Swayblog

Next week, I have the distinct honor (no joke – I am seriously stoked) of appearing on a panel at CES to discuss monetization of moms within the blogosphere. The other women on the panel with me are ridiculously impressive, including Sway Group’s own Liz Gumbinner, Rebecca Levey of KidzVuz.com and Mashable, Kimberly Clayton Blaine [...]

When I was forwarded the link to this story covering the latest controversy about Tumblr, I couldn’t help but be appalled. I wasn’t appalled by the fact that Tumblr was charging fashion brands for sponsored coverage by bloggers. I think that’s a fine idea, quite frankly. While many brands will get coverage anyway by virtue of the [...]

One of the more infuriating aspects of the social media space these days is the prevalence of ambulance chasing. We all know about ambulance chasing in the legal space. An accident occurs, and the lawyers practically run after the ambulance to get first dibs on the inevitable lawsuit. Sadly, the very same practice now happens in [...]

I have a post up on Mom Crunch today about the practice of sponsoring individual bloggers for conferences: As a blogger, you have the ability to be a lot of things. You are a writer, for sure. But you can also be a media entity, a spokesperson, or a consultant. What you should never be, [...]

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard some brand folks dismiss a blogger program because, “we don’t pay for play.” I’d like to take the opportunity to clarify the Sway Group position on this. To say outright that bloggers should never be paid by brands is foolish. As influencers and storytellers, there are many [...]

I was out of town all last week with incredibly limited access to my laptop, so I missed a lot of the brouhaha that erupted following Heather Armstrong‘s trip to Bangladesh. As my family and I drove south through Michigan, back into civilization, I sat shotgun, and scrolled furiously through posts about the controversy on [...]