Parts 1, 2 and 3 are here.
I am not a writer. I could not muster poetic diction to save my hide. My mind cannot do the mental abstractions needed to create characters, themes, and plots. I have trouble thinking beyond the immediate such that I could never frame a complex or large scale work of prose: fiction or non-fiction. I can't even remember what I wrote about last week. Nope, I am simply not a writer. I'm not cut from that cloth.
(Aside: this is not one of those statements put out there to elicit positive feedback in the comments. It is part of a larger fabric that I am hoping to weave in this post, so please don't roll your eyes and think "she's fishing". )
As I was saying, I am not a writer. I am a blogger, nothing more. This is the genre for me because I am the genre for it.
Now I don't believe for a second that bloggers are, by their very nature, not writers in that capital "W" sense of the word. So many of you came to blogging already thinking of yourselves as writers--writers who actually worked at and experimented with your craft and who worked within the societal structures set up to facilitate writing as a profession. I am not like you. I came to blogging on a whim. I didn't think I would ever write more than a few posts. My past experience with writing was 1) pithy work emails, 2) grant applications, and 3) long-ago essays for university.
My husband? Now, he is a writer: a playwright. In addition to having the ability to create characters and settings, to weave complex themes, and to build suspense before unwinding in appropriate dénoeuments, my husband has that other trait that all true writers must posses: a stick-to-it-ivenss in the face of demanding material conditions that prevent some of the most talented craftsmen from pursuing their trade.
He has written something like 10 plays in just over a decade. He not only writes them, he usually directs them and takes them on the road as part of the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit. Doing so involves hard work, team work, lots of flexibility, and lots of capital. He has to be a writer, salesman, therapist, and travel agent all rolled into one. He also has to take the knocks when the press reviews his work--for good or for ill--and, believe me, he has been served up everything from bags of sugar to arsenic in Canada's major newspapers. For my husband, being a writer is tough work in a tough, under-funded system. Sadly, this is increasingly what it means to be a playwright in Canada today.
But the conditions for writers aren't great even if you take away the actors and the sets and the travel itineraries. My friends who have published novels or poetry spend more time navigating the in and outs of the publishing industry than they do actually writing. So much of their writing time is spent meeting the demands of editors and flogging their work on the road. Publishing takes the glamour out of the craft. It brings its own baggage.
I look at my husband and at my friends who are writers and I think to myself, "who in sam hell would want to be a writer?"
I'd rather be a blogger. I put my girl to bed, come downstairs, pour a beer and spend an hour or two a night plunking out posts. It is a lovely activity. Therapeutic. I never know what I want to say until I start typing and then the words frame the thoughts and the thoughts frame the words and kla-blam, the next thing you know, I have a finished post. Sometimes--on no more than 5 occasions--I have let a post stew overnight in draft form before I massaged it a bit and got it out. The turn over from conception to finished product is rather remarkable in this medium don't ya think?
Like my husband, I have a leftie soul. The material I write will never be wildly popular. We are not mainstream folks. We never will be. It's not something we aspire to. We simply want to write about the things we think are important or funny or interesting and have done with it. We believe in counter-culture discourse.
But get this: in the 10 years my husband has been staging plays across Canada he has had a combined audience that is far smaller than what I've pulled in in 6 months of blogging. No shit. My husband has worked hard to develop his reputation at these festivals. Some of his plays have been the critics choice (aka Pick of the Fringe) in several locations. There is an academic review article about one of his plays in print. And yet, in 10 years of producing plays, his combined audience in 10 Canadian cities is a fraction of my blogging audience. His work is not for everyone but it is not inaccessible avant garde artiste material either. This is simply what it means to be an artist these days. It is the by-product of having to work within established systems that promote the loud voice, the mainstream voice, the big name in a big business. And this happens in a genre where Federal funding agencies are actually trying to make a go of supporting emerging, edgy, and innovative voices. How many big name Canadian playwrights can you name? (No-Mo, keep your hand down please and let the rest of the class have a turn.) How many Canadian playwrights are there? What's the ratio? I don't know. It goes something like this
tiny number : HUGE NUMBER
No, I am not a writer. I would never want to be one.
I am a blogger. I write what I want, when I want. I do a little self-promoting but nothing more than being a good bloggy citizen who talks back to the other bloggers I read. I'm not a member of BlogHer or Top Sites (just learned it existed last week). I use Technorati mainly for the free site meter. I haven't registered in any blog directories or joined any bloggy clubs. I tried to register in a directory a year ago but I don't even know if I was successful. I use Bloglines to read blogs but, as some of you may have noticed, it took me two weeks of fiddling with my permissions in order to get the list of blogs I read to appear on my sidebar. With one exception, I don't read any of the A-list bloggers; I'm sure I'd like them but I haven't really got around to it and I rather like my immediate circle. I don't have a fancy customized template. I'm about as granola as blogging gets.
Now that's not to say I won't ever do any of these things. It's just that I haven't had to. All I want to do is write and read and I've been allowed that opportunity. Not only have I been given this opportunity, I get anywhere from 120-150 unique site visits to my blog a day. I know that's peanuts compared with what some bloggers pull in but, to me, it is freakin' astonishing. C'mon, I am just a beleaguered, sentimental mom with a socialist soul and no end of opinions. And people come here. Willingly. To read. What I write. Hot DAMN!!!
How is this possible? It is possible because the Internet is still very much a frontier. The systems that govern who can say what in what contexts have not been solidified. If you can jump the bar--technological access, high functioning literacy, and spare time--you can have your opinion heard. The most prominent blogger from my region is a man living on social assistance, suffering from ADHD and who manages to get the Premier of the Province and the Lieutenant Governor to pose for pictures and grant interviews. He wins court cases defending the rights of bloggers to free access to places of power and to free speech. Wow. That's how things work in the blogosphere.
In my blogging circle, I regularly read the writing of 40 other parents. I read the blogs of about another 20-30 more on occasion. I have heard about and want to read the blogs of about a hundred more than that but, apparently, I also have a child, a spouse, a job and a body that needs to be taken out for the odd walk. I set my limits and swim in the bloggy bounty where I can. The point is there is so much bounty here that none of us can ever take it all in. We can spend all our time reading smart, well-written, moving, publishable writing and still not read it all. Sure some writing is better than others but there is enough superb writing in the parenting blogosphere to see us through 'til our kids' college graduations.
I know there are a lot of parenting bloggers who have career aspirations for their blogging. I don't blame them. We spend a lot of time writing and reading and commenting. The level of writing is stellar. Why shouldn't we seek a career in blogging? Surely, we deserve honest pay for honest work. Heck, some bloggers have even shown that it can be done--that we can live the dream. Women as writers and women as mothers have always been devalued. Isn't it time for change?
I'll say it right out: I reject the career model of mommy blogging. It's not that I don't think our work is worth something. I do. It's just that the discourse of parenting, of the minutiae of day-to-day life is not valued by society as a whole. The only people who would want to pay for what we have to say are, well, us--the very people who deserve recompense for our work. It's a catch 22.
Last week, I committed a geeky reference librarian act. I did an academic search for articles on "mommy" or "parenting" blogging. (Nope, I'm not a blogging addict, not me!) Anyway, I found a couple of articles from the popular press (Time, The New York Times), nothing at all in academic journals (not surprising given the tortoise nature of academic publishing), and this: "Mommy Blogs: A Marketer's Dream." Advertising Age 2/26/07 Vol. 78 Issue 9.
