(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
@ Christy:
Until you are as heavily inundated as our community is with pitches and bloggers that are burned out, its very hard to understand the point from which the challenge began.
The fact is that MomDot has always been and remains a steadfast supporter of all bloggers and PR alike. We actually run an ethical blogger program and a VIP program that connects bloggers TO PR, from newbies to experienced.
But its with over 100K posts on our forum where we noticed a trend in deadlines and stresses and through a recent radio show we did where callers and chat room talkers talked about that stress they are under…very much like work stress.
We created a vacation program for a week for OUR community, which was taken out of context. This post is not a ‘lash out’ but a response to the article that was written and completely misconstrued whereby the author brought in the FTC, etc which had nothing to do with our challenge.
The goal remains the same….providing bloggers that do not want to post or feel obligated to post about PR a week off. Its not a blackball, we are not asking bloggers to quit products, we are not asking bloggers to never talk again about their favorite things or run giveaways, but its rather to support those that want to get back to something more personal and grow on that for a WEEK.
If you read the original post, you will see our intent was to have fun, but unfortunately in dealing with the internet gossip and paparazzi for a day completely pissed us off and now we are ready to defend our community, the very one that supports and needs the break.
BUt we are SO glad it has gotten the internet talking if its a conversation that needed to be had.
~Trisha
Wow, what a conversation. Mummy blogging is just taking of in the UK and thank god we have you to learn from. You can read about the UK verison here: http://tinyurl.com/kobe6u
I’ve been blogging for years and I’ve found that blogging means something a little different to everyone, depending on their lifestyle and what they are into. For me, as a parent, it’s about my family… I blog because I want to retain memories (and let’s face it, with five kids… I can barely remember my NAME most days, so I NEED a record of these things – in writing LOL) … I blog because I enjoy it. I think when the fun starts to go missing, something is wrong. When blogging becomes a stressful chore and starts feeling more like work than play, then it’s gotten out of hand.
I don’t mind accepting a product here and there (don’t mind, shoot… I love free crap!) but I wouldn’t accept anything that I wouldn’t have bought in the first place, and I can’t see letting ad/promo posts overtake my purpose in blogging. I have my menu plans, recipes, reviews, etc on a completely separate blog on my site. I think it’s all in efficient and effective balance. As mothers, we are obviously going to have some power of persuasive influence over the product purchasing decisions of our friends – if we’ve tried something and they trust our opinion, they are not going to spend money on something we’ve told them sucks. SO, yeah… reviews can be hot for companies while affording us the opportunity to try something without buying (sweeeeet) but when our whole world begins to revolve around that, well … then we’re not just blogging moms anymore. We’re product whores and review bunnies.
I guess all of that is to say this: I call myself a mommy blogger because I blog with the purpose of sharing things about my kids… my family… my life – and all the ups and downs – of parenthood. If ever I get to a point where I am so focused on a product review or scoring a company sponsorship that I am missing out on experiencing what’s going on in my own house, something is WRONG. It is then that I would have to agree that it is definitely time to step back and recognize the signs of addiction. I mean seriously, we’re all at least semi-intelligent and … wouldn’t you call a crackhead a crackhead? I hate that Cat is calling her blog quits (although I honestly don’t know her) but at the same time, I applaud her and give her MADD kudos for taking control of her life and not only knowing what’s best for her family but DOING what she feels is best, even though I’m sure it’s not the most pleasant thing…
Oh, and just for the record, before anyone goes super-sensitive on me… NO, I wasn’t calling anyone a freakin crackhead.
