The Everyday Blogger

How I handle my identity online...personally and professionally

This post has moved to Stephanie's other blog Noshtopia.com here.

A Secret To Being Your Best At Connecting To Your Audience

This post has been moved to Stephanie's main blog Noshtopia.com here.

Passing Up Blog Revenue To Stand By Your Values

Would you take or pass up an opportunity to earn some generous blog revenue if it entailed having to contradict what your brand stands for?

Welcome to the test called: Money or Values

This is a situation every blogger who makes money or their living from their blog(s) because not only are we content creator, we are also business owner. The clash between editorial and profit is classic, but it becomes even more interesting when the two sides reside in the same body, namely you, the independent blogger.

The answer at first glance appears a no-brainer, “Well of course I’d stand by my values above everything. That’s why I became a blogger. I won’t sell out for money.”

See, that’s blogger idealism at its finest.

In this post, I'll share with you a real situation that I passed up, and how my idealism was challenged. This particular situation was one of those borderline cases where it would have been so easy to take because the offer was so tempting. But, I thought about what I wanted to add to my track record.

But what if...

What happens though when say, the economy crashes. Budgets are drying up. Ad networks are slashing your CPMs and extending payment out from 30 days to 90 days. People are tired of hearing eBook spiels and your traffic dips for a myriad of reasons you can’t pinpoint. And better yet, your significant other is breathing down your neck about paying the bills or going on that long overdo vacation.

That idealism to pass on cash to stand by your values can start to thin once you find yourself in a financial bind where stress and desperation start to cloud your judgment. If you're like me, during the deep end times, you've found yourself in fetal position in bed at noon wondering, "Why am I doing this crazy blog thing again?"

If it becomes a choice between, paying rent or getting evicted, bending on your values for income appears easier to justify, or we get mentally creative and think of ways to spin the story so it somehow fits into what we stand for. At the time of financial crisis, getting cash in the pocket becomes front and center.

When revenue opportunity knocks

Rebecca Watson Director of Business Development of Real Girls Media, the folks who publish Divine Caroline, wrote this excellent post in iMedia Connection, “A step-by-step plan for finding your influentials…..” On the second page towards the end of the article, Rebecca points out a fitness blogger who passed up on a generous opportunity to stand by her values because her,” readers' trust in her helpful health content was more important than revenue”

That fitness blogger Rebecca referred to was me. I turned down the opportunity because the product contained high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and as much as the HFCS industry would like us all to believe that HFCS is fine because it comes from corn, I highly differ in opinion.

On Noshtopia my food blog, I’m all about eating wellness through cleaner eating which means avoiding stuff like HFCS. On Back in Skinny Jeans, my now retired blog about healthy living, I resonate the same message of eating wellness.

My whole online brand is built around promoting organics, all natural, fresh, and eating as non-labcoat made as possible. Healthy eating to me is about quality not just low calories. However, I’m not about perfect eating either because hey even I on occasion will eat fast food and a Krispy Kreme.

To participate in a project where I am getting paid and basically endorsing a product that contradicts my values, to me is a fast track to killing or at the very least weakening your brand because now you’re actions are saying, “Hey I believe this stuff until I need money and someone offers me a big bucketful of loot.”

Yeah, it’s not so good.

Truth time. Maybe I can spin this and take the check

I gotta be honest; turning down Rebecca’s opportunity was painful. It was painful because there was so much good about this opportunity and only one bad thing, but that one bad thing was a whopper. I even tried to get creative in my brain and see if there was any way I could spin this story to fit with my brand values.

Much to my dismay, um, no way Jose could I spin high fructose corn syrup into being something better and healthy than what it is. As my 90 year-old Jewish grandma friend would say, “It is what it is.”

I get pitched product opportunities often, and most actually are not hard to turn down because it’s just not an obvious win/win, but this particular opportunity with Real Girls Media was different, and what was so deliciously tempting was:

• It was generous pay for few hours.

• I’d get paid right away. I didn’t have to wait 1/3 the year to get a check like what the Ad networks do.

• What I had to blog about was what I normally blogged about on Back in Skinny Jeans and Noshtopia. This project wasn’t about direct product shilling; it was about living well, which I really liked and did fit in with my brand theme.

• It associates my brand with Real Girls Media, who because of Divine Caroline is a very well respected online brand.

• The brand sponsoring this opportunity was a huge well known consumer brand that would look awesome in my blogger portfolio. Let’s be honest, the bigger the names you have on your list, the easier it becomes to land other revenue generating opportunities with other huge well known consumer brands.