Allow me to quote the first two sentences: "Looking for a word-of-mouth network run by tech-savvy media pros who work cheap and have a direct line to a demographic that spends more than $2 trillion a year? Marketers, behold: blogging mommies." The article goes on to say that the average mommy blogger is 29 with an average annual income of $70,000. It also says something about how we are good at building customer loyalty because of our strong commitment to our readers and blah, blah, blah...
This my friends, sisters, comrades is how we can make a go of it with the career model of blogging. Through advertising. Through hawking the Gap and Old Navy and Uggs. By putting up Google ads that sometimes advertise the very products that we are ranting against. By "work[ing] cheap" from our homes where there is no company overhead. Where we set our terms with our advertisers on a case-by-case basis rather than as an organized group. Sound familiar? If it doesn't, it should.
Think about career blogging for a minute. Think about the A-listers. By writing this I am not inviting you to think about the quality of their writing or their styles of parenting or whatever. I am sure these bloggers are all lovely people that I would want to know and shoot the shit with. I have no intention to nit pick. What goes around, comes around... You see, when I think of the career bloggers out there, I don't think of them in terms of their print or literary equivalents. No, I'm afraid I think of them in terms of reality TV. These lucky few are our Idols. They rose to the top of an extremely talented pool through charm, charisma, popularity and corporate mechinations. I have watched a lot of Idol shows in my day. I know how they work. As a model for ratings, advertising and popular entertainment, they are a phenomenon. As a model for the arts, they suck. As a model for innovation, they suck. As a model for building meaningful, long-term careers they really suck. Not only that but they promote a cult of celebrity that all of us in the West would be better off without. Sure, the American Idols have a good track record when it comes to sales figures but in Canada? Becoming the Idol is the kiss of death.
I guess that in summary what I'm saying is this. I like being a blogger. I think there is great value in being a blogger. I don't want to turn blogging into writing because 1) I don't want to lose the joy of it, 2) I don't want to lose the freedom of it, 3) I don't want to lose the community aspect of it, 4) I don't want to lose the way it reflects our collective, integrated selves in all their minutiae and 5) I don't want to lose its potential as a model for real change when it comes to how we produce and receive art and wisdom.
There is a capitalist model of blogging that doesn't make me bristle. I see it on some of the blogs I read: bloggers advertising the wares of small businesses and independent craftspeople in a kind of re-creation of the village square. I like this notion. I hope for its sustainability but I'm afraid I'm not an optimist. We may not all see ourselves as privileged but the big chops in corporate America are starting to notice us. Tell me, what are your terms when it comes to making that leap from blogger to writer? What system will you be content living with to gain the financial recognition you (we all) deserve?
Friday, March 23, 2007
Mad's Big Bloggy Think-fest: part 4
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57 hats in the ring:
I despair for the playwrights. Craft. We blog-tyypers are are different animal... technicians of words as you say. It is staggering the volume of humanity in these little glowing boxes. How more readily we come together somewhat afar than in those little dark theatres we are asked to pay to enter.
I want to respond to the issues you raised about ads. I first structured my site by highlighting local craftsmen and craftswomen but quickly realized that doing so was going to "out me," because local is local, and their location is obviously, well, my location.
But I need (for various reasons) to blog relatively anonymously. So the local plugs had to go, sadly.
As for why I allow Google ads (a few, text-only)? I do think my writing has value (call me a narcissist, HBM :) ), and it's the only way I've thought of to recover its value. No, it's not ideal, I don't love it, but I feel differently from you, Mad, in that I would call myself a writer first and a blogger second.
Don't know if this makes sense or not. And I don't mean for it to sound defensive. I've made my own choices, and I can live with them.
Thanks for being as thought-provoking as ever.
I frankly cannot imagine a price for putting ads on my blog. Not because I hate ads--though I do hate most of them, the manipulative ones especially--but because I want there to be one space in my life without advertising.
(If you haven't read Jen's talk from the motherlode, it's about this very thing--the way corporations want to use mommybloggers to flog their wares on the sly. As one mommyblogger said to a conference of marketing types, you have to convince your "clients" that you're not advertising to them. It's depressing.)
That said, I do want to be a Writer, capital-W and all. Just not through the blog. And it's not because I think that capital-w Writing is "better," necessarily, though there is ideally a higher standard of review and criticism applied to works that are professionally published, and which generally make them better written; and what makes for engaging writing on the internet is different than what makes for engaging writing in print, necessitating a whole different and often diametrically-opposed skill set. (IMO, none of the A-list bloggers would make very good print writers.) But I want to Write--for print--because it's a different medium that allows for different ideas, different modes of expression, different techniques. As much fun as I have with the Monday Missions, and as much as I enjoy using the blog to explore different modes of writing, there's a lot you can't do here.
I'm sure I have a price; I doubt it's even very high. But I have not sought out ads for my blog primarily because I feel possessive about it - I don't really want to give any of it away to anybody else. For the same reason, I have no plans to join the monthly Blog Exchange. I have a very primitive mine, mine, mine! reaction to anything like that.
The other commercial blogging model is the paid gig; I see more and more bloggers joining some kind of group blog where they're paid to do basically the same thing they've been doing for free on their own blog. When this happens, there's almost always a dropping-off in the frequency and quality of posts at the original blog.
That could be due to lack of time, or it could be that it's no longer appealing to do for free what you're being paid to do elsewhere. I'm not sure. But I know that I never bother reading any of the commercial group blogs - for some reason I'm very tied to the one-blog-per-person format, the association of a personality with the whole look and feel of the blog.
If someone offered me that kind of gig, I doubt I'd be able to refuse - but the thought of it does create that possessive feeling, that desire to protect MY blog (mine, all mine!) instead of yielding that freedom to external control.
I can easily imagine putting ads on my blog. We're broke enough that it's either that or get a job at the grocery store on weekends. I'd rather get money for blogging, thank you.
Mo-Wo: Ya, the reality with theatre is that it simply cannot make money--not unless a show can run for months and draw top dollar. I ran a festival here for five years. To do a good small show with a budget of less than $50,000 is nigh impossible yet our City is of a size that can rarely bring in more that 500-600 people for the complete run of a show. Thank heavens for the Canadian Fringe model! It is like the blogosphere for theatre artists.
SM: I honestly do believe our writing has value and that a goodly # of us not only want to but need to make money off our writing. I would never begrudge anyone for bringing in Google ads or whatever (nor will I ever click on them).
As for the marketing of small business? I am like you in that I am a deeply closeted blogger in my home community. In the end, though, I don't think I could offer much to local businesses in the way of ad space for that very reason--no one local would see the ads. The model I have seen work is blogs that carry ads for small, online companies that are sometimes run by other bloggers: a virtual village square. (And yes, I feel a tad weird about the disconnect that blogging creates with respect to my role as an engaged local citizen and this closeting is one aspect of it.)
Andrea: yes! I think that you should pursue a writing career. I don't think that blogging can be the only genre for expression nor do I think it an adequate genre for so many kinds of writing. My husband is a craftsman of "people and words in space." He will never blog. Some writing is simply served better on the physical page.
