Skip to Content

Is the Mommy Blog Dead?

Last night I was pretty excited about my blog. I got home from a blogger social at the Thaxton, a swanky establishment so cool you literally need to know the secret password to get in. I met with awesome local businesses, talked a little shop and brought home a swag bag stuffed full of goodies. The kids pounced on me when got home to see if I snagged them anything good, so I turned over my Bissinger’s chocolate, some organic cookies and a jar of chocolate spread. It made me feel less guilty for all that cotton candy I ate without them.

It was a pretty good night.

Then I logged onto Facebook…is the mommy blog dead

…and found a nasty rant from a fellow mom blogger, a member of my own mommy blog tribe. (We have tribes, dontcha know.) She was proclaiming that mommy blogging was deader than a door nail. Actually, she said “your mommy blog f***ing sucks.” * <— real asterisk  

I’ll link to her blog later so you can read it if you want. But it’s long. You would need to leave a trail of bread crumbs to find your way back here, so let me just bend your ear for a little longer, m’kay?

The Mommy Blog is Dead?

I was shocked. Was she talking to me? Me?? Maybe, my guilty conscious whispered.

YesI’ve been guilty of a few of the “mommy blog sins” she rattled off in lengthy f-bomb laden detail. Josi’s words cut deep–and she meant them to. She went on and on about how she had fabulous success as a mom blogger–made bunches of money and earned trips–and was now throwing it away. No, she wasn’t just throwing it away. She set it on fire, picked up the ashes of her mommy blog and flushed it down the toilet.

blog on fire

Her post stung so hard that I felt like smashing my PC and never logging into the internet again. (Yeah, it was that bad.) 

In my defense, I’m not guilty of everything she’s accused mommy bloggers of doing. I’ve never written about being more happy than I am. I’m actually a pretty happy person, but I don’t go running around social media saying #blessed. Sometimes I’ve actually passed on review products that were just too lame to share. I learned that lesson the hard way. But I’ve been getting better with finding really awesome sponsors, and learning to “just say no” to the ones that are a bad fit.

Did she have a few points? Of course. The core of her rant is that she’s tired of bloggers who are fake. And terrible writers.

But she didn’t have to be so mean about it.

unicorn

Thank Goodness for Go Blog Social

Remember that social I was talking about at the beginning of this post? It was a pre-party for the Go Blog Social conference, which I JUST attended today. I’m very thankful that I did not flush my blog down the proverbial toilet out of shame and despair. The conference turned out to be the pep talk I needed.

Here’s a few things I’ve learned from bloggers bigger and way cooler than myself.

  1. Always be authentic and write from the heart.
  2. Team up with sponsors you love, not just the ones who show up waving cash. 
  3. If the sponsors you love aren’t beating a path to your door, it’s ok to reach out to them. The worse they can say is “no thanks.”
  4. Don’t worry about Google search so much. SEO is for computers, not people.
  5. Sometimes you have to make your own good luck.
  6. I need join forces with my fellow St. Louis parent bloggers.

Ok, that last tip was just me and Jen from And Hattie Makes Three deciding that we need to team up and tackle this city together.wonder twins

Oddly enough, some of these tips I picked up from today’s experts are echos of Josi’s rant. Just presented nicer. And with a side of chocolate.

So if this post seems a little different from my usual fare…well, it is. I’m making a promise to myself that from now on, I will write from the heart and chase after my dreams. And who knows, maybe we’ll grow together.

Here’s Josi’s blog post. Read if you like. I don’t think I’m looking at it again.


*Sorry folks, I don’t cuss on my keyboard. I don’t think it makes a writer more authentic. Just crass.