The Wall Street Journal ran a piece on Thursday, April 10, 2008 called The Blogger Mom, In Your Face written by Sue Shellenbarger featuring none other than the most well known mom blogger on the Internet today: Dooce. She has been blogging for close to 7 years now…before most people (including myself) even knew what a blog was! I got the opportunity to meet Heather Armstrong (a.k.a Dooce) at SXSW and exchange a few words with her after she finished her panel. She is such a down to earth person.
I think it’s great that the WSJ has chosen to highlight a mommy blogger who according to the article might be making as much as $40,000 per month on ad revenue for her blog! Wow!! It’s not without its downfalls though because full time blogging for that kind of money is a crazy, often stressful job. I blog very part time (3 or so posts per week) so I can’t say I can relate to the stress of full time professional blogging, but I can certainly imagine it…especially if I had to post original, often personal content every day like Dooce does.
According to the WSJ article, “Among the Web’s 200,000-plus bloggers on parenting and family, few have succeeded to the extent of Ms. Armstrong; countless at-home parents would love to be in her position. But less obvious is the behind-the-scenes price an at-home mom pays to shoulder her way to prominence in the blogosphere — giving up her privacy, sustained time off and any remnants of work-family boundaries at all.”
Sue Shellenbarger did a fantastic job with this article by illustrating both the ups and downs of professional blogging, unlike the recent New York Times article called In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop which emphasized primarily the negative aspects of blogging as a profession and inferred that full time blogging can be fatal. If they had mentioned how many journalists had died in the same period, then I think it might have made the article a bit less biased against blogging. Check out Marc Andreessen’s funny take on this article called The New York Times Covers Blogging including statements like “Bloggers Have Bad Breath,” “Bloggers Have Herpes,” “Hitler Probably Blogged,” and “The Bloggers Have WMD.”
Other mommy bloggers that were highlighted in the WSJ article are:
5minutesformom.com
designmom.com
parenthacks.com
scribbit.blogspot.com
fussy.org
notesfromthetrenches.com
stirrup-queens.blogspot.com
izzymom.com
suburbanbliss.net
Asha Dornfest at Parent Hacks linked to a guest post on my blog about traveling with a baby and I saw a significant amount of traffic because of her mention, which goes to show that she definitely deserves to be on this list!
If you think there are a lot of mommy bloggers, you should check out Twitter because there are a ton of mommy tweeters out there. In fact, Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home just did a post listing the Moms on Twitter and the list is still growing!
I have to say it’s much easier sometimes to come up with 140 character or less tweets than full blog posts! I wonder if we can monetize our tweets. Anyone want to pay me $10, $5, $1, 25 cents for a tweet? 😀 Twitter are you listening reading?
Oh and if you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to my feed because if I survive the next 5 years of motherhood, maybe I’ll end up being one of the top mommy/entrepreneur bloggers! Unlike Dooce, however, I will have to hire someone other than my husband to help me figure out how to monetize my blog…
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: blogging,
mom,
mother,
twitter,
working mom,
working mother |
Tags: 5 minutes for mom,
asha dornfest,
blogging,
design mom,
dooce,
fussy,
izzy mom,
izzymom,
mommy blogger,
new york times,
notes from the trenches,
NY Times,
parenthacks,
scribbit,
stirrup queens,
subarbanbliss,
sue shellenbarger,
twitter,
Wall Street Journal,
WSJ |
4 Comments »
I’m applying for the Women 2.0 business plan competition in California for my company Babble Soft. Thanks to Angie Chang for leaving a comment on my recent Economy and Entrepreneurs post letting me know about it. At the time the deadline was April 1, but they’ve since extended it to April 15. They encourage companies located outside of California (and the Bay Area) to apply so we’ll see if they will actually select a company from l’il ‘ole Austin, Texas.
It’s a pretty short application form that challenges even the most frequent twitter user (i.e., type your thoughts in less than 140 characters) with maximum character requirements between 210 to 410 characters to describe things like your target market, business summary, or competitive advantage! It sure made me focus on picking what I believe are the right words. The online application form is run by Angelsoft, which I mentioned in one of my SXSW posts.
