The “Queen of the Mommy Bloggers” makes a curious revelation
Lisa Belkin’s marvelous piece in the
New York Times
Sunday magazine on mothers who blog is filled with juicy details about Heather Armstrong, whose dooce.com draws 100,000 daily visitors and reportedly generates ad revenue of $30,000 to $50,000 a month.
Armstrong, who famously got fired from an L.A. start-up for nicknaming her bosses and describing their foibles online, writes under the pseudonym Dooce about nearly everything that crosses her mind, from poopy diapers to oral sex to the postpartum depression that landed her in the hospital.
But what caught my eye in Belkin’s story was a little business transaction involving Apple (AAPL), Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T) and Google’s (GOOG) Android:
“This summer, the renovation of the office was sponsored by Verizon, and [Heather’s husband] Jon shot a series of videos of Heather describing the new furniture and the computer wiring. Each one ran as a post on the site, opening and closing with the Verizon logo. Part of the deal was that the Armstrongs had to switch from iPhones to Droids during the renovation. When the sponsorship ended this fall, Heather and Jon immediately went back to their beloved ATT-powered phones.”
I don’t know whether that says more about how smartphones get marketed or how mommy bloggers make their living.
In any case, “Queen of the Mommy Bloggers” is lots of fun and highly recommended. My favorite takeaway: How the Armstrongs figured out they could monetize their hate mail.
Also onFortune.com:
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