But alas, *sigh*, the product itself contains high fructose corn syrup. And ironically, my two cents, this product doesn’t need it. I think the product would sell more if they went all natural.

Looking at the short term vs. long term gain and/or loss

I also thought twice about taking this opportunity because it also came at a time, when I really needed money. But thinking deeper, in my heart, I knew that taking this short term gain would hurt my revenue generation future long term because I’m blatantly contradicting my brand values thus weakening and jeopardizing  the trust I have built up with my audience which took years and lots of sweat.

No way am I putting at risk all that effort! I will just continue to eat tuna and shop on sale a bit longer until the tides turn.

By passing this opportunity up, I am also trusting that the universe will see that I’m serious about my whole live authentically theme, and thus present other opportunities as generous or more that fit with my brand values.

So, have you passed up blog revenue during a tough time to stick by your values? Or, if you did take an opportunity that contradicted your brand values, what resulted?

Corporate Bullies: Citibank Citicards VISA The Loan Shark

Yesterday, I nearly had heart failure when I opened up my Citibank Citicards VISA statement, and saw that it was double the usual payment. After getting off the phone with Citibank to ask them what happened, I felt like I got paid a visit by the loan shark.

The Interwebs are a consumer's ally

I prefer to use blogging as a way to help inspire and be uplifting. Rarely do I rant or go off on people, places, or things. But when I do a rant, like I did with Oprah and her January 09 weight gain issue, I do so because I am so blown away by the ridiculousness that something has to be said….and to be honest, in this particular case, Citibank made me feel like they were some big bully stealing lunch money from a good kid just because they felt like it. Frankly, I hate bullies!

But then I remembered, naw, I’m not powerless against a corporate bully, I have the interwebs, and I can fight back. This is the power of social media for the consumer, and brands had better start taking it more seriously because consumers don’t have to lie down and just take it anymore.

Loan sharking 101: Scare them into paying up

Essentially, Citibank Citicards lost me as a VISA customer more because I felt forced to choose between an outrageous payment or hurting my credit score if I didn’t pony up more dough.

What pisses me off the most is that what they are doing is using the fear of affecting my good credit I’ve worked so hard for as a way to gauge me for more money. That is SO wrong on so many levels.

Citicards doubled my interest rate from 15% to 30% because, and I quote, “….in order for us to provide better services to all our customers.” WTF! How is this customer, me, getting better service by having to fork over a huge chunk of cash which is enough money, in my case, to pay my iPhone bill and car insurance plus some happy hour drinks.

My other option was to stay at the 15% but then my account is now officially closed. Here’s some reasons closing a credit card can hurt your credit rating. Those were my two options from Citibank, and because of my current financial situation, I had to close the account because there is no way I could pay double. None.

Disguised as options

Citibank calls those options; I say those are not options. That is like the Hitman asking you, “Would you like me to stab you or choke you?” What does it matter, I’m still gonna suffer and then be dead.

In this Citibank situation, no matter what I choose I am financially screwed, and for no reason other than, “….because we can. It says so in the fine print.”

What Citibank’s statement really means is that because they made mistakes passing out credit like it was Halloween candy, and then a whole slew of people and their bad credit habits got their institution into financial troubles,  I, an excellent long term customer am being punished for other people’s mistakes.

My VISA is as old as the interwebs

I have been an excellent Citibank VISA customer for 14 years without ONE problem. I got my credit card in 1995, that’s practically when the Internet came into our homes. For 14 years of being a good, loyal customer, I get no break whatsoever. Financially, I have been in a pinch myself, but I always paid my payment on time. I have never been late with them thanks to automatic payments.

You WANT to keep a customer like me

Not to toot my horn, but frankly, I’m the kind of customer a credit card company wants to have, pays on time, never complains, and spends money…for 14 years. During my pre-IPO millionaire days, you should have seen the charges I put on that card. Interest rate gold.

And yes, I am going through some financial tough times right now, but better believe that will not be the case for long. I plan on having those millionaire days again because if you did it once, you can do it again.

But more importantly, in general, I have a good credit rating, and I've shown some stress, but I pay all my cards and bills on time. Why can't Citibank see the whole picture, not just a sliver of it?

My hopes for buying a house sag like a wilted plant

The closure of this card will affect my credit mainly because the VISA will fall off my credit reports.  This VISA card is my oldest card, again, 14 years, and future creditors like to see long history, and now it will be gone. All that hard work is gone.

This card closure will affect my ability to get a home loan as a first time buyer, and one of the reasons I moved to Phoenix recently from the Bay Area is so I could buy a home. Can you see my hopes of buying that home start to vanish? Poof!