I will be submitting my application later today and then mailing in my paper napkin with my best paper napkin handwriting ability (UGH!) soon thereafter. I might have to ask my husband to write it for me because his napkin handwriting talent is much better than mine. 🙂
Wish me luck!!
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: babble soft,
competition,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
fundraising |
Tags: angie chang,
business plan competition,
California,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
napkin business plan competition,
sxsw,
twitter,
us economy,
women 2.0 |
8 Comments »
Those of us who live in Austin, Texas love talking about how great it is here. On top of the perfect ‘winter’ weather (it’s 7o degrees in February), great people, and great tech community, we have a top ranking state university (The University of Texas at Austin) and awesome Twitter members. 🙂
Yesterday, we took the kids to see the UT Austin Longhorn football team practice in the morning. Hook ‘Em Horns! The weather was around 6o degrees and because it was a morning practice there weren’t nearly the amount of people there that my husband said were there at the one evening practice he went to before. Our son loved getting close to the players and our daughter had fun rolling down the hills. Our son held his hand out as some of the players were moving from one practice field to the next and they touched his outstretched palm which made his day! He gets his love of college football from his dad. I’ve been known to watch a game from time to time. We then went to Shady Grove for lunch which is near Lady Bird Lake and enjoyed the sunny day by eating outside.
For dinner we met up with some Austin tweeters who I had never met before except of course for Connie Reece who got me started with blogging and probably first told me about twitter! Oh and Thom Singer who we have known for several years…well before I forayed into blogging. We met at Waterloo Ice House on Loop 360 and at 7:00 pm and it was still 70 degrees! The kids had a blast playing on the playscape and in the sandbox.
The Austin Tweet-Up was organized by Kim Haynes for Susan Reynolds and Bryan Person who were in town visiting from DC and Boston. It was great fun meeting several people I’ve gotten to know via tweets on twitter and meeting new people in Austin. What is it about those magical 140 character tweets?
For some other write-ups on the Austin Tweetup check out Kim Haynes’ and Thom Singer’s posts, here and here.
Picture by Kim Haynes of @agentgenius, @LaniAR, @mikeneumann, and @susanreynolds.
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: Just For Fun,
random stuff |
Tags: agent genius,
austin,
austin tweet-up,
kim haynes,
lady bird lake,
longhorn football,
mike neumann,
shady grove,
susan reynolds,
texas,
thom singer,
twitter,
UT Austin,
ut longhorn football practice,
waterloo ice house |
3 Comments »
Picture by Sandy Blanchard
Choosing a corporate attorney is an interesting endeavor. I have avoided using attorney’s for Babble Soft in the past because a) they are very expensive, b) sometimes they make you feel like they need to review everything you do for fear of some horrible thing happening, and c) I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with my life what my strategic business plan was. Since I have a new business strategy and have decided to raise funds, an attorney is a must have.
I’ve met with a couple and spoken to a few more. The first I spoke to was the attorney at my first company and although I would love to work with her we both agreed that the firm she is at now is catered more for more established businesses (i.e., very, very expensive). It is so much better to understand that up front because we have worked on many outside projects together, and I consider her a friend.
The second attorney I spoke to was referred by another entrepreneur in the area. I liked her and her partner but a few things gave me pause. One potential area of risk is the fact we might end up doing business with the other entrepreneur’s company which might result in a conflict of interest. They had good rates and good experience but did not have an in-house tax attorney. Since Babble Soft is currently an LLC and we’d like to continue as an LLC for at least our first round of financing, having someone who understands the tax implications could be important.
The third attorney I met had done some pro-bono work for me a year or so ago because I guess he knew I couldn’t afford his services at the time. What I liked about him is that he does have a tax attorney in his firm, has represented several small companies in the technology space, one of my business Advisor’s has worked with him in the past, he was on time for our meeting, said he could help with introductions to potential investors, and he sent a brief follow-up note after our meeting expressing his interest in working with me. However, his rate is $125/hour more than the attorneys at the second firm I spoke with!
