Entries from April 2010 ↓
April 20th, 2010 — Other stuff
To put my money where my mouth is, I’ve drafted a document that sits on my desktop titled, “TGR Income Statement.”
When any corporation contacts me for product reviews, product giveaways, advertising or publicity exposure I simply copy and paste this document into a reply email.
I’ve already decided. I don’t have to make a decision every time I’m contacted.
Women have been living with this myth that we shouldn’t talk about money or tell others what we’re making and charging. Which totally sucks – because we’re operating without adequate information. In Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life
one of the secrets is to talk about money so we can get the support we need.
Jessica Gottleib and I exchanged letters after I wrote 10 Reasons Mommy Bloggers are Broke. She wrote back that I should double my fees and not do a review for less than $250. I immediately edited my letter. I thank her for pointing out my true worth.
Dear Marketer,
Thank you for contacting me about your product or service. I’m so glad to see you wish to participate in The Girl Revolution. It’s wonderful that you value girls and women and what they can offer in all aspects of life, including business and the economy.
The Girl Revolution has a very loyal and receptive audience. In marketing terms, they are Thinking Parents.
I would love to review your product, especially while it’s in the development stages. I’d also love to consult on effective and ethical marketing practices in regards to how it impacts children, especially girls.
I adore books. As an author myself, I want to see the publishing industry make money and do well. As a blogger, reviews are very time consuming and labor intensive. Therefore my regular rates apply.
My rates are $120 per hour for consulting and $250 per post. Each post gets one full day of exposure, including links on Twitter and Facebook pages.
Sidebar advertising and spokesperson opportunities are negotiable.
Thank you for contacting TheGirlRevolution.com.
Sincerely,
Tracee Sioux
Executive Director
The Girl Revolution
traceesioux@gmail.com
Don’t leave without your free button:
10 Reasons Mommy Bloggers Are Broke
10 Reasons Mommy Bloggers Deserve Condescension from The New York Times
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April 18th, 2010 — Media, Marketing and Advertising, Mentors, Role Models, Peers
The New York Times took a decidedly condescending tone towards Mommy Bloggers in their piece Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy With My Blog and Building My Brand.
I, for one, think we deserved it.
Is it because we’re Mommies, as many, many Mommy Bloggers have suggested? Is it because we’re women?
Could it be . . .
- We’re willing to work for free.
- We lower the fair market value of all content with our free giveaways and product reviews?
- We lower the fair market value of all advertising by charging measly rates for our sidebar advertising?
- We’re confusing useless swag with actual cash? Both we pay taxes on and only one can pay a mortgage.
- We’re behaving as if companies think we’re cool and popular when they contact us, instead of making them prove we’re economically valuable to their marketing strategy by paying us?
- We have no ideas about how to charge consumers of our product for our insights?
- We’ve lowered the fair market value of reporting and communicating to nearly zero with the behaviors above (writers – all of us – make less when everyone is willing to work for free)?
- We’re condescending to each other, letting those junior high mean girls surface at times (Hillary v. Sarah 2008)?
- Mommy Bloggers who undercharge and work for free make it harder for other Mommy Bloggers to charge for services. Show your sisters some respect. If we don’t value Mommy Blogger services – who will?
- Our prices are so low that, really, no one in their right minds (not even us) can respect it?
Mommy Bloggers remind me of those dudes in flannel shirts who stand at the freeway exit with a sign that reads “Will Work for Food.” Except our signs say, “Will Work for Baby Food Samples and Lip Gloss”
As it happens, during this so-called “tough economy” Fortune 500 companies tripled their profits to $391 billion in 2009. They also slashed their payrolls by more than 800,000 jobs, according to The Washington Independent and CNBC.com.
They made $391 billion and you scored a knock-off Barbie doll for your daughter’s 10th birthday and $15 for an entire month of advertising on your sidebar.
Come on, Mommy Bloggers – grow a self-esteem.
The Girl Revolution’s only aim is to challenge the perceptions of femininity, to shift the perception of the value of girls and women. Upward.
These are old, out-dated, perceptions of the value of our labor that we’re falling in to.
What kind of example is this setting for the next generation of our girls, for their mothers to work for free? Do you want your daughter to believe her labor, talents, time, energy, perception, intuition, and brilliance – yes, brilliance – are worth nothing? Worthless?
We have to demand a great deal more respect, in the form of money, from those who see the opportunity and potential in our newfound freedom of speech, our newfound voice, and our newfound marketing value.
Think of The Black Eyed Peas next time someone asks you to work for free:
If you ain’t got no money, take your broke ass home!
Put this button on your blog as a message to corporate America. Then hit reply with an email about your FEES and RATES the next time someone asks you to do a giveaway or review for their product. Come back tomorrow to see my letter of rates. Yes, I’m publishing it on the Internet.
Also check out 10 Reasons Mommy Bloggers are Broke.
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April 16th, 2010 — Mentors, Role Models, Peers
1 – They have no intention of making money and no business plan or strategy.
2 – They think they have to choose between making money or doing something with passion.
3 – They believe if they work from home, they have to take less than a junior high school baby-sitter would take in exchange for 90 hours a week of scrounging for links and page views. And they keep talking about how lucky they are for the same reason.
