Log in to view image

Checking In and Catching Up

/5 Comments/in , , , /by

“Where have you been?!”

The last few weeks have been crazy in more ways than one. It's been a stressful, demanding time at the day job (law practice), involving an all-nighter and all-weekend push to get a settlement finalized, a quick trip to Alabama for a hearing, and hours on the phone to pull a deal together. All this was happening at the same time as I had the fun and privilege to travel to Florida to participate in the My Book Therapy Deep Thinkers retreat with 20 other amazing writers. We spent five days together in a big house near the beach, learning and practicing writing craft as taught by the amazing and generous Susie May Warren, Rachel Hauck, and Beth Vogt, and developing new friendships that I hope will grow as time passes.

Log in to see image

MBT Deep Thinkers 2013

From the retreat I flew directly to San Diego to share a very special day with my middle son, Benjamin, as he married his best friend, Jennifer. They plan to have a big family wedding in Texas in a few months, but for various scheduling reasons (she's enlisted in the US Army Reserves and will be flying away for basic training soon), they decided they didn't want to wait until the “big” event could be pulled together, so I joined them and a friend of theirs at their very fun JP wedding on February 27. Got to spend a day with them before I had to hurry home to take care of business at my law office. I'm so happy I got to be part of that day with our “Bennifer.”

Log in to see image

Bennifer 2/27/2013

In the midst of all this excitement I learned, very unexpectedly, that my novel-in-progress, Do No Harm, won the 2013 Olympia fiction contest, sponsored by Clash of the Titles. What a thrill and an honor. This one is especially exciting because of how the finalists and winners are chosen. The first round of judging is done by readers, just folks who love fiction but are not involved in the publishing industry. The three highest-scoring submissions from that round are named the finalists, and those submissions are handed off to an amazing panel of judges comprised of a multi-published, award-winning author and two agents. I was truly astounded to get the notice that those judges had selected Do No Harm as the winning story, and even more thrilled to receive the judges' score sheets with their thoughtful, careful feedback. I'm in the midst of applying their suggestions to make my story even better. In the meantime, yesterday I enjoyed the surreal experience of being interviewed by author and Christian Authors Guild board member Cynthia Simmons for a podcast about Do No Harm, the Olympia, and my writing journey. I understand that the podcast interview will go “live” in a couple of weeks!

All in all, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind, so I hope you will forgive my absence from the blog world. I look forward to resuming a more regular posting schedule and connecting with more and more friends and readers!

Your turn: What have you been up to during the last few weeks? What are your plans and dreams for the rest of 2013? Share in the comments, or drop me an email.

 

Laura
Greenville, Texas
I Was Just Thinking . . . 
Legal Blog: Real Estate Law Blog
Twitter: @LauraMcMom
Email me

Money and Blogging

/2 Comments/in , , /by
BLOG IDEAS
BLOG IDEAS (Photo credit: owenwbrown)

I recently read a guest post on a well known blog hosted by a blogger who's often cited as an expert in the “business” of blogging. The guest writer was talking about the steps to turning a blog into a profitable business, and one of the steps he talked about was “monetizing” the blog.

He mentioned that some bloggers he knows resist the idea of monetizing their blogs for fear of driving readers away. In response, he said the following:

Who says selling chases readers away? Monetizing a blog is as important as setting up and updating the blog. Without this, people won’t take you seriously. You’ll be regarded as a newbie at worst, and an amateur at best.

Am I reading that correctly? Is he saying that monetizing your blog is necessary to be legitimate as a blogger?

As far as I can tell, the sentences I quote above refer specifically to running ads on your blog. I assume this, because the paragraph about “monetizing” was part of a larger section about profiting from your blog, and “monetizing” was only one way to profit (along with using your blog to get a job or to sell products).

There is a whole industry made up of people (apparently mostly in their early 20s) whose sole job is blogging. They make their living by blogging–mostly about how to make money by blogging. And I've seen lots of blog posts and ebooks that recommend monetizing your blog as a source of income. Some of those recommendations come from writers that I respect, whose primary business is writing and speaking on substantive topics and for whom their blogs are a secondary outlet and a means for interacting with their fans. A lot of those recommending monetization, though, are these young “professional bloggers.”

In all cases, they seem to think that it's a good idea to sell ad space on your blog and/or to join affiliate programs for which you get a percentage of any sales resulting from links on your blog.

