by Stephanie Schlegel on January 29, 2010
As part of my job, I spend a lot of time researching blogs and bloggers that would be interested in a variety of topics including everything from politics to magic. There are an amazing amount of blogs out there and every now and again, I stumble across a blog that is a true gem.
Radicalparenting.com is site that approached parenting from a different perspective, the teenagers. A blog only makes up a portion of the site with those posts covering everything from teen trends to building confidence in teens. In addition to the blog portion of the site there are videos and other resources so parents and teens can get a little closer to being on the same page. Finding a way to bridge the communication gap between parents and teens is a challenge, with RadicalParenting making that gap a little smaller.
Vanessa Van Petten, author and founder of RadicalParenting.com, was kind enough to answer a few questions for the Bub.blicio.us audience. A teen herself when she began to explore the teen mentality, is 24 years old and provides a unique perspective on parenting by providing an opportunity for teens and their parents to connect through the social web.
What inspired you to create Radicalparenting.com?
I wanted to hear the teen voice in all of the parenting blogs out there. What did teens think about their behavior and what parents should do.
Who is the primary audience of your blog?
Parents of tweens and teens.
What type of feedback have you received from teens and their parents?
We have had an amazing response with over 200,000 reading the blog and we get applications for inters every week!
Where do you see Radicalparenting.com going in the next few years?
We plan to have even more teen writers to give them a voice and hopefully a few partnerships to expand our webinar and ebook offers.
As someone who is neither a teen or a parent, it’s interesting to read through issues and topics that are important to teens and how much that demographic has evolved since I was a teen and will continue to evolve. During my teen years, I would have loved having a resource like this so I wouldn’t have to explain to my parents what a Facebook wall is or what LOL means, I would just direct them to this site and roll my eyes (yep, I was an eye roller as a teen). There are also great opportunities for teens to participate in the site as a contributer and intern.
Have any Friday Find recommendations? Email me at stephanie@future-works.com
by Michelle Lentz on October 5, 2009
It’s official. The FTC has released guidelines requiring bloggers to fully disclose when they are being paid for reviews. If they don’t, they are chancing up to an $11,000 fine, according to the Associated Press. (Note – The FTC press release does not mention the amount of the fine.) Blogs or not, these guidelines apparently haven’t been updated since around 1980. It was time. The Guides, however, affect more than bloggers. The new updates apply to advertising across the board.
According to the FTC, the revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising require a reviewer or ad to clearly disclose the results that consumers can expect from the product. In other words, that old “results not typical” isn’t going to fly any more. The Guides also ask for clear disclosure:
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
Additionally, the Guides now address celebrity endorsements, holding both the company and the endorsers responsible for false claims. The revisions require that celebrities must make their affiliation clear when making endorsements outside of traditional marketing, including talk shows and social media.
I don’t see that this will be too much of a problem. Most of the bloggers I know (and myself included) always reveal when we receive free samples, whether technology or wine. Those of us who review technology often have to give the technology back. With wine and food, that’s not possible, but most wine bloggers reveal complimentary samples without a second thought. I suspect this will have more impact on bloggers who accept payment in cash or merchandise for reviewing a product. As Mashable points out, the Ford Fiesta and General Mills bloggers (amongst others) are going to have to be crystal clear about disclosing their relationship.
While I know some bloggers will be ranting about the unfairness of this, I think it’s a great idea. I’m glad that the FTC has seen blogs as part of legitimate advertising campaigns. It’s what we wanted, right?
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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.
by Michelle Lentz on May 15, 2009
Good: Amazon launched a new beta program that lets you offer your blog on the Kindle. I love that. I always wondered how certain blogs got in there and the rest of us were left without an option.
If you go to the Kindle Blogs page, you’ll see a link for the beta program in the left-hand colum. Just click it to to sign yourself up. Fill out all the required information, include images, and agree to the Terms of Service, and your blog will be available within 12-48 hours.
Amazon sets the price (not you) and there’s no way to give your blog away for free, which I might have done had I the option. Instead, Amazon set the price for my blog at $1.99 and I get 30% of that subscription price whenever I acquire a new Kindle reader.
This is not a viable income option, really, so don’t go there. It’s more of a nice surprise. Once your blog is approved, it’s available in the Kindle store. I have to admit, it’s kind of neat seeing my blog available for the Kindle but at the same time, I dread any user comments that might appear. Once you’re on Amazon, you open yourself up for user reviews.
Bad: I could have added any blog. Any. Bub.blicio.us is technically Brian’s blog, but I could have added it and collected the money for myself. As TechCrunch discovered, anyone can add TechCrunch even though it’s already one of Amazon’s featured blogs. Amazon is depending solely on the Honor Code (the ToS states you must own the blog). Hmm … how trusting of Amazon.
Amazon told TechCrunch that
Occasionally, people publish material to which they do not have rights, in violation of the Terms and Conditions for Kindle Publishing for Blogs. In these cases we react vigorously to remove unauthorized copyrighted material.
The listing of a few unauthorized blogs was unfortunate and we have subsequently removed those titles.
So whether you decide to publish to Amazon or not, make sure you pay attention that no one else publishes your blog for you.
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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Sites: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net