Special thanks to @princess_belle who blogs at GloKay, @chelpixie who blogs at Chelpixie.com, and LPT who blogs at Direct2Dell who tweeted me things to think about and questions to ask the attorneys. I plan on making a decision in the next couple of weeks so if you have attorney stories or suggestions to share with me or the blogosphere, please leave a comment. Thank you!
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: babble soft,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
fundraising,
twitter |
Tags: attorney suggestions,
babble soft,
corporate attorney,
finding an attorney,
fundraising,
tax attorney,
twitter |
11 Comments »
A fascinating thing happened to me and many a folk on Twitter last week. I went from 30 followers to over 175 followers worldwide in just over 24 hours all because of a woman known as @SusanReynolds. Susan blogs at Artsy Asylum and started a new blog called Boobs on Ice to document her journey fighting breast cancer. A woman who I have mentioned frequently on my blog, Connie Reece, helped start a campaign called the Frozen Pea Fund. You can see a great interview of Connie on this particular topic called PEAS and Passion on Thom Singer’s blog. Connie also helped start Frozen Pea Friday where people change their twitter avatars to “peavatars” in support of Susan Reynolds and to build awareness of the Frozen Pea Fund.
As I mentioned in my Social Media Mania – What’s A Gal to Do? post I joined Twitter on December 13, 2007. Near the end of last week, I saw @lizstrauss, @princess-belle and others making challenges that they will donate money to the Frozen Pea Fund if twitterdom would help them get to X number of followers within a certain time period. I decided to join in late on December 27 and put forth the challenge of 175 to donate $50. I had 30 followers at the time. It was down to the wire but just as midnight was closing here in US CST on December 28 a tweet went out to some Aussie twitter folk and I ended up with close to 180!
I would have donated even if I didn’t make it to 175. I was having so much FUN seeing people take action based on 140 character or less tweets to help fight cancer, a worthy cause. Talk about instant gratification for almost all parties involved! I donated my $50 right then and there. To me, the Frozen Pea Fund endeavor has been the best example of a social media campaign I have seen or been a part of. Kudos to people like @conniereece for taking the time to show us how social media can be used to make a difference!
Now I’m going to see if twitter can help me find a good reference for a beginner yoga class to take in 2008. I’ve got a lot to do in 2008 and Yoga will be a big part of it. I even saw that they are offering a Deepak Chopra Center Yoga Retreat at the Crossings in March.
If you’d like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @aruni. If you’d like to see how I figure out how attempt to use social media to help build awareness of my company, Babble Soft, you might want to subscribe to this blog’s feed. If you have any suggestions on how to reach our target market, please don’t hesitate to send me your ideas…they are always welcome!
Happy New Year! Oh and don’t forget to donate to the Frozen Pea Fund…
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: charities,
social media,
social networks,
twitter |
Tags: american cancer society,
breast cancer,
connie reece,
frozen pea friday,
frozen pea fund,
frozen peas,
peas,
peas and passion,
social media,
social networks,
susan reynolds,
twitter |
6 Comments »
Wendy at eMoms at Home did a post recently where she asked her readers “How do you Use Social Media to Promote Your Business?” I didn’t have time to answer then and I’m sure I missed out on the free books, which is OK because I never seem to have time to read any books these days. I’ve had a few days off from software testing, so I figured I’d do a post about it.
There are so many aspects to social media that it’s tough for an entrepreneur to keep up. I mean we still have to sleep! Fortunately, I’m fairly social. I mentioned on a post that Liz Strauss did recently called Business and Life: Are You Making the Most of the Conversation? that “I am a Participant, rarely a Lurker, and often a Listener.”
It is fun making friends all over the world and it’s easy to be social from behind your computer when it fits with your schedule. In the past I resisted joining sites like facebook because of the time commitment.
