I have been talking a lot about the topic of money and pay for mom bloggers lately. There are a few things that have been aggravating me about the mom blogging scene, but one major one is the perception that mom bloggers work for free (or should).
Many mom bloggers I know are brilliant. They know the ins and outs of social media, Twitter, Facebook and blogging far better than many other so-called gurus do. They are connected, and they are influential. They have a following of loyal and devoted readers, subscribers and social network friends.
Yet they get asked to work for free. They are free spokesbloggers. They get asked to promote companies without pay, or for products or for coupons or for trips.
It’s insulting.
Look, here’s the deal. Mom bloggers do not need companies to not make money. We can do that all on our own. Really. If you are approaching a blogger, asking her to promote your company for free is wrong. It’s as simple as that. If you can say with a straight face that your paycheck is paid in your company’s or client’s products, then please. Call me on this.
We get asked constantly if people can “pick our brains.” No! Our brains are our commodity. They ARE our service. That is called consulting. And moms, if you find you are on the end of this, figure out your hourly rate. Figure out what it is worth to take time away from your work, your blogging, your children and your husband.
When you get asked to have your brain picked, quote your hourly rate for that service.
Now I do understand that many times it is tempting. You see an opportunity to work with a major brand. You think working for free will lead to more work. I do understand that. But it is a slippery slope. Why should someone pay you (or anyone for that matter) for work you are doing for free?
Accepting an item to do a review (if you really want to do that review and it serves your readers) is fine. I would just recommend having a policy of including both pros and cons in all reviews. A review should serve readers first and foremost. Any company that doesn’t understand that? Well, I wouldn’t work with that company. Believe me. They are not insisting traditional journalists do positive reviews. Mom bloggers can and should write reviews that show both the negative and positive about products.
And ladies, I am here to say something else. We have to behave like professionals. If we want to be treated as small business women, which is what we are, we should act like entrepreneurs. No more attacks and back-stabbing. We are adults here.
That includes not judging and condemning fellow mom bloggers. Yes, even those who accept products and trips. They are not bad people. Let’s stop jumping down their throats about it. Because the bottom line is surely every mom blogger would work for pay if there were ethical ways to do it, it did not compromise their readers and they actually wanted to do the work involved. But first, companies have to offer it as a standard mode of doing business with mom bloggers.
How can companies ethically pay mom bloggers? Here are some simple options:
I have become increasingly concerned about all of these issues. So many mom bloggers are influence-rich but cash-poor. That is a disturbing disparity. It’s also one destined to blow up as moms get increasingly frustrated while getting increasingly influential.
Let’s all do the right thing here. Companies (and the agencies that represent them), if you want to show your support of the mom blogosphere and engage those of us who control the purse strings, put your money where your mouth is. Bloggers, if you want to be taken seriously act like a business person. And the next time you get a pitch and you are agonizing over whether it even interests your readers, send them your ad rates.
Image of Rosie the Blogger, © Michael Licht
I really would welcome your thoughts on this topic. What do you think? If you have worked for a company without pay, why? Was it because you thought it would lead to paid work down the road? Did it? Have you had any luck responding to companies with an invitation to advertise when they pitch you? Companies and agencies, have you been paying bloggers and have some good examples of projects?
I am a writer/blogger, SEO diva, foodie, social network maven/creator, travel junkie and former investigative newspaper reporter turned new media mom. I was named one of the 50 Most Influential and Powerful Women in Social Media. Find out more about me, about what people say about my work, or hire me for SEO, content, blog or social campaign services.
I completely agree with Mike on the previous comment.