All I had hoped to say here is that "Writing" as vehicle of self-expression has strengths and drawbacks as does "Blogging." Too often I hear blogging being denigrated as a "less-than" activity as compared to writing. I think there is greatness in both--and deep systematic differences. For me, there is value at looking at those systems and what they mean for us all.
B&P: I'm sure I have a price too. I think we all have a price. Right now, though, I doubt any blogger--not even the A-listers--are being paid fair price. I am a Tier 3 Academic Librarian. If someone tried to offer me a Tier 1 library salary I would be offended and know my worth. The problem is that here in the 'sphere our worth has not yet been determined and the folks who want to determine it don't value what we do; they value us as an inexpensive means to hawk wares. The value what we can spend. What needs to change is the way we are valued and that is the veery thing that is never likely to change b/c parenthood and women's writing has been undervalued.
Sorry for the long comment. There is more I'd like to put in this comment, even. You see, I don't necessarily think the post is done yet b/c my thoughts on all this have not settled. I am really looking forward to the debate that you can all offer.
Okay, I'm back to offer some dissent.
You offer several distinctions between blogging and Writing in this post. One is that Writing is sustained whereas blog posts are usually one-offs. Another is that Writing is subject to extensive honing and revision, whereas blogging is spontaneous (at least for most of us). Finally, there is the professionalization issue.
I don't buy into the first two distinctions. Yes, the epic is usually understood to be a greater genre than the sonnet, but it is a difference of degree rather than kind. And the idea of writing spontaneously has been considered compatible with the production of Writing since Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey."
The professionalization issue is the big one. Even though some people make money by blogging, the fact is that blogging allows us to bypass professionalization and still reach an audience, and for that reason it allows certain things to be said that aren't being said elsewhere. Even when mommy-bloggers professionalize, it's usually after they've developed a voice and an audience.
The community aspect of blogging is what drew me in and keeps me coming back. Even though I seldom write coherently or about anything of relevance, I still benefit from the community because I am welcome to read and comment elsewhere (and those little snippets are sometimes where I earn my keep) and most folks are kind enough to spend a little time with me in return.
No matter how the commercial aspect of blogging develops, I think there will always be those (of varying talent) who do it just for fun, just for themselves and their "community."
I agree with Bub and Pie. My strength is in writing essays, and, oddly enough, the blog format suits essayists well.
B&P:
Yikes! I didn't intend to set up such bianaries. When I say "Writing" I mean published or produced (theatre) writing--or intended for such. In this day and age, this kind of writing can't be spontaneous b/c of the journey it must take to publication (through editors, proofs, galleys...).
Blogging isn't necessarily the opposite of this. It doesn't, by definition, have to be spontaneous. I'm sure that there are bloggers out there who are not a whit spontaneous about what they do--that they hone their work and experiment with the craft. What I am saying is that blogging can be spontaneous, it can be accessible (in a way publishing cannot), it can provide a forum for counter-culture discourse. It can allow a beleagued, sentimental mom the chance to join the fray in the only hour she has to herself. Blogging is starting to solidify into a system the way that publishing has. So far the door has been left open for the likes of me--for the likes of all us parenting types. I want to be wary of any actions I might take that might solidify the systems and procedures around blogging that would close that door.
De: yup, the thing I most like about blogging is the affiliative community is fosters. (No-Mo's idea of the Tapestry) I fear that a model that supports a few Idols would eventually squeeze out the little (literal) moms and pops like us.
Interesting! (I found that Ad Age article just about the same time I decided to put ads on my own blog and though I wanted to blog it, seemed a little hypocritical for me to do so. Glad you brought it up.)
As you know, I recently did a 180 on my own 'no ads' policy, and I'm quite happy with my decision. But I think I stumbled upon the exception rather than the rule in advertising offers. I do feel the balance of a decent monetary offer, plus no strings or contracts or exclusionary clauses, plus the relative unobtrusiveness of the ad itself, makes for a very reasonable compensation. I personally don't think Google Ads or BlogHer ads or the others that I've seen offer nearly so good a deal. I count myself very lucky.
And back to your first point... Blogging, of the type that you do and I do and most of your readers do, is so very personal. There is art to it, even if you don't consider yourself an artist. I do - I consider you very much a blog artist, and think the same of myself. I wouldn't compare myself to a novelist or even a painter, but all are equally worthy forms of expression.
And I completely agree on the point that what we do is undervalued outside our own little community, both in the mothering and in the blogging.
Dani: I guess I do consider myself an artist. I don't think I suck at being a writer. It's just that I spend a lot of my time around "W" writers and I know that I don't have the kind of time and enery that is required of them to do what they do. I also know that I am not a "creative writer" in the traditional notion of the term. Many of the bloggers around me are. I'm not.
Once again, a great post!
I started with google ads on my blog, but removed them because they didn't make me any money anyways, and i got frustrated with all the sugar daddy websites that were getting advertised.
I would love to be a professional blogger (I seriously can't think of anything sweeter - I can work from anywhere AND get all the benefits of blogging, foremost among them for me is really inhabiting the moment AND spend more time with my family), but I love B&P's observation about folks who go professional on group blogs. (Plus I'm not sure the income potential is really comparable with my current job, which I also enjoy.)
I think Dani has the best of both worlds... I'd like to be able to choose what ads go on my blog, and get paid for the space than for click throughs.
On the subject of blogging vs publishing in print: I think blogging IS publishing, and you probably get a way better audience than self-publishing in print. Plus it's free! Certainly print is a different medium from the web, but I think it's a mistake not to count blogging as a form of (self) publishing.
I love your thinky posts. I'll be sad when the series is over...
ps - I did the meme you tagged me for. Thanks!
Hi. I 'write' (academically) in real life and it's not what I do on my blog, for my dedicated audience of 10-15 unique visitors. I want to communicate and I want to think; I don't want to 'publish', if that makes sense. And I don't want ads, because this is a personal space, a family space, an archive of my life and such, and I make more than enough money at my job to be able to afford to back up my desire for ad-free-ness with action.
In fact, I was writing just yesterday about how I worry about collecting readers the wrong way: I like that I just have other mommy bloggers, others upon whose sites I comment, come to visit me in turn. We're a circle rather than a hierarchy, a model the capitalist blogging career can't sustain, I think.
I don't mind (usually) ads on other moms' sites, but I think I do read them a little differently, a little more broadcast-model and a little less community-wise. And I never click them. Ever.
Great post.
Excellent post - and my first time at your blog. I started our blog as a way to share stories with family and friends, but found the added benefit that in the act of blogging I forced myself to so something creative every day. Even if that creative thing was posting a picture and some smart-mouthy comment to go with it.
Damn. I was going to name off a dozen or so famous Canadian playwrights, till you made me put my hand down...I think we have a lot to talk about regarding getting Canadian voices heard in theatre, but that may be a discussion for another time. (And next time your husband's work is in the Fringe here, please let me know.)
As to professionalism of blogs, I too got into blogging on a whim with nary a thought to continue. What keeps me here was this amazing community of women.
