From the category archives:

bad ideas

Why The Commodification of Victimhood In the Mommyblogosphere Makes Us All Look Stupid

by anna on August 3, 2011

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I’ve noted before that tragedy tends to build mommyblog traffic. Initially, this was something that just emerged as pattern: it was obviously not something that anyone could or would plan for themselves. Now there are many top mommybloggers whose followings were established (at least in part) in the aftermath of some kind of personal tragedy.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this, it’s just something that happens. If you want to get kind of spiritual about it, it might be seen as a way of righting the universe, because it allows these bloggers some means of healing through a connection with others who are in similar situations.

But what is troubling to me is a more recent phenomenon wherein victimhood is being manufactured specifically for the purpose of generating more blogging attention. Here’s how it works: something happens, usually a small thing on the grand scale of suffering. Then the blogger calls attention to the “misfortune” by writing a blog post about it or tweeting about it (or both). The blogger’s friends and colleagues then retweet or repost about the injustices suffered by the blogger. With each additional post or tweet (or Facebook update, or what have you), the original story becomes more and more muddled, and before you know it there are people choosing sides and declaring team affiliations, petitioning for justice for some kind of perceived slight the specifics of which nobody can remember anymore.

I’m not sure this approach to generating attention would be acceptable in any context, but the circumstances in which it tends to occur make it particularly galling. Often it happens because some blog reader has left a comment on a blog that is not supportive. In some cases the comment might actually be rude or insulting — though this is never necessary! it needs only to be slightly unsupportive to work as a possible means of generating support. Other times, it might be a perceived slight somehow relating to parenting choices that occurs in public — somebody has looked sideways at a breastfeeding mother, or somebody was left out of a playdate because she didn’t have the right kind of lululemon yoga pants — and this is turned into an event View definition in a new window worthy of weeks of mobs and torches.

Enough already.

If you choose to participate in this kind of crap, you are encouraging people to act like defenseless children. You are saying that women are not capable of fighting their own battles, that we need to be rescued from the most mundane of everyday conflicts. You are encouraging people to appropriate the misfortunes of others for their own gain, and worst of all, you are trivializing the experiences of those among us who really do need support. Playing the victim is despicable — but assisting people to do so is even worse.

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Is It Even Possible At This Point For Popular Blogs To Die?

by anna on May 13, 2011

It seems to me that web traffic is largely self-perpetuating. Unless you have already existing, independent celebrity to leverage, it generally takes a huge amount of effort and time — coupled with a dash of luck — in order to build a large web following. That first huge mountain is an obstacle that is almost always too large for individual publishers to surmount; however, those that do manage it often are rewarded with regular, nearly self-sustaining traffic levels.

In other words: if Il Duce View definition in a new window stopped posting altogether tomorrow, would her traffic disappear? Or are there so many links out there, interviews and mentions in prominent media outlets, and her established reputation to keep the traffic going in her absence?

I’m not sure, but I think there might be.

Now, if you take a site like ThePioneerWoman.com (who puts out about 4 or 5 posts per weekday), or one of the Gawker Media sites (each of which put out upwards of ten or more posts per weekday), and cut down their output, it stands to reason that their traffic will drop. Those sites are built upon providing lots of useful and/or entertaining content for their readers, so if you take that content away there won’t be much left to hold on to.

Personal blogs are a little different because readers develop a connection to the blog’s author that might encourage them to keep clicking back to see if there has been an update. Still, I believe the same is probably true for more personal blogs who reduce their output — the traffic would have to dip slightly, if not dramatically, over time with decreased output. But what I have never (yet) seen is a blog that has reached over, say, a million pageviews per month to drop back down below that point without the blog being completely shut down and allowing domains to expire.

Who cares? you’re wondering.

Well, because personal blogs are a lot like soap operas in many ways, and without the infusion of new characters and plot lines, a soap opera dies. Nobody wants to watch a soap opera about some character who has become older, less attractive and less prone to sleeping around and causing intrigue. In fact, in the current media climate, it has become increasingly difficult for soap operas to continue even when they do switch up characters and keep things moving. It seems that when there are other choices for shows to watch during the daytime (via Tivo and increased cable options), people finally noticed that soap operas are cheesy and that they mostly suck, and that nobody takes off their earring just to answer the phone.

