*updated at 1150ampst with new email from ‘Dave’ at bottom. My site has been removed-has yours?
If so, find a way to click back to MY blog and be very aware they have syndicated this content without my consent.
MANY of you are being syndicated. If so, take action now-Email editor@blognetnews.com and tell him to REMOVE YOUR FEED IMMEDIATELY, and feel free to mention I sent ya.
Here is the email exchange with ‘Dave’ and I-
From: Erin Kotecki VEST <queenofspainblog@yahoo.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 6:15 PM To: editor@blognetnews.com, queenmediallc@gmail.com, Aaron <aaronvest@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Something new for parenting bloggers
Hi my name is Erin Kotecki Vest, owner of Queen of Spain blog.
I’m concerned about what appears to be my site’s feed streaming into BlogNetNews. It is a)taking away traffic from me and b)not sending anyone back to my page. I see no links back to my blog. I have no indication of any hits from your service. I also am not sure I recall opting-in, although I see the last correspondence I have from you is dated 2006.
I’m going to have to ask you remove Queen of Spain Blog’s feed immediately.
We certainly aren’t taking traffic away from you. Click on any headline or the “…” after the excerpts of your posts and you will appear on your site. (compare that to trying to get to a blog when it appears in a section front of technorati (here for instance: http://www.technorati.com/entertainment/celebrity/ )
I don’t know whether any of yours appear there. Anyway, there is no place on our site where anyone can read your whole posts, people always have to click thru.
I’ll remove you from the site when I reopen the database in the morning, but I hope you’ll reconsider.
Your click thru is frames, correct? Or your re-direct.link has something going on?
You’ve essentially syndicated my content. I am not being paid for this syndication. I am not being compensated for this syndication. There are others upset as well. We work hard to protect our brands and keep readers on our own sites, not yours. If you were writing an article on parenting and linking to me occasionally, that’s one thing. But instead you’ve syndicated my feed and used loop holes to abuse my community. Even some indexing sites have the courtesy to only use headlines in order to be genuine in their want to drive traffic out.
You are exploiting, plain and simple. You are not part of our community, you are simply here to capitalize on this community.
Expect emails from about everyone else on your blogroll in the parenting and politics communities.
I appreciate your quick response and thank you in advance for removing my feed and the feed of everyone else who asks.
I hope that if your business is sincere you extend an olive branch to the communities you are pillaging.
We do not do frames and I’ve just been on the site, the redirect is working just fine.
If you can tell me what browser and os you’re using, I’ll ask our programmer to check if there is a compatability issue.
If you can forward to me the email you recieved or the URL to the site you saw that gave you the idea we are exploiting anyone. I can give you many examples of how BNN is far more blog friendly than lots of other sites that are out there.
So basically there are these big ‘ol corporations who are just salivating to get their money grubbing claws into women online. Oh, wait, I take that back-they are ignoring those of you who are childless, of color, breastfeeding, in need of childcare, lesbian, or anything other than Christian. Which leaves us with what-White. Straight. Jesus-Loving. Breeders.
White, straight, Jesus-loving breeders online are a big fucking deal. Apparently we’re the only ones who can communicate a message and influence other white, straight, Jesus Loving breeders to buy! buy! buy! buy! At least that’s the message I’m getting, you?
It’s a damn shame these companies, marketers, PR flacks and social media opportunists don’t actually READ the blogs of the Moms they target. They would learn an awful lot in a very short period of time if they did.
They would learn you might not want to ask the Mom with the newborn to ditch the baby and screw that whole breastfeeding thing to come try their products for a weekend. They would learn you might not want to ask the Jewish Mom to come celebrate Easter or say, attend an event during Passover.
Oy Vey is right.
But really, more than anything else, they would learn we have voices and our voices equal power. We can praise your product across the globe and make our friends buy it…OR we can trash it and ruin your reputation. It means we are…wait for it…real people. I know you marketing types are used to us just being a ‘number’ or a ‘demo’ but much like everything else in this world, real people can make a difference.
With that said, a little birdie I know was kind enough to give me a peak at the eMarketer Moms Online study. Want to hear my favorite part?
“It is important to be upfront. Tell mothers what you are doing and
that you value their opinion. Reward them with something
tangible. Use word-of-mouth and blog monitoring techniques to
track where mothers are discussing your brand and enlist their
help in promoting it.
Speak to mothers as more than just mothers. In a study of mothers
by Draft Worldwide, 34% said they are often offended by the way
that they are portrayed in advertising. More than 68% said they
would like to be spoken to as more than just a mother and 55%
said they would react more positively if marketers spoke to them
as a multi-dimensional woman, not just a mother.
For web sites aimed at mothers a sea change is under way.There
is still plenty of traction in sites such as BabyCenter, iVillage and
the online destinations linked to parenting magazines. However, a
business model based on published content from experts and
professional writers will be threatened by a new crop of sites built
from content that mothers supply themselves.”