I'm a sucker for fame (as any actor is), so I can't foretell what I would do in any future situation. However, if my blog ever got so popular as to be considered a Voice, I would use it to foster a career in the "real world" rather than taking the "virtual (blog) world" to the next level. Does that make sense? I would see it as a means to an end rather than the end itself (i.e. I would develop the blog into a play that would be seen by people -- or would it? We all know the audiences that Cdn theatre gets...)
Great post!
Mad,
I disagree w/ the notion you aren't a writer. Semantics, whatever. One isn't more than the other.
I also disagree with the assumption that we idolize the "big" bloggers. I don't. I admire substance/thought/passion.
Damn, I am disagreeable today. But mostly it's because I think it sold what we are doing a bit short, that it's not easy to compare what we are trying to do or doing to a playwright...or if that is even the craft or ideal we are working towards. (ok, I am so not a writer)
Precisely, Jen. What I'm trying to say here is that what we are doing here is worthy. As worthy. And innovative. Writing and blogging are different. One is NOT better than the other. One simply is stuck in a system that is inflexible (writing). I don't want blogging to ever have to become inflexible.
I don't think we "idolize" the big bloggers; I think their careers have been constructed upon a model similar to that of the reality TV shows rather than published writers and that makes me uneasy about what it could all mean for the future of this worthy endeavour called blogging.
There are a lot of great blogs out there, and I do feel a need for and some frustration with necessary limits.
FWIW, little of my writing is slapdash. Much of it is begun and worked for a time. Some it, I grant you, but other portions aren't. I always try to use the principles of good writing that I've learned. I slack off on principles of copyediting though. Slap slap.
Hmmm. I wrote a long blog post not too long ago about an angle of this very topic---the popularity one?
At heart is the fact that despite my husband telling me time and again how I could increase traffic, make money off ads and sharing articles explaining how to earn a living blogging...I just can't seem to do it, nor do I want to.
Ingenues in the 40s hoped some movie scout would spot them in a soda fountain.
Some bloggers in the 21st century hope a publisher/business will happen upon their blog and offer to pay them.
I admit to that a little. I even admit I probably am pretty cheap and easy.
But as B&P put it, I do not know if I can cede control. Currently, I am happiest working off my whimsy.
I also think that some bloggers who join those paid group blogs not only drop content on their original blog (as B&P mentioned) but also lose some of the freshness that they once posted with.
The voice, tone and style (talent) are still there, but the thing that really draws me in---content---becomes too topical and canned.
Which is, I think, your entire point about Idols and lack of innovation.
I was pondering the cult of celebrity today, actually, and not terribly nicely. But that's a really long thought. I suspect it's in line with your point, too.
As I bloggily confessed today, I love the interaction. I haven't any idea how many people read me---the site measurements miss at least half the traffic if you're read through emails or feeds---and are somewhat erratic, I think.
I measure in comments and feel fortunate with that.
I do count myself a writer---how can anyone who writes not count herself a writer?---and have long done so, but never so much as through blogging, whch really has worked that muscle.
Your numbers are higher than your husband's I think b/c your pool is so much larger. Live theater is tricky. So much competition for a limited pool of interest.
I'm not sure what funding or extra governmental development would do...at the end of the day, it's mostly personal interest, right? Still, yes, the arts are way underfunded and lack fair marketing.
Then again, once the attention comes in, A-list rules apply, right? Which begs that innovation question again.
In publishing, sometimes I felt like I published the same book over and over---just recanning the formula for the current success. I slap a diferent name and new title on it and VOILA! It sells. Even some authors recan a formula over and over (a number of names spring to mind). And it's all planned.
As you mentioned, editors have an overbearing tendency to come to authors and say, "Okay here's what your next project needs to be...market sureys tell us this si what readers want..."
I tried not to trample, I did. But I confess it was my job to guide to market.
Sometimes I'd try for innovation and the committee would slap me down, "No no let's do another Formula Q book again."
I don't know, right now it feels like success and innovation are mutually exclusive. Talk me out of that.
As for the promotion and review of products? It has brought some real success to some bloggers.
I have mixed feelings.
There are a few blogs I rarely read now because it felt like every time I popped over they were pimping a new product or twelve.
I'd love to do what seems like fun---and I have a big time inner critic---and get free stuff, and maybe even earn some much needed money. But...
OMG how long is this.
Mad, sorry...you constantly motivate me to TALK TOO MUCH. Which, I grant, isn't hard to do but sheesh, I am going to be so embarassed, aren't I, when I see the length of this. LOL
I don't have time! I don't have time to read the comments, I don't have time to dedicate a really good response to this, and it's driving me crazy. Am I insane? I have been busy this week and I feel like I haven't check in with my friends and I'm neglecting people. This thing is making me insane!
I have much to say. I have to say I agree with a lot of what you've said and it's been on my mind (in fact, I almost wrote you an e-mail about it a couple of weeks ago). I also think that there are times where, if people see an opportunity to finally make money doing what they love, they should do it, so long as they're cool with what it will take.
Take what you've written about your husband, scale it down a bit, and insert [composer] for [playwright] and [music] for [plays] and you've got Joe. I admire his desire to stay true to his integrity, and we're in a good place right now, but there were days a few years ago when I was like, "Why don't you just send a demo tape to Sting, already?! You're good enough, you like his music, you'd have fun." Damn integrity. Damn his "art". I'm kidding, of course, and his integrity is one of the things I love about him the most...and I admire people who decide to pursue their art in the face of all the difficulties that often entails. But I also understand the temptation to pull in some cash where you can.
Okay, I feel like I'm writing from another dimension right now. I have to post...
I love this post and the conversation it has generated. When I first started getting regular traffic to my blog I contemplated ways to increase my readership, etc. But I quickly realized that for me the more I thought about that stuff, the less I enjoyed blogging. I don't want this to ever become a job for me. I love the interplay of personal expression and community feedback - the linking and commenting and posting. It allows me a place to express myself in ways I never do in my life outside the blog. And it gives me a venue to reach out into the world and be part of something bigger than just me.
It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the movie Say Anything when the girl's father asks Lloyd Dobler what his plans are for his future. He says: "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
Alice: Any blogger who comes to my space and quotes Say Anything is clearly trying to win my heart.
Won.
Consider it yours.
Kickboxing: the sport of the future.
Great post and I know I am commenting well before I have had the proper time to think about this fully. I agree with you that the popular and full time paid bloggers are no different than every person on my blogroll except for the fact that they are getting paid. Each of us has our own voice that is worthy.
But, you just hit a nerve with me because this week I placed ads on my site. I have not looked to make money on my blog since I started (mostly b/c I thought it unworthy!). But, when I was approached, that became another story. I am in trial run, but I figured, as long as it isn't against what I believe, then why not? I didn't seek it, per se. And, it doesn't violate any conditions of my writing, so I am going with it. I don't apire to be a writer and live as such, but brining in a few stupid bucks to pay for the kids shoes I can live with!
Sorry, you touched upon a sore spot I have been grapling with all week and at a time I have had several glasses of wine. (weekend night and all!) :)
Momish: I've said it before in the comments and I'll say it again. If I were a better writer I would have spelled it out more strongly in the post itself: I have no problem with ANY blogger trying to earn a few bucks for her (or his) writing. None whatsoever. If you can make money from your writing, that's great.
All I was trying to say was that, material conditions being what they are, I worry that NONE of us (not even the A-listers) will ever be paid our worth.
Hi there, Mad...
