The Blog of Lisa Morosky

So, I don’t plan on making a habit of this (because, ya know, extra content is one of the incentives of being on my list), but I’ve decided to repost something I wrote last week for my newsletter subscribers. I got a lot of really interesting feedback about this – some positive, some negative. So, let’s see if the “interesting feedback” continues here.

Without further ado…

Lately, I’ve been noticing this shift from what I saw when I got into this whole blogging thing (problogger worship) to what I see at least a few posts on every week (problogger bashing). Because I’ve been noticing this more and more, it’s been annoying me more and more.

Can we just cut it out? Really. I don’t care that much about how many comments Darren Rowse replies to. I don’t care what products Chris Brogan decides to promote and what, when you read between the lines, that says about his character. And I don’t care about the ratio of John Chow’s sponsored tweets to regular tweets.

So stop writing about it. When all you do is criticize the successful, it makes you look desperate. Desperate for attention. Desperate for them to visit your blog, leave a comment, and argue with you. There’s a right way to rub elbows with the big guys in your market, and a wrong way. This, in my opinion, is the wrong way.

These guys all have great material to share. I’ve met each of those mentioned above, and they’re smart, personable, businessmen. But while they’re somewhat of Internet celebrities, they’re also just…people. People with blogging businesses. That’s it. Be familiar with their lessons and teachings, and then take what you learned and apply it to your business. Quit riding their coattails. The fascination is kind of creepy.

Here are 10 blog posts I’d rather read:

1. How a situation in your life influenced your post for the day.
2. A major obstacle you’ve overcome.
3. Your own original thoughts on your market.
4. What’s working for you, and what’s not working for you.
5. An epiphany you had.
6. A cool hack that I can incorporate into my life.
7. Your life story.
8. A testimonial from a reader about how your blog changed their life in some way.
9. How you’re building a community around your blog.
10. Your life goals, and how you are/have accomplished them.

Write one of those. Then, perhaps, a problogger will show up at your blog doorstep and comment not because their name was mentioned and they got a Google Alert, but because they find you to be inspiring.

Am I alone here? Or is anyone else feeling the same way?

So BlogWorld is over. I’m sitting in the airport, getting ready to go home. I had a fabulous time and got a lot out of it. I have videos and photos and more recap posts still to come. But I first wanted to write about something that stuck with me throughout the entire weekend.

On Friday morning, Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, gave the keynote presentation about “the state of the blogosphere”. In case you care, the full findings of their survey will be released over five days, starting on Monday, October 19, 2009 over at Technorati.

Amongst the dozens of statistics he gave, here’s the one that knocked the breath right out of me: two thirds of professional bloggers (we’re not talking hobby bloggers here) are men.

I don’t doubt the statistic for a second. I can just take a look at my Google Reader, and those I regularly interact with, and see that it’s probably a pretty solid statistic.

So I’ve spent some time pondering the ever-philosophical question: where my ladies at? Here’s what I came up with.

They’re not necessarily in the more popular blogging genres, like making money online, social media, blogging, Internet marketing, etc. So there’s a chance that they’re misrepresented in the survey.
Are probloggers who aren’t in these niches paying a lot of attention to Technorati? I don’t know. I kind of doubt it. I spoke to several women at BlogWorld who have great blogs in other niches, but they didn’t know much about Technorati, and therefore didn’t give a damn about any survey. Frankly, I don’t even care about Technorati. So there’s a good chance that women are misrepresented in the survey all together.

But I’m not going to lie – it tends to be a boy’s club in these genres, for the most part. And if you’re going to play with the big boys, you better be able to be confident in what you know and what you say. You see strong, opinionated, and outlandish women in these blogging categories (Penelope Trunk, anyone?). Those who are quieter are just going to get pushed aside.

They’re not demanding enough attention.
Ladies – you want to be known in your blogging market? Well you better start speaking up. I know there are a lot of you out there with a wealth of knowledge, yet I don’t hear you because you’re not demanding the attention that’s yours. Here at BlogWorld I watched Chloe Spencer get totally shut down during a session in which she was on the panel. I’m sure the girl had more to say, but she didn’t jump in and make herself known.

Perhaps they’re not out there marketing themselves properly.
Oh ladies – c’mon now. Social networking is where we should thrive. Communicating and connecting with others and sharing and listening? We do this naturally. Start using social networking in a way that benefits your blog. Get to conferences and connect with others. Use your natural strengths.

Hello – they’re busy doing other things.
Want to know why there aren’t as many women probloggers as men? Because women do a million different things at one time, like take care of kids and households, and work outside the home, and keep the lives of others from spinning out of control. I think women are less likely to become probloggers because of all the other demands and pressures placed on them.

They’ve yet to take the leap from hobby blogger to professional blogger.
That could have something to do with what I mentioned above. Or perhaps women don’t think they have the strong voice and business know-how to take it further. Let me just tell you: you do. Go for it, girls.

But really, I think it comes down to this: like we’ve seen in the past, women just haven’t yet infiltrated this career to the extent that men have.

But don’t worry. The women are on the move. I met some women this week who have big plans and big goals. And in the mean time, if you want to see women probloggers in action, take a look at the awesome mommy blogger community.