This is a video of a panel discussion shot over a year ago (Jan 2010 in Las Vegas) at Affiliate Summit West 2010, but only posted last week.
I was embedding it in another post I’m writing about a different subject because it illustrates the use of multiple blogs, but it has SO much meat in it for travel bloggers, it is worth highlighting by itself.
The speakers were:
- Deborah Carney, CEO, Team Loxly (Moderator)
- Wendy Limauge, Blogger, Sweeties Swag
- Carrie Rocha, President, Pocket Your Dollars
- Kim Rowley, President, Key Internet Marketing, Inc.
- Heather Sokol, Proprietor, Inexpensively
The discussion covers multiple niche blogging; ethics and disclosure; engaging with readers, not SEO’ing traffic; recognising your own value (so much so that big brands are going direct to the mommybloggers, bypassing the networks); challenging merchant restrictions; how do companies find (mommy)bloggers. Answer: “we all work together, once you find one of us…” (Gosh, doesn’t that sound familiar?!); revenue streams (inc public speaking); guest posting & sponsored posts; how much time spent working on blogs; ‘blogsitting’; Coupon code exclusivity; printable coupons (hard, but not impossible to see how that might apply to travel bloggers)
You know that scene at the end of the first Matrix film where Neo flexes after consuming Agent Smith, and the two remaining agents look at each other before retreating?
This was a year ago and you can sense the mommybloggers flexing with a strength they didn’t know they had and the affiliate networks & traditional SEO/PPC affiliation publishers looking at each other.
There’s no reason why travel bloggers shouldn’t be doing a little flexing, is there?
Image: Grace Family
In travel blogging (or travel Web publishing in general), there are two approaches to affiliate programs: using affiliate links as a form of advertising on a “content site,” and being an “affiliate marketer” first and foremost. It’s like the difference between publishing a weekly newspaper and a weekly shopper, or between selling to live and living to sell.
Not all “mommy bloggers” are affiliate marketers, and I’d guess that the most successful mommy bloggers don’t want to be. Similarly, most travel bloggers don’t spend their nights dreaming of becoming affiliate marketers: For them, affiliate income is a means to an end, not the end goal.
Another ‘mommy bloggers change the way it’s done’ story from Australia. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/companies-use-gifts-in-a-scramble-to-woo-bloggers/story-fn7x8me2-1226200504451
For an in-depth story about a successful “mommy blogger,” see THE NEW YORKER’s profile of Ruth Drummond, the “Pioneer Woman”:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/09/110509fa_fact_fortini
Another good article is “Queen of the Mommy Bloggers,” which was published in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE and is also available online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/magazine/27armstrong-t.html?pagewanted=all
If I had to pick, off the top of my head, the blogger who I think has been the most successful since blogging entered our world … it would be Ree Drummond (not Ruth). She’s such a fascinating case of a life that isn’t that unusual and yet has become something so huge in so many ways. And there are more like her, mommy and fashion bloggers and people who write about all sorts of issues that have found ways to monetize writing better than travel bloggers have. Also, there are blogging “cooperatives” for US bloggers that are a great way to make a little extra money such as Clever Network and Business2Blogger. I recommend checking these out if you’re interested in monetizing blogging.
Hey Alastair,
Thanks for showcasing this, but it is really long and (at least the first 20 minutes) didn’t seem really relevant to travel bloggers. Could you point me to the good bits?
Thanks again,
Benjamin