In one of my senior PR courses, we covered a case study where HP wanted blog coverage to build buzz for the launch of its most expensive laptop ever. The campaign was called 31 Days of the Dragon. Thirty one top tech bloggers were approached by a social media marketing firm (know famous for this 31 Days thing) who set up a chain of giveaways–a laptop giveaway every day for 31 days. Each blogger would receive the top-of-the-line laptop, but, if they accepted, they could play with it, test it out, whatever computer geeks do, but then they *had* to give it away in a giveaway contest of their choice. There were a few rules to follow to keep the giveaway legal, but the most important stipulation was that they give it away on a day set by HP’s marketing agent. The innovative thing about this giveaway was that the excitement built from one blog to the next. Readership at the smaller blogs went through the roof because the bigger blogs would send traffic their way. Readers would hop from blog to blog for 31 days entering for a chance to win one of 31 computers. This is an OVERWHELMING success for both HP and the 31 bloggers that participated in the giveaway. It’s something to think about when considering how to actually capitalize on product reviews/giveaways.
In response to earlier comments about transparency in what bloggers earn, I think this article from The New York Times might be of interest. It’s not about bloggers, but it is about the taboo of sharing salary info: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/fashion/21Work.html
@Law School Wife
I agree with you to some extent but you’re talking about a $1k plus laptop…we’re being asked to write about $10 DVD’s and $20 snack foods that offer little long term value to the boost of readership.
[...] broke out on twitter last night {#blogmoney} about how much bloggers should make. It started with Kelby Carr’s post and then Gwen Bell joined in the dicussion, and sooner or later, it was showing up as a trending [...]
Kelby, I just found you on twitter yesterday, started following you and I feel like I finally found the blog mentor I’ve been looking for! This post is excellent and gave me some tangible ideas I can use to continue to build my brand as a mom blogger and hold companies accountable.
Just last week a very good toy store in town was having a grand opening of a new location and invited me to come to a “sneak peek” of the new store. I wrote back and told them that they could partner with me for my time to help them promote the store via my blog, fb, twitter, AND give me a $40+ toy or gift card to give away to my readers. The response was that they “never pay the media or bloggers to cover their events!” HA! They put bloggers in the same category as journalists expecting free coverage.
I let it sit for a few days. I checked out the store on my own time, spent a boatload of money, took great pics of my son playing with their toys in their store, but I will NEVER put it on my blog because that was on my own time – and I will not be used like that for their benefit – even though I love the store and the quality of their products.
Tonight I sent the PR Rep an e-mail. I encouraged her to stop thinking of bloggers and journalists in the same light. I shared with her why I’m the premiere mom-blogger in our market and the influence I have. I talked about the 3 blogs that covered the event and why they won’t have an impact on moms at all… and then I quoted you (with a link) from this post on ways they can partner with Mom bloggers to achieve their goals. And then opened the door once more to discussing consulting and/or partnering on a campaign.
I’m not holding my breath, but I do feel good about a) not selling out and working my ass off for them for free and b) educating them and giving them a new image of mom bloggers.
THANK YOU sincerely for this post and I look forward to reading more of your blog(s).
Missy
twitter.com/MarketingMamaMN
Kelby,
As always, you make many strong and salient points. You and I have had some great discussions about this, and you know that I feel the entire “mom-blogging for money” issue has strong sexist undertones.
It’s a question of us, as women, not being comfortable asking to be paid, and companies buying into the patriarchal notion that if you’re home raising children, you were out of a paycheck anyway- might as well keep busy with “getting your brain picked!”
For the most part, I’m not taking issue with anything to do with reviews or giveaways- I think each blogger has to draw her own line on that, and agree that the concept of anyone PAYING for a review is a big no-go all around.
I’m talking about when the companies start to get to know you a bit, and it comes off the blog- you’re wanted to host panels or chats, or record some video, or maybe host a series of parties for brand X in return for…what, exactly?
The chance for your brand to become a billboard for a bunch of brands that you never set out to represent, and that you’re not being compensated for doing so.
As you say, Kelby, in the real world, spokespeople are paid and paid well. In the mom-blog world, some companies expect you to arrange your life (literally!) around their needs, and be happy for the privilege. I mentally refer to it as “Borrowing my megaphone”, and I don’t allow it anymore, because it’s disrespectful to the people I interact with.
There are lots of great companies who WILL pay moms to consult, and will pay for content creation. I work with a few. The problem is, if you’re feeling stretched too thin with doing stuff for free with companies who’ll use you up and toss you when your followers don’t want to hear about their widget anymore- You won’t have time to find them.