That emphasis up there is MINE. All mine. What did we all learn from this? (this is the part where all you PR/marketing types needs to sit up straight and pay attention): Do it how we want or we will do it ourselves.
That means you need to get touchy, feely and join our community and get to know us. I know, sucks for you huh. You have to engage us. You have to even learn to trust us, but more than that you have to make us trust you. And you’re not going to gain our trust if all we are to you is a statistic.
Scary proposition when a fewtinytweets the other day launched this discussion into overdrive.
Another important point that I alluded to above: Women control $.83 of every household dollar. That does not, necessarily, mean a household with children. You assumed it did, right?
Now you’re probably thinking to yourself here, how can I let my big corporation even think about talking to these incredibly influential, LOUD women? Easy (no, really it is) be human and use your brain. If you’re talking to Moms, understand they HAVE CHILDREN that need to be taken care of. If you want their time, their thoughts, their blog love-either pay for it or show them some good faith.
I’m not kidding.
We’re getting pitched all over the place. Just today Plain Jane Mom was telling me a story on Twitter:
“I got an email asking me to join some sort of panel where they’d send me stuff to review every couple of weeks. I checked it out and the first thing I was presented with was a looong questionnaire full of things like ‘why do you think ….. you’d be a good fit for this panel? Tell us 5 ways you would work this panel into your life.’ And so on. Seriously? Ask me to be in this group, and then expect me to spend an hour telling you why you should ‘let’ me in? All for the privilege of giving you nearly free publicity on your new baby bibs? Fuck that.”
Fuck that, indeed.
I can’t speak for how these companies go about formulating these strategies to court bloggers, what I can tell you is what has worked for me, personally.
Recently I needed a new laptop and asked my friends via Twitter what I should get. Within a few hours I was speaking directly with Richard from Dell. He never pressured a sale, just asked me what I was looking for and made a few recommendations. He and his colleagues took the time to get to know me. And guess what? We had all been talking about other things like politics and conferences and parenting well before I needed a computer. They were already part of my community. People support their friends, their communities, be they actual or virtual. When I finally opened my wallet, you bet your ass I bought a Dell.
Customer service is not dead, in fact it’s key in this social media space. YOU need to be that friendly shopkeeper from back in the day who knows every customer’s husband and kids’ names and keeps a little something special behind the counter because she mentioned she likes pink accessories. THAT is what wins in social media today. THAT is what will have me yelling “I BOUGHT A DELL’ to the entire world. And hey-I PAID THEM FOR IT and they didn’t have to pay me anything to say it. Funny how that works, huh? Keep in mind it wasn’t all pretty either. I had shipping issues and Vista issues but the entire time the Dell Social Media guys and gals were around, helping, checking in, emailing, making calls. I talked about all of it in public and so did they. TRANSPARENCY.
Another company getting it right-Graco. I’ve chatting with Lindsay on Twitter, watched as they crafted a MOMblog that actually is written by Moms about things Moms write about. It’s not just product discussion. I’m thrilled to say the Graco blog, it’s bloggers, and the other people involved in the effort are part of our community. That’s right, they did it-we gave them the secret handshake and everything. Why? They’ve engaged bloggers in conversations, events, and they kept it REAL.
I really don’t think any of this is rocket science. I have no idea why many of you have turned it into rocket science. I can tell you, however, we’re happy to teach you more-but if there is one thing you’ve taught us is that we’re valuable. So if you want more, feel free to contact us about our consulting day rates.
Mind you, it’s the women’s movement from the 60’s. The one that seems to assume anyone who doesn’t like a woman does not like her based on her vagina.
NEWSFLASH: People do not like Hillary Clinton for a variety of reasons-99.9% of them have nothing to do with her vagina.
It’s not some grand scheme by the patriarchy to make us think it’s not about her vagina. It is really, and truly, not about her vagina. And the current crop of females are really and truly not that easily fooled.
When you talk to the anti-Hillary crowd they say a number of things from “I hate her husband” or “I hate that she stayed with her cheating husband” or “I hate the way she voted on Iraq” or even “I hate the Clinton name” or “I hate the idea of Universal Health Care” OR they even say “I just really don’t like her at all.”
It is the last one that the old school feminist crowd is SURE means: “because she’s a tough broad and we hate tough broads.” Or they like to tell us it’s because we’ve been conditioned to think a strong woman is a bitch and should be hated.
I feel the need to list strong women that are generally loved by society right now, but I will resist the urge.
There are also women who are actually HATED because they are women.
Senator Clinton does not fall into either of those categories. She does not garner that “we hate hillary” happy fun time chant based on her gender. It would be so much easier if she did. Then we could all jump up and scream SEXIST! You men try and keep us down and you can suck it! …Or something.
Personally I am ok with Senator Clinton as a politician, she plays the game, she schemes, she gets shit done, she makes behind-closed-door-deals, she even launches negative ad campaigns and speaks in half-truths.
Senator Barack Obama plays this game as well. He does it as well or better than she does and THAT is why I’m voting for him. Despite his race (sarcasm) he seems to avoid the hate Senator Clinton does. Now, go ahead and fight over the race/gender issue but I really believe it’s all about personality.
