If you are a member of our forums, or attend our Friday Night Lives, you know we discuss the power of Mom Bloggers in todays advertising, marketing and purchasing world. Before I was a partner here at MomDot, I started my own product review blog, The Not-So-Blog, almost a year ago. I have learned so much this year about all things blogging (mostly to the MomDot Forums credit), and I am quite proud of what I have accomplished in a short time.
The Not-So-Blog is my baby from the ground up, and I love it! I have made some great new friends and formed relationships with many companies who trust my skills as a blogger. Like any review blogger, I come up with a theme for a new giveaway series and pitch several companies to see if they are interested in being featured. Unfortunately, I have run into one company (I guess I am fortunate to only have one) who thinks my little blog is not worth their time.
Let me be clear: I know I am still a small blog in the bloggy sea, and some companies choose to ignore my emails. But, this time, I am insulted. Instead of explaining it all, I will just share the emails…..
May 14: The Pitch
“Hi! My name is Bridgette and I am the author of The Not-So-Blog, a Mom and Baby product review blog. I am currently seeking great Summer products to feature on my blog that my readers (primarily Moms) would love to know about. I would love to feature Radio Flyer’s Ultimate Family Wagon with a product review and/or giveaway. Your website is a great resource for parents! Would you be interested in talking more about this opportunity?
If you would like to see previous sponsor testimonials, please visit:
The Not-So-Blog currently receives approximately 7000 unique visitors a month and 9000-12000 page views a month.
Thank you for your consideration!”
May 19: The Acceptance
“Sure thing! Thanks! Let me know what details, etc. You need.”
May 19: The Explanation
“Thanks so much for getting back to me!
I would love to do a product review with the Radio Flyer Ultimate Family Wagon! My two daughters (ages 1 and 4) would be perfect “guinea pigs!” LOL!
Would you be interested in doing a giveaway of this (or another) item as well? Participants will be REQUIRED to visit Classic Red Wagons and browse the products in order to gain entry to the contest. I can also include any SEO keywords or images you would like in order to promote the contest. As a thank you, I will host your 125×125 button on my sidebar for the month of June.
Thanks again! I know my readers will love to learn about Classic RedWagons! What a great item for summer playdates! “
May 21: Questions
“Please clarify: This would require 2 wagons? Are you going to give one away? Or do I? “
May 21: Answers
“Hi! Ideally, yes, 2 wagons would be best. One would be for the product review shipped to me and the other you would hold on to until the winner is announced. I will forward you the winner info and you could direct ship to them. I anticipate the wagon giveaway to be pretty darn popular on my site, and participants would be required to visit your site and browse the products in order to gain entry to the giveaway. I would run the giveaway for the entire month of June to gain maximum exposure for you. In addition, I would host your advertising button my site free of charge for one month.
On the other hand, if you would like to only run a product review with just the wagon shipped to me, that would be fine as well. It’s totally up to you!
Thanks and look forward to hearing from you! Feel free to ask any other questions you may have!
May 29: The Insult and Counter Offer
“Hi Bridgette,
I’ve reviewed your offer from a marketing & Seo perspective. We see that your home page is a pagerank of 3. Also, a 1-month link to our site will not help us long-term. And since the profit margins are so low (about 7% for us on that item), it is unlikely to help us ‘during’ the giveaway promotion nor be worth it if done in the manner you proposed.
Here’s a counter-offer:
The only way we’d be interested in sending you a wagon for review would be a permanent link on your home page to that item, with the HTML of our choosing for the A/href tag & title text. This would be counted as an incoming link. In addition, we’d like a review, but no giveaway.
Other conditions for doing the above would be:
a) I’d need to see your site stats for 9/08, 10/08, 11/08 and 12/08 . (these are the months we really sell) The # of visitors would be the best number. If you could show a Google Analytics report or similar screenshot, that would be fantastic.
b) We’d like you to post the review in September 2009 and keep it up through 12/31/09.
c) The link on your home page to our site would be permanent, and I could provide you with $40/year for compensation for the link.
With your response, I can approve/disapprove moving forward with a plan.”
May 29: Accepting the Counter Offer
Hi! Ok, I hope I can cover all the bases, but if I skip something, please let me know!
1. I will place your text link on my sidebar for $40/year. Any text of URL of your choice.
2. I will post the wagon review in my “Reviews” section on September 1, 2009. Would you be shipping the product prior to this date?
3. Posts are all permanent on my site. Nothing is deleted. So your links will remain on my site indefinitely.
4. I am attaching a Print Screen of SiteMeter. My blog was started in July 2008, so my stats for Sept-Dec are lower because I was just beginning. As you can see, my stats have steadily increased.
5. My reach goes far beyond the stat numbers you see. I have 730 Twitter Followers, 330 email subscribers, and 160 Facebook Fans. I am a part of several mom blog communities including MomDot.com (I am one of the partners there) which receives 40K-50K visitors a month and has a Google PR of 5.”
June 4: The Rejection
“Hi Bridgette,
After consulting w/ my SEO person, it seems the only thing we’re interested in is paying you $40/yr for a link on your home page to our site. If you’re in agreement, then I’ll have my SEO person write-up the exact HTML code for the link.”
June 4: My Rebuttal
“I am very surprised that your SEO person would rather a static text link on my sidebar rather than a dynamic product review. By placing actual images and a real Mom opinion in front of a targeted audience, Moms are more likely to click on your link and get acquainted with your store. Reviews vs. text links has long been a topic of discussion in the blogging community and it is the general consensus that Moms oftentimes purchase products after reading a recommendation by a trusted Mom Blogger, while a minimal amount ever even click on a sidebar text link.
