I visited New York in late September on a press trip courtesy of Euro-Pro. It was the first time I’d been back since we moved from there in May 2005. After the press event, I spent the afternoon with a former co-worker, chatting in his office for more than three hours. We’d routinely had similar conversations, both in terms of topics and length, when we worked together, and as the time slipped by unnoticed I felt almost as if I’d never left.
He’s a VP there now, and I’m – well, whatever it is I am. I don’t think there’s an appropriate title. Yet neither of us is sure where it is we’re going. We’ve talked, both in the past and during my visit, about our self-perceived lack of ambition. Surrounded by others hell-bent on ruling the world, we’re satisfied with enjoying our work and enjoying our families. Yet we wonder if we shouldn’t want more.
The next morning, Liz and I had a separate, unrelated conversation about the difference between being ambitious and being hard-working. They’re not synonymous, nor does one imply the other. But ever since, I’ve been considering the two qualities, in what proportion I possess them, and where I observe them in other people – particularly in other bloggers, given the ever-increasing media coverage related to the FTC guidelines.
In the more than four years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve probably been asked four hundred times why I started. Making money is not the answer. Neither is fame. I blog because I enjoy it. While I may someday parlay my writing here into a larger project, that’s not a high priority for me. I don’t care about traffic, inbound links, Alexa or Quantcast rank. I’m not an ambitious blogger.
I do work hard though, especially since I archived mothergoosemouse and began The Mom Slant. As I recently told a reporter, I post far less frequently now because each post requires much more work. I’m also far more pleased with the pieces I turn out. In short, I work hard – not in pursuit of a title or an executive salary, but because I derive personal satisfaction from the process and the results.
But the low barrier to entry in blogging and the increasing focus by the media on the income potential of blogging (plus the financial success enjoyed by hard-working, talented and ambitious bloggers like Heather Armstrong and Ree Drummond) have fueled the ambitions of stay-at-home-moms in a frenzy that rivals multi-level marketing schemes. Forget Amway, Tupperware, and Mary Kay – start a blog and make millions!
I’m not knocking ambition. Nor am I implying that blogging is a get-rich-quick scheme, or that bloggers don’t want to work hard for success. What bothers me is that bloggers are being misled – in part by the media, and in part by self-styled entrepreneurs who claim to have all the answers. One site aimed specifically at moms even compares the supposed relative ROI of various careers requiring college education to the ROI of Internet marketing.
Who needs college? Start a blog or an online store and make millions – if you listen to (and pay) us!
Let’s take a moment for a reality check, shall we?
When President Obama spoke to public school children in September, he gave them some good advice:
“I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work – that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard.”
Being successful is hard. Ambition is not enough. Online tutorials will not take the place of raw talent, great ideas, passion and hard work. Even these qualities are not necessarily enough.
Why is it that people who would rightfully scoff at weight loss gimmicks or debt consolidation scams are nevertheless convinced that they can reasonably expect to make a successful living via the Internet? A quick Google search on “make money blogging” offers 163 million reasons to think they can do it.
At Cool Mom Picks, we’ve mourned many online retailers who have gone out of business in spite of attractive site design, careful curation of items, and never ending hard work. The million dollar carrot dangled by sites like this one is a mirage; the enticement of “[earning] income 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while changing diapers and making bottles!” is a farce. No online resource, no highly-paid consultant, not even a Harvard Business School degree is a guarantee of success.
Perhaps someone more ambitious than I would have a brighter outlook on the possibility of converting a free Blogger account into a perpetual moneymaking machine. But at this point in the media coverage and with the FTC getting into the act, a heavy dose of common sense might be just what’s needed.
Are you ambitious, hard-working, or both?
I think I’m hard working, and that has gotten me everywhere I want to go. I don’t consider myself particularly ambitious though—I don’t think “I need to be at the top of that pile”; I prefer to work on things I love for the sake of doing the work, not for any monetary or popularity it may bring.
I do feel a bit jealous when I hear of bloggers being wined and dined, or flow across country for posh focus groups, but then I think about what I’d need to do to get to that level, and I realize that it really isn’t for me.
