Really, Tell me How to Be a GeekMommy
December 23, 2008
A Guest Post by the Amazing Wendy Piersall
When I asked Lucretia to do a guest post here, I had to think to myself – what do people interested in Geekdom want to hear about? Which got me thinking about geekdom in general, which brings us to this question:
How the heck did being a ‘Geek’ suddenly become cool? Seriously – when I was in high school, there was not a shred of coolness in being geeky. There wasn’t even much coolness in getting good grades. And there was certainly NO coolness in being tech savvy (think the A/V club. Yeeks.)!
But in the last few years, suddenly smart became sexy. Tech became tantalizing. And A/V might as well stand for “Always Vogue“. And here’s some geeky proof: keyword research reveals that some of the top-searched terms relating to geek include: “geek girl” “geek chic” “hot geek” and even “sexy geek”.
So, imagine my surprise as I expand my Sparkplugging blog network into all sorts of “geeky cool” topics like web marketing, eBay selling and business coaching. But I find that the two blogs I consider to be the least geeky – kids activities and mom contests – are the ones getting freaky amounts of traffic. And it’s not just my network – I’m also doing some consulting with Escalate Media as they brand and expand their womens network of sites, including TotallyHer.com. The most popular topics there are “home and food” and “beauty and fashion“.
So what’s a true geek to do?
I mean, I’m at a loss here – my ‘home‘ is a perpetual mess, and my husband cooks more ‘food‘ than I do. I may be able to put together a great outfit, but the reality of the matter is that there is a 90% chance my ‘fashion‘ look came from Target. Embracing this anti-geekdom isn’t easy for someone who knows more about PPC than the PTA. 
But I have to say, sometimes I just want to give up all this business stuff and go be a crafting blogger. I want to take a month to do craft projects with my kids every day. When I read Posie Gets Cozy and I want to sew dolls. And when I read The Pioneer Woman and I just want to take pictures all day.
So, I ask of you, GeekMommy community – how do you balance geekiness with mommyness? Trying to be both feels a little like multiple personality disorder to me.
For more on Wendy and the amazing Sparkplugging community ~GM
House Cleaning Post
December 23, 2008
Ew. Things have been getting a bit dusty around here of late.
I suppose that happens when I ignore blogging in favor of Twitter, Facebook, and anything else I can do instead of writing my blog posts. It starts getting old and musty.
So time for a bit of quick house-cleaning – and then? Then I have a really cool surprise! The post right after this one? Is a guest post by one of the most amazing women I’ve had the privilege to meet – Wendy Piersall, founder of Sparkplugging.com and Social Media maven!
But first? The house-cleaning.
Contest Results
The winner of the Nickelodeon Giveaway for a $500 Walmart Gift Card was Grace from http://www.mammainthescene.com – her entry was chosen from all of the valid entries by the random number generator at random.org.
Thank you for all of you that entered and spread the word. I know there will be other opportunities in the new year for folks to win similar stuff. I’ll let you know. Agains, congratulations to Grace!
Favorite Entry
I prefer to do random number contests because it keeps me from second-guessing my own biases all the time – but I do just have to share with you all this one entry. If I’d been judging entries based on the one that stayed with me most (yes, I actually did read all of those great tips!) this would be the one that I’d have to choose – given how much it has stuck with me since I read it.
Donna Holmberg on December 14th, 2008 9:54 pm
Donna? Thank you!! That is just an amazing idea and one I think I’ll be finding a way to implement myself around here next year. I think my circle of Mom friends will be enthusiastic as well!!
Upcoming Events 2009
In case I haven’t yet mentioned it enough yet? In just a couple of weeks I get the privilege of joining some amazing folks to speak at the first Women in Web 2.0 conference of 2009 – Chicks Who Click – in Boulder January 9th & 10th. If you aren’t already planning on attending and can? I totally advise it. I’m really looking forward myself to seeing and learning from some of my fellow speakers there. Did I mention there was skiing, cocktails and networking as well? Yeah!! Hope to see you there!
I will also be attending South by SouthWest Interactive this year from March 13-17th if you happen to be there.
I’m trying hard to get to SOBCon in Chicago May 1-3rd as well, I’ll update you as soon as I know on that! If you’ve already gotten your ticket? I’m jealous!
And as usual, I’ll be at BlogHer in Chicago July 23-25th so it looks like I’ll get to Chicago more than once this year if I can make the numbers work!!
More as they happen!!
Last Little Bit of Tidying
Part of my New Year’s Resolutions this year (yes, there will be a post) is that I’m going to rebalance things. It’s time that I refocused my energy on this blog and scaled back a bit on other social networks. Twitter is my addiction, but I looked at my lack of updates this year and realized that it’s been taking too much time away from my blogging… So that will be changing. More on that soon. But that’s the good part – there will be MORE of that soon!
Now, on to the absolutely rockin’ guest post by Wendy!
What is Your Time Worth? What’s Worth Your Time?
December 13, 2008
Today, Twitter and parts of the blogosphere are all abuzz with the debate over whether “sponsored” contests & posts are genuine or whether they damage the credibility of the blogger.
