(This post was in response to the bloggers running around flipping out and was not the original blog post)
Who knew something that started on our FNL about blogger burnout would take the little old blogosphere by viral posting storm today. And I didn’t even try. How disappointing.
Listen up whiny babies of the blogosphere: If your afraid to take a WEEK, a WEEK off of PR blogging, then you have a PROBLEM. Call it an addiction if you will, but you should stop sniffing the free snack cake train ASAP.
The best part, other than being taken completely out of context (hi, jessica knows!), is that I think everyone has proven that it needs to be done. If it didn’t, then no one would get their CNET panties in a bunch.
To prove my point, today a very sad thing happened in my online life. A good friend, Cat from 3kidsandus, quit blogging. She quit blogging because it was too much. Her site now says:
After a lengthy discussion with my husband we’ve (or I should say I) realized that I’m not super-mom. I can’t do it all. I can’t raise our children properly, keep a nice house, have food on the table and the laundry done, I can’t be his companion, I can’t entertain or write daily, I can’t keep up with writing reviews to my standards (which are impossibly high) or keep up with the emails…I just can’t. It’s all become this heavy burden that makes me stare with disgust at the computer each morning when I wake up, pass it by each minute seeing that little “new email” icon beckoning me…it’s become a negative aspect of my life that is draining me physically and emotionally.”
This is someone I have known for a year, that has helped countless women online, and is truly an unselfish and wonderful mother. As much as it pains me, I applaud her for taking back her life.
I only wish she had tried taking her blog back first.
Truthfully, I am waiting for the storm of social media suicide to hit. Meaning that women are so incredibly stressed with caring for their families, their friendships, and now their online reputations, blogs, companies and obligations, that they are at the edge, the brink, of a real disaster.
How many times have you turned away from your husband or your child because you had “one more thing to do” online?
A break, a PR Blackout if you will, may show some mom, even just one, that she can live without the false sense of fake visitors entering her contests. That her turning down a PR release or a product wont in fact put her at the bottom of a bloggy blackball list for the future and her online life wont suffer if she doesn’t fall to her knees every time she receives a request.
By taking out the tirade of hundreds of products from our daily blog lives, we will be actually raising the bar for our content, introducing our blogs to the real us, and ultimately providing a more organic, true platform for all media. We become more real, our audience becomes more trusting, and the the advertising of these products for those that accept them produce more results for the companies overall.
One of the largest complaints media has about mom bloggers is its sugar coating, candy sweet positive reviews with sketchy ethics. This has zero to do with ethics, but more so to do with getting back to the basics. Do you care how I feel about this sling if you don’t know my child? The chances are no. Maybe the ethics are in not accepting all products that cross your path.
No matter, its a positive thing for PR to see less and less products on mom blogs. That way when they are accepted, they are true, they are relevant, and they are just the right balance of advertising and reality. Mom Blogs were so valuable to PR based on the content, based on the closeness a writer has with its visitors. Now I can barely blog hop without every other post being related to a product. Heck, I can barely blog hop because of my obligations to these product reps! Its disheartening to see all the obligation across the net amongst everyone. We are losing A-List talent and good people like Cat every day to this.
It needs to stop.
My point is to take blogs to the NEXT level. To provide what we as blog writers and what we as blog visitors really crave: each other.
Now go dry your eyes with your boogie wipes and jump on the bandwagon. The IRS and FTC will be coming soon to a mom blog near you, so there is never a better time to be part of the challenge.
The real question is, are you strong enough to take the step?
~Trisha
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@ eve:
Eve- Regarding your statement about finding sponsors for your daughter’s birthday – was the concept of sponsoring your daughter’s birthday offered in exchange for editorial on your blog? Would you still be inclined to write negative feedback if you weren’t happy with the products, even though they were sponsors of a birthday party? Does it clearly state in any reviews that you did for these products that they were sponsors for your daughter’s birthday? Did each person who sent you products know that they were items you needed to put on the party?
I understand this is completely off the topic of the original post – but I was just curious as you had addressed ethics in your comment and I feel this is important information. Thank you for your feedback.