Since blogging is just a hobby for me, like sewing or knitting, I guess I have a different viewpoint on it than some. However when it comes to my day job, I’ve been the ambitious one, and I’ve had the high paying job. I ended up hating it and talking regularly of becoming a salmon fisherman. I’m happiest when I can work hard (enough) and do my job well, while finding balance with my family and my hobbies. My favorite successful bloggers work hard, but have found the balance with the rest of their life as well. (or so they make it seem)
I commented on Liz’s post, and I’ll say it here too. You really are amazing. All of the stuff that is happening, the discussion that is taking place, makes me really happy that I’ve become a blogger when I did.
For me blogging has become about opportunity and connections. Very few people make a substantial amount of money from their blog (personal blog, to be specific).
Any envy I have I turn into drive. The success of others only makes me want to do better for myself.
Can I say “neither”?
Actually, I do like to work and I do work hard. But ambitious? Nope. Like you, I’d rather do work I enjoy and also have time to enjoy my family (and a few slivers of non-family free time too).
Your “title” for business purposes is obvious – entrepreneur. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best title there is.
But frankly, titles don’t matter. And blogs are just tools. You can count the number of people who “make a fortune blogging” on one hand. They’re just one piece of a very large puzzle, and the people who focus on tools instead of people ultimately lose.
One of the things I like about working with online moms is they’re entrepreneurial – but the competitive nature inherent among the moms is a bit different than what one might come to expect with more “traditional” business owners.
There’s a much stronger focus on collaboration and community among the moms with whom I work. And each member of this community emphasizes her uniqueness – and that’s actually embraced and celebrated here. So it’s possible to actually be the best at who you are and what you do – because nobody does exactly the same thing you do.
I am hard working. Always have been. Not at blogging per se, but in my life. Bloggin for me, is a hobby. If I’d wanted it to become something more, I’d of tried harder 4 years ago. But I’m not ambitious. I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. In fact, most days, I don’t feel grown up enough to even try to figure it out.
Depending on where I am in life, I can be both, neither or just one or the other. As others have said, blogging is a hobby for me, so I’m talking about my job here. I think most of the time, I’m pretty hard working. I used to be ambitious, and then I had kids and my focus really did change. I would simply have to work too hard and give up too much (time and energy especially) to achieve the level of success I used to think I wanted.
But I find that by continuing to work hard, I get recognized for what I’m doing. And I still have enough ambition to push myself to levels of success where I will feel comfortable. And when the kids are older… who know?
David stole my line – a blog is a tool. You wouldn’t say “I’m going to make a million blogging!” any more than you’d say “I”m going to make a million…” uh, I don’t know. Something else where you probably won’t make a million.
The truth is, hard work isn’t enough. That’s why that site pissed me off so much. Plenty of people work hard but never make it to the next level for all sorts of reasons.
Amelia Sprout’s comment reminded me of why I am so annoyed with the latest media coverage of “so-called ‘mommy bloggers’” – call it nostalgia if you will, but when I started blogging in 2004 it was nothing like this. It was about the writing, man. I look around at the women who are just starting and feel kind of sad for them that their first impressions of blogging include the product reviews, freebies, and “relationship with brands.” Those were new or even non-existent concepts just a few years ago, and now they occupy so much of the conversation.
Kim, I just read that 80% of mom blogs involve product reviews or giveaways. That blew me away.
I’d like the link to the article where it states 80 percent of mom blogs involve reviews or give aways. Because that hasn’t been my experience. Perhaps I need to read more blogs….
Me too! I’m trying to dig it up. It was a recent article.
The point is that “most blogs” are not the ones you’re reading.I mean, there are tens of thousands of them. I know you have a lot on your Google reader but not that many, T!
Great post, lady.
Any “ambition” I have is pretty much relegated to MamaPop, which is SO not about me. I believe the site is awesome, because the people who write for it are awesome, and their brilliance is something I believe deserves attention and accolades, and I want that for the site, for everyone on it. But for myself as a blogger? Meh. I work hard to write good stuff. My personal site, it’s a fucking art project, not a money maker. If I personally have any sort of legacy as a blogger it will be there, and so for me, it’s about trying to write things I’m truly proud of, that resonate as pieces of quality writing, not about “achievement” in any fame/monetary-related sense.
