I attended the launching party of a special Webisode series last night. It is special for two reasons. First, this is the adaptation of a mom blog chronicles. Caroline Allard did not imagined when she started her first mom blog in 2006 that it will lead to an award-winning book and now a Webisode series. On top of that, her second book is fresh from the press.

The second reason is that the Webisodes are presented via the Web site of a major TV channel in Canada, Radio-Canada. It is really an accomplishment that the traditional media does an adaptation from the content of a blog. The Webisodes are played by professional actors.

The Webisode series is called Les Chroniques d’une Mère Indigne. Caroline Allard uses humor to talk about her ups and downs of motherhood. Caroline started her blog because she had enough of the perfect mother image that the society seems to impose these days.

The launch was a success. We watched 3 episodes. The series contains 9 episodes of 3 minutes each. The Web series is well-done. If you understand French, I strongly suggest that you go check Les Chroniques d’une
Mère Indigne on Radio-Canada. You do not have to be a parent to laugh or enjoy the depicted situations.

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If you are serious about attracting advertisers and sponsors, start by keeping a writing schedule. Consistency is important to build traffic. You wish to create a routine with your readers. Establish a schedule that is compatible with your agenda. The more you post, the more pages views you will get.

Ideally, you should aim to publish at set time. I am not there yet. With Wordpress, you can schedule in advance the date and time a post will be published. Try to always keep a few posts in backup for when you are too busy.

One advantage for bloggers in the women and mom category is that advertisers wish to connect to women. This is because women are responsible for most of the shopping in a household. We are in the best position to attract advertisers and are often asked for product reviews.

Be Picky with Your Reviews

In fact, brands solicit women and mom blogs for product reviews at an increasing rate. That is why you should be coherent and carefully select the products you will write about. Think about what your brand stands for and if the product fits well within that identity.

Take At Home with Kim Vallee. It is a collection of things I like. Negative reviews won’t fit within my concept. Therefore, the merchants send me the products without any guarantee of a coverage. Even if I like the product, I may never talk about it. They cannot interfere with what, when or if I will talk about something. I published a simple policy on my At Home blog. I encourage you to write your own.

It is important for bloggers to maintain a separation between editorial content and advertising. You wish to preserve the trust and credibility you build with your readers. Remember that you can only be an influencer if people trust what you say. It is not just your traffic but also your power as an influencer that attracts the right advertisers to your site.

Let’s watch my session.

Learning from Two Podcasters who Monetized their Shows

Matt Campagna and Anastasia Tubanos gave an excellent session on how to be considered a legitimate media. They talked about how to make money with a podcast. One of the income sources that grab my attention is sponsorship. For example, sponsored events would fit within the scope of my At Home with Kim Vallee brand.

March 10th, 2009 update: what was original intended to be part 4 was the question period. The participants did not a micro so we do not hear well their questions, so I decided to not publish it

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• When Blogging Becomes a Job

The Gazette about the latest initiative of Tourisme Montreal to promote the city. They wish to hire on a part-time basis bloggers as ambassador to cover what is happening in Montreal.

This great initiative generated bad comments about bloggers being paid for hiring. Let’s make some facts very clear. The bloggers will not blog on their blog. They will publish their text, photos and videos on their dedicated page on Tourisme Montréal’s website.

I suspect Sid Lee with Tourisme Montreal wanted to reach to bloggers because we know how to write engaging stories. They also expect these ambassadors to talk about it in social media. Basically, they will be do the job of a Community Manager, which as far as I know is a real job position for which people are being paid at companies.

Blogger Recognition

What this initiative by Tourisme Montreal / Sid Lee proves is that the skills of bloggers are being recognized. Bloggers are writers who know how to navigate within social networks.

Most bloggers blogs as an hobby. This means the average bloggers earn their living doing something else. Many will like to make a living out by doing what they basically do when blogging or podcasting. Monetizing is the hottest topic for sessions at the upcoming PodCamp Toronto 2009. And yes, I believe blogging come become a profession (although my business model is based on advertising, not paid content).

But for the moment what Tourisme Montreal is looking for are Community Managers to cover 5 lifestyle scenes. They made the mistake of using the proper job designation. Something it does not work to try to be cool!

To close my argument, I invite you to watch the insightful comment by Todd Lucier.

+ More details on Marketing Mag

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