So do blogs — even very popular ones — have an expiration date? I wonder. Thoughts?

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More Unsolicited Advice On Content Campaigns In Social Media

by anna on February 7, 2011

It was almost a year ago that I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit View definition in a new window in Houston and listened to a keynote address from Heather Armstrong View definition in a new window (Dooce), Maggie Mason View definition in a new window (Mighty Girl), and Gabrielle Blair (Design Mom). Their keynote was excellent. In large part this is why I had been recommending the Mom 2.0 Summit to people who are looking for a more business oriented conference within the mommyblogging space. (Note: I still recommend it for people who haven’t been before, and for whom money is not an object, with some other reservations that are described here. And if you want to buy my ticket for cheap, let me know. Is that tacky? I don’t really care.)

One thing about that keynote keeps sticking in my craw in light of recent events, though. There was a moment during the Q&A in which Heather Armstrong answered a question about the future of monetizing blogs by stating that she did not believe that sponsored posts were “where things were going.” I remember this moment specifically because I had been curious about her take on that particular issue. And yet, here we are not even a year later, and everything is about content campaigns.

Well, I’m stodgy. I don’t like it, and maybe I’m sounding like a broken record, but here’s why.

1. A “content campaign” is still a sponsored post, and everybody hates sponsored posts.

Times change, and the environment changes. I get this. So it’s not 100% surprising that we are seeing more content campaigns plus advice on how best to structure them. While I admit that all sponsored content is not created equally, calling it a “content campaign” does not change what it is. People don’t like sponsored posts — they either don’t read them or they get suckered into reading them by people leaving the disclosure until the end of the post, and then they get mad. Filling up your blog — the valuable product that you own — with stuff like that is a questionable long term business plan for most bloggers.

As I have said before, different niches have different levels of comfort with sponsored content. How many readers you stand to alienate with too many sponsored posts can vary greatly. But if your only plan for monetization is to use sponsored posts, you may find yourself without any value (i.e. readers) left at the end of a busy season.

2. Advertisers do worry about overexposure.

You cannot just throw up sponsored posts all of the time willy nilly, even if this didn’t piss off your readers. Why? Because advertisers do worry about whether or not a blogger is overexposed. They will opt to go with another blogger if they feel that you have been using your space to pimp products too much. The reason they will do this is because every time you use content to sell a product, there is a tiny bit of credibility that is expended. If you use too much up without putting enough back in, you don’t have anything left to sell.

3. There is about a 4000% discrepancy in what bloggers get paid to do the very same campaign.

Now that Clever Girls Collective has partnered with Federated Media for content campaigns, the number of people getting sponsored content deals is much bigger than before. But not all of these deals are created equally — there was a recent content campaign that was advertising a rate of $75 for one post to people in Clever Girls Collective who wanted to apply to be a part of the campaign. But according to my sources, that Clever Girls Collective rate is anywhere from 10 to 60 times lower than what a blogger on Federated Media would be offered for the same campaign. THE SAME CAMPAIGN.

Now, maybe you’re thinking $75 is not such a bad deal for one post? And besides, you’re not with Federated Media, and you’re not big enough to command the rates that some of the bloggers who are represented by Federated Media can claim. This may be true, but remember, when you do a sponsored post, you are not working as a freelance writer — the $75 does not just cover your writing labor. It is the price that is attached to the eyeballs who will be reading the piece on your site. And if those eyeballs get tired of looking at sponsored content, how are you ever going to get to the point where you can command more money?

4. If you must do a sponsored post, broker the deal yourself.

The most egregious thing about the rash of content campaigns, though, is the amount of money that bloggers are leaving on the table by letting other people set up these deals for them. If you want to do a content campaign, sell it yourself and take home all of the profit. Think about what kinds of products come up organically in your blog, make a list, and then go pitch some independent businesses for these deals. Most small business owners are easier to convince on this kind of stuff because they’re looking for new ways to promote, and they often cannot afford what a placement through a big ad network would cost them. If you can come up with a good pitch, send them over a professional looking media kit, and show them how well-targeted your blog is for their product, they will sign up. You might have to email or call a few places before somebody signs up, but you’ll take home so much more money in the end that it will be worth it. Plus, you’ll get experience that you cannot get any other way.

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