This seems to have started when Jeremiah Owyang [@jowyang] a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research tweeted: “Kmart paid Shoemoney $500 resulting in buzz from paid blog post 300+ comments http://snipurl.com/7yi5w “Buying” social media is effective”
From there, the discussion moved to the fact that Chris Brogan [@chrisbrogan] had also been involved in the project and had posted his Kmart contest over at Dadomatic. Then the twitterverse exploded and the blog posts started.
Apparently, when one of the most trusted guys in Social Media is involved, it becomes a big deal if you think that money might be involved in the equation.
Barbara Gibson from ABC wrote an interesting post here that Chris replied to in the comments. Barbara’s post starts from the viewpoint that a blogger taking money is selling his or her integrity. So her analysis from that starting point is inevitable.
Here’s the thing: You can’t sell your integrity. I’ve worked with many people of high integrity. I say “worked with” because they were getting paid for what they did. Integrity isn’t dependent on a vow of poverty. What it really means is that your position can’t be bought. That no amount of money is going to get you to do something that goes against your values, morals and beliefs.
So, with so many weighing in on this, why I am? Because I’m anticipating the next phase of this discussion.
If you take a look at the last post here, you’ll notice it’s a Walmart & Nickelodeon contest for a $500 Walmart gift card. All of the ElevenMoms have a similar contest up. It’s really not all that different than the K-mart contest is it? They have 5 bloggers posting contests for $500 K-mart cards, we have 20-some bloggers posting contests for $500 Walmart cards.
What’s the difference? Well, it does come down to that ’sponsored’ word. The Izea bloggers received a $500 gift card themselves. We did not. The Izea bloggers went to K-mart, bought things using those cards, blogged about it and then gave the chance to do the same to one of their readers. I didn’t go shopping at Walmart with a $500 gift card, blog about it, and then do the give away – I just posted the opportunity for one of my readers to win.
But in both cases, there’s a lot of work being done. There’s the initial post. There’s sorting thru the hundreds of entries to make sure that invalid ones are thrown out, that there’s no duplicates, that people are following the rules. Then having to choose the winner, get their information, get the card out to them. All this administrative work? I’m doing out of the goodness of my heart so one of my readers will win something cool. If the contest were being held on the companies’ sites? They’d have paid people doing it. I don’t have a staff here, so it’s just me and my time and effort.
Now let’s take the money out of the equation. Blogger X has a company send him/her 2 toasters – one to keep, one to give away to a reader. Or maybe it’s not toasters – maybe it’s a Wii, or an iPhone, or a MacBook Pro, or a fleece jacket (all promotions I’ve actually seen) – and the blogger says “wow! I just got to play with this new item… I love it, so here’s a chance to win it.”
That situation I just described happens every day on hundreds of blogs. I’ve never heard anyone saying “OMG!! I totally don’t trust Blogger X’s opinions of electronics anymore because he had a contest giving away a laptop!”
But now that we’ve added money into the equation there’s a brouhaha.
So let’s add a new dimension to this, shall we? Am I “more trustworthy” because I put in all that work for free? Or are the Izea bloggers “less trustworthy” because they saw their time and effort as valuable and believed they should be compensated for it?
My answer is a resounding NO.
Let’s get down to brass tacks here, shall we? I participate in the Walmart ElevenMoms program because I actually believe in what we’re doing. I shop at Walmart *gasp* regularly. I did before I got involved in the program. I actually like saving money and getting good deals. I love the thought of some reader of mine having an extra $500 to help out with the holidays this year. I know that will go a really long way at Walmart.
Since I’ve gotten involved in the program, I’ve been accused of ‘getting paid as a Walmart shill‘ – and when I revealed that I was not paid accused of ‘setting MommyBloggers everywhere back by setting a poor example and letting companies think they can get free work out of us.‘ I’ve read that I must be getting ’secret kickbacks’ and that there’s ‘no way’ I ever shopped at Walmart. I’ve been called a lot of names. It’s been interesting, to say the least.
But I just keep doing what I’m doing. Because if I didn’t believe in the program, I wouldn’t do it.
If K-mart had come to me and said “would you like to participate in this contest we’re doing with Izea?” I would’ve said yes. Why? Because I shop at K-mart too. *gasp* And again, I would love the idea of giving one of my readers $500 to help out with the holiday and it would go a long way there.
Would I have said “no! My time is worth nothing! Keep the $500 gift card for me, I’ll do it for free!” Hell no. If offered I would’ve said “thank you for recognizing that my time is worth something – please be aware that if you want me to actually review the store in the post, rather than just running a contest for a gift card, I will be giving my honest opinions in the review – positive & negative – and I will be making sure that my readers understand that this is a sponsored post.”
Do I think that the Izea bloggers did exactly that? Yes. I know most of those bloggers. I trust their integrity. They’re not going to be taking money from or running a contest for a company that they don’t believe will benefit their readers. If “Pyramid Scams R Us” came calling, not one of them would’ve done it – no matter how much money or ’sponsorship’ was involved.