Everyone wants to be read — it’s why we write, why we put things out into the world. We want to connect with others, to be understood. When I started blogging on Sweetney in 2004, there were no ads on blogs. No one made a dime of any personal blogs, period. It wasn’t even an issue. I started out of love. I continue out of love. And if this ever starts being about a bottomline or about getting on Oprah? Fucking shoot me.
Great food for thought!
The success question — I ask it back to all of my clients in strategy sessions and use it as a barometer as we work together. Because really – you need to know what success looks like, acts like, feels like and means to you before you set off on that road. And being able to define your success also means you can savor the victories and landmarks along the way. Today I hit a little bump, actually — so thanks for reminding me of my own sage advice!
I am both. Right now, my ambition isn’t focused on career though. It’s focused on shaping the characters of my sons before and as they hit the school years. I have dubbed the 30s my “mommy decade”. That’s why I even started Mom in the City (initially an offline moms group; now an informative blog with “sprinkles” of my personal life). Since I’m doing the site though, I work hard at it. (I’m an all or nothing type of person. That’s how I was BORN.)
My personal blog is a labor of love. Do I like it when I get attention for it? Sure. But no less or no more than I would for a published book or getting a painting in a gallery. Am I happy to make some money from doing it? Again, yeah, but only inasmuch as I get to earn money doing something that I love. If it became about whether or not I could sell a gajillion coffee machines or tuckloads of detergent… well, eh, not so much.
I’m ambitious for my writing, which to some extent is tied to my blog, but as Liz and David said, this falls more into the category of viewing ‘blog’ as ‘tool’ – the blog is a space for writing, and a medium for showcasing it. Blog as moneymaker/famemaker/end-in-itself? Not my bag.
I’m not sure where that leaves me, v.v. your question, but there you go
Awesome post.
Well done Julie.
It always amazes me that people confuse ambition with hard work. I keep trying to instill hard work in my children and define the difference between the two for them.
I work HARD at my blog. But I am not ambitious about it.
But then, neither am I rich from the wealth I’ve NOT made doing it either. I just do the hard work because it is important to me and I hope to the readers who enjoy my blog.
Hard work, ambition, competitive spirit, dumb luck, an iron willed determination to soldier on in the face of a crushing tidal wave of economic depression… That’s the secret to our success as small business owners! That, and a complete unwillingness to get “real” jobs. Hard work never wins alone.
i’ve made peace with the fact that i’ll never be the next dooce. i blog because i love to write. i just wrote a piece, in fact, about the same thing! the blogs are ablaze with this!!
well said. it takes work. and the outcome one is looking for may never be achieved. which is why some need to re-evaluate their reasons for blogging.
and like i said in my post…
they say anyone can start and maintain a blog. it seems, however, the same holds true with journalism these days.
When I started Postpartum Progress in 2004, I had no idea what success with a blog even meant. No one did. I was just hoping somebody somewhere would read it and find comfort in it.
Since then, I’ve realized in order to have “success” — which to me means reaching moms who have postpartum depression and providing them the info they need to get better and not feel ashamed — I need to be relentless in covering the topic from every angle and answering all the emails. I need to work my butt off, but not because it will make me any money or get me any freebies. I don’t make a dime from my blog because PPD just isn’t on the radar of most corporations. But the women who have it care, and when I hear from them I’m reminded of my original mission.
I used to be in marketing at a major consumer corporation and I was consumed with ambition. I loved the title, the money, the excitement and the stock options until I started seeing what it took to keep rising and realized I couldn’t bring myself to push any harder. I don’t have any of that stuff any more, but what I do have are emails from moms who have survived PPD in an inbox folder I keep called “Blessings”. Those emails, conveying gratitude for Postpartum Progress, don’t buy me any “things” other than peace, contentedness and joy.