Kat @ For the Love of Chaos
I said this elsewhere, but I’ll say it again here. Not all bloggers who do reviews have let their content slide or gotten caught up in a PR storm. I support you in unplugging for a week, but don’t appreciate the suggestion that those who don’t are scared or weak. Perhaps some of us have been able to find a balance in our lives. Many newer bloggers get little to no attention from PR anyway. How does it help them to avoid product reviews and giveaways? I get the idea. But I think that the blame and focus is falling in the wrong spot. It doesn’t matter whether you blog about politics, food, products or family. If you can’t maintain a reasonable balance in your life and you can’t walk away at the end of the day, you’re going to get burned out. Rather than an anti-PR/product week, why not a back-to-basics day where we all just post about something that inspires and refreshes us? Anyway, I’m sorry you are feeling personally attacked and have decided to lash back out at the blogosphere in general, but sometimes people don’t agree just because they don’t agree. This isn’t a sorority or a club. We’re individuals with a helluva a lot of different opinions and ways of getting things done. Enjoy your blackout week! I hope it rejuvenates you. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, which may… or may not… involve PR and/or products.
I applaud the big time Mom blogs! You are the type of blogs that I found first once I got on Twitter. I thought that my little blog of putting out a recipe that no one read was the real deal. Then I met up with some of you big blogs and I realized there was more that I could do and more fun to be had and moms like me to meet and and and!
I have a 2 baby blogs and they will always be that way. If I get products I will review them. If I don’t then I won’t. I’m not into popularity contest on who has more followers or who can get more things to review and giveaway.
I’m also not into bullying…. being that online or in real life. If someone wants a week off then do it! If someone doesn’t want one off well then don’t take it. We don’t want companies running our lives nor do we want other mom bloggers to run our lives!
I’m very grateful for all the things I have learned in the blog world. If the Gov takes over then it will be because we let it happen.
Good luck to all who blog. If you are overwhelmed step back! If you aren’t create a balance so you don’t get that way! If you need a vacation don’t assume everyone should take one at the same time you do.
Susan
Well I’m still fairly new to blogging & have not entered the product reviews yet. I’ve had a few come my way, but I turned them down, because I don’t want my blog to be filled with reviews. I want it to be more personal. Over the past couple of months, I have focused on dangerous teen trends (some of which my daughter experienced)& I have gotten good response. And I might make some bloggers mad, but personally I hate visiting a blog just to find reviews, give-aways & not much else. I’m more interested in blogs where the blogger shares their experiences, life, etc. But that’s just me.
Wow, great post. My blog is my online coffee klatch, not a business. I have a job and it’s a challenge to balance it all.
@ Jenn:
For us “newbies” compared to you, its going forward from where we started, for you experienced, its going back. Either way, its a great thing.
Actually, after reading your thoughts and feelings about this, I have to say it sounds more like you are trying to take blogs back to “old school” blogging rather than “taking it to the next level” in many ways.
Those of us who have been around a while (since ’03 and before) have been watching this with interest and wondering when a cry would go out to get back to authentic voices and reality in our blogging.
PR or no PR, I read blogs to hear authentic voices. I miss that. It’s all about balance. Plain and simple. Find the balance and you will find your authentic voice.
@ A Cowboy’s Wife:
You are right. And that is what we originally said…till we got bombarded, tweeted, unsupported, gossiped, and written about in about 101 ways that were not part of our original “challenge”. Then i got mad.
But one thing I can say is that mom bloggers HAVE power or this never would have been talked about…PR is skerred, bloggers are skeered.
Who cares…i could talk about life all day long. I dont need a giveaway.
I think that if people need to take a timeout from PR stuff then they’ve forgotten what the heart of their blog is and need to focus on that more (unless it is a review blog only).
Quality will always matter more, not quantity. .
If you’re getting overwhelmed with pitches, etc….there’s a simple fix.
Just.Say.No.
I am ready to take it to the next, and the next level. I. Am. Ready. Now!
MMM I think some of your points are a bit harsh. But whatev. It’s funny to me that bloggers even ACCEPT pr crap that they don’t even like! How funny. I seek out companies that I love products from! I would hate to review something I didn’t like, and even blog about liking it only to lie! Helllllls NO!
