Embarassing Moments in Mommy Blogging
Shelly and I have been bloggers for at least 8 years, if not longer, prior to opening Two Classy Chics. We have held many positions in many different companies and at varying levels of management; in huge corporations and small business. Since we have been blogging together with this review blog, I am astounded at some of the un-professionalism and down right Embarrassing things that we have heard and seen online. But today I am going to address one of my biggest peeves.
As many of you know and especially the people that enter our giveaways, we work hard to find unique and different sponsors for our blog. We bring beautiful items to you that are not seen on 50 other mom blogs. Because of that, we spend many long hours researching. Then we publish the review and the sponsor is thrilled with our work, since we are detailed in our reviews, and with the response they get on their site. Sounds wonderful, right?
Until the emails start pouring in……. pouring in from other mom blogs wanting to review their products too. Some of the emails our sponsors are getting are down right rude. They range from defaming our work; saying how they write better than we do – they have more followers than we do – and some bloggers out right lie about us trying to get the sponsor to do business with them. Heck, we don’t even know some of these bloggers and they do not know us, so why defame our work? At least kiss me first…. And many of the bloggers we do know, so I am appalled at the behavior and offensive emails. You sure find out who your friends are in the blogging community… NONE!
How do we know this? Oh, we have plenty of sponsors that enjoy our work and are astounded at what “professional” mom bloggers send out. One company alone received over 700 emails from bloggers requesting a review and giveaway within 1 week after our post was published. 700! How embarrassing is that, people?
Do those that “market” their business that way really think about how overwhelming that is to a small business owner that runs their business online with few or no employees? Maybe it is a mom and pop business. Does anyone think about the ramifications of that?
It is no wonder that more and more smaller businesses are Choosing NOT to work with mom bloggers and have attitudes like the post we wrote about the other day where we had a nasty reply to an email. Yes, it was nasty and uncalled for, but look at how overwhelmed some businesses must be. I would flip out if that happened to my business and I would Never do another review again. I would be Pissed! You can see that post here called Mommy Bloggers and Review Bloggers Should Get What?
Personally, I think this type of activity is rude and uncalled for. Bashing a fellow blogger, al beit a competitor, is ungracious and unethical – although more and more I am seeing so many unethical bloggers in this community. It is extremely embarrassing to me as I feel it puts a bad light on the mom blog reviewer community as a whole. I do not want my sponsor thinking I am just in it for the “free stuff” and damn anyone else who reviews a product I want and should have, even though my blog or my job performance many not warrant it.
So what is the answer? How can this embarrassing activity be stopped? How can we start looking like the Professional Mom Bloggers that we profess to be?
Do your own work! If you see something you truly would like to review on someones stream, do the research and look for like items or wait a few months to email the initial sponsor. Do you really think that emailing the sponsor within 1 week or 1 hour of it posting is going to better your odds of getting product? They are already committed to the other blogger. Sure, some may respond in the affirmative, but most are being overwhelmed with emails and running scared, which results in a loss to the whole community. Sad but true.
Review bloggers are in and have a very unique perspective in the blogging community. If you really think you are a professional at what you do, please act like one and think about the sponsor first. That is really what our job is about; Them not US!
I am sure that I am going to piss off plenty of bloggers and honestly I don’t care. Being ostracized is nothing new to us. That has been occurring since we started our blog, for some reason. But what I do care about is the blogging community as a whole and the embarrassing things I witness and see happening on blogs and from our sponsors.
Think about how you want to be perceived by others looking in. Can you honestly say you work hard finding your sponsors and you are giving your sponsor an HONEST VALUE in return? If you can, then you are in the right job and THANK YOU! My hat’s off to you.
Am I perfect? No. Is this blog perfect? No. And please understand, I am not pointing any fingers at anyone personally but the reviewing community as a whole. I do think that if we all work together instead of against one another this will be a better experience for many sponsors and we can all grow this business that We created.
If you have made it to the end of my rant, thank you. I hope you understand what I am trying to express and I only wish for a better blogging experience and a better experience for our sponsors, current and future.