Excellent questions and discussion. As David W. said, it’s about using a blog as a tool for something more. I spoke at a conference this fall, where many of the attendees were all about wanting to make money from their blogs. I spoke on a panel about how to stay motivated when you feel burned out fro blogging. My only real nugget I had to offer was trying to stay focused on the things that are important to me and look for inspiration from others. And, like Kristen said, I value the connections. I don’t know where all of that will take me, but it feels right. And fortunately, there’s enough money from “real” work in the family to pay the bills.
i think the biggest secret is defining success on your own terms. i’ve slowed down on my own blog, like you mention above, taking forever to write things, to craft. but i’m happy with it. i’m learning from it. it may be a springboard to whatever i decide to do next, but for now it’s my own private writing class, my labour of love. and i’m PROUD of it, even if most of the offers i get regarding it, i end up ignoring because they demand overt product recognition and that just, i don’t know, embarrasses me, has no place in the writing i’m doing there.
not that i wouldn’t love a vacuum. but my ambition is not for vacuums – vacuums have no way of being true recognition of the hard work i’m doing there.
loved this.
I have said before and I will say it again: There is a ‘generation gap’ between those who started blogging four or more years ago and those who started blogging in the last 18 months; it is the difference between being an ambitious blogger and being one that blogs for the sake of enjoying the act of writing. For the most part, the truly successful bloggers are those who pay attention to content and realize that making money off of a blog isn’t the be all end all of things. Just because you have a blogspot URL does NOT make you a social media expert. It drives me batty to see all of these women who are all ‘I was able to get Company XYZ to notice me and now I can help you get famous too!’ I wonder if these women realize that at some point [insert company of your choice] will find a new block to cater to and those who will be left are the women who started blogging because simply because they liked to get things out on paper.
For the record I am going to continue to use my blog as I have been; to show my future children that once upon a time I was pretty fucking awesome.
I love blogging. I love the connections and friendships and I have made some nice contacts and gotten some fabulous opportunities because of my blog. Those are the things I love most.
Since I had zero idea one could make money off of a blog when I started forever ago, it was not my ambition. That I manage to make some cash monthly is GREAT, but anyone who goes into this thinking they are going to make gobs of money are woefully uninformed (and frankly, ruining it for the rest of us by coloring perception that we are all like that).
I have enough raw talent but I am just not good at self promotion, frankly. I say all the time if I wasn’t so lazy at the internet thing, I could make more then I do. If I took time to work harder at the marketing end of things, ect my blog would be bigger and wider spread. I only say this because I have a decent following in spite of everything I do wrong or don’t do at all that I “should be”.
Blogging makes me happy. If I took more time from the things I love (like dorking around on Twitter) to “work harder” on the money making aspects from my main blog (like SEO, blah, blah, blah), I don’t think I would like it nearly as much.
HOWEVER.
I am also totally poor at the moment and have started doing reviews because well… I need to supplement my income with additional revenue and or product and I REFUSE to feel second rate, grabby, icky or inferior just because I do it.
I would absolutely blog for free but I am SO HAPPY I DON’T. :0)
Great food for thought. It should be requires reading for anyone thinking about starting a blog.
I consider myself hardworking. I have never been particularly ambitious. I blog because I love writing, I love sharing with others be it information, tips, tricks or peeks into my life. I blog because I love the connections with other people that it provides. I’ve only ever done a few reviews on my site, none of them paid, most of them of products that I purchased to use and decided my readers may be interested in. I do have ads on my site, but I don’t make much money off them and I don’t really care. My love to write, so that is why I blog.
Again, fantastic post. Loved it.
Ya, my wife went to New York with you. Her name is Kristin Lesney and her site is http://www.ourordinarylife.com. She started blogging 6 years ago, so in my opinion I consider her having experience. She should do a more detailed story on it, but again things get very busy with 2 kids and schedules. She is pretty inspiring. I have seen her go from doing this as a hobby for herself, to making something for herself. I am very proud of her and she has grown and matured along her journey. She is now 24 and a half, so you can do the math to figure when she started, times were very different then.
I have gone over her story and why and how she started, and many independent successful bloggers can agree and say they started their sites for themselves and themselves only. Not the intention to get rich or gain some type of power or influence. That has all grown into its own creature recently in the past years. But that should be expected, its competition.