Until one experiences blog burnout by trying to keep up with the blogging whims of the time, they will never get it and never be shaken back to the core of that place of where and why their blog first started. I think it’s all a part of the evolution of blogging and if one has never been there, one is not growing their blog (and I don’t mean traffic). Those of us who have been taken through these different stages of blogging truly understand the point you tried to make AND can understand without taking everything you said out of context. Some might argue that if we knew what we were doing when we started that this would never have to happen. I prefer a been there, done that kind of blogger myself. That’s REAL.
Well put! I started blogging to fill my time; NOT for it to become a real source of income; and I intend to keep it that way. My blog is just that – a blog – not my job, not my income, nothing. I turn my computer off when the Husband gets home and it doesn’t turn back on until the next morning. I pray that all mommy bloggers out there can take back their blogs, and not have to feel so dependent on it! Control your blogging before it controls you.
yeah, I guess I compare myself to a lot of blogs but forget that I don’t post reviews unless they are products that I truly can not live without…my readers come to read my life stories and my drama…and it’s fine that way…hey, I can only make ME happy and if I come across something that I love and I can share that then I will but for the most part, I am not in the “mom blogger” category to begin with.
I will miss Cat sooo much…she was such a sweetie
Wow,get out of my head. I wrote something similar a week ago!! I’ll miss Cats blog.
that is sad that she has left- I don’t know of her
I think for me personally I have stopped blogging as often as I use to. I was doing it for myself and I loved that I was meeting new people who cared about reading my blog and about my family, I cared about theirs and read their blogs. Then it seemed like the PR rave hit and I stopped reading a few blogs because all the posts seemed to be a review of some sort. Then came all the giveaways- bloggers bouncing from one blog to another trying to win something new- the community was lost. I am guilty of leaving a comment just to win and knowing nothing of the blogger- the family-etc. Who doesn’t want something free? I don’t think there are as many people out there just reading blogs about families anymore. 
I know I don’t have as much time to do it all. I have lost several readers- whether I even had any or not. haha Comments are gone. Maybe my blog is boring. But maybe its because I don’t do giveaways and that’s the sign of the times? I spend way too much time online as it is- I couldn’t imagine if I were doing reviews too. But then I see these moms making $1000′s a month in just ads, reviews, etc..and I want in on the action….but then really at what cost?
I just think back just even 5 years ago when I started blogging- the internet was such a different place!
Good post!
Well said! I have a few things to get done but I will be joining the blackout. I will so miss Cat!
Matt Churchill wrote:
Matt, could you please immediately move to the US and start spreading your company’s philosophy throughout the PR world here?
But, honestly, what you said about PR companies needing some time to transition into more relevant social media practices makes sense. We moms are just used to moving at breakneck speed and need them to catch up a little quicker, you know what I mean?
I began my blog with a pseudonym and under the radar because I needed to get things off my mind without the hang up that comes with “knowing” who was reading it. After almost a year, I have “met” some incredible people and am blessed to have some faithful followers – I also found myself censoring to keep them happy. I stopped.
It’s not that I’m rude or mean, I just like to go with the op/ed angle on current events, which can turn off some people. I can’t even imagine trying to keep advertisers, give-away companies, etc. happy in the process as well.
I’m not familiar with Cat’s blog, but I hope that after she takes a step back, she can return with a clearer vision. And with a whole less stress. No fun.
I think it’s really sad that a blogger, be they a Mom blogger or a tech blogger, should stop writing because they feel too overcome by the amount of work or hassle that their blog has become.
A blog should be a place where you can rationalise your thoughts, ask questions, help and be helped, share cool new things (be they products or websites), but more than all of these things: it should be fun!
I am a PR in the UK – i work in the social media team, so a lot of my time is spent reading blogs and getting to know the communities within and around them, and it is often the case that parents/Mom bloggers will be relevant to a client.
We don’t aimlessly fire out press releases for irrelevant products. We try and build relationships and help our clients to add value to communities; be that blogs, forums or on Twitter.
A blogger shouldn’t be driven to stop blogging because of press releases and e-mails from PRs taking them away from other aspects of their lives, especially family. I blog, every day if I can, and I would hate to have that taken away because of an influx of badly targeted press releases. Indeed, i’ve had a few, and I can only guess at what the frustration of getting these on a constant basis must be like.
