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Lindsay Ferrier of Suburban Turmoil announced today she's sold her style blog, She's Still Got It, to CafeMom. According to Lindsay, "Starting Monday, She's Still Got It will move to Cafe Mom, the number one mom's site on the Internet. The content will be the same (but there will be more of it) and I'll still have a dedicated page over there with all of my posts. The big difference? I'll be getting paid to do what I love."
BlogHer talked to Lindsay this afternoon to see how she managed to turn a labor of love into a paid writing gig so quickly.
BlogHer: How did you get the idea for She's Still Got It?
Lindsay: It was Christmas break, and I had just lost 15 pounds. I thought it would fun to find a blog for moms who are shopping on a budget. I started looking online for something that could give me direction and couldn't find anything. So I started what I was looking for.
BlogHer: Did you expect such success?
Lindsay: I didn't think it would last. I linked to it on my main blog, and people started reading. It promoted itself. People started twittering about it, and it just took off. A lot of people felt like I did.
BlogHer: How do you pick your topics?
Lindsay: I write about anything that interests me. If I'm looking at a fashion magazine or celebrity Web sites and see a specific trend, I see if I already have something like it. The wedge is big now, and it was popular two or three years ago. A lot of trends that you already have in your closet can be updated.
As far as beauty -- I don't have a lot of time, so I focus on things that take less than 10 minutes.
BlogHer: What do you think is compelling about your blog?
Lindsay: It's become really interactive -- so many people are starting to write in with their questions, and it's become a huge part of the blog.
People like both stuff that I like and stuff that I hate. I wrote about the romper, and it turns out that everybody hates the romper. I painted my toenails black a few weeks ago, and everybody wanted to talk about that. Most people really liked it and had been wanting to try the dark polish and were afraid to do it on their fingers but were open to it on their toes.
BlogHer: What kicked you into gear to try to sell the idea?
Lindsay: I had some freelance stuff come to an end over the last six months or so. Usually I wait for jobs to come to me, which is not that bright. I've never found a perfect fit waiting for things to come to me. If I'm a writer, why not create a position I want?
I realized I really enjoyed the style blog and started thinking about how to get paid to it. I put together a proposal. I called Isabel Kallman and asked her for her advice. One thing Isabel really helped me with was pulling people's quotes into my proposal, nice things that people have said about the style blog. She reminded me that the number of Twitter followers and Facebook followers you have and that your readers have is really important. Who your readers are and what their platforms are is important, too. One woman said she just bought ten pairs of shoes after reading my blog.
BlogHer How did you approach CafeMom?
Lindsay: Somebody started following me on Twitter who writes for CafeMom, and I looked at the site. All of the writers on CafeMom are bloggers that I love. I sent Tracy Odell an e-mail to see if she was interested. She asked me to do a proposal, and it was great practice for me. Just the act of doing it made me realize what a great idea it was; it helped me to hone in on the strength of the project. It helped me figure out even my level of enthusiasm for the project. It took about a month from when I decided to contact Tracey to when I got the job.
BlogHer: Any advice for bloggers who want to sell their blogging ideas?
Lindsay: The social media landscape is changing so quickly that it's a good idea to keep on top of the trends. Someone once said successful people didn't get a great job, they created a great job