Thank you, Kelby, for bringing this topic into the open where it belongs.
Wow Missy, I actually find this story kind of sad. You loved the event, you loved the store, you spent money there, and you think your readers might like it…but you wouldn’t tell your readers about it because no one’s paying you to do so?
What ever happened to bloggers writing about the things we love and sharing the things we’re passionate about?
Kelby, time for a follow up post!
Excellent post, Kelby. You presented your points convincingly and I appreciate that you gave 4 tangible ways that brands/companies can engage moms. I do sincerely hope that PR influencers and CEOS are reading this and taking note.
Side Note: I would also add that it’s imperative for mom bloggers to DRESS like professionals. I was a bit taken aback at BlogHer 2008 when I saw so many women wearing yoga pants, graphic tees, and sloppy/inappropriate attire. That kind of apparel may be okay for when you’re blogging at home on your couch, but I do think blogging events merit more effort.
Even as a young girl growing up in rural Louisiana, I always dreamed of owning my own company and answering to no one but myself as CEO of my own business. I always had an intense interest in the entertainment industry, so for me the nature of my future business was a no-brainer. I was born creative, and have spent most of life engaged in intense creative spurts of one kind or another. I have written songs and produced a demo, written poetry and short stories, produced for TV & film and working on developing my own TV projects.
I believe that with business training and mentoring, anyone with a dream of owning their own business can make it happen. The key is maintaining the business and helping it grow so that it is a productive and profitable entity.
You’ve got me thinking. I’ve received a few of the ‘pick my brain’ emails, and I honestly didn’t get around to answering them. It wasn’t intentional or otherwise, I just have a lot on my plate. In retrospect, though, it’s not really fair for a company that I don’t know to approach me in this manner. In the future, I will definitely consider a specific response, instead of thinking I might get around to it and forgetting.
Making money on the internet is still a little bit of the Wild West. There aren’t established routes or established rates. People are chronically undervalued, including by their own selves. It’s an interesting time, to see this develop. I am optimistic to see folks like you speaking out and sharing their well-informed views.
I’m in agreement with Mom 101 on this.
I think there’s a fine line between calmly knowing one is influential (as a consumer, as a group, as an individual) and threatening a company or brand with that power.
The comment Missy/MarketingMamaMN makes (thanks for your honesty and I’m going to push back here) is unsettling to me because it comes across as, “who do you think you’re messing with here – I have influence!” – or, in your words, ” I shared with her why I’m the premiere mom-blogger in our market and the influence I have.” There is an underlying sentiment in this that needs to be noted. (To my mind, it’s menacing.)
In this case, this might be a good post to ponder:
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2009/04/taken-for-granted-5-tips-for-dealing-with-feeling-unappreciated.html
Good luck & Kelby, looking forward to your thoughts on this as well.
Great points Gwen and Mom101. I may not have made this clear enough, but editorial and advertising/making money should remain as separate as possible. I know on blogs the two get intermingled more easily because, unlike traditional media, you can’t separate the two departments when it’s one person’s blog.
Who pays me or doesn’t does NOT affect what I write. I would never tell someone paying or not paying me will affect whether I blog about them (or how I blog about them).
When I say mom bloggers should get paid, I mean for the examples I offered companies above. I don’t think a blogger’s influence should be used to twist a company’s arm.
Content should not be for sale. I know some people do paid posts, and you can disclose and if that is how you choose to blog, so be it. I don’t care for it and can think of only a few instances I might do it. For example, I’ve mulled over the idea of sponsored sections at Type-A Mom and Foodie Mama. Like I could see, say, a major cheese company sponsoring a section at Foodie Mama where writers share their favorite recipes featuring cheese. With my ad sales, I also will do a post announcing a new advertiser. That is NOT the same as selling a post to say how great an advertiser is. Or doing a paid review (which can’t, by definition, be a review). My opinion is not and never will be for sale. Period.
It’s a dangerous line to cross. It should never be done lightly.
Even if I were to be a spokesblogger, I would only do that for a product or company I was truly passionate about… one I WOULD gush about for free.