After searching Google for the following keywords:
wagon
red wagons
classic red wagon
kids wagons
childrens wagons
Classic Red Wagons did not appear in the top 5 pages of the Google results.
I am saddened that Classic Red Wagons does not see the value (to both your sales and SEO keyword ranking) in working with the Mom Blog community. I respect your decision, as I know you are doing what you believe is best for your company.
Text links on The Not-So-Blog with no product review or giveaway are charged $100/year.
Thank you for your time,
Bridgette”
June 7: The insults continue…
“No thanks.
Its just not worth it to send you the wagon. I do feel that $100 per year would be fine for a home page link, if the site were a pagerank of 5…but PR of 3 is only worth $40/yr to me...if you change your mind, please let me know.”
I have not responded. At this point, responding would just be perpetuating the argument, but I feel the need to defend myself and my “worthiness.” My blog is REAL. I am not just some chick out for a free product. I work hard on each and every post and take the trust of my sponsors quite seriously.
I am insulted that Classic Red Wagons, after wasting almost a month of my time, pulls out of the review because (from what I can tell), my Google PR was too low. What about those incredible blogs that the Google Gods have penalized and still remain at 0? This company needs to jump on the social media band”wagon” or be left behind! Major companies think my blog IS worth their time and are getting real results from a simple product review!
I just feel like my blog and I were belittled and I don’t like it.
And for the record: Classic Red Wagons has a PR of 2.
So, now I have to pick myself up and start over. Shameless pitch alert:
I have a spot open in my Summer Giveaway series for any outdoor toys for kids (wagons, sandbox, etc) if any company out there does believe in the power of the Mom Blog and would like a product review or giveaway on The Not-So-Blog, please feel free to contact me!
~Bridgette
Wow – Trisha – thanks for making a new follower feel so welcome! I was the one who posted as Confused and I posted without my name because of experiences I have had on other mommy-blogs. I’ve been following here for about a month and jumping in here and there, but this was the first time I posted against the grain and look at that…just like other places if I choose to take a stance that is opposite of the sympathy you are looking for I get flamed. I guess this place is no different then the dozens of other places you have copied. Makes it easy to remove you from my feed-reader, I won’t be “wasting my time” here anymore.
@ confused:
I am publishing this comment this time, but please know that if you cannot put your name or real email on future comments, there will be no publishing. We do not allow people without the courage of putting thier name and email on a comment to generally remark on anything, because it makes them seem like trouble makers. Either stand up for what you believe in, or dont waste your time on our site.
I’m a bit confused. You asked a company to send you a $170 product (plus their shipping costs which I’m guessing to be about $30) in return for a review on your site. As you and Radio Flyer were hashing out the details it came up that you were asking for TWO $170 products (plus their shipping costs on both) and $40 for the ad and you are mad that you were turned down? I may be the minority here, but I think if they were the ones who started the conversation then I would be miffed when they reneged, but since you were the one who went to THEM asking for free product I’m not sure I can blame them. It sounds to me that once they saw your actual stats for past months they decided that the investment (which seemed to more then double from about $200 to over $400 over the course of the conversations) was too great for the volume your site receives. Most companies have policies on these things and the PR (like it or not) is a huge factor and line-in-the-sand as to where they will spend their money or not.
I’ve let this sit for awhile before getting ready to hit the “magic comment button” and I have re-read the post several times. I keep coming back to the part where you say “I respect your decision, as I know you are doing what you believe is best for your company.” but here you are airing dirty laundry for all to see. I like this site and I just hope you (and other “mommy-bloggers) don’t get burned by this from other companies who see how you do business with potential clients. I’ve already heard rumblings from inside the marketing world that this area of the blog world is not worth it because of the entitlement and the “don’t mess with the mommy’s” attitudes – and this feeds right into that stereotype.
how rude!
Wow Bridgette!! What an ass!! Good for you for posting this and for standing up for yourself. Your blog is worth much more than Classic Red Wagon. There must be plenty of other GREAT companies out there with wagons that would love the exposure from your blog. Its that guys major loss.
wow, he seems like a copmplete jerk! Why not just say he’s not interested, kwim
WOW – They don’t deserve anyone reviewing for them not even a PR 10 blog. I would never consider putting up a review for them now at all!
My response to the company would have only been two words:
FUCK OFF.
Wow Bridgette, this guy sure has no idea what he’s talking about or the true value and worth behind mom bloggers. Clearly he didn’t get the memo about our vocal nature and willingness to spread the word on companies/products…good and BAD in this case.
I am going to update this post tonight, but I just wanted to let you all know that Radio Flyer did contact me to apologize (even though they didn’t have anything to apologize for!) for the issue with Classic Red Wagons. They have offered me a review for the new Ultimate Comfort Wagon! How nice is that?!?
From what I can tell, Classic Red Wagons is not an authorized Radio Flyer affiliate, at least they do not appear on the list at Radio Flyer.
I’m so glad you posted this, Bridgette, but sorry that you had to deal with it. What a waste of your precious time – and it is precious! Writing a good review takes a lot of time and effort. And a positive thorough review would have been worth its weight in gold (and sold wagons.) Their loss.
I ALSO think that stats are NOT the bible as far as figuring out if a blog is a match for their product. It’s a shame they only looked at that. (and even then, your stats are good so it makes no sense)