To do a social network right, I figure it means committing significant time to it. When you are launching a start-up, planning to raise funds, taking care of kids, maintaining a house, etc., it’s not easy to be as active as one should be in these networks over time. But so far it’s been fascinating to see how other people interact with the networks. I mean can you believe that facebook has over 55 million users all over the world? That is amazing! So here’s what I’ve done and what I’ve observed:
I started this blog (it had a different name before) with the help of Connie Reece. She gave me the kick start I needed! I think I did my first post back in May 2007. The blog has been fun and I know it has driven some additional traffic to my company site, Babble Soft, but to date I haven’t seen that it’s resulted in more than just a few additional sales. As a result of having a blog, I joined MyBlogLog, FeedBurner, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Digg, and BlogHer. Wendy was also kind enough to invite me to join the Home Business & Entrepreneur FeedBurner Ad Network. I haven’t made much money from these particular ad networks (maybe in total $100) but it has given me exposure to other bloggers and made me aware of other businesses.
I entered some competitions to hopefully win prizes and get additional exposure. I can’t remember all of them but I know I did one at Alpha Moms and I just entered Intuit’s Just Start challenge where I have the potential to win $50K for my business! The ‘vote for me’ widget will be on the right hand side of my blog until shortly after their voting deadline of December 16. After I sent an email to some friends asking if they would vote for me, I found out that people had to log in to do so. Knowing how much I hate to create unnecessary logins, my guess is that I won’t win on votes, but I might win in the unique idea category and because we have jokingly referred to our Baby Insights application as “Quicken for Baby.” 🙂
I have participated in some blog memes: 8 Random Things About Me and Blogging Tip Meme. Neena just tagged me again for a My Favorite Words theme. Memes give you exposure but they are time consuming so I think after doing this last meme, I will have to put a notice somewhere to let people know not to tag me unless they let me know first because I would hate to leave a meme go unanswered. I’m answering the Favorite Word meme by bolding my favorite words in this post (in case you were wondering why some of the words are in bold text). Isabella at Change Therapy I hope that’s OK with you! What do these words say about me? I guess that I’m a driven, committed, somewhat zany, looking to learn, searching for connection/peace, sleep deprived, mom-ified, and sometimes creative.
I joined LinkedIn. I’ve found LinkedIn to be useful for business related networking…for answers to specific questions. I haven’t yet established a deal or attempted to look for employees there which I hear is what it’s meant for. I’ve been able to answer a few questions on LinkedIn but I don’t think I’ve contributed to the increase of anyone’s business yet.
I joined facebook. Mostly to learn from the king of social networking sites. I may do some targeted ads there some day when time and money permit. I also set up a company page on facebook for Babble Soft.
I engaged a full service SEO/SEM firm.
I just joined twitter. I even added the little widget to my sidebar, and I integrated it with facebook. I really resisted joining twitter. I had no idea why anyone would be interested in my day to day activities. More importantly I didn’t think I would be interested in anyone else’s day to day activities! I already have about 20 followers. You may be wondering what pushed me over the edge and made me join twitter…well it was the Duran Duran concert I attended earlier this week. I was there and I suddenly thought ‘wouldn’t it be great if I could tell my friends and random strangers about the fact I’m at this cool concert?’ and then all of a sudden I “got” twitter! Will it result in additional business? I’m not sure. Time will tell.
I have not yet joined MySpace or YouTube (but I’ve been to the site many times). If I had to guess, I will probably join YouTube before MySpace, but first I need to create some videos!
Overall, I think I’m still at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to building a powerful online network and I’m a little bit afraid of getting in too deep and getting stuck in a networking hole somewhere. I’m not sure if that makes sense to anyone, but it’s a fear I face nonetheless. Maybe I’ll find peace there instead.
Author: Aruni |
Filed under: babble soft,
blogging,
competition,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
networking,
social networks |
Tags: ,
facebook,
feedburner,
intuit just start challenge,
linkedin,
meme,
myspace,
quickbooks challenge,
search engine marketing,
search enging optimization,
seo,
social media,
social networking,
twitter,
youtube |
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