There is an energy and focus to your writing that is very compelling. I haven't really read much in between your first and latest posts but I am impressed at the umph that jumps off my computer screen.
(This also isn't a response to your statement about being a blogger and not a writer. I'm just new here and I am struck by a certain quality to your writing. So, really, my comment here should be taken as a stand alone. It doesn't really relate to the content of this post.)
I'll be back...
If I thought I could get a nickel for my writing, I'd let Summer's Eve ad on my blog ;-)
Oh, absolutely--Writing and Blogging both have strengths and drawbacks. Which is great, if you can acknowledge those differences. I guess what annoys me is when I see people assume that Bloggers w/ x-hundred or x-thousand readers per day are necessarily excellent writers, who should do a book. Some of them are. Some of them aren't. What makes for a pithy and readable blog post will not necessarily translate into a work longer than 1000 words. And I personally wish more people will recognize that blogging is not just regular writing, only without editors and publishers.
I guess what I'm trying to say, but poorly, is that "making the leap from blogger to writer" for me does not involve being paid to blog. Blog is part writing practice, when I use it intentionally to play around with a new mode or to strengthen a particular skill (i.e. dialogue, transitions). And blogging is a way to connect with readers without the hassle. But blogging is mostly a hobby. I don't expect it to ever be a professional endeavour for me, and I don't want it to be. When I want to Write, capital-w, I'll find a publisher.
I should note that my experiences writing fiction are not like your husband. I expect that my first short-story sale in a very small circulation magazine will net me considerably more readers than a get in a typical day at my blog--and for money, to boot, though not very much.
I think that the current models of professionalizing blogging in all their forms are great ways to kill what's special about blogging without replacing it with any of the editorial standards for accuracy or quality that one hopefully finds in traditional print media. It takes away the community, trust, immediacy, voice, directness, etc., as so many others have noted, and has no compensatory increases in quality in other areas. Also, as many editor-bloggers and writer-bloggers have noted on their own spaces, blogging is not good resume fodder for a writer's resume.
So I'm going to keep them separate. Blogging is Blogging. Writing is Writing. Never the twain shall meet.
Hey Mad, I've been rereading all the comments, and I'm curious. What would you consider a blogger being paid her worth? I'm just curious how if you were Ruler of the Universe for a day on this one, how would you structure blogger compensation and determine blog 'worth'?
And part B, what is your definition of a popular blogger?
(I've always got these questions in the back of my head when I eavesdrop on these conversations in the blogosphere. Feel free to ignore these questions!)
I've been thinking about Blogging Baby and Club Mom and the other blogorama sites. That's one model for bloggers to get paid for their writing. The blogger just shows up and writes whatever she likes, and the site takes care of advertising. No doubt the blogger is paid pennies, but still.
Those sites invite specific bloggers to be full-time columnists. I wonder if there's a place for a site to which people can submit their writing -- like an online magazine. (If a blog post must be submitted, is it still a blog post? Or is it now a personal essay?) Like a magazine, the site would take care of advertising and the writers would simply write. Alternatively bloggers could be commissioned to write on specific topics, maybe requiring research or multiple interviews. But again, would it no longer be a blog post? -- Does that matter, if the goal is to be paid for writing?
One other comment. There are so many intelligent thoughtful funny generous bloggers writing for free. That's partly why bloggers get paid pittance. Why should someone start paying us when we're already doing it for free?
great post, and great conversation. i see the distinction you're making between blogging and writing that goes through the formal publishing process...i don't think you're claiming it as an absolute binary, and certainly the two exist on a continuum, but given the fact that you work in a library the distinction makes particular sense. in blogging, we have a means to bypass so many conventional gatekeeping hurdles - and therefore so much control over our content and even our means of production - that formalized publishing imposes on writers who use more traditional means of getting heard.
it's always flattering when people say "you should be getting this published"...but as i look at it right now, i AM getting my blog published. in my crappy wordpress template that i can't be bothered to figure out how to improve, because i don't want to invest the limited time/energy i have in packaging and selling my blog. i did ask for and receive a blogads invite back in January when i was really discovering that there's a community out here, but in the end decided that i wasn't entirely comfortable going that route. not because i dislike blogs with ads...i don't. for the most part. but because i want to focus on writing and participating in a community, not on playing the other parts of the game available to be played. to me, and i'm speaking ONLY for me here, much as i'd love to be "discovered" (like Julie said, i think) i don't particularly want to shill for it. i don't want to tackle the whys and hows. either of formal publishing or of make-money-from-your-
blog publishing, because i don't really see the difference. either way, it's a big investment of time/energy/learning how to play that game. and my time and energy are limited, so what blogging allows me is a voice and an audience even without investing in the commercial end of the enterprise. and i love that.
as for the "dinner invite" over on my music meme...i'd like to commend you on your fine taste in music, ma'am. and as i'm in PEI...and i followed the case of your local political blogger with interest...it's actually possible. maybe someday we can have a mini-BlogHer for this end of the nation, replete with a Joni Mitchell soundtrack. and Leonard Cohen, but only if he comes in drag. :)
I agree with a lot of B&P's first comment.
When bloggers start to write for another blog, or outside paying writing gigs, they have often lost me as an audience because the freuqency or quality of their personal blog has sunk. It's a shame, but there it is.
I also want my blog to be mine, so I don't want advertisers on it. Heck, I feel a smidge funny even pushing my own book blog or mommyblogstoronto on it!
So for me, if I ever decided to try to write professionally, it woud be a whole separate venture. But it's tough, so I sure don't have actual plans! You're right - I can think of only a handful of big canadian playwrights.
OK, there are a bunch of great questions here but I am only getting to my computer now and the girl needs to wake up from her nap ASAP. I will try to join the discussion later tonight.
Wow. I have been reading all your thinky posts as a lurker 'cause work's beaten me down lately and I just came by to catch up properly and look what I find.
A thought-provoking post and equally thought-provoking discussion amoung your amazing commenters (who are even quoting Say Anything ... swoon).
I think there are lots of ways to define what makes a writer. A play write, a novelist, a journalist, a diarist, a copywriter, a blogger. Whether we are compensated or not putting words out there ... with whatever purpose makes us a writer. And I know you weren't fishing ... but I happen to think you are a damn good one.
My blog is a very personal space and one I sometimes write well on but mostly don't think about the "quality" of my writing. I have recently started getting paid to do freelance corporate writing and I am called a "Writer" on my invoice but it feels MUCH less like writing than my blog does somehow.
I become totally turned off when it's obvious that someone is trying to be commercial. In fact, one of the Thailand blogs on my blogroll is about to be removed because he is now emphasizing the commercial possibilities he sees for himself.
Ba! I don't want to read veiled advertisements and I don't want to read about someone's efforts to figure out a way to sell stuff to me.
Nor will I obliquely support such a person by recommending him to my rather small, but very bright, group of readers.
That said:
I like the idea of blogs as a town square. I like the idea of reading the thoughts and ideas of various people who might visit me via the computer screen. I like the sense of that.
I am a writer, in the strictest sense of that word. I am a former newspaper columnist who was published weekly. There are times when I recognize how that affects my blogging. The obsession with comments and hits, as an example. As columnists, we are expected to generate feedback from readers (sell papers) by using our words to rile people up, one way or another.