Maxing out

Closing cards also signals that you’ve maxed out or are close to maxing out your card. In my case, yes, I was close to the max limit, but who isn’t in this tough financial time?

But more importantly, what does it matter if I make my payments on time? I have never missed a payment, and I didn’t close my credit card because it was a decision I felt best for me, I closed the card because Vinnie waved brass knuckles in my face and said, "Pay up 30% interest or take it in the knees."

Out of principle, I will not give more money to a bully, so okay, I'll take it in the knees, and then go share my story on the web.

Not all customers are credit equal

In the fine print, Citibank essentially says they can just raise your interest if they feel like it when you venture too close to the max limit. How is this fair at all? I get that Citibank is a business and has to make money, but do you have to treat your good customers like the delinquent ones?

Again, I can understand the rise in interest rate if I have started to shown signs like late or no payments, but I have done nothing like that. My assumption is that my summary just triggered some software program to lump me in with everyone else because the numbers put me in some category that triggers, “Double their interest rate.”

I thought long and hard before closing the card, but I just cannot suck it up and pay that doubled monthly payment at the new 30%. My immediate needs take over future needs, and I really HATE that Citibank put me in that position, especially when I have done nothing wrong.

Forget writing customer service. I will blog and tweet instead

After talking to a service rep, then higher up the food chain to a manager, they both told me I could  write a letter to Citibank customer service, but seriously that’s a useless Dilbert procedure. No thank you.

Instead, I shared that I’ll take my dissatisfaction to my blog and Twitter because I have no doubt that I am not the only one Citibank Citicards has taken advantage of this way. Even if we don't get anything resolved with Citibank, we can at least feel like we've bonded with others. Again, this is one of the beauties of social media, finding a commonality with others and feeling less alone.

Were you an excellent credit card customer and then got interest rate gauged? What did you do?

My Whirlwind Romance With the iPhone

You know how you meet someone and you end up having one of those first dates where time just seems to fly by and at the end you feel like you're on a cloud wondering, "Where have you been my whole life?"

Well, that's how I felt when I got my first iPhone, the 3GS with video, two weeks ago when friend Chris bought one for me and saved me from my 2004 Motorola RAZR. photo of me by @doverbey.

I know. I know. It sounds dorky to feel like you are being romanced by a piece of electronics. "Steph it's just a phone. Not a husband." Well, it's almost like an electronic husband.

I love this thing! It's not often I get all fangirl about something, in fact, rarely do I get this attached to an inanimate object, but literally, after just one week, this iPhone made my life so much better in terms of productivity, efficiency, and comfort. Yes, comfort.

I find the phone comforting because I can never get lost, forget anything, or feel uninformed ever again. And best yet, it's pretty and cute. Admittedly, design and cuteness highly matters to me. Functional can also look hawt and this is a factoid that most geeks underestimate. Looks matter and sometimes more so than pure function.

Example, hot chicks and dudes. They may be lacking in substance but they look hot and for many people that's enough to build a relationship upon. Not saying it's right. Yeah, it's superficial. I'm just saying that's a reality to consider even in designing a piece of electronics. The whole fashion industry is based on looks and Apple gets the looks thing better than anyone in tech.

The iPhone is both hot and full of substance

The girlie part in me loves, loves the cuteness of the apps, the shiny curves of the phone, and the little details that just make you fall in love much like the small things you come to love in a person. I am totally into design, so those big and small design elements matter a great deal to me.

I got razzled all the time by people who couldn't believe a professional blogger like myself could function with a 2004 cell phone because it's so ancient since it only has a regular phone dial pad. Like, how else could one function without a full keyboard. But hey, I built a Twitter following of 45K+ @skinnyjeans with that RAZR and remind people it's not the tools, it's the skills.

But I have to admit, having a more robust tool is helping me be more functional with the skills. For example, here are just a few things I have come to love about this iPhone:

• Tweetie: As a top Twitterer, Tweetie has actually made Twitter more fun for me because I can tweet on the go and even take pictures without having to go to a second app or web screen.

• Google maps: I recently moved from San Francisco to Phoenix, and I really don't know what I would have done it without this iPhone and the maps app. The thing acts like a GPS. I am comforted in knowing that I will never be lost again.

• Room: One of the apps that Chris' company has developed is called Room for travel (it's Free) and in it you can jot down your hotel room number. It's not part of the feature but you can also jot things like where you parked your car at the airport and your rental car info like what I did here in the picture. For my rental car, I got a white Sedan and thank goodness I could note the plate number because there are like a bazillion white Sedan cars in Phoenix.