4 – They will let anyone change a contract on them for no reason whatsoever. They don’t negotiate contracts, they accept them.
5 – They work for imaginary future income potential instead of cold hard cash right now. “We’re a start up, so we can’t actually pay you, but we’ll give you the special honor of rolling out 7 posts an hour for nothing and maybe in the future, if we like you enough, we’ll think about paying you for working.” They feel thrilled for being chosen ahead of all the other suckers willing to work for free.
6 – They work for tuna, cup cakes, boxes of cereal, handbags, free trips, and invitations to parties. This is doubly stupid because they have to pay taxes on income they can’t pay their mortgage with. It’s usually stuff they would never spend money on. Again, they feel grateful for this arrangement.
7- They let advertisers advertise on their sites for free because they used the words “give-away.” They think they’ve struck gold when giving the opportunity “review” an item and give it away. Again, paying taxes on items and shouldering the full cost of producing and hosting a blog for special fancy mascara they would never buy.
8 – They feel popular when corporations – especially big corporations with lots of advertising and marketing dough – ask them to give themselves away for free. “I feel so honored to have been chosen!”
9 – They judge the success of their blogs by comments, links and page views instead of income.
10 – They do not value what they do and who they are enough to hit “reply” with a simple message about their consulting, advertising, public speaking, give-away, and spokesman fees. They are, in fact, more afraid of the potential rejection than they are of working for Chicklets and girdles. Here is what a letter like that looks like, Nice Girls Don’t Talk About Money.
Then they wonder why The New York Times is condescending towards them. Here are 10 Reason Mommy Bloggers Deserve Condescension from The New York Times.
Read this book, Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life, Mommy Bloggers and for goodness sake order it here so I can count it as income from my blog.
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April 15th, 2010 — Feminine Heritage, Mentors, Role Models, Peers, TGR Global
I don’t have all the answers.
I’ve got a lot of the right questions though. And that’s where all discovery and innovation begin.
I’m going to be participating in the Inspiring Women’s Conference, with the likes of Marrianne Williamson, author of Return to Love, starting May 1. The series of free telephone calls will have featured speakers and women from all over the world dialing in to participate.
At some point we all have to come together and organize. A One Girl Revolution is all well and good, but a few million girls would be faster and more effective.
Join me. Sign up. You can listen to the calls if you can’t make the time to be there live. I’m sure I’ll be doing a little of this.
There is much to learn. Women are on a threshold. There’s something happening. It’s happening right now. It’s exciting. It’s compelling and it’s going to change everything.
This is OUR time girls.
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April 12th, 2010 — Body Image & Self Esteem, Feminine Heritage, Life Coaching, Mother-Daughter Emotional Osmosis
There’s a tape about money playing in your head.
It might sound like this: Money doesn’t grow on trees. You have to work hard for money. Poor people are more moral, more kind, or more generous than rich people. Rich people got there by cheating. Rich people are corrupt and selfish. People on Wall Street are greedy. I hate rich people. I’m a starving artist. I always work for free. My jobs never pay me enough. I can’t afford it. . . .
There’s a tape playing about your body in your head.
It might sound like this: Skinny Bitch, I hate skinny people. If I were skinny I’d have everything I want. I hate people who can eat whatever they want. Looks shouldn’t matter. Beauty is about what’s on the inside, it shouldn’t be about what we look like. There’s no correlation between being skinny and being healthy. You can be healthy at any weight. People discriminate against fat people. Fat people are nicer than skinny people. Skinny beautiful people are mean and rude . I look like I’m pregnant. My thighs are huge. I hate my body. I’m like a fat cow. . .
Which is fine.
As long as you’re okay with staying fat and poor.
If you’re aiming to become rich and thin, those tapes are a problem. They’re keeping you fat and poor. It’s a self-defeating habit. It doesn’t impact skinny, rich people at all.
Now, I’m done being fat and poor. It’s far more fun and exciting to be thin and rich. More choices, better kinds of attention, more strut in my walk, more confidence in my being, more swing in my hips, better swagger, more freedom, nicer stuff, better ways to spend my days, better food from every angle, more excitement, more liberating, more freedom.
To get there, I have to reprogram my brain back to being a thin person.
I was a thin person before. I’m a naturally thin person. I love being thin. It feels good to move my body when it’s lighter. I love buying clothes. I feel healthier. I have more energy. I adore getting on the scale. I feel great when I pull on my favorite pair of jeans. I love skinny people. Skinny people are awesome and fun and funny. I love eating healthy foods. I love exercise, running, yoga, biking, hiking. weight training, pilates, and swimming.
I love living in abundance. I love having more choices. My choices control my money. I am great with money. Money grows on trees – what DO you think it’s made of? I love that my accounts grow while I am sleeping. I have everything I need and want. I can buy that if I want to. I can have that if I want. Money comes easily and frequently. Money helps me serve my purpose.
It’s especially useful to retrain your brain if you have a daughter. Think back to your mother’s beliefs about money and bodies – your thoughts are probably not so unique. Most likely, they’re inherited and then supported by evidence of your share experiences.
Change your own thoughts and change your daughter’s body and money messaging inheritance. What could be a better motive?
I can help you reprogram your brain. Contact me at traceesioux@gmail.com for Life Coaching.
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