There is a big educative process and discussion that needs to occur, and it is occurring, within the PR industry to change the old ways of communicating. Unfortunately, and I’m not trying to make excuses, this will take time.
I hope that Cat will eventually return in some way to the blogosphere, even if it is in the form of writing a guest post from time to time, and that she will find it a more manageable experience as PRs take on board the blackout action you are all taking.
Well said Trisha. I applaud you for taking a stand. BRAVO!
I’m guilty as charged too. It’s hard to wear so many “hats” and expect everything to get done ASAP. I’m a mother, wife, business owner, freelance writer & photographer, blogger, friend, daughter, neighbor… I’m a little bit of everything and it’s easy to get spread too thin and then what happens? Your health suffers. You family suffers. You quality of life suffers. Heck, even blog posts suffer because you don’t have the time or energy to get it all done, and done well.
I’m not taking any of the negative comments people leave about the “Blackout” to heart. The only people who leave the negative comments are people who have NOT walked a mile in our shoes. We are human beings…we are not robots. And considering we do a lot of what we do for free it’s unfair for people to expect things to do be done ASAP.
You are my hero! Thank you for giving the rest of a us a voice.
I am absolutely with you on the aspect of relevant content! I’ve been blogging about my family for more than 3 years, but with more offers from companies for product reviews, earlier this year I started a new blog expressly meant for reviews. I kept it open for about two months before I realized that it just didn’t work for me. The equation is this: ME + MY FAMILY = daily experiences that may happen to include the use of some products for review. You simply cannot put the product first, *then* try to figure out how it relates to my life. I will not be removed from the equation of my own blog! I won’t lie – sometimes I overwhelm myself with obligations. But that’s MY doing, and I need to suck it up and keep making those tiny course-corrections to keep my blog on track. If some “mom bloggers” feel like you are incorrectly speaking for (or about!) them, then so be it. But a lot of us are hearing/feeling your message loud and clear, and painfully honest though it may be, I think many of us will thank you for it!
Now I don’t feel so bad that I’m not on Twitter much more than my automatic blog updates. I save Facebook pretty much just for family and friends. You won’t find my blog there. As for my blog itself, yes I’ve done some reviews, and I’ve turned some down too. I’m not going to review a product I can’t use in my life. I don’t need more stuff to lay around my house. But if it’s cool and myself for my family would like it, then yeah, I’ll consider your pitch.
I may or may not participate in the blackout. I already mostly post for me, so it’s not PR I’m burnt out on.
Trisha, I couldn’t agree with you more. A Blackout is just what I need.
Thank you! Someone had to say it. Glad you did. Not that I needed your permission but jeez it’s crazy. My life went topsy turvy a couple of months ago. I stopped doing reviews on my review blog. No explanation just haven’t sought anything out. And thankfully nothing has come my way recently that I’ve had to turn down. My other blog, well that’s another story. I feel committed to “her”. I haven’t been chatty lately with that one either. I’m working on finding a balance.
Thanks Trisha.
I have to say I totally agree with you. We really need to stop and think about our families.
On the topic of PR and all these product reviews – how effective are they really when all a blogger posts is product reviews? Where is the relationship the PR company is seeking to help promote their product, there is NO relationship. I’m tired of seeing mommy blogs where all there is, is a new pitch everyday. I don’t read those blogs, and honestly their reviews don’t necessarily make we want to buy something.
I think having only product reviews on a blog is a bad business plan, period. Call me old fashioned but I like blogs that provide me with a nice story to read, a learning opportunity, or a word of encouragement. Those are the bloggers that have developed a relationship with me and have more of an INFLUENCE over my life, including what products I may or may not buy.
I agree that we need to do what makes us happy. I have decided to do things on my own schedule. I got tired of always thinking I HAVE to get this post up today. Or what? The world will stop? No it won’t. The world keeps on turning, our families keep on growing, life goes on!