It also caused me to have an addiction to that feedback. On days when I don't get very much, I feel like a failure.
It's icky - ucky. Bleh!
That's mine to resolve.. but I would truly, truly stop blogging and stop reading blogs if it just becomes another "enterprise".
Peace,
~Chani
I would never be so arrogant as to consider myself a Writer. I see myself as just a blogger too. Yes, I write for a living, but in an entirely different way. As a lawyer, I'm published all the time, but I think of real Writing as an art. What I do every day for pay is more of a science than an art. My blogging, well, that's just free psychotherapy. I started doing it to get some stuff off my chest and I kept doing it because of the community that I found.
There are plenty of bloggers who I do think of as Writers. Some are professional writers, some aren't, but it isn't necessarily perfect prose that makes me think of Writing. I guess I think of many bloggers as Writers in more of the OpEd sense - they make me stop. pause. think. about something in the world. It may not necessarily be political, in fact it usually isn't. Sometimes it's very well written, sometimes it isn't. But I guess that means I think of Writers in the blogosphere more in terms of ideas than craft. And it's those ideas and the back and forth that make this community so wonderful. Did that make any sense at all?
I would never begrudge another blogger for placing ads on their site, but I don't think I could do it myself. It's not that I don't think my non-legal writing has any worth, but I don't think it has any real monetary worth. It's value to me is something entirely different. That being said, I'm sure I do have a price. Almost everyone does.
And I'm still constantly amazed that anyone other than my mother ever visits my site!
Andrea,
I agree that there is a two-pronged difference between writing and blogging. I mentioned that I didn't see myself as a writer b/c I lack certain kinds of writing skills (poetic diction, the ability to create themes...)--skills that I know some other bloggers/writers do have.
There is also the difference of material conditions as well: editors, deadlines... It is potential for change in these material conditions that I feel threatens blogging in the ways you describe.
Dani,
Excellent questions which I will try to address although I must admit I was in a better position to do so at 4pm when I 1st saw them than now, at midnight, when I am just getting a few minutes alone with the computer.
1. "What would you consider a blogger being paid her worth?"
I need to answer this as a two-pronged question. a) What is the worth of blogger's writing and b) what is the worth of a blogger's readership? You see, to me, these are the two sides to the blogging-revenue coin.
As for what is the value of a blogger's writing, well that can only be determined by what the market is willing to pay her for her writing. Who reads our blogs? Who consumes our writing? Are these people willing to pay for what we are publishing in this format? I don't know for certain but I am pretty sure that most of the readers in the parenting blogosphere are other bloggers. Unless we are willing to pay each other then, at least given the way things now stand, our writing quite frankly has no monetary value.
Are you willing to pay to read what I write? Am I willing to pay to read what you write? The answer is "no" but only if you look at this equation in terms of monetary funds. We "pay" each other by giving back to this affiliative, collective system: by writing, by reading, by commenting and by linking. The way that the parenting blogosphere currently works is sort of like a sophisticated system of barter and exchange.
This will only change if we fundamentally change the way the system works such that lay-readers come to us willing to pay to read. I don't think this is likely to happen--and not just b/c it would be a logisitical sysyems nightmare but b/c society as a whole does not value our subject matter. The stuff of our domestic lives has always been and continues to be undervalued in the world at large.
b) what is the worth of our readership?: Because we can't realistically expect our readers to pay us outright for our writing, we need to rely on advertising or paid column blogging (which is simply advertising wearing a different guise) if we want to make money by blogging. In this scenario it is no longer our writing that is valued, it is the service that we can offer to advertisers by bringing them together with our readership. Notice the shift from "writing" as product to "service" as product.
As I've mentioned before in the comments, I don't have problems with bloggers advertising per se. There is nothing, to my mind, inherently wrong with this model. If business A wants to pay me X amount to post an ad that I approve of on my blog and if there are no editorial strings attached, then that's great. And I think this is what you do, right?
As for setting a monetary value for this service, there are several approaches a blogger could take:
1) the professional approach: determine your worth according to a professional model. E.g. as a mid-career professional with X number of years of post-seconday education, I could reasonably expect a full-time salary of Y. Because I blog for, say, 14 hours a week, I will calculate a rate based on a target salary, add in overhead for professional development and equipment costs, figure out the # of ads I can reasonably feature on my blog and then determine rates accordingly so that I will be paid my perceived worth.
2) the market approach: look at the # of hits my blog gets. Compare that with ad rates for other similar products and then set the rate accordingly. For example, my local arts newspaper may charge $120 for a single 1/8 page ad that appears in a single addition of the paper. My blog has a smaller readership but the readership is more targetted and they are return customers. Add to this that your ad will appear for a week (a month, 6 months, whatever). Do some comparative analyses and set a rate on an ad by ad basis.
3)The out-sourced approach: become a colomnist with one of the aggregated blogging services. They pay you a salay and then they handle all the advertising (for a cut).
4) Compare yourself with poets and theatre artists and then take out your wallet (no recommended)
Any of these approaches could help to determine a fixed worth for a blogger. The problem is, too many bloggers sit back and hope the advertisers come to them or else they put up the Goggle Ads or whatever and simply accept the terms they are offered. From what I understand, the pay-per-click ad schemes not only pay miserably but they also often advertise the very products that many of us criticize in our writing.
As for me, I likely will never advertise on my site (never say never) b/c that's not why I blog. I don't want to go out there and seek the advertisers and manage the business end of things. It would take the joy out of blogging for me. Besides, I have so little time to do this in the first place.
There's also another point I'd like to make and I tried to make it in this post. I think the advertising model I presented here works provided we see the blogosphere as a small village square. That's not the feeling I got after reading that marketing paper that I quoted. From what I understand, the mega corps are starting to take interest in us. Mega corps deal in a kind of advertising that I am uncomfortable with. They are into branding and market saturation. In order to do this in the blogosphere, they would need to (I think) pick several influential bloggers and then promote them as Hubs--the places all bloggers need to go b/c they are sooo smart, sooo hip, sooo branded. They would turn blogging into the business of a few big names that get a lot of exposure b/c of a lot of financial backing and influence. (I'm not saying this is happening but I think this is how marketing works and so is likely transform what we do here.)
Should something like this happen, I will be upset b/c it will spoil this well-structured collective. It will do this by drawing readers to the hubs and drowning out the tiny spokes and it will do this by making counter-culture discourse feel unwelcome. E.g. counter-culture voices will come to the blogosphere, see what's going on, feel uncomfortable with it, and take their ideas elsewhere.
Frankly, I think we have a social, feminist phenomenon going on here in the mommy blogosphere (as I explained in pts 1, 2, and a bit in 3 of this series). I would be seriously pissed to lose that.
Still with me? Your second question:
2)"what is your definition of a popular blogger?"
I don't know precisely. Technorati and Top Sites ratings might play into it but I don't really pay attention to those. What I do know is that in Bloglines, I have 25 subscribers. One of the blogs I subscribe to has close to 200. Another has well over 300. Certainly there are degrees of popularity.
My only fear with popularity is the that of the potential "branding" of the 'sphere that it brings.
Did that answer your questions? Dani, Dani, where'd'ya go?
Jennifer:
Even with the Club sites, it's advertising that pays the bills. It's just that someone takes a cut to make your life more easy.