• My .mac mail loads so much faster on the iPhone than on the web. It's also so much easier to delete all the spam mails I get.

• There are iPhone versions of all the websites I use on a regular basis like Facebook, Skype, Linked In, Yelp, and Yahoo IM. The iPhone versions are all easy to use and again pretty to look at.

• The iPhone apps in general are really really cool and fun. I spent the first two days with my phone literally just looking at and playing with apps. I was totally sucked in and immersed. I have one app that shows me how much water I've had for the day. I can play Shanghai my favorite time killer. And I even have Match.com so I can find a real husband :) 

One of the reasons I left Silicon Valley was because I was tired of this geek mentality that only speeds, feeds, and features matter. Well they do matter but they are not everything to everyone, and especially to us everyday folks who just want something useful and enjoyable.

What most people care about and I mean truly care about more than features is, "Will this thing help me with stuff like make money, lose weight, find love, locate deals, or make me happy?" Who cares what the chips, software code, or hard drive capacity is as long as the thing again is useful, worth the price (which is subjective), enjoyable, and yeah hot looking to those who care about that.

And yeah, as much as I love the phone, it also is not perfect. The dropped calls are annoying but I haven't experienced the drops that much, and mobile phones are never as reliable as land lines. And, I have to get used to the fact that I have to keep the nails on my thumbs and index finger short because the touch screen is not fingernail friendly. But like people, there is no such thing as perfect. There is only what works best for you and your needs.And so far, the iPhone exceeds my expectations.

I'm in love. You'll find me happily committed to my iPhone :)

Disclosure: Chris and I are doing work together on iPhone apps. We used to work together back in my corporate days, and he was one of the few people who had my back at that company. I happily plug Chris and work with him because you never forget those who were kind to you when you needed it most.

When Moving On Literally Means Moving

  

Note: Picture is a stretch of highway in Wyoming during a fun road trip this summer.

Besides death and taxes, change is a guaranteed. Nothing stays static because change happens whether we like it or not. Can you hear Yoda, "Change is so. Be it must."

Life with all its change will consist of beginnings and endings and cycle like a Ferris wheel. I guess that’s part of the fun and hell of the ride.

Recently, I've come to an ending in my life, a pretty significant and much needed one actually, and have decided this time around that moving on literally means moving...somewhere else this is not in California.

Where am I moving to you ask?

How I Got My First TV Spot on CNBC and What I Think of The Advice Their Experts Gave Me

Over at Back in Skinny Jeans, I shared the back story of my "success story" and that I landed my first TV spot. Woo-hoo! Yes, I was a featured success story on CNBC's "On the Money Show" with Carmen Wong Ulrich about becoming one of the top healthy living bloggers in the world.

Indeed, for a blogger, getting TV love is a huge deal mainly because it helps to punt you into a new level and it is fabulous for building your brand and influence on and off line. I find it really wonderful that my first TV spot is on a show about money and finance when I'm a healthy living/lifestyle blogger. I haven't even (yet) been on a show about health, wellness, or lifestyles; my niche. But that's cool. Not complaining. I'm very grateful!

So how did I land this CNBC gig?

What Do Those Weird :-D Text \&&&/ Symbols Mean?

How many times have you seen on your cell phone, Blackberry, or around the interwebs on forums, blogs, and Twitters these weirdo text emoticons (as they're officially called). You wanna be hip and be in the know, and yet you scratch your head and think "WTF! Might as well be Swahili." This is me almost everyday even as someone who lives on the web.

Stuff like this:

\&&&/   is Princess

\%%%/   is Queen

8-)   is smiling wearing sunglasses

:-S   is "I'm confused"

I've been using :-D for laughing out loud because apparently it is a more mature version of LOL! or lol! which is okay for kiddos not adults over 30. See, so much to learn from the thumb generation.

Need translation, here's some quick links to enlighten you:

Sharpened Glossary - Simple and basic
Wikipedia - Their list includes Basic, Asian, and Complex

Net Lingo - This one has the basics plus fun things like @:-) for "I'm a smiley with wavy hair" and +<:-) "I'm the Pope"

How Much Can TMI Hurt Your Blog Brand and Traffic

One of the fabulous things about blogging in the lifestyle categories is that we have a bit more free reign unlike business or news blogs to talk about our personal lives and share what's going on with us behind the screen.

Some of us in fact have built our blog topic around our personal life like what The Pioneer Woman has done with her life in the country with her hubbie the Marlboro Man and their kids. I've done something similar to The Pioneer Woman with Back in Skinny Jeans, Noshtopia, and The Everyday Blogger where I have shared my own personal challenges of trying to live a healthier life like a breakup from a 3-year relationship, finding out about the Ex's new girlfriend on Facebook, and an ED relapse.