For example, a few of us were raving about Keurig on Twitter. I LOVE my Keurig. You couldn’t pay me to say a bad thing about it (except maybe that I wish the freakin’ K-Cups were at grocery stores). I would make a great spokesblogger for Keurig. I love it. The people I social network with are a great target (mom bloggers who need us some coffee). This is a good example. On the other hand, I can’t stand seafood. It would make not the slightest sense for me to strike a deal with a seafood company. I would have nothing nice to genuinely say about their products.
While talented mom bloggers are entitled to be paid when companies come knocking and they want spokesblogging or consulting, they are NOT entitled to be slipped cash to say nice things about companies in blog posts. As soon as we demand that, we kill our credibility.
Defending yourself means that when a company asks to pick your brain, you quote them your consulting fee. It means if a company wants you to spend numerous hours doing a contest to promote their products on your blog, you might consider whether it’s worth doing that for free. That is work. And marketing. If a company sends you a pitch, instead of feeling you have to jump when they snap… you respond with your ad rates.
I talked about moms being paid, but if you read closely I believe I said twice in an ETHICAL way. This is absolutely crucial.
Finally and foremost, the readers MUST always be our top priority. Yes, even if it means walking away from opportunities. Because know this: the opportunities do not come if you don’t have readers or you sell them out for a few bucks… or freebies… or trips…
Thanks Mom101 and Gwen Bell for your comments directed at me. I appreciate you pushing back and the dialogue. I didn’t mean to come off sounding full of myself. The reason I chose not to attend that event and blog about it is because I am a full time working mom out blog about it, and it of the house and it would have required time away from work. I added up the time to attend the event and it would have been approximately 5 hours of my time. I simply cannot afford to give that time away without compensation. I did, however, tell the company that I like their store and would be happy to mention the opening regardless to tell my readers. But for my attendance, pics, and a full blog post, I felt I deserved some type of compensation. They obviously disagreed. Perhaps you do, too. Either way they are getting something out of me…
When I talked about why I’m a good blogger for them to partner with in our market, it was part of the rationale of why they might consider actually compensating a blog for partnering with them around a grand opening – for a full social media campaign including blog/fb/twitter. I have a large portion of readers from my hometown and I feel this makes me desireable to local companies trying to reach moms in our area.
Again, thanks for pushing back. I hope you don’t find my explanation as menacing as my first comment. I truly care about my blog and my readers, and am trying to find the balance between “giving it all away” and getting paid to promote a company.
A few thoughts:
1. Reviews. I have to have hands on something to review it. Mailing it back is a nuisance. Most of the product gets donated locally, instead. I accept no payment for reviews.
2. Consulting. I am an educational consultant, a professional writer, an experienced blogger, and I work on the occasional paid social media project. My rates are competitive if anyone wants to “pick my brain”.
3. Giveaways. At this point, I consider these to be favors for small businesses and/or fun things for my readers. I’ve done free giveaways for big brands in the past and I’ve done paid ones. In general, I think they do more for the brand than for me. So, going forward, I will be turning down more of these “opportunities”.
4. Small businesses versus large businesses. One of the pleasures of this side business of mine is to help out awesome business owners. I’ve developed some great relationships and I am more inclined to help out other mom entrepreneurs than a big brand repped by a freelancer who gets my name wrong. That doesn’t mean you won’t see big brands on my blog–you will. If they have great products that are an editorial fit, absolutely. But if they want me to advertise their latest sale or announce their corporate contest, they need to pay for that.
5. “My time”: My time has value. Because I have been a professional writer for many years, I have an idea of what that value is. I also have a business model for my blog. It does not include selling my editorial content. However, I have found new and interesting products via contacts I made working on my blog.
I think every blogger who plans on selling something needs to think about what is for sale and what isn’t and for what price.
Thank you Kelby for this excellent post.
Monetizing any blog is difficult and it is a challenge that we are all doing our best to meet.
I believe one of the most important issues at hand with mom bloggers is our internal treatment of our own community. We simply must treat ourselves and each other with respect. That may mean we respectfully agree to disagree with each other or that we debate intelligently and endlessly. Either way, the key is respect.