Anyways, it’s good that people are starting to talk about all this. Yes companies give you all things to talk about it, whether it be trip(s) to show you some things or products to see if you like. Blogging provides links and searches which is what is needed to make the internet be successful. There is nothing wrong with legitimate reviews and opinions from peoples who really have one to give. But copy and pasted crap is redundant. And I will not say anymore on that.
Anyways, I am new to blogging, my site is http://www.delthedad.com. I have not really had the time I have wanted to blog about what I want. It does take a lot of work to really try and present some new material, not some rehashed , garbled, mumbo jumbo. I have some things all about me and I have some crap on my blog, but I guess in a way it all serves a specific purpose.
So a piece of advice, blog for yourself and HOPEFULLY it will come to you. Being honest is the key to success, regardless of how you choose to look at it.
Del
This is a tough one for me. I am ambitious by nature, although right now there is nothing I am ambitious about. I’ve always craved attention and wanted to be “on top,” ever since I was a little girl, and I did think about working my blog and becoming an “a-list” blogger. I never thought it would make me tons of money though. I thought of it more as a way to launch into other things (consulting, speaking gigs, etc.). Lately, though, it’s just not that important to me. That is actually one of the factors that led me to stop blogging at PHAT Mommy and start my new blog. I just want to start over, find my tribe, share my story, get support and make some friends. If I can design a few blogs along the way, or get some special perks, that’s cool.
I blog for the sheer joy of it. And in hopes that if I share my experiences, other people will benefit from my foibles. Whether it’s because I actually learned something and can share it, or because I ran into a telephone pole and apologized. Again.
I believe the bloggers who will still be blogging in five years are the ones who do it because they love it, type up a post and then resurface to wonder where exactly the last two hours went, and feel their words have something to contribute.
To answer your question (and, um, to do so honestly), I would have to say that I’m ambitious but not hard-working. Wow, that explains an awful lot.
I love that this is being discussed. Last year at BlogHer, some random woman came up to me and started asking all kinds of questions about how much money I make blogging, do I think she could make a living blogging, do I think she could be the next Dooce, and on and on, all centered around how she could wrangle blogging into making her rich with minimal work and commitment. (From what I could tell, she didn’t have a blog yet.) As someone who has been blogging (and working hard at it, although without a whole lot of ambition or pay) since 2003, the best advice I could give her was this: If you’re in it primarily to make money, you’re probably not going to make much at all because readers can SMELL that money-hunger from a mile away. People who read blogs do so for the authenticity and love that comes out of bloggers writing because they love to write, because they want to write, because they NEED to write. It would be awesome if those were the same people who found great success (financial or otherwise), but that’s not how it works, not in blogging and not in life. In the end, bloggers who become “successful” will do so because they’ve redefined what “success” is to them in this context (e.g., not money or fame but connections and relationships and friends).
Great post. I didn’t start my blog to make money and I certainly don’t expect it to any time in the near future. I consider myself an ambitious blogger in that I work hard to (almost) always produce quality content. And I work at being a part of the communities I want to be part of. For me success is not about money but having that interaction with other bloggers – on my blog, their blogs and in other areas.
Yes! I’ve been making the MLM scheme comparison for a while now.
If you blog because you want to blog, great. If you are good at it, and you get recognition, great. If you are ambitious, and you make lots of money (or get fame or whatever), fabulous.
But if this is another in a long line of “get rich quick” schemes, I’m afraid you are barking up the wrong tree.
Most of the “successful” (whether that means good, making money, getting press, whatever) bloggers have talents and even possibly experience in a related field like writing, marketing, pr, journalism, photography, etc.
Some people are exceptions–but they also had talent and drive and luck and that is not necessarily going to get replicated a thousand times. Just like, sure, Chicken Soup for the Soul is a self-published empire…but it is the exception, not the rule.
Not to discourage anyone. If you really want it, go for it…but the reality is that it isn’t a get rich with no work opportunity
I was a professional writer before I blogged, and I blogged long before I was looking to make any money from it.
