The internet has opened up so many doors for people when it comes to earning money from home. One of the biggest things to hit the internet have been The Mommy Bloggers.
Any woman who is a mother and blogs can call herself a mommy blogger, but some of these women have really turned the marketing world upside down. They have been commissioned by big name companies to market their products through reviews, blog posts, giveaways and more.
Some of these women are making good money. But I do have to wonder… What’s going to happen in ten years? These women are only going to have small children for a certain amount of time. What’s going to happen when their children are graduating high school and going off to college?
I am sure that some of them will do just fine. They are either using the business and marketing skills they learned in college or are developing the skills now that will help them come up with new ways to earn money.
But I do wonder what will happen to the majority of women who have mommy blogs. What will they be blogging about when their children grow up?
I think that the internet is fantastic. I can only imagine how lonely stay at home moms were back in the days when most families only had one car and women stayed home all day without any adult interaction.
I am really glad that the mommy bloggers have found an outlet to be creative and communicate with others. I just hope that they will find a way to be bloggers when the “mommy” days of raising young children are over.
interesting question, crissy. i get asked a lot what i’ll be doing in 5 years, let alone 10. in 5 years, probably pretty much the same thing – but i’m also happy to go with the flow of technology, learn new skills fast, and embrace change.
with many mommy bloggers seeming to follow the 123s of affiliate marketing & product reviews, i wonder if there is enough creativity to allow for reinvention of their brand as time presses on.
You know, that is EXACTLY what I was thinking when I wrote about my list of bloggers to watch – they are Moms PLUS something else! Mommy bloggers are by definition a short run, you’re right to question where they’ll be in 10 years!
That is a good question indeed to pose, but that question is not unlike some corporate executive asking a single, unmarried woman, or a childless married woman: “Well, what’s going to happen in a few years when you have kids?” Or “What are you going to do (about your job) when you get married/have kids?” Questions that, today, are not often asked directly, but in the not too distant past, were not uncommon for women to hear; and some of us–and with young children at that–are old enough to have heard such questions.
I think the real question is: “How will those women translate those skills from being a ‘mommy blogger’ into the next phase(s) of their career/family lives.”
The answer, in my opinion, lies in how a “mommy blogger” really defines herself as it relates to blogging and her career. If blogging is a career or career-related, beyond a little extra cash (and not only an outlet for social contact or journaling about kids, spouses/partners–whatever–as it is for some–and that’s okay), then they’ll take those successes (and failures) from “mom-blogging” into whatever is next for their careers as their families evolve.
Even for the women for whom blogging is a creative/journalistic exercise, they too, may take the skills honed or acquired through blogging or be able to leverage the connections that they made into something else that does become career-related. Like Tara said, if one is staying up-to-date with technology, learning new skills, then they will fare quite well, whether it’s on an electronic shingle in cyberspace or in the bricks-and-mortar world. The same skills that make them great/successful mommy bloggers are transferable, repeatable and scalable–assuming that they don’t get locked into one or two models for doing things.(But isn’t that true for anyone, not just for mommy bloggers?)
Once the kids become more autonomous, get older, go off to college, move out, get jobs (as they all hopefully will) mothers don’t cease to be moms; and if they’re blogging in 5, 10, 15 years, they’ll still be moms “mom bloggers,” or whatever the nomenclature will be then.
And maybe, some will be content with doing things in their communities, or renewing their commitments to themselves, their partners/spouses as they send their kids off into the world and are no longer “mommy” and that’s what they’ll be blogging about, because the demographic(s) that their blogs cater to, will be right there with them.
Just some thoughts.
That’s a very good question Crissy and I hope a lot of Mommy bloggers are thinking about it. It’s probably a very good idea for many of these women to start looking ahead at the next untapped market where they can use their experience and still do something they find enjoyable and profitable.
That was one of the reasons I started a blog a year or so ago that focused specifically on that unique transitioning phase – when a mom’s caregiver role shifts due to the kids leaving home for college or work and she has the freedom to focus more on career, relationships, personal growth, etc.
I personally started to lose a lot of interest in mommy blogger child-related topics for that very reason (my daughter is in college and my son’s a senior in high school) and figured there were others like me.