As for systematizing the way those sites work with editors and the like, that model makes blogging more like publishing and will not only remove some of the joy of this place, it would remove a lot of the freedom.
Holy. I want to say so much, but is getting late. I agree with B&P's first comment though for starters. I do think of all of us as writers, but I do see the distinction between Writers as you describe them and writers as I see all of us. I too do not see myself as Writer in that sense I lack the skills as you mentioned. That doesn't mean I think my writing or my blog lacks value. As you put it has value, a value that will never be recognized to satisfaction in a monetary anyway.
I love blogging, I fell into it by accident and cannot believe what I have found. Kindred spirits all around and yes it is true any of us can simply disappear at any time, but that doesn't bother me too much. It is here that I have felt heard and understood in a way that I have never found anywhere else. I am a blogger and at this moment that is enough.
Oh, I love love LOVE your answer about how we pay each other in a literary/social barter system. We pay each other in 'props'. Love this idea!
Your blogger biz model points were interesting. You overlooked someone like me, though, who would happily blog for free but was simply made a good offer that in no way, shape or form changes the effort put into blogging, nor radically changes the look of the blog. It's kind of like a gift, or a prize.
On a bit of a tangent, wouldn't it be nice if there were some place we could compare compensation models so we could talk about this in clearer terms? For example, I get $750 US per year (flat rate, paid in advance) for my ads, and they were very up front about it. It was never entirely clear to me how much the BlogHer network would actualy compensate me (they work on a per-1000-impressions / page views model) even after I signed a contract, and I understand Google Ads are even less clear.
On another tangent, I think there's something similar to my mother's old expression of "money comes to money" at work here. It seems that once the tide turns for a particular blogger and offers of products to review or other compensation starts to come in, they become a magnet for other offers, while blogs with similar readership, style, etc. seem to get overlooked. Are the marketers compiling lists of 'friendly' blogs and swapping them, just like the old telemarketing lists?
Okay, I'm off on my own tangents and not even addressing your most excellent and interesting answer, and now I'm late for Sunday breakfast out! Will be back to reply in more detail later, with more coffee and less impatient boys demanding my attention.
Dani - Another way to measure the value of what a blogger might be paid for advertising space is in terms of how much revenue she's actually driving to the advertiser. That $750 is a great deal, Dani, simply to do what you're doing already (and I'm sure I would snap it up if it were offered to me) - but if you're making $10,000 for your advertisers, is that cut still sufficient? (It seems unlikely to me that bloggers could produce that much revenue, since most of us never click on, or even glance at, the ads - but I've seen articles on how cheaply companies can buy word of mouth by snapping up mommy-bloggers now, while they're still underpriced, that it makes me wonder.)
Mad - How do you think the corporate presence in the blogosphere will work to change the dynamics and create a cult of celebrity? What are the actual steps they would take? Would it be a "you promote us, we'll promote you" thing, where the celebrity blogger then gets promoted in mainstream media in order to drive more traffic to her blog? Considering that so many of us instinctively eschew the really big sites (if for no other reason than that they feel less cozy and intimite than the smaller blogs where a real back-and-forth conversation takes place), how will what we do be disrupted by that star-making corporate presence?
B&P,
I will respond tonight. I started a comment on Miss M's nap but it is too long to finish. Stay tuned.
B&P -- One method would be to actively recruit new blog readers. Not bloggers (who as you say develop our own networks), but people who currently read Parenting or similar mags & who are unlikely to search for other blogs -- they'll happily read what is given to them & not know they're missing out.
Are Blogging Baby etc. affiliated with any print publications?
I don't know that this would disrupt OUR conversation.
Mad -- Why do you speak so bitterly about the way that mommyblogs are derided in the media? ALL blogs are derided in the media -- except for those that are associated with a corporation. (Those are considered far-thinking.)
I've loved this series Mad.
I cracked up at the end - about the commercial stuff. I don't have ads because I just have no faith that there is money to be made off of blogging. I know that's just silly and that Dooce supports her whole family with it (or so I've heard) and even still, I just don't believe it. I am convinced that if I wrote blogs for products or placed ads on my blog I would get a periodic check for .03 cents. Is there real, actual money on the table for those things?
(Sorry - this is way tangential.)
Jennifer: I am bitter about it b/c I hate when the media relies on hot-button talking points rather than true journalism. I'm a fan of what seems to be an ailing art: journalism. Besides, I hate being misrepresented.
Bub&Pie, this is how my futuristic dystopia will play out:
The media will notice that a lot of parents, particularly mothers, have been flocking to the blogosphere of late. Rather than pay attention as to why that might be the case (as true journalists might), they create a provocative talking point to explain it. The talking point goes something like this: “the rise in the # of celebrity pregnancies has resulted in motherhood being seen as hip or trendy. The blogosphere has become a place where mothers who had hoped to be trendy are getting together to bemoan the actual conditions of parenting and to swap silly stories and hot tips for finding Prada sandals cheap.” No one in the media does their homework to find out if this is actually the case b/c in the end it doesn’t matter. The talking point is provocative and will, therefore, sell copy. Heck, if it’s spun well, it could even become a regular hot-button feature.
Once reported a few times, the talking point becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. The notion of “mommy blogger” gets entrenched as synonymous with misguided yet hip—oh so very hip—parenting—that is, it gets entrenched to all but those of us who are actually benefiting from it. Advertisers notice and they seek out popular bloggers who fit the profile that they are anxious to sell: the bloggers they seek need to be “real”, funny, pert and endearing. They also have to be mothers who are not afraid to mention their love of designer X shoes or designer Y diaper bags. With enough corporate backing, these bloggers who fit the profile begin getting more exposure. They begin to build careers in blogging. Their rise in popularity creates a hub and spoke model in the blogosphere rather than the hive model that, more or less, exists now. (BTW, I am not trying to single out any existing bloggers here. Really. Honestly. Truly. To the best of my knowledge this kind of thing isn’t happening yet. This comment is a speculative fiction.)
The rest of us continue blog away in happiness somewhat oblivious to or dismissive of this new trend. We know we would never fall for such obvious tactics and so we turn away from the trend and continue to do what we love to do with the bloggers we love to do it with. We are sometimes surprised by the hip bloggers’ stat counts but we reason that this is a sensational short lived trend that will rightly run its course. Some of us will even benefit from the spin-off as advertising begins to percolate further down the chain. Others will have engaged with advertisers on our own terms in the “village square” model I discussed in my post.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, a pivotal figure will enter the picture. She will be a figure whose fame was primarily founded on the early 21st C notions of “cult of personality.” Her particular stock will be starting to take a downward spin for whatever reason—rehab, shaved head, you name it. She will be a mother.