Hi! I just wanted to let you know that our guarantee is not one of success, it’s one of satisfaction. If our content on our site doesn’t satisfy, we will refund your money! We really aren’t promising easy riches, we are two moms who have worked really hard on our sites, Moments of Elegance and The Shopping Boutique, as well as earned money as affiliate marketers and bloggers. I was in dire straights when my husband lost his job, and had to learn to make money, quick, so our kids could eat. I did it, and I learned a lot in the process, so we’re just trying to be a resource for moms who want to learn, but we’re no get rich quick scheme!!
I think the chart displaying the comparison of costs to potential income is purposefully misleading and denigrates the value of a college education. It specifically states that with a $47/month investment in your program, the income potential – in less than a year – is $250K – $1M. That’s the exception where it comes to online businesses, not a reasonable expectation.
Julie – We are in no way trying to denigrate the value of a college education. Both Ashley and myself, the co-founders of the site you mention in your post have higher education degrees. Mine was in Mechanical Engineering from a top university, and it cost me over 6 figures. Where did it land me? In a few decent paying jobs that I hated, that worked me to the bone 60-80+ hours a week, with an hour commute. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED college and wouldn’t have traded it for the world – it was an important link in taking me where I am today, even if I’m not directly using what I learned. The graph was merely intended to show that you don’t always need to spend a lot of money in order to make money. It wasn’t until I started my own ecommerce business that I found something I was passionate about – and consequently doing that allowed me to work from home and make more money than any of my previous jobs combined. While yes, it is not the majority who will end up making $250,000 in a year with internet marketing, I also know that it is absolutely possible. I had no concept when I started that I could make the kind of money that I did. But as they say, when you find your passion and work hard because you love it and you feel ownership over it, often times success (whether it be financial or otherwise) just follows. If we can share some of our experience and help a mom who only wants to make an extra $1000 a month to relieve some financial pressure on their family and that’s as far as they want to take it – then that is fantastic too. Each mom needs to decide for themselves how much they want to put into it. Our goal is simply to provide the training, tools and support to help them reach towards those goals. I do think if someone has a blog that is well read and popular, that it is not a bad thing to show them ways that they can make a living, either big or small, off of something they pour their heart into anyways. Like I experienced… often times when you finally find the “thing” you love to do, there can be a windfall that may not have been expected, but I’m sure still appreciated if it can help pay the bills.
If you are offering a legitimate service Ashley, then don’t delegitimize it by playing fast and loose with facts in order to lure in prospective customers. It’s sleazy. Fix that potential earnings chart (which is just ridiculous) and stop making allusions to getting rich quick. Especially with an affiliate program that you’re trying to market to bloggers, this is the very kind of thing the FTC is investigating these days and putting us all under the microscope.
Mom101 – we can agree to disagree on the graph. I know many moms who have been in similar coaching programs and have achieved the kind of success that the graph states – so from a personal standpoint I know that its not “ridiculous”, as much as it may seem that way to you. No where on that chart do we claim that it is “easy” – it does require hard work and dedication to what you want to do, but it is absolutely possible. Will everyone achieve it? NO! Will some? YES. Similarly, does everyone make it out of law school or medical school? No, but that doesn’t keep people from talking about the income potential if you do dedicate yourself and make it through. If you actually read about our program I think you’d see our intent is to coach moms towards whatever their goal might be, not a promise of “get rich quick” (in fact we boldly state the contrary). A
I accidently hit send before I finished, I was just wanting to finish up by saying… our belief (as someone mentioned above regarding the bonding and communal help moms have towards each other), is that a community and network of moms helping moms, can be incredibly powerful – that is what we are striving to set up.
I have a feeling we may just have to agree to disagree on the entire concept, but I do respect your opinion and think that regardless of whether I agree or not, its important to at least bring the topic to light and discuss it. I think especially relating to blogs, people have to make their own decision on whether they want to do it for the personal “statement” only, or whether they’d like to try to earn a living (big or small) from something they are already pouring their hearts into. We just want to offer a forum where they can learn ways to do that, if they so choose.