We have found that many PR companies with whom we have worked hard to develop relationships are recognizing the value in mom bloggers and budgets are beginning to follow accordingly. But it is difficult.
We have noticed a positive trend towards companies using all four methods of paying mom bloggers that you listed.
Janice and I have had companies pay us to write on their company’s website. We’ve had advertisers. We’ve been spokesbloggers and we have been compensated as social media consultants.
So the change has started.
When we run giveaways, we do ask for an admin fee to cover the cost of running the giveaway. (But we are flexible and sometimes we will waive the fee if we want to offer our readers that particular prize.) When we promote a brand through a larger campaign, we prepare a proposal that includes advertising and consulting fees.
We do not do paid reviews. In fact, we don’t tend to really “review” products on our sites. Since Janice and I generally have a tough time saying negative words about anything (it’s just not in our personalities), we don’t write “reviews”. We will feature a product in a giveaway or have a brand sponsor a contest, event or some other campaign. And of course we disclose these sponsorships.
We’re not saying we have solved the dilemma of effectively monetizing our site. Far from it. We are forging our way through this new territory along with everyone else.
As for the suggestion of publishing our rates, I do think it is complicated. Campaign budgets and proposal prices are fluid and constantly changing. When we have limited time and space on our site, our prices will increase.
I would caution against the community laying out prices for PR companies to see and price shop. I think it is perhaps more beneficial for us all to share that information with each other privately. Janice and I regularly discuss our campaign prices with fellow blogging friends who ask, but I don’t think we’d publish them publicly.
Again, thank you so much Kelby for this great discussion. Your post and the comments reflect the intelligence and valuable insights of the mom blogging community.
Amen! I am now refusing to host contests for free. I think we should all band together and demand more from companies. Thank you for this post.
I hear ya! I would LOVE to actually make some money for all the HOURS I put into my blog each week. If I could quit my real job for the blog I love it would be great!
Kelby – great post! Thanks for taking a stand and starting the conversation. I worked in the craft industry previously and companies did the same thing – they’d send free product and want designers to create projects (for books/magazines) with it. Basically, designers did their advertising for them – and often just for some free ’stuff. Just like the company/blogger situation, as long as people accept that, companies will keep trying it. I’m glad you took a stand and that you have a community who will keep the conversation going. Hopefully it will make a difference for earning bloggers (not just mom bloggers, IMHO) the pay we deserve for providing valuable services. Thanks!
[...] review, that is not working for a company, as was discussed at length in comments on my post about mom bloggers deserving pay. A review is done for your readers. It requires not feeling beholden to the company or agency who [...]
[...] PR people and bloggers that I think are worth noting. Today, I read Kelby Carr’s post, “Mom Bloggers Deserve to Get Paid.” Honestly, I’ve been avoiding reading it. I am tired of people whining about not [...]
[...] to command respect. We are professionals. Let’s act like it. (And yes, that includes insisting on being paid for time, consulting, marketing and any other work.) Let this be the year that the mainstream media runs out of mom blogger scandals to cover. You can [...]
Thank you for a great post. As a mom blogger I realize that you are exactly right. I get multiple requests each week asking me to promote a company, brand, event, product for free. I’m worth more than that!
Thank you for speaking up!
wow, really well written, exactly how I feel about the whole PR pitch thing. I have worked with some very large software companies writing blogs about their products in hopes of building relationships with them. Most of the time, doing the free work led to nothing. So I have gotten wise, I send them my fees and if they take it, great, if not no loss on my part. I agree these companies are making millions and asking bloggers to make them more $ for free is plain wrong.
[...] German-engineered vacuums, and self-changing baby diapers. This brother needs to make some of that mad parent-blogging money for himself. You know it’s hard out there for a pimp …and by pimp, I really mean pimp in the [...]
[...] German-engineered vacuums, and self-changing baby diapers. This brother needs to make some of that mad parent-blogging money for himself. You know it’s hard out there for a pimp …and by pimp, I really mean pimp in the [...]