On Friday Night Live this week we dissected and discussed what we are affectionately calling “bloggy burnout.’ After a lengthy 90 minute conversation with bloggers around the web, we came to one conclusion:
Mom Bloggers are simply doing too much.
With the allure of giveaways, reviews, and blog trips, Mom Bloggers have turned from what they love the most, their family, into working directly as public relations for their captive audience. It boils down to knowing your worth and then standing up for it.
While we adore many of our fabulous PR reps and treat them like bloggy friends, our site, and many others, are inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of product requests each year resulting in massive obligations and deadline stress equivalent to what the General Motors CEO must feel every time he drives into work. We watch our blog friends strive for the next big review or the next big giveaway, but all the while practically losing
MomDot is challenging bloggers to participate for one week in August in a PR BLACKOUT challenge where you do not blog ANY giveaways, ANY reviews, and Zero press releases. In fact, we dont want you to talk to PR at ALL that whole week. We want to see your blog naked, raw, and back to basics. Talk about your kids, your marriage, your college, your hopes, your dreams, your house and whatever you can come up with for one week.
We will host a linky during that week for you to link up every post you do. We will also provide some topic suggestions for each day of the week to get your blog blood flowing again.
We feel this is an important challenge to show mom bloggers that what they are doing, the stress they feel, the deadlines, the time away from their family, it has to be worth it. So grab the picture, link to MomDot for PR BLACKOUT week and COMMIT to blogging for YOU and about you for one week this year.
Let us know if you will be participating along side us. We have scheduled it far enough in advance for you to wrap up all your current obligations and look forward to meeting more of our audience, sharing more of our personal selves, and having the TIME to be much more involved with our own community.
~Trisha
I’m in!! GREAT idea!
I’m in. I have only done one giveaway on my site, and it’s for something I was excited to share.
I’m certainly not in the same category as some of the other bloggers I’ve seen, but I’ll commit to it since it’s a great cause!
I found this post via Kim at Hormone-Colored Days, and I have to say amen. I’ve always been very cautious about letting PR creep into my blog. I don’t do giveaways and I keep reviews to one every month or so. Not because I think it’s evil, but because I don’t think that’s what my readers want.
If I’m going to back a brand, it’s going to be MY brand. Me. Marketing Mommy.
When your hobby begins to feel more like a job because of all the deadlines you have and people banging on your inbox… I think its time to have the break.
This is supposed to be fun, and while it still is, it’s also extremely stressful at times.
YAY! For the PR Blackout! I’m all over it!
I am all over this!
i’m so in this also!
I’m in!
I’ve already let go of BlogHer Ads. I think it’s a great organization but it was too stressful for me, they wanted too much control.
I think its a great way to step back and breathe. A vaca can clear you mind and re-evaluate. You can decide to step back, change their course of action, continue on…whatever….any way you look at it you will be able to be more effective after even for PR.
I can say that YOU are most definitely on the right track whatever the hell anyone wants to say. I know you are not only taking a act helping many breather for yourself but in fact helping many hundreds of other bloggers that participate in PR.
As part of this community for just a very short time, I admire your intentions and desire to help people not only in this way but in the way you give back and support. The way you have donated money you have received through ads etc and through Bloggers Give.
You are amazing. Screw the a-holes that don’t understand. They never will.
Here’s part of the way I’m trying to prevent Bloggy Burnout: http://angiemarion.blogspot.com/2009/07/public-relations-representatives-simple.html
Look… I’m a single mom. I work FT. My son begins football practice on Aug 1. I will not have as much time for blogging. It’s WORK. and I never though it was like that. But… I love it. I love blogging, not just doing reviews. I’ve blogged for almost 2 years before I started doing review. So I feel ya… but I probably won’t take part in the Blackout.
I’m in! I think it will be a great break. Thanks Trisha!
I’m not PR friendly except entering an occasional giveaway, so you can always stop by my blog for the real deal, my online journal and carefest.
Christy wrote:
OMG. Its NOT to fix a problem, its to HELP bloggers…and yes, one week can help someone. Just like a vacation. To clear your brain, to get back to something normal and feel normal. No one is asking anyone to participate that doesnt want to.
This whole thing is completely out of proportion and ridiculous.
I think its very very sad we are not SUPPORTING THOSE THAT WANT TO PARTICIPATE, rather then chastising their reasons why they feel its a good fit.
This is making me no longer wanting to work with PR ever again.
One week isn’t going to fix the problem, it’s only a Bandaid. People need to stand on their own two feet. If it’s too much for them now, it’s going to be too much for them after the PR Blackout is over.
I can hardly find words to express 1. how grateful I am that you stepped up and suggested this and 2. just how IN I am. I recently had an email exchange with a PR rep who felt the need to tell me exactly why she was no longer sending me products to review, including quotes from emails I sent her LAST YEAR. As I sat there thinking about how upset I was, I realized that I was giving my power away.
I started MomReviews because I liked telling people what I thought of stuff, and thought it would be fun to have a site just for reviews. And then the emails started. And kept coming, and coming. I’m now at a point where it’s no longer fun, it’s a race to keep up. I NEED A BREAK.
AND…I also realized that I have never taken the time to tell my MomReviews audience anything personal about myself. Why shouldn’t they get to know me and my family? I think a week of posts that are not PR-driven would be fantastic!
You’re coming to BlogHer, right? I know it will be hard to find people in the massive crowd, but I’m going to do everything I can to find you so I can thank you personally for this!
Christy wrote:
Chirsty, i think your missing the point. This isnt a PR block. Its a one week bloggy vacation. Until your bombarded by 100 emails a day all that will email you back if you dont respond, you cant understand the intense feeling of trying to please everyone, including yourself. It gets lost in the shuffle of the bigger picture and accepting one thing and then it brings on 4 more to email you, etc.
I personally DON’T accept a lot, you can see that if you look around, but i also know way too many that experience the stress of saying no, hte competition, and the keeping up with what they have to do vs what they want.
No one is asking people to QUIT pR.
Its ONE WEEK PEOPLE. ONE WEEK.
I’m sure this is going to come off way more harsh than I mean it, but I’m going to say it anyway… You all have let it get to the point of being miserable and exhausted. You have the ability to say no, you need to use it. Don’t blame your “bloggy burnout” on PR, take accountability of your own actions.
I’m in too and frankly I can’t wait! I love PR people and I love trying out new stuff but man am I swamped. I rarely have time to write anymore about anything other than product reviews/giveaways etc unless I’m participating a meme.
Thanks for giving us our blogs back for a week! Now I have to think about all the things I’d like to blog about but haven’t!
I’m in too. I can barely post about my own life let alone other’s products
Let me first start of by saying that I am in a different category than most others here (I think)…I am a mom blog & review site, so I am not your typical mommy blogger.
But that being said I am all for taking back your blog if you feel that you have gotten overwhelmed and if it is a decision that makes YOU happy. Authenticity to yourself, your site, and your readers should come before everything else.