Blogger Town Hall Meeting – Type-A Conference 2011 Liveblogging

Kelby Carr is talking about transitioning from Type-A Mom to Type-A Parent to kick off the conversation here at the Blogger Town Hall Meeting.

@Childhood thinks that Type-A Parent is a good thing, becoming a more supportive and inclusive community. We don’t have the same roles, and we don’t have to hold hands and sing kumbaya, but we’re all in the same boat together. There’s no reason not to support people who are doing good things for parents in general.

Debbie from @Bloganthropy feels that Type-A Parent is much more inclusive. Bloganthropy tries to be inclusive, as well, and not make it all about traffic.

Doug French from Laid Off Dad appreciates the inclusiveness. He began blogging as a parent in order to find his tribe, and he’s done that.

Kelby brings up a point from the monetization panel about the same bloggers always working with brands. Do you wish there was more diversity in the bloggers who get the opportunities?

Robyn from @RobynsWorld thinks the same people get the jobs because they worked really hard to get where they are, and they make themselves available. That’s why they’re at the top of the list. We need to put ourselves out there to get our names in front of the brands and programs we want to work with.

@AmyBHole used to be on the PR/marketing side, and she says we need to stop getting mad at the bloggers who get all the opportunities, and instead talk to the PR agencies who are being lazy and not looking for new people to work with, not looking for new ways to do thing.

@RealLifeSarah thinks we get Shiny Object Syndrome. Thousands of other bloggers are clamoring for the same national opportunities. Go to your local market where you don’t have to compete with thousands of other bloggers. Make your own market. Make your own opportunities.

Debbie from Mamanista who represents mom & pop toy stores, and she can help connect you with your local toy shops.

Kris Cain says we need to make our about pages more relevant.

Kelby talked to a marketer who said she didn’t want to work with anyone who had “mom” in the name of their online persona because the perception was that moms aren’t reliable because they have too many family commitments.

Part of the responsibility of us here is to change that perception by not using our families as excuses to flake out on deadlines, because it reflects on all of us.

@mommycosm feels that the perception has changed over the years, but she has moved Mommycosm LLC into another entity to take the word “mommy” out.

Lucretia Pruitt took mommy out of her name so she could brand herself as a writer. If you don’t want to be known as a mommy blogger, you don’t want to use the word mommy. Perception is what we do. Branding. If you’re branding yourself with the word “mom,” that’s what how we’re going to be branded.

Cecily wants to know how many of us want to be taken seriously in this sphere. Then she wanted to know how many of us have cartoons as our avatars. “It’s just a thought.”

@RealLifeSarah says that some of us just have never been “professionals.” We weren’t professional marketers, writers, etc. before we started blogging. Read marketing books. Take a class online. Ask a PR professional to learn more about what they do and how they work.

Some people hate the term “mommy blogger.” But Kelby embraced the term so she could help redefine it. (I feel the same way.)

Many of us have diverse experience. We have to think about what we’ve learned in other environments and how to incorporate that into what we do here.

@BusyDad says… Once you establish your identity online, the marketers that will gravitate toward you are the ones who want to work with that identity. “Mom blogger” is not a death knell. Everyone assumes that dads online are stay-at-home dads. (Interesting.) He does not believe that dad bloggers are  taken any more seriously than mom bloggers just because they’re male.

Amanda, on the subject of professionalism. Brands are here. They don’t go away when we’re drinking at night at conferences. If you want to be taken as professionals, you need to act as professionals all the time. (My comment: SEO and related industry conferences are notorious for everyone going out and having drinks together after hours. Deals get made when people get drunk together.)

Take time to focus on what’s breathtaking to you. You don’t want to be “just like her.” Do what’s best for YOU. Do what makes you different. You have no entitlement to what someone else is doing.

Competetiveness, comparisons…Too many people think they can’t succeed unless they make other people not succeed. This is Kelby’s pet peeve.

@SuperJennBlogs thinks there’s too much “blama” – blog drama. It is not an aspect of her world because she surrounds herself with people who do beautiful writing, who are beautiful people.

Melanie from @modernmami says that competition is realistic, but we shouldn’t let it get to us. Competition can be good if we let it drive us to be our best. But don’t make it about dragging other people down.

Heather Solos says the biggest problem with blogging today is that we aren’t looking at each other as collegaues or collaborators.

Fadra favors cooperation over competition, too. Being a little bit oblivious, focusing on bettering your own craft should be what you do. (She didn’t know who Dooce was a year and a half ago.)

@Nikki_S had a whole lot of envy going on when she first started out. Now she realizes that others aren’t necessarily more awesome than she is, but that they are just awesome in a different way. She wore herself out with the competitiveness, so she gave it up and appreciates others for their talent.

Ellen from @ciaomom says that we want our kids to have role models. We want them to learn how to be their best, to thrive and be independent…These are things we should be working for ourselves, as well.

Focus on the positive. The support we can get from each other on Twitter and in the blogosphere can really impact our lives. Other bloggers are people, too.

Just because you get well-known doesn’t mean that you have blog success. Cecily says that people don’t send her on cool trips. And being well-known comes with hate. People will be telling you how much you suck. If you want to get popular, you have to be prepared for this.

@BusyDad adds that marketers are all people, too. Think about what you would be interested in as a person, and approach marketers that way.

@StacyNerdin is talking about her 17-year-old daughter who is proud to say that she knows now that she can have a family, and she can have a career, and she can do all of these things that she wants.

@MrLady says that you have to define what success is for you. To Stacy, re: her daughter, “You win at blogging.” Know what it is you want, and go after it. If it changes in two years? Good, go get it. Know what success means to you, find it, and you’ll be happy.

I am liveblogging as a volunteer for the Type-A Parent Conference, and an edited version of this post will be available directly on Type-A Parent.

Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.