never turn down portable memory.
  • The momosphere panel had too much to cover in too little time. It was hard to be called on, and by the time they got back to someone, their question was no longer relevant because the discussion had already moved on. We needed either a lot more time, or several panels to discuss the subtopics of privacy, diversity, advertising, popularity, special needs kids, etc. Or maybe we need another conference to really get in-depth on these topics?
  • One of the worst schwag items: the Butterball potholder. Because nothing says, “after your little techie women’s conference, get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich, woman,” quite like a potholder. I tried offering it to a couple of food bloggers, thinking they probably cook more than me, but they weren’t interested either.
  • Bringing Mira to the conference was not the disaster I expected. Yes, I’ve complained she is a colicky baby, but for the duration of the conference she magically morphed into a happy baby. Turns out she may not be colicky – she’s just too cool for us. She was in her element amongst the crowds and ooohing admirers – our little social butterfly. Now that we’re back home, she’s crying more again. Can everyone from the conference please come to our house this weekend to give me a break from the crying?
  • Bringing Cordy to the conference was exactly the disaster I expected. She did OK in childcare the first day, even though they lost her sippy cup. Seriously, folks, the kids stayed in two rooms – how do you lose a sippy cup in two rooms? And after we picked her up, she seemed off. I can’t describe it, but she seemed very not-Cordy as she sulked in the stroller at the cocktail party. She woke up screaming and crying that night, begging to go home. I think she was scared to go back to childcare for day two. So on Saturday Aaron took her shopping on Michigan Ave. and to lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, enduring her meltdowns all over downtown Chicago and at the Children’s Museum. She had a tough time on the drive home, too. Next year, she stays with grandma.
  • I gave out well over half of the business cards I had printed off. Hopefully a few new people will stop by to visit my blog. I’m still sorting my ginormous stack of cards that I received, but I can already tell I will have several new-to-me blogs to add to Bloglines. There are so many amazingly talented female writers out there!
  • Even though I missed out on most of the wild parties, I think I flashed my breasts more than anyone else. Being the social creature she is, Mira learned how to pull off in the middle of nursing to check out the sights, giving everyone else a chance to check out the sight of my nipples.
  • The question I got asked the most by new bloggers (aside from “how old is your baby?”) was: how do you have time to keep up with writing and reading so many blogs without neglecting your kids? My answer was short and simple: become a lousy housekeeper. Also, a little time with Noggin or Playhouse Disney doesn’t hurt, either. I never said I was a perfect mother.
  • Best cocktail party: the second night. Even though it was crazy crowded, it felt so much like the parties from last year. Fun, organic, great music, etc. And special thanks to the Canadian ladies for making sure no tray of food got past me (and to Sandra for feeding me an ice cream sundae when my arms were busy holding a nursing baby!). A hungry breastfeeding woman never misses a chance at food.
  • All of the prep this month for BlogHer, the constant talk about blogging, and dragging him with me to Chicago convinced Aaron to restart his blog. So if you know anyone who likes comic books or superheroes, tell them to check out Underneath the Mask. (He’s my husband, therefore I’m practically obligated to throw in a shameless plug for his blog.)
  • If anyone out there has any pics of Mira or Cordy, could you please send them to me or send me the link? I’d like to see how others captured the girls on digital film.

More to come in the next few days, including my talk with a reporter and my thoughts about selling advertising on mommyblogs (just in case you weren’t sick of opinions on this topic).

And one non-BlogHer note: Cordy’s big evaluation is this Thursday afternoon. At our house. So for this week I must be a good housekeeper – don’t want them blaming our messy house for her problems.

Filed Under: BlogHer07 ·


Jul 30, 2007

I Met My Inner New Yorker Yesterday

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As we were checking out of our hotel yesterday morning, we hit a snag in saying goodbye to the Windy City. While I waited with our luggage cart and Mira, asleep in her carseat, Aaron took Cordy to go get the car, which was parked in a garage across the street. However, he soon returned without the car.

“I can’t get to the car. They won’t let anyone cross the street.”

Sure enough, the street was blocked off by Chicago police, with a few construction workers wandering the deserted street. They were moving steel beams by helicopter, and although I could hear the helicopter, never once did I see it pass over the street.

We waited patiently at first, hoping it would only take a few minutes. During that time, I got to say goodbye to several bloggers as they passed through the lobby, as well as chat with Lisa Stone about the need for a BlogHer Mommy conference (seriously, we need one!). Cordy ran around the lobby, tripping up men in business suits and closing off the revolving door by laying in the entrance of it.

But soon I joined Cordy in a lack of patience. We had been waiting for 45 minutes, and the street was still closed off. Cordy began to meltdown, crying because we wouldn’t let her run in between people’s legs. Mira woke up around this time and started to fuss, too.

Then it happened. Cordy had finally had enough, prompting her to lay down in the middle of the lobby floor and wail. Something in me snapped, and like flipping a light switch, I went from an understanding, accommodating softy to a pissed off mom who wasn’t going to stand for this anymore. I asked Aaron to wait with Mira, while I scooped up my screaming, thrashing toddler and marched outside to the cops.

“How much longer is this going to take?” I yelled over the helicopter noise to one of Chicago’s finest.

“Uh, I don’t know. We thought they’d be done by now. But no one can cross until they’re done.”

Cordy continued her tantrum, wailing right in his ear while I held her tight. I added a little more force to my voice. “No. We’ve been waiting for nearly an hour and I’m not waiting anymore. Our car is over there and we need to get to it. She needs lunch, we have things to do. I don’t have time to be held hostage so someone can move steel beams all day!”

