As I spend more time obsessing over blogs and jealously enjoying hundreds of amazing sites (that’s good envy ladies, I promise!), I can’t help but wonder what drives all of us to do this. Money? Friendship? Belonging? Self-promotion? Child obsession? Networking? It’s probably a bit of all of those – and more. Lord knows it’s not because we have extra time on our hands!
This entry is a follow-up to a question I was asked in an interview on the Sassy Ladies Radio Talk Show on BlogTalkRadio, where we talked about mommy blogger business models. Here are the highlights on the business side of mommy blogging. I hope that through comments we can get more ideas and explore this further. I’d like to write about the emotional aspects of this later!
The Business Side of Mommy Blogging – “Making It Rain”
First, and completely OFF TOPIC, I have to say that I love the expression “making it rain”. You know… meaning “money being thrown in the air”. If you don’t know where this originated from, see Scrooge McDuck (that’s my version of it). If you want to know how it’s really being used today, ask your husband. Very politically incorrect – but I still love it. ANYWAY…
Back to the business side of mommy blogging. Many moms have decided that staying home doesn’t necessarily mean not finding a way to make money, and some working moms are supplementing their income through blogging. They have successfully monetized their blogs in different ways, here are some we discussed:
Monetizing your Blog
1. Product Reviews - for cash payment, in exchange for the product, or gift cards. I’d tell you everything we talked about, but then you wouldn’t listen to the show! One quick point however:
“I’ve very careful with hyper reviewers. There are some mommy blogging Web sites that will review for review’s sake and you never see a negative review on their site. You do have to tread carefully on some folks’ that are getting into it just for the sake of volume, so that’s my only warning, because I have seen that happen.” - Quote from the interview
2. Affiliate Marketing Programs
Definition: A way for a company to sell its products by signing up individuals or companies (“affiliates”) who market the company’s products for a commission. Read More at Entrepreneurs.com
“I’ll give you the non- official version of this. If you love a product and you use their website all the time, do a search for affiliate program. Most of them have an easy registration form. They give you a special link and every time you mention their product, if someone uses that link, you’ll get a percentage of sales. It could be pennies on the dollar, but if over time you build a following over something, you can end up making money on this and you’re talking about it anyway.” - Quote from the interview
3. Paid Guest Blogging or Article Writing Opportunities
I haven’t had any experience doing this yet, but when done tastefully this can also be a good way to monetize your blog. I’ve seen it done on some of the blogs I follow, and find the articles or reviews to be very in-depth and useful, even if I know the blogger is being paid to do it. Most bloggers are transparent about the fact that they’ve been hired to write the entry, which is also admirable. Many businesses are engaging bloggers this way to get inbound links (for SEO juice) but hey – we are all trying to find ways to win against the Google machine.
I recommend that mom bloggers interested in this program check out Business2Blogger.com. It was set up by mommy bloggers just like us, and is a very well run program. I plan to use it for both my blog and on the corporate side as well.
I’d love to hear from companies that offer mommy bloggers other opportunities for monetization and we will add you to our blogroll! Please share any other ways that you might be monetizing your blog so that we can learn from each other’s experiences.
I want to thank Wendy and the ladies from TheSassyLadies.com for helping women entrepreneurs attain success through their advice and mentorship. Also, check out the new book by The Sassy Ladies titled: The Sassy Ladies Toolkit for Start-up Businesses, a great resource for new and experienced business owners.
Hi there – found your blog after we started following each other on Twitter (thanks, BTW) and just had to respond to this article about the monetization of the Mommy Blog. I have earned a whopping $39.78 from Adsense since starting to blog. I see that number and I find something meaningful in it’s smallness. It means I sure as shit do not blog for money! I think I blog for two reasons – as a confessional writing exercise, b/c I am after all a writer, and oh – I have forgotten what the other one was because I have Mommy Brain. Anyway see you on Twitter!
Hi! Oh I couldn’t agree more… we should do a co-blog together on the definition of mommy brain!!!! What d’ya say? Tx for the comments. I agree re: monetization. Mom’s that are in it to make money do an amazing job! Those of us that are doing it as an expressive outlet and to meet people can, at best, hpe adsense pays for a quarterly manicure. Oh wait, I don’t have time for those anymore! LOL… see you Twitter!
Just came across your blog tonight after you started following me on Twitter (Thanks btw). Have to admit I still don’t know why I blog, but I do, and am preparing to start a 2nd one soon, as soon as I decide where to host it at (any opinions welcomed).
Just wanted to say hey, and I’ll be dropping back by often, of course assuming Dads are welcome too! ;-)
Hi Michael – dad’s are MORE than welcome! I think dads that blog are even cooler and braver than moms! My husband has such a different view on parenting; I like to be able to get in dad’s heads to get a better sense for fatherhood! Please pass along your new blog as soon as its ready. I am going to start a blog roll of anyone that visits often and comments… I”ll put your link up soon. Just trying to figure out a way to make them follow links first, but I don’t think WP lets me do that. Sad. As far as hosting goes, here is a link I just found and I”m trying to make the same decision: http://wordpress.org/hosting/ I think the follow/no follow thing is what is pushing me to self-host. YOUR thoughts Geek dad would be appreciated too! Also, as a GEED dad, I’d like to get your opinion on a product – would you be open to that?
Thanks for this post! GREAT information! I always feel smarter after I read your blog! :)
Denise, that was SO nice of you to say. I’m glad some of my work related stuff can be useful to moms too!
Hey!! Thanks for the shout out!
I’m so glad you mentioned how we’re founded by bloggers! That does make things more fun, doesn’t it? :)
Jamie: I think your model is really interesting, and the reason I promoted it is BECAUSE it was started by bloggers. So many businesses are just trying to get “into” the mommy blogging space without truly understanding it. You are trying to solve a genuine problem for us! And we appreciate it!
Exactly! We have all had calls from those people just trying to abuse the mommy-ness of our blogs or whatever the heck else they wanted. B2B is more about finding really solid relationships with bloggers that “get it.”