For those who run successful blogs, they understand that it takes over their lives. One popular blogger said she decided to quit the industry after it consumed her life. Josi Denise is a mother of three and the blogger behind “American Momma.” Her blog was so successful that she had up to 50,000 unique views per month and made up to $1,500 per blog post.
Many of her content was sponsored posts, which became one of her points of contention when it comes to her blog. She explained that she staged everything for her blog. From holidays to birthday parties, she sucked the fun out of everything because it had to be perfect for the blog.
Denise explains that her life was nowhere as perfect as she made it appear and said she finally got tired of being fake.
“I was posting photos that were happy because I needed that post,” Denise said. “If it was a sponsored post especially, I needed the happy photos! If I had deadlines to meet for sponsored posts, and we weren’t actually having a great time I still needed to get those photos.”
Denise explains a certain memory that was the final straw for her.
“There was one instance for a Father’s Day post that was sponsored that we needed to tell a story about grilling out in the backyard and we needed to have the photos of the family grilling, and everyone having a good time … You’re not really having a good time in the moment with the people that you’re spending your time with. It’s just a photo shoot,” she said.
After making this revelation, she quit her popular blog with one last post, entitled “Dear Mommy Blogger.” In the post she harshly criticized the world of sponsored posts.
“[Ninety percent] of the fake nonsense I used to share on the internet as a mommy blogger writing about my fake life and oh-so-happy marriage, they are pure bulls**t,” Denise wrote. “Nobody buys it,” she said. “And if they do, you’re just making them feel bad about themselves.”
She immediately received tons of backlash for the post, even personal scathing remarks. Despite the backlash, Denise says she is happy to be done with the world of blogging.
“I feel better about myself,” Denise said. “I don’t have the constant insecurity and need to post constant cheerful, positive messages online … It’s definitely a relief to be able to be authentic.”
Years ago, Joyce Maynard wrote a “mommy blog” type syndicated column about her life with her husband and kids.
Years later in her memoirs she revealed that just about everything she wrote about in that column was either false or misleading. A lot of people who’d been her regular readers (including me) felt sickened and betrayed.
“The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.” –Harry Truman
There is a lot to criticize for!
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