Disqus - Latest Comments for kolson29

Re: I Need A Recharge

kolson29 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:44:47 -0000

As a mom of kiddos who are 15 months apart and are now 2.5 and 1.5 years old, I completely agree with your statement about the work being 4 times what it was with 1 kid - COMPLETELY agree :-) Get some rest, sounds like you need it!

Re: If you’re that important, they’ll find you again

kolson29 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:57:11 -0000

Interesting take on this - I just posted along the lines of "I lost my network" meaning that it is followers and followees that make up the whole.........without either of them the service is useless to me.

Re: Do You Pay It Foward?

kolson29 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:35:11 -0000

Yup, I pay it forward - the kindness of strangers always amazes me and I really do attempt to do my part with others. Some days are easier than others but I like to think that I'm helping others in exchange for the good deeds done for me in the past :-)

Re: The Hypocrisy of Doing Tech Product Reviews

kolson29 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:07:26 -0000

Excellent thoughts on this, and thanks for taking the time to delve into the wild world of mommy blogging over at Jeremiah's post! I have to say that before I started This Mommy Gig, I wrote only on my main blog, where I write about education and technology. I found the EXACT same hypocrisy in the education world. The minute you even mention ads on an education blog people are screaming "sell out" faster than you can imagine. Credibility? Gone. I've challenged the "rules" gently by doing a book giveaway for a book I did NOT receive a copy of and have done a bit of unscientific market research on this area, finding that the readership is remarkably intolerant of any form of advertising or a hint of collaboration with a company on a lesser-known blog, but as you mentioned, it's all ok at the top of the blogger list.

As for mommy bloggers - the main question is this: why would we dilute the content of our sites, which are supposed to be about our parenting experiences, with products? And how could we possibly return a jar of peanut butter we reviewed? How about a book? Would the publisher even WANT it back? I do have to say, though, that if we receive something for review that we can't use, we're planning on giving it to someone in need. The books I receive go to my public library when I'm done with them.

Thanks again for bringing this up and you're right, it's hypocrisy all around. Just remember, though, that we've made it clear from the beginning that we will NOT write a positive review for something if we don't like the product, we're not "pay for post". We also don't believe in bashing either - if we don't like the taste of the new kid snacks they sent us, that doesn't mean others won't, right? We maintain our integrity by having our review policy listed on our site and letting the company know that if we don't like the product we'll still do a giveaway, but won't write a review.

Hope this helps better understand us!

Re: The Death Of The A-list

kolson29 — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:58:06 -0000

This post was SO right - we might need great bloggers, but we don't need celebrities. The great bloggers and writers will naturally rise to the top because of their great content, that's all it takes.
Thanks for this great post, just stumbled it :-)

Re: Low-Tech Sometimes Trumps High-Tech

kolson29 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:42:22 -0000

whoops, forgot my last name :-) That comment was from Kate Olson!

Re: Low-Tech Sometimes Trumps High-Tech

kolson29 — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:41:46 -0000

I love this idea as well! And I'd LOVE to share this tool with teachers in workshops in the future. Thanks for including the image - I heard about this so much on twitter & other posts but couldn't quite picture what it looked like.

Re: When Interests Collide

kolson29 — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:49:21 -0000

Scott - I have to say that I blog for the exact same reasons you do - I love to share things that I find and rather than annoying my family and friends with 15 emails a day, I just blog my spectacular thoughts and findings so friends/family can CHOOSE to read them :-) I guess you could say it's a bit of self-promotion as well, but in the professional world today, having web presence is vital. Also, I love to write and figure having an audience is ok, but building community is awesome. I have made so many connections and learned so many new things just from people commenting on my blog - it's amazing! These people then lead me to their writings which starts the cycle all over again. Thanks for posing this question - I look forward to seeing what others have to say!