Thanks for the affirmation that I am not a BAD blogger just because I haven’t posted in awhile. I always feel guilty when I go for a few days…or weeks. I think this time it has been a couple of months. It is not like I haven’t had anything to say but I HAVE been taking care of other things in my life. I am just starting to get back into Twitter, blogging and other networking stuff this week. No, I don’t have any corporate sponsors and am ok with that. I just blog to help other moms and to kind of have a way to keep up with what we are doing at home.
Proud of you
And I just saw the whiny bitches make baby jesus cry banner on your sidebar. I think it’s horrible that you have something like that up.
This is the first I’ve heard about it. I’m gearing up for the birth of my baby any day now and have been out of the loop. HOWEVER, I will still be posting reviews/giveaways during that week in Aug(unless THAT is when baby decides to come).
My family has ALWAYS come first and I take a break when needed. I usually don’t blog on weekends and I ONLY do reviews on products that I’m actually interested in! I do not say yes to every pitch-not even close. If it is not relevant to my blog and I don’t think I’ll use/like it-I’m going to politely tell them no. I’m not exactly sure what the point of this week is(again, I’ve been out of the loop but have read a few posts tonight)-if any mommy blogger is feeling too stressed-cut back!
Excellent wake up for Mom bloggers like myself. I do find myself absorbed in answering emails and trying to publish at least 5 times a week. It is a full-time job, and couple that with housework, homeschooling, laundry, painting (I am an artist in oils) and everything else, it does have a way of interfering. I have found, though, that if I structure my time each day to certain hours I will spend online working on my blog, and how much time I will spend homeschooling the children, and doing the laundry, and working in my studio, that I don’t find myself all consumed with one thing. Structuring your time is the key to not letting your blog consume your life and take away from every other aspect of your life – which is why Mom bloggers started journaling online in the first place – to connect with others, to share their life stories, to write.
Thank you for your post. It is great!
Susan
Over at “Raisin Toast”
http://www.raisin-toast.com
@ A Cowboy’s Wife: Agree with Lori 100%. And this comes from a person with a personal blog and a reviews blog. Want to know how I have a work/life balance. I say NO. I also have 2 more blogs and I do freelance work and somehow I manage it all. I don’t have to take a week off of PR and I don’t like being called names because I won’t go along with this.
:: wife mom maniac :: wrote:
YET AGAIN, this was NOT what this post was about. This post was in RESPONSE to an article written WRONGLY to a post we wrote and directed at the author and the bloggers who were talking about our children and family and blogs in a very immature and downright MEAN way. This was not the first article wrote, it had very little to do w/ the project.
Seriously. Its getting old.
This is how gossip gets spread over…and over…and over…and wrongly…and wrongly….
But no one wants the real story, no, this is much, much more fun to assume…not to mention we did a VLOG correcting where this blog was directed at for those that missed the whole thing.
I’ve never done any reviews, posted only a couple of very small, grassroots contests and blog as you suggest. However I find it patronizing and offensive to suggest that people who won’t go along with your plan here are too afraid to do so. This reminds me of men writing off women for being hysterical, it’s insulting to women to reduce them down to being afraid, because they don’t agree with you. Lots of great points in this article, other than your insulting introduction.
I have many reviews recently and contests, but I try and balance to two. I still have my regular pictures and funny things my babies say and they I have my more serious reviews. I enjoy what I do and if I feel myself getting overwhelmed, yes, I will take a few days off to just be. It is sad to hear other moms get so overwhelmed, but that was their choice to leave. This is a great post. Have a good “blogging” day
Working in traditional advertising is a much different beast than all things on-line. I spent five years at Hearst battling it out with women who had ice running through their veins (with a few exceptions). The reason I say this is because I truly believe, having had something to compare it to, that the mommy blogging space is entirely different. Never have I witnessed. or been a part of, a world in which mothers help one another to succeed. No hidden agendas here. I am loving being part of this subculture- a place I was completely unaware of just one year ago. For me, it’s about the passion- they say do what you love and you will never work a day in your life. So, if blogging feels like a job or an obligation that’s okay… just choose another path, whatever that may be. Life is way too short not to enjoy the ride.
Bradi
Co-Founder
MyWorkButterfly.com