People love the personal touch

Sharing your own personal story can help make your blog exceptional and more meaningful to readers because they can see that you really do "get it" and that you are human too like everyone else. Being personal is a key reason Oprah has become so successful because she has shared her own epxeriences with some very personal issues like sexual abuse and weight challenges.

As much as sharing your story is wonderful and touching it can also be TMI (too much information), and that TMI can affect your brand and traffic. For example, it's courageous to tell people that you are getting divorced and why, but going on and on, post after post about what your Ex did to you, and how bitter and angry you are can turn readers off because they are there to get something of value not to be your dumping ear.

Continuing with the divorce example, with too much TMI, if you happen to be a food blogger, you can end up branding yourself the "bitter divorced food blogger" versus the "living in the everyday food blogger." Not many people want to visit the "bitter divorced food blogger" so seeing a drop in traffic would not be surprising.

Will TMI be this blogger's downfall?

In another example, a well known personal development blogger, Steve Pavlina announced that his 2009 New Year's resolution theme is to explore intimate relationships of the polyamorous nature. Steve has been married for 15 years and has two elementary school aged kids, and his wife is on board with Steve's plan as she is open to do the same.

Indeed, the subject of polyamorous relationships is related to personal development and discovery, but the nature of the subject has dramatic polarizing morals and values attached to it. Already, you can see how many people would be turned off by this subject and automatically start lookign at Steve as some relationship deviant. It will be interesting to see how this pursuit of Steve's relationship focus will affect his blog brand and traffic.

My personal two cents is that the polyamorous angle will hurt more than help because one children are involved, it's not just between two consenting adults. And two, this is not HBO. Watching a subject play out in fictional scenarios is not the same in real life. The test will be to see who wants to see a personal development specialist talking about the "other women" outside of his marriage. And if people are still coming to the blog, is it because of a desire to see a trainwreck in the making or because they genuinely think Steve's polyamorous exploration has something valuable to add to their lives.

On the revenue side, what kind of brands will want to advertise or do business with someone who's openly "cheating" as most would see it? If traffic and number of advertisers do dwindle significantly, what will Steve do to re-strategize. And most importantly, how will the polyamorous angle hurt and affect his brand which he spent many years building up. Could all that hard brand building be torn down overnight?

Keep personal information focused

My personal recommendation on sharing personal information is to keep the information concise and consistent with your blog's message and spirit. There will be subjects that venture into polarizing territory so you as a blogger have to determine how much risk you're willing to take with your brand and traffic.

When there is a specific point to your sharing, you are giving the reader something to learn from as well as giving them an opportunity to bond with you on a human level. Having a specific point can help you write the post so that your reader feels hopeful, uplifted, or inspired in some way, and it increases the odds of that reader sharing your post or linking to it from their own blog.

But now I'm curious, have any of you tried something polarizing on your blog, and what happened? Did you produce the results you were hoping to achieve or did it become a disaster and if so what did you do to rectify the situation?

Just Because a Blog Has Little Traffic Numbers Doesn't Mean It's "Little Known"

Many of us who blog in the healthy living niche were really saddened to hear that Elastic Waist, owned by Conde Nast, was being shut down because well in our part of the blogosphere Elastic Waist was one of the biggies. If this were tech, it would be like hearing that Mashable was shutting down. It's a major bummer.

Along with Elastic Waist, Conde Nast is shutting down skincare blog Product Fiend and sex blog Daily Bedpost. The reason for the shut down was no shocker, unsustainability due to falling ad revenue in this down market.

Because the three blogs were owned by mega corporation Conde Nast, the shut down got coverage in big industry site Mediaweek. I'd like to take a moment though to correct the MediaWeek story by saying the word choice "little known blogs" is not entirely appropriate because in the niches that these three blogs belonged to: healthy living, beauty, and sex/relationships, these blogs were big and very much well known. As well, the bloggers of each blog were very well known in their respective communities.

Just because a blog has little traffic numbers and wasn't splashed all over the mainstream media does not automatically mean it is "little known". Context needs to be considered. A blog may be little known to the general media public, but can be a huge player in the blog's niche.

Therefore, in context, Elastic Waist may have been unknown to the Mediaweek audience, but the blog was one of the major players in the healthy living blog community, and will indeed be deeply missed. I would like to take a moment to pay respect to a quality blog. Hat tip to my fellow niche bloggers at Elastic Waist!