The African-American candidate does not seem to be having issues winning over voters. The female candidate does.
A + B = sexism for the old school.
A + B =less than dynamic candidate for the new school.
If Senator Clinton could be a better public speaker maybe this wouldn’t be a problem. If Senator Clinton was named Senator Hillary Smith maybe this wouldn’t be a problem. But the default position that it’s all about her vagina is weak.
You see, we new school feminists don’t look too much at that gender thing unless forced. We’re over it because what is left of the patriarchy we tend to crush here and there when we feel like it or are bored with mommyblogging.
I refuse to vote for Senator Hillary Clinton simply because she has a vagina. And I refuse to be guilted into voting for her when there is an equally qualified and viable candidate, from my party, on the ticket.
I am not going to sit around and let people accuse ME of being a bad feminist. The problem is the majority of women under the delusion that my letter to Senator Clinton was for her to bow out due to pressures from the patriarchy are feminists still fighting the old fight. The one where women were not in the board room. The one where you were conditioned to stay-at-home with your offspring and have no life of your own.
I have choices. While I thank those same women for fighting to give me these choices, I loathe them for finding me ill educated enough to make a choice on my own and without their advice.
Is there still sexism? You bet. Are there still battles to be fought? Of course.
But speaking as the woman with two books by Senator Clinton on my nightstand, a signed letter by then First-Lady Clinton framed, and who genuinely thinks she has the ability to be President…this is not about gender. This is about the right person for the job.
Clinton divides. Obama unites.
The end.
I encourage all women to leave a link to their post on the subject. I know Mrs. Flinger already has her post rocking the Mom-o-sphere. Tell me, do you vote with your vagina? Do you make every decision in your life based on the patriarchy?
Also…I love bras-they keep the girls lifted. Burn mine and I’ll cut you.
*It’s been brought to my attention with the new design you can’t see the links very well, but if you click on the BRAs you’ll understand the sarcasm, or not. There are some links in the first sentence too. I know, hard to see. Working on it. Rome wasn’t built in a day here people.ÂÂ
On behalf of the League of Maternal Justice breastfeeding montage “banned” by YouTube, I give you my Message to the Asshats at YouTube. Apparently they prefer this over letters to the editor, so here goes…
and I’ll have you know I did this quick video despite this from the other day:
and THIS today: (look familiar?)
Yup, different kid, same couch. This one came with bonus hives!
I spent the first part of this week in tears. Hanging a yellow ribbon from the tree in our front yard and showing my children the stars on the American flag billowing below the ribbon. Their uncle has gone to war, again.
As I struggled to explain to a 4-year old exactly what a “soldier” does, I thought of all the families involved in this monstrosity of a war, the children left behind, the Iraqi’s lives destroyed. Despite my 100% disagreement with this war and the idiots who started it, I found myself damn proud of our soldiers and their families. Of our stupid, stupid country and its stupid, stupid military.
So as I swelled with pride and wonder for my fellow Americans, imagine my disgust and bewilderment when I had to explain to a Canadian just how FUCKED up our government is when it comes to helping our children. Helping the poor. Helping one another.
It started simply enough, a post about us fat ass North Americans and our lazy, lazy, kids. I tried to explain socioeconomics. I tried to explain the lack of education. I tried to explain why a lard-ass Ogre, who shills for McDonalds, would be our spokesman for combating childhood obesity. I tried to explain that yes, Taco Bell can be found in our public school cafeterias and yes, our produce and healthy foods cost more than the average family can afford. They buy the shit, because the good stuff is more money and hey, it’s got our government’s stamp of approval.
The more I explained the more I shook my head. The more I explained the more embarrassed I became. The more I explained, the more I was moving to Switzerland.
Why does America do this to me? I don’t expect to agree with everything that goes on in the great USofA at every single moment. I also don’t expect to hide my head in shame when I think of the clusterfuck that are these 50 states lately.
Just when I had shaken my redhead so much it hurt, I saw a light. I got an email. I watched something I’ve been involved in since the start head in a new direction. One that made me swell with pride. One that reminded me it’s not about the country. Its not about the borders. Its not about who’s government does what. It’s about what we can do,together. Ladies and gentleman, may I present BlogHer’s ACT.
We are excited and honored to announce today, with Elisa, Jory and Lisa, the launch of BlogHers Act, a year-long initiative to harness the incredible power of women online. That would be you.
BlogHers Act will take on two things –
1. Making a difference on a single global cause
2. Identifying the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win our votes in the ‘08 Election.
Imagine the opportunity that’s in all of our hands right now.
All of us know the positive, productive, monumental ACTION of bloggers, especially women bloggers, when rallying around a problem, an issue or an event. Since we started blogging a few years back, we’ve witnessed - and been so lucky to be a part of - countless moments, big and small, when bloggers worked together to make a difference.
Hell yes. Now get off your fat ass you lazy American, Canadian, or um..non-North American and do something.
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