Teh Lame: Why do your crap posts get the most attention?

A change is in the air in the blogosphere. I don't think anyone really knows what it is, but something is brewing. The status quo for the life of a blogger isn't cutting it anymore. The pennies being paid to the blogging masses for content and sidebar ads are just not equaling the amount of time and vested interest one has in their posts anymore. Becoming brand ambassadors, working with agents and {GASP} actually being paid for our thoughts is the talk of the town. Dare I say a blogosphere revolution is at hand?

Like most, what I started in 2006 as a creative outlet is now a business and a personal brand. While I once hid my blog from prospective employers, my various blogs are now proudly displayed on the top of my resume. It's no longer about free drinks. Its now about how I can successfully support my family using my talents. I'm not kidding myself into thinking I'm the only one out there with that goal. Hundreds of other bloggers out there share my mindset, and hundreds are actually doing it. In this business I talk a lot with people all over the nation about what we are doing, where we hope to go - goals, aspirations, etc. I always come back to content. I've always thought that good content was the key to success, but honestly, that's not the case. 

As we grow and begin to analyze our traffic we are all noticing the same thing - the crap posts are the ones that get read. 

Half asleep, we throw up a rant about Starbucks, desperate for content we write about fall nail trends - and these are the posts that catch fire. Whether they were Stumbled, Pinned or Shared on Facebook, we watch these posts rake in hundreds and thousands of hits. Meanwhile, the beautiful ode to your life-changing decision sits stale, dust gathering on the hit counter. The poignant post you threw your day into about the state of the Mommy Wars goes unnoticed while people are STILL reading about fall nail trends well into the winter months. 

So I ask. Why are the lame posts getting read and the good posts not? 

Is it that the Internet, like the general population, just seems to be getting dumber? Is it that more and more people read blogs from work or from mobile devices - where they only have a moment to decompress, thus leading to the mindless fodder? Honestly, I don't know the answer. But as a blogger and a writer and a professional, it's a little sad to see. Since our pay is based on traffic, as bloggers are we dumbing ourselves down to a traffic generating level? And if we haven't yet - is it only a matter of time until we do? And then what? Then what does the blogosphere become? 

On the flip side, when it comes to actually making decent money from our blogs, we are only as good as our traffic. Retail stores don't carry items that don't sell, so why shouldn't you offer the public what they want? 

So I'm throwing it out there to fellow bloggers - do you notice this same trend on your blog? Are you mindful of this when you write posts?

begining to look a lot like...

A re-design!

Who needs to shop when you can spend all day redoing your site?

December 5th: Our Kawasaki Disease Anniversary

I'm actually not sure why I do this to myself. Why every year on December 5th I feel the need to dig up this picture and sit and stare at it with tears in my eyes. The rush of emotion hits me like a brick wall each and every time I glimpse this image. 

My 9-month old baby - the day he was admitted to Rady Children's Hospital to be treated for Kawasaki Disease. 

If you search my blog you see that every year around this time I relive the memory. Every year the first week of December kicks me in the rear and brings me rushing back to December 2004. 

 I know that far worse things have happened to other parents as far as their children are concerned. The stories you find on the Internet are heartbreaking. In truth, we were (are) so amazing lucky. Not a year passes when I don't realize that. But the fact is that still, 7 years later, many people have still not heard of this life-threatening disease that affects almost 10,000 kids a year and is the #1 cause of aquired heart disease in children. And, 7 years later, doctors still don't know what causes it. 

Thanks to the Internet, Facebook and Twitter, more people are learning about Kawasaki Disease. One woman even credits Facebook for saving her child's life. I get that. Had the social network been around back in 2004, I would have posted the picture above and one of my "friends" would have known someone who knew someone whose child/niece/nephew/grandchild had also had KD. I still get emails all the times from friends of friends who pass on my story to help a family also going through it. 

I tell my story not to elicit pity. Not to make you want to cry or hug your children tighter. But so that you KNOW the symptoms. So that you are educated in what the disease looks like and how to spot it even if your doctor doesn't. 

For more information on Kawasaki Disease, please visit:

- KD Foundation / Like on Facebook

Tumbling along

As if I'm not spread too thin already, I recently opened a Tumblr account. Why? Simple, I wanted a quick and easy place to put links to my articles, random pictures and ask silly questions. 

Over on www.MOMfiaInc.com I cover many different topics. But that's a business and I treat it like one.

Over on La Costa Life I write about things in my own back yard - this is a paid gig, so there is standard I need to meet. 

Here, in these parts, I tend to talk more about personal things like the kids, obsessions and thoughts. But a lot about the personal side of me. 

Twitter is short and concise. 

Facebook is... well, you know my feelings on Facebook.

So that leaves Tumblr. Links, pics, questions. Short and Sweet. Maybe even a little raw.

So visit me there sometime, won't you?

BlogHer Swag: The gifts that keep on giving

Like many others, I came home with a boatload of swag from BlogHer '11. I covered the dining room table for days and I tried to categorize and go through it all. Some things I wanted to play with right away, some went to the kids, some to my friends/family, and some stuffed into random closets for use later on.

Last week saw a change in weather for us in Southern California. While we had still been able to wear t-shirts and flip-flops through most of the month, it suddenly turned chilly and rainy - forcing us to wear scarves and closed toed shoes. It's during this annual turn in seasons that I usually get my first sinus infection of the season, and 2011 did not disappoint. I woke up to warm air being blasted through the heater and that oh-so-wonderful feeling of a dried out nasal cavity. My head was pounding and my teeth were hurting; I knew where my head was headed.

It was then that I remembered some of the stuff I shoved in the guest room bathroom from BlogHer. Mainly the battery operated "Sinus Massager" SinuSense from Water Pik and the sample packs of Boiron's homeopathic Coldcalm pills.

While the thought of purposely shooting salt water up your nose makes most people cringe, if you have ever used one to combat a sinus infection, you know the sweet relief that they offer. I too resisted the lure of the netipot for years, and it wasn't until a particularly bad, antibiotic-tolerant sinus infection put me down for weeks that I finally succumbed to 'the pot.' So I was intrigued, and dare I say slightly excited, the other day as I pulled the Water Pik SinuSense from the box where it had been sitting since August.... and? I'm. In. LOVE.

Yes. Love.

I know. But when you're in pain, and you can't breathe, a pulsating stream of warm water gently massaging the insides of your sinuses is pure heaven. I actually found myself doing it a few times a day. Escaping into the bathroom to play with my new found love. Nothing I have ever used has offered the nasal release that the sinus massager did. It's my new best friend, and if Jason were not around I may just marry it. I think it's by far the best battery-powered object I received from BlogHer (sorry, EdensFantasys!).

The combination of my numerous sinus massages a day and the popping of the Coldcalm's have kept the ailment I was fighting away. It saved our trip to Disneyland last weekend and has probably saved Thanksgiving. So thank you BlogHer for your gifts. Thank you Boiron for your fabulous quick dissolving pills. And last but not least, Water Pik, I thank you straight from the bottom of my paranasal sinuses.