The cop looked a little surprised. His voice softened a bit. “Well, you know… I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t go up that ramp to get your car. After all, uh, they’re not even flying directly over the street…” He walked towards a construction worker and I walked quickly behind him, with Cordy still screaming. After a short conversation, the construction worker gave me a thumbs up sign.

I walked back into the hotel lobby, still carrying the crying toddler, and said to Aaron, “OK, go get the car.”

“But…how did you…”

“Doesn’t matter, just get the car.”

We were on the road within 15 minutes.

**************

And I want to add a quick apology to everyone I was going to party with on Saturday night after the cocktail party. I went back to the hotel to nurse Mira to sleep, and fell asleep myself. Sheesh, I’m old. When I woke at 3am, I figured it was too late to call. (Besides, you want to be careful falling asleep around other bloggers…)

More BlogHer tales to come…

Filed Under: BlogHer07 · Tagged:


Jul 28, 2007

BlogHer 07 So Far

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OK, so I know I’m not updating as much as I did at last year’s BlogHer conference. But when you have an eight week old baby with you in a sling all day long, you don’t have a lot of time for blogging. Not to mention that her supplies took up so much space in my laptop bag that there wasn’t room for my laptop.

Yesterday was an adventure, as we made the six hour drive to Chicago. Thanks to the magic of our newly purchased portable DVD player, the drive was a relatively peaceful one, although I never want to hear the theme song to Little Einsteins ever again. We’re going on a trip, in our favorite rocketship…

Cordy also found other ways to amuse herself on the drive up:


Once here, we checked into the hotel and settled into our room. Due to making my reservations one day too late, the W hotel was sold out, so we’re staying at the Chicago City Centre hotel. Having now seen both hotels, I wish we could pay the extra $20 or whatever a night to get the better hotel. The W Lakeshore is swanky; the Chicago City Centre is your standard cheap bedding, 80’s decor, what is that stain in the bathtub?, don’t-sit-on-the-comforter-naked hotel.

Last night there was a welcome party in the bar of the W. The party quickly overwhelmed the small bar. I must be getting old, because all I could think of was, “Great party, but it’s too dark in here and the music is too loud.” One of the highlights of the evening was watching skeevy businessmen trying to hit on mommybloggers. Sorry guys – they do look hot, but they’re nearly all married with kids.


This morning Cordy woke us up bright and early at 4:50am. This was her first night sleeping in a room with another person, so I think she did pretty well. I tried to sleep a little more while Aaron got up with Cordy, pulling out our new favorite friend – the DVD player – for another episode of Little Einsteins.

While in line at registration, I began seeing so many familiar faces. Lauren, my editor from Family.com, also found me and I joined her for breakfast after saying goodbye to Aaron and Cordy. (Aaron took Cordy to childcare.) After breakfast, there was an attempt at a “speed dating” session to get to know some new bloggers. However, we’re just too chatty a bunch, and there were several snags when people didn’t want to quit talking when time was up.

Once again, the schwag did not disappoint. A very nice Blogher satchel, a laptop bag provided by AOL, a jump drive, nice bath & body products, t-shirts, etc. In the exhibitor’s hallway, there was even more free stuff to be had, as well as great conversations with some interesting sponsors.

How were today’s sessions? I have to admit, I only went to one and a half. Mira was fussy during the first session, so I had to step out to feed her. The second and third sessions were spent running back to the hotel to relive myself of the weight of all the free stuff, then talking to others I ran into in the hallway. It’s so exciting to meet the bloggers you “know” in person, finally putting a face to a name, or laughing your ass off because they’re just as smart and funny in person. Honestly, I care more about getting to talk to the other bloggers here than I do about the sessions. The sessions are still important, but it’s the one on one and small group conversations that make this conference special.

I did manage to sit through the entire panel on mommyblogging. It’s funny – last year’s panel on this subject focused more on getting past the mommyblogger label and the dealing with hate from some non-mommy bloggers. This year, while the issue of the mommyblogger label is still prominent, some of the negativity towards mommy blogs has switched from the “clique-ish nature” of who we are to the debate on the monitization of mommy blogs.

There were many opinions expressed on the topic of making money from a mommy blog, all with very valid reasons for and against running ads, doing product reviews, and participating in other forms of paid advertising. Several marketing and PR professionals attended the panel, and they were given the advice to please take the time to read a mom’s blog before e-mailing her to offer her the chance to try out a product. The issue of PayPerPost was also brought up, with some expressing their dislike for the company.

After the mommyblogging panel, it was time for the first cocktail party on the roof of the Navy Pier. The view of the lake was beautiful, and the alcohol was plentiful. Aaron, having spent the day shopping and sight-seeing, picked Cordy up from childcare and joined Mira and I. Cordy was in a grumpy mood, partially because the childcare service lost her sippy cup (and she’ll only drink from one kind of sippy cup), and partially because we left her with strangers for the day and she did not approve at all. Due to her grumpy mood, which couldn’t even be improved by the adorable Juniper handing Cordy her puppy every time she threw it in frustration, Aaron took her back to the hotel early. I followed about an hour later, after eating my fill of sushi, beef tenderloin, and other delicious morsels passing by me on trays.

Pics of the day:

Mira and Catherine in coordinating pink skulls:


Mira and Sage meet up at lunch:


Drew joins in to check out the ladies. He clearly likes the younger women:

Filed Under: BlogHer07, Mira, mom blogs ·


Jul 26, 2007

I Must Be Insane

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BlogHer '07 I'm Going

T-minus 9 hours until Aaron and I pile in the car, with toddler and infant, and begin the drive to Chicago.

6+ hours in a car, half of our house packed into the back, and one hotel room for the four of us, one of which is a toddler who doesn’t like to sleep in the same room as anyone else.

God have mercy on us.

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Filed Under: BlogHer ·