
Can Mommy Bloggers Still Make a Living? - prostoalex
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/mommy-bloggers-money/402535/?single_page=true
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zacharycohn
This is where the rise of Patreon is huge.

Kill the ads. Get supported for your work directly. If she's getting 100,000
page views A DAY, and she's been writing for over a decade, I'm sure she could
get enough subscribers to overtake her ad (native included) revenue.

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wyclif
_I 'm sure she could get enough subscribers_

That's making it about acquiring readers, though. She always had those...the
problem is how to make blogging pay. And if you have subscribers, then you're
producing content for them which kills the point of a blog for some people
(i.e, "monetizing parenthood").

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tdkl
> the problem is how to make blogging pay

I'd begin with making micro payments easy and supported everywhere on the
planet.

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zxcdw
And I'd follow with creating incentives for people to actually _pay_ for the
content. Relying on charity isn't a sustainable source of income in general
case.

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mcphage
Patreon allows for incentives for subscribers.

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morgante
It all depends on your willingness to play to Facebook's algorithms.

My last employer owns a popular mommy blog and it's doing better than ever
thanks to social traffic.

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nkozyra
I'm not sure how relevant this is - the basic dilemma expressed here is about
monetising traffic, not acquiring it.

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morgante
They're two sides of the same coin. If you have bucket loads of traffic, you
can use basically any monetization strategy (including classic banner ads) and
make money.

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nkozyra
I disagree - the blogger in question in the OP never had trouble with driving
traffic, but with optimally monetizing it.

If you're getting 1MM pvs a day but only getting .05 CPM you're not making a
living.

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adaml_623
This reminds me. I have to figure out how to block OutBrain. I can't believe
serious websites allow link bait like that on their pages.

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tptacek
Somebody has to actually pay for journalism.

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vonklaus
Newsroom was a pretty awesome show about the dichotomy between monetizing
entertainment and authentic journalism. I don't know whether people would pay
for true journalism, for several reasons that are outside scope, but one seems
to be perception of quality. Bloggers, tabloids, social media and news
organizations all produce content. There seems to be a race to the center of
sorts, where most stories are blogspam or resummaries of reuters line notes. I
think the perception is that most stories are sort of commodities and the
first free link you find is as good as the next is as good as the paid link.

It is REALLY hard to monetize content these days.

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technofiend
If she hasn't already perhaps it's time to write a book instead. She could
presumably parlay her 100k subscribers and brand recognition into a book tour
on the morning show circuit.

One Today show appearance would be enough to flog sales of her book and either
let her cash out or move to a patreon-like engagement.

I think this is a sign of a larger pattern where virtual real-estate goes
through the same boom and bust cycle as the real kind. Or if you prefer to
think of it as pop culture she's well whatever was popular five years ago.
Lol.

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orionblastar
Writing a blog and writing a book are two different things.

Her blog she slowed down in her entries, she just stopped making them. She
just wasn't into writing as much as she used to be, she started to hate it.

A blog article can be short or long, books are made up of chapters and you
have to organize them to make sense. You have to correct grammar mistakes, you
have to fix formatting problems and other stuff so it passes the auto vetter
process of self-publishing sites or the publisher software.

A blog just takes text input you type into it, you don't have to worry about
formatting and other stuff, if you made grammar mistakes most people won't
notice it.

I've tried writing books myself, it is very hard. Writing a blog is much
easier to do.

I think she just ran out of material to write about as well. Originally her
blog got her fired from her job because she wrote about coworkers.

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jakobegger
I'd say the answer in this case is a definitive "YES"; making 50000 a year (as
the article suggests is readily attainable) is plenty in most parts of the
world.

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prawn
Got a friend with an Instagram account who is making several hundred dollars
for many of the photos she puts up, and endless offers of free product at
worst. She started up about a year ago. If you're impatient and half-arsed,
you won't make it in such a saturated market, but if you're consistent and
know what you're doing, you can get something going.

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segmondy
sure, but for how long? the article is asking about sustainability, that's why
it asks, if they CAN STILL make money, they were making money yesteryears, but
it's a new day. things have changed.

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prawn
Her popularity and income from it is ramping up aggressively. She has made
particular decisions with time (and has near-future plans) to diversify and
make sure she's not one-and-done with the topic she covers.

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kylebennett
Betterridge's law of headlines.