The network big-wigs having done a market analysis begin to realize
a) that a portion of the TV watching demographic has turned to the internet
b) that online shopping is increasing exponentially
c) that blogs, vlogs, and YouTube are considered hip trends with a vast market
Until this time, the networks have used blogs as part of the overall image they present for a tv show but they’ve never made them an equal part of the show itself. A bright young network mucky-muck (perhaps at MTV or TLC or FOX) will decide to take that next step. He will hire our ex-rehab near non-celeb and offer her a comeback—she is so desperate to reclaim her status that she will accept despite the ethical issues that might trouble her regarding putting her children in the spotlight. The comeback will be an integrated release of a reality TV show/vlog/blog of how she manages as a young mother. The blog will be ghost written such that it will be inflammatory with just the right amount of reality-TV pathos to get a vast market hooked. Middle-America will love it for its honesty. The hip, intelligentsia will love it from the stand-point of cultural criticism. The TV show portion of the package will draw a whole new demographic to the blogosphere and the vlog/blog package will begin to shape the blogosphere as we know it. This new show (for lack of a better word. Mmm “spectacle?”) will carry significant corporate backing that will allow it to saturate the market.
Copycat shows/spectacles will spring up like “Nanny Blog” or “Pimp my Mom”…
Those of us who already blog and who know the value of blogging will look on in disgust but we will not let it upset this thing that we do. We love this thing that we do and so we will blog on according to a parallel system. We will offer intelligent critiques of what is going on that only we will read and discuss.
We may, however, start to notice that there are fewer new, fresh, invigorating voices in these parts. You see the successful branding of the “mommy-sphere” by the media and corporate mucky-mucks will not appeal to the people who would really enjoy the benefits of how we actually operate here. The sad thing is they will be so blinded by the heavy-handed branding that they won’t know we are here or where to find us. The critical mass of high quality parent blogs will start to slip a little as the regular attrition in our numbers takes hold. The rates of depression in the general population of mothers will spike a bit.
Finally, the companies that provide our services (e.g. Blogger, Wordpress) begin to notice that a lot of people are making money out of blogging. They will want their slice of the pie and will start to license use of their products. A goodly number of us will stop blogging b/c the additional costs won’t be worth it particularly if we are not generating any revenue from ads. Some of us might suck up the costs or get our own domain names (which come at a cost) and work with free-ware to keep doing what we are doing but the critical mass of our numbers will be so reduced that much of the joy of community will be gone.
Parenting blogging as we know it will come to an end as yet another technology moves from the free domain of the glorious internet to just another example of the corporatization of technology.
Thus ends my speculative fiction. For me it’s a win-win. If this doesn’t happen then I get to keep my joy in blogging. If it does happen then I get to boast of my skills as a guru of technology trend-spotting.
Oh please, all two or three people who see this, recognize it for what it is: black humour.
OTJ: I don't really know. I am an advertising neophyte in these parts.
Dani: I think it would be great if there was a place where bloggers could share such info. I think the more we communicate with each other on these things, the stronger we are as a group. I imagine that a lot of this kind of talk goes on at BlogHer. Given that I'm likely not going to use ads or go to BlogHer, I will likely remain in the dark on such issues.
Okay rather than take up more space here, I added a blog entry at my spot for it. Excellent topic, thanks Mad. :)
Mad, well, it seems redundant now to say I agree with your futuristic dystopia comment, LOL.
However, I (a) don't think it is fiction and (b) don't find it black humor totally (although I understand you mean it as such).
I think you make an excellent point and very plausible prediction.
I see the first wave beginning. Commercial, planned blogging is already in play.
We saw what happened with things like Salon. The freeware blogging services already have "upgrades" for a cost.
You aren't too Orwellian, or wait, maybe you are. ;)
I know you're not fishing, but you're one of the finest writers and thinkers I know in these here parts.
But I know what distinction you are trying to make--I think. I've been mulling this over the last few days as I've been largely offline (and rather enjoying it).
One thing I am realizing more and more about blogging is how its "in betweenness" is both its strength and its pitfall. As you know, I've been considering the community aspect of this whole venture a great deal--and it seems to me that there is a mode to blogging where the communal aspect almost undercuts the model of writing you refer to here. The Author or The Artist. To me blogging is a form of writing that is more akin to Peer to Peer review where "writing" is communal (to a degree) and ideas emerge through consensus building. (and actually, I think all writing is like this, but we veil the processes in traditional media/art--or if we unveil them we do so as an artistic gesture). One thing about this in-between space for writing is that I feel that what you see here are ideas in process. We all write to think, as it were--and build something much larger between us.
I think I am with Bub on the false distinction argument--but I am not even sure I have the same concept of writing as she does. I think for me (especially as I think about my own writing) there are times when I self-consciously write an "essay" to put out there, and there are other times when I am just shooting the shit online. If I had to do a rhetorical comparison, I wonder if I would find much difference in those modes though... And once it's out there, does it actually matter what I think? (Perhaps another good question is not "are bloggers writers" but "how are blogs being read?")
Advertizing on blogs--I don't do it. Not because of any real position on the matter, but because I know it would serve no purpose whatsover. Though I am with you on the skepticism bent--I worry how much this community might be exploited.
I am good friends with one of teh "A-Listers," as you know. Yes--they make money. A living? That's another thing completely. And this person has an audience of over 50,000 per month. Is there nothing there that indicates a consensus about merit?
BTW--Mimi's point about ads and broadcast model vs. community model--right on target, I feel (not google text ads, so much, but the "glossier" types). This is not a judgement, but in some ways the ads/no ads issue is very much about how you situate your writing in terms of the community. With ads, I feel we say (however awkwardly) that our writing is for consumption in a capitalist sense. This is not something that interests me personally. On the other hand, as more and more women write in this vein and create audiences, we don't want to go down the "unpaid labor/women's work" route (again).
I would love to be a paid blogger. However (and I know this from speaking with other more lucrative bloggers) it can be very stressful to be paid to blog about your life. Living online, and wondering how you can spin a certain event in order to bring in readers. We all do this to an extent (don't we?) but when you acquire such a readership and gain financially from it, how difficult to take a break, how difficult to keep a sense of distance. For those of us with other jobs, other ways of making an income and feeling a sense of productive value I think it might be easier to blog, in some ways. I think for others who have "risen" in this very short time (many of whom I would absolutely read if in print) it is very uncharted territory--how to handle putting one's life online and still have a sense of self-worth that is separate.
Fascinating to think about. And I have to say, my short break from the Net was quite a relief. Reminded me that I just want to be part of a small group. The consumption model is too exhausting.
I think of all the thoughtful, clever, provocative and interesting sentences in this blog post series and all insightful comments pale in comparison to Mad's pithy observation/prediction: "We will offer intelligent critiques of what is going on that only we will read and discuss."
Yes. I only wish I could distill the perfect post award down to a perfect sentence award. I'd give it to you.
Joy: I wouldn't want to make my living from blogging for the very reasons you describe. When I think of the few A-listers I have read on occasion, I feel for them. I feel uncomfortable when I start getting a few more comments than I am able to reciprocate. If I had a huge volume of traffic, I would start to feel as if I were in a fish bowl. This is partly why I refuse to criticize the A-listers. Who the fuck am I to pass judgement on their lives? I can critique a system that gives rise to a stratification in the blogosphere but I don't like to dally with the real-life moms and dads caught in the cross hairs of it all.
Dani: a very depressed, "shucks, thanks."
"The way that the parenting blogosphere currently works is sort of like a sophisticated system of barter and exchange."
I read this first as quoted on Julie's (Ravin' Picture Maven)blog. I have thought of it often over the past few weeks. This comment along with Julie's post on blogging and your series erased like magic all the angst and insecurities I have about blogging (and perception and validity of bloggers).
Thank you.
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