I am soooo sad to loose Cat. She was such a great woman and her presence will be missed online. I started blogging because I wanted the relationship with other women. I got caught up in the hype and worked my butt off for a $3 product. Now I am realizing that that isn’t worth my time. I still love introducing my readers to new things, or things I find useful, but I am a lot more picky.
I understand that we need a break. And that’s all this PR blackout is about. A short break. One week. It’s something I’ve already been doing a lot of. I love working with PR, but even they get vacations! Since I’m not at a desk with set hours, this is my vacation. I might still be around, but I’m not open for business for one week. It’s very reasonable for everyone to take a vacation now and then.
Well, said! Brava!
I just recently started blogging and have loved Cat’s blog and she has helped me out as well. I can see how all the reviews would be draining. When I started hopping around,it was hard for me to find actual posts about life through all the reviews and giveaways. Yes, I think reviewing some really good products is a great thing for us…but reviewing EVERY product out there that may possibly fit into someone’s life – not necesarry.
I’m absolutely sick that Cat is leaving our community. And I know that the PR reps aren’t going anywhere because of a blackout. And I know that bloggers everywhere are seriously considering their objectives right now and for that Brava Trisha!
Oh my, I hadn’t seen that Cat quit blogging. That is so sad to hear. I can’t comment on her site but I wish she would have just quit the reviews and giveaways and just given us a weekly post about her life. Maybe if bloggers have higher standards for what products they accept they will be compensated fairly.
I’ve only done 2 giveaways and honestly unless I get a fantastic product offer I’m not going to bother with more. It takes so much time to list them and hope people enter. I find it hard to keep up my blog and I’m sure I only have a small percentage of the visitors, comments and e-mails that Cat and other bloggers have.
I am sad to see Cat go, she has been a great online friend and helper. And to some extent I agree here, the major backlash that this has caused is rediculous…but funny to some points (heck I even wrote a post about it, but that was to promote authenticity rather than pull down people or sites). I don’t think that CNET knows jack about what they are talking about since they didn’t even bother to look at you and the site to know that you are a huge helper to bloggers and have been quite helpful to me.
I am all for mom bloggers taking back their own site if that is what they want to do…if they feel that things have gotten out of hand then they need to be able to sit back, re-evaluate and move forward in a path that works for them…if that makes taking time off from PR so be it, if that means scheduling a personal day so be it, and if that means doing whatever else…so be it. Whatever is right for YOUR blog…and for YOU and YOUR family.
I commend you on getting the issue out there…bloggy burnout shouldn’t be happening and people should feel a slave to anyone but themselves (and their kids/family LOL). You are getting the idea out there that people need to concentrate on what makes THEM happy on THEIR site rather than being a slave to what everyone else is doing.
Very well said Trisha!
Bravo! Such a well worded post. I too am saddened by the lose of Cat. She was a huge help to me and I will miss her comments and posts.
well said, I will not be in the PR black out this time, I have a event planned that week already for my daighters first birthday blog bash- yes, I have found sponsors to sponsor my daughters birthday party!
As for ethics, if I get a product from a company that is not up to par, I will either say so or not write anything about the company at all, depending on what was wrong with the item. Period, if I don’t like it I am not going to say I did just because they sent me a free one, heck, if I don’t like it- take it back!!
I’m not a review blogger, but I can imagine how worn out the reviewers much be! I’ve done just a handful of reviews and giveaways on my blog and have found it to be seriously draining. I completely agree 100% with this post. If anyone is feeling burned out, a week “off” would be nice. I would hate to see anyone else get to the point of shutting down their blog. Blogging is supposed to be fun, ya know?
Amen Trisha!
Guilty as charged! I don’t have a Mom blog, but I am a Mom and a Blogger and a WIFE & a Website Designer, do SEO, Chamber member, friend, cat owner, gardener….. on and on… and the internet has a way of dragging you in to the detriment of your family sometimes. Good wake up call!