On my own blog, I have experimented with the Amazon Affiliate program–with some reservations. Frankly, I'm not comfortable with selling stuff, and I don't blog to make money. I blog with the hope of communicating, connecting, and interacting with other people. (Which is not to say that I think people who sell things on their blogs are wrong!) I signed up for the program because so many of the pros recommend doing it, but I've only used it a couple of times, and then only to create links for books that I was reviewing or recommending anyway.

But as for selling ad space or posting affiliate ads . . . I personally am just not comfortable with it. Maybe I'll change my mind someday, but honestly, I find it hard to believe that it would be worthwhile. Apparently lots of people read these ads and buy the stuff they promote. (At least, I assume that's the case, because if it's not profitable, people wouldn't be doing it, right?)

But I personally never (never) read the ads on any of the many blogs that I read.

Never.

And contrary to the opinion quoted at the beginning of this post, the existence or absence of ads on a blog has virtually nothing to do with whether I view the blog as authoritative or worthwhile, or how much I respect the blogger.

I say “virtually nothing” because if anything, the more ads a blog features the less likely I am to take the blog seriously, and the less credibility I'm likely to give the blog's author. If I like a blogger's content over time, I might buy that blogger's book from a link on her site, but I simply never even look at any of the sidebar ads on even my favorite bloggers' sites.

What about you? Have you ever bought something that was advertised on a blog's sidebar? How do you feel about ads on blogs? And if you're a blogger yourself, what's your position on monetizing your blog?


Laura
Greenville, Texas
I Was Just Thinking . . . 
Legal Blog: Real Estate Law Blog
Twitter: @LauraMcMom
Email me

Enhanced by Zemanta

Are You Asking the Wrong Way?

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by
Image 1323680 courtesy stock.xchng

There's a body of literature out there (magazine articles, scholarly reports, books) examining the differences between the ways women and men communicate. Various materials I've read say that women tend to be more tentative and even apologetic when stating their opinions or asking for things. Some say that this communication style arises at least in part from women's generally stronger emphasis on relationships over results, but most seem to agree that it can result in women being less likely to get what they want.

Recently Stepcase Lifehack published a guest post on this topic. The post, titled “How Not to Ask,” is an excerpt from a book called  Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth, by Mika Brzezinski (an MSNBC anchor and television personality). The post focuses on one narrow area: how women ask for raises or promotions in the workplace. The concepts discussed, though, apply to pretty much any situation. The premise is that in general (of course there are exceptions to every rule) women are more “emotional” and less direct than men about asking for what they want.

I encourage you to read the post (by clicking either on its title above or here). I found the post intriguing and probably will read the book. If you're a woman, do you recognize your asking style in any of the examples cited in the post? Do you think it matters? I'm interested to learn what you think about the article.

Laura
I Was Just Thinking . . .
Legal blog: Real Estate Law Blog
Email me

New Adventure for Me!

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

I'm honored and excited to be blogging today over at Stepcase Lifehack, a blog/website/compendium of useful information on communication, technology, lifestyle, money management, and (my favorite) productivity. I've been a regular reader of Lifehack for at least a year. If you pay attention to these sorts of things, you might have noticed that I've posted links to various informative Lifehack articles on my Facebook page over the past several months. I am thrilled to now be a contributor to this great site!

I encourage you to subscribe to Lifehack directly — there's an easy subscription button on the top right of the Lifehack main page.

I'd love it if you'd check out my simple little article and leave a comment there so I know you dropped by! Then Like it on Facebook and/or Tweet it to your followers (there are buttons there to let you do that easily).

Laura
I Was Just Thinking . . .
Email me

Do Working Mothers Have to Pay a "Mommy Penalty"?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

My experience as a working mother/attorney is different from many other women, because (a) I went to law school and started practicing law in my late 30s, after I'd already given birth to my five children and (b) I have a husband who was willing and able to change his career path to work at/from home while our children were younger and to take over a whole lot of the tasks that traditionally fall to the wife/mother (and that I handled when I was home fulltime before going to law school). I try to factor that in when I read articles talking about the disparity in income, etc., for working women — because I haven't experienced that disparity personally. This short article gives food for thought, and some worthwhile advice for young women navigating the work life/home life maze. I'd love to hear thoughts from other working moms in response to this piece: Working Mother: Minimizing the Mommy Penalty workingmother.com