I love that the mommybloggers have figured out how to make money from blogging. From the New York Times,
Colleen Padilla, a 33-year-old mother of two who lives in suburban
Philadelphia, has reviewed nearly 1,500 products, including baby
clothes, microwave dinners and the Nintendo Wii, on her popular Web
site Classymommy.com.
Her site attracts 60,000 unique visitors every month, and Ms. Padilla
attracts something else: free items from companies eager to promote
their products to her readers.
Still, in the old days, didn't somebody manage to make money from animated gifs of hamsters dancing? Now it seems like so much work.
Posted by: MH | July 13, 2009 at 11:35 AM
I don't care if people make money, but I don't like to read paid/freebie reviews (and that includes getting paid to look at something, even if you're not getting paid for what you write). I used to think it was no big deal to get a free book, but blogging book review etiquette, which sometimes seems to include not saying anything if you can't say anything nice makes even that a bit of a problem ('cause then, all the blog reviews you read are going to be positive, 'cause the others will just be quiet).
So, how do I wish people would make money? adbars, with no implication of endorsement work for me -- I don't mind having a link to, say the PGE advert for alternative power at Dooce's site. So do micropayments -- I know most people don't make them, but I'm up for being guilted into making micropayments. I follow up on a lot of donation links (have given money to blogger's friends in need, to charities supported by bloggers, etc.).
I think people should be paid for content, but I don't read review sites like the classymommy site.
Posted by: bj | July 13, 2009 at 12:31 PM
"Classymommy" is such a bourgeois URL.
Posted by: Marya | July 13, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Isn't proclaiming your own classiness a bit like praising your own sense of humor?
(And in the spirit of bj's comment, I just wrote my second Amazon review, absolutely panning a book. I should get back in the habit of reviewing more at the blog, even if it's just short notes. I've not been shy about delivering bad or decidedly mixed reviews there.)
Posted by: Doug | July 13, 2009 at 04:10 PM
I have given bad reviews to books and magazine articles on this blog before, but I have to admit that I've held back many, many times. I hate hurting people's feelings.
Posted by: laura | July 13, 2009 at 09:23 PM
There are plenty of books that suck bad enough that you probably won't care about the author's feelings by the end.
Posted by: MH | July 13, 2009 at 10:34 PM