You can’t buy integrity. You can’t sell integrity. If you have integrity? Money isn’t relevant. If you don’t? Money is the only relevancy.
Look, the only time I have problems with paying bloggers to post something is when it’s deceptive. There are a number of models out there right now that are paying bloggers to post where the payment part is being glossed over. Sites with high profile bloggers who are definitely being compensated but where that part is as hidden as it can be. If you’re going to get all feisty about paying bloggers? Let’s point the spotlight at people who aren’t the ones saying “SPONSORED POST” all over it.
Now – tell me why I’m wrong.
It’s the Contest I’ve Been Hinting About!
December 3, 2008
What’s better than picking out just the right presents for your family members, friends, and loved ones? Getting them for free, of course!!
It’s December – and for those of us not done with our shopping in July – that means it’s time to get the Holiday Shopping in high gear and get done before it’s too late! But our economy is making things a bit tougher this year than in the past and so we’re all looking for ways to save money while still living well.
That’s why I’m all aglow because Nickelodeon has teamed up with the Walmart ElevenMoms to throw a Holiday Money Saving Tips Contest. One of you lucky readers will be getting a $500 Walmart Gift Card!
That’s right. You have a chance to win a $500 Walmart Gift Card just in time for the holidays. In fact, you can earn up to 3 entries into this contest, just by following these instructions carefully:
1. Leave a comment sharing your best Holiday Money Saving Tip. Please make sure to put a valid email address on your comment so I can contact the winner!
2. Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email and leave a separate comment letting me know you have done so along with a DIFFERENT money-saving tip. If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’re already subscribed along with another money-saving tip.
3. Share the Love!! Spread the word about this contest in some manner and come back and leave a link in a separate comment. If you twitter a tip? Just tag it with #Nick11 and paste the link in your comment. If you blog about it? You can leave the tip in your post and just link it here. If you digg it, stumble it, kirtsy it? Just put your Third Money Saving Tip in the comment with your link. However you do it, just come leave me a link so I know that you did!! I know, I know, it’s hard to let other people know when you want to win… but that’s why you get another entry for it!
The other important bits
- This contest ends December 15th, 2008 at NOON (12:00 pm) Pacific Time. Any entries received after that time cannot be counted toward the winning tip.
- Any entries not including all of the required elements (One Money Saving Tip, valid email address, any relevant links) will be disqualified and deleted from the comments list. PLEASE make sure to include all elements as I do not have the time to notify those who do not.
- The winner will be chosen at random (using random.org) out of the all the valid entries (see above.)
- You can enter up to 3 Money Saving Tips according to the methods above – try to make them good tho, as the winning tips may end up on Walmart.com!
- The winner will be notified by email and must respond within 24 hrs with their shipping information as we need to send out the gift cards by Dec 17th. In the event the winner does not respond within 24 hrs, an alternate winner may be chosen to ensure timely delivery of the gift card.
You can enter to win a $500 Walmart gift card not only here at GeekMommy.net but at most of the ElevenMoms’ sites. You can only win once, but you can enter to win at each site. Each contest may have slightly different rules, so make sure you read carefully!
I’m looking forward to seeing the tips you guys come up with!! Thanks for making my holiday season more fun (and frugal!) as well!
note: this author of this post was not compensated by either Walmart or Nickelodeon in any way regarding the posting or promotion of this contest. Please see the Disclosure Policy for further information.
For an Insomniac, You Don’t Write Much
December 3, 2008
It’s 2 a.m. my time.
I’ve spent the past 3 hours mucking about on the Internet, poking in corners, commenting here and there, obsessively refreshing Twitter.
I haven’t addressed my email Inbox the way I should. I haven’t finished the dozen-odd half-written posts in my draft folder. I haven’t managed to do anything much except for notice that my feet are freezing and yet my torso is overly warm while repeatedly telling myself ‘you really should go to bed now.’
Tomorrow, not unlike today, yesterday, and so many days before it, I plan on getting up at a reasonable hour. Getting some work done. Being productive. Getting some goals set.
Wish me luck. Because this year? I’ve been reminding myself a lot of a college freshman with no one making sure she gets to class before noon. This has got to stop. Something’s gotta give.
Tomorrow? New leaf. Hopefully a good one. Hey, I’ve got a few weeks left before I have to cram for finals before the holiday break, right?
G’night.
My girlfriends and I have found the best money-saving Christmas gift EVER to give each other each year. There are 6 of us, and we each give the other five friends 3 homemade gift certificates for a free night of babysitting. That means each of us gets 15 nights of free babysitting, and we have 5 friends to choose from in order to find a sitter for a particular night. Thanks to this regular practice, we’re saving hundreds of dollars each year on babysitting fees, plus we’re saving the cost of buying 5 different Christmas gifts. The best part is, in giving our babysitting gift certificates, we are guaranteeing that all of our kids will grow up having had close contact with each other, making them good buddies and forever friends – we’re passing the circle of friendship onto the next generation.