I haven’t had the time to keep that site updated here it is if anyone’s interested https://www.momsprimeyears.com.
Lots of interesting thoughts are being brought up….
My main concern is that Pampers is not going to pay these women to write about diapers when their children are 18 years old.
All of the companies that these women work with will find moms with younger kids to be their ambassadors.
I don’t know if all of these women are developing other skills and interests to blog about as their children outgrow the ‘mommy years’ and outgrow their blogs.
As their readers’ children grow, their readers are going to be developing other interests and will have more time outside the home, so being online will no longer be their main social interaction.
Will these women have steady readers and blog followers?
Also – it’s important to note that as children become older, their interests can become very wide and varying.
When kids are 2 years old, they are all being pottytrained and learning their colors and shapes.
When they’re 15, 18, 20 they could be anything from a serious student, the student who plays sports, the drama student, or the kid who drops out of school and ends up with a drug problem.
With so many different types of kids, will the mommy bloggers be able to keep their audiences at all?
If one of the mommy bloggers kids is a straight A student and they are blogging about visiting colleges, while some of their readers are dealing with teen pregnancy (or vice versa) do you think the reader is going to keep reading that blog? Um, no. They will not.
And so, my question is about the blogs that are based solely on issues dealing with small children – or worse yet, the ones that do not seem to offer any content except for marketing messages from companies who make products for small children: Where will those bloggers be in 10 years?
I write mostly about my life and my mother-hood and am considered a Mommy Blogger, so I think as long as people want to read good writing, those writers want to KEEP on writing, and the Internet is still here, the blogs I love will be around in 10 years.
Steph
PS, I see your later comment- I think the marketing to mom blogs thing is fleeting and will fade out much sooner than 10 years. I am believing that blogging will be back to like it was in the old days, eventually. (I hope!)
Steph
Steph,
There is no doubt that you are a good blogger. You are a good writer and you have made a connection with your audience. I do feel that you and several others will be able to transition and grow with your audiences.
Unfortunately, there are some people who have jumped onto the “mommy blogging” bandwagon because they have seen others making money with it and I am not sure they really understand what “blogging” is all about.
Now – on a side note, I do wonder if, once the current “good” mommy bloggers have school age children, if we will see them take on more of a consulting role with the companies that they are currently blogging about? Helping them find the “next generation” of mommy bloggers?
I think that *might* happen but I’m thinking only if the Moms are qualified and it’s truly their passion and they are making what they’re worth, will it stick.
Steph
Those looking to make fast money will move on the next fast growing segment which they see as requiring little or no effort. Being a mommyblogger is not for sissies or layabouts.
There is no more important job than nurturing a growing child. My peception is this is an very entrepreneurial group. As the kids grow, the MBs will be immersing themselves into other tasks in life. This is a great alternative to sitting in a cube from 8-5.
There is so many mom/dads who work so hard raising kids to the detriment of “career”. Once I was working a huge Dutch global oil firm named Shell. I was asked by an HR person “What do you want to accomplish in the next five years?” I answered “I want to be the best father I can be to my kids”. Honest answer, wrong audience.
Here in the UK we have not experienced the Mommy blog phenomenon as much as in the US – forums for mums are very popular, though.
Maybe in a few years time there will be more worldwide concern over the transition from child to teenager and an increased interest worldwide in “family life”. The Obama girls would be at the heart of it .. and the current mommy bloggers would be well placed to make the most of that.
As a mother with four children in their 20s I know how difficult it is to plan ahead..the internet as well as children’s lives change so quickly.
i bought a twitter course from you Crissy last year and saw your post on twitter. Excellent site!
I don’t know about mommy bloggers becoming consultants once their children grow. Sure some might (think Jessica Smith / JessicaKnows.com) but for many the real excitement about mommy blogging is the opportunity to share their “interests” and experience. Many will take on new interests as they themselves grow.
I have teens and I’m not really interested in writing or sharing my experience on potty training or how to have a productive play date or how to decorate a child’s room, etc. I think many of today’s mommy bloggers will go through a similar transition.
There’ll be a whole slew of new moms who will take leadership around this topic in the blogosphere. At present I don’t see that changing – not as long as the consumer product companies continue to see moms as the affordable (read: cheap) marketing conduit that they are.
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