EdenFantasys loves bloggers. They’ve been working with bloggers for several years now, but it’s only for the past year that they’ve really branched out. While most adult companies want to send bloggers adult products to review and then write about on their blog, EdenFantasys is much more understanding of most bloggers’ desires to write about content that is appropriate for general audiences and family-friendly.
Here’s what EdenFantasys looks for in a blog post:
- 175-200 words about EdenFantasys
- 1 link to edenfantasys.com
- 1-2 additional links to product or category pages on edenfantasys.com
- include a banner (such as the one in this post) for a $5 bonus
- Suggested topics: EdenFantasys’ intimacy products, romantic products, lingerie, bath & body products, makeup, club wear (no mention of sex toys required, though you’re certainly welcome to talk about them if you feel comfortable in doing so)
In return, you will receive a $25 or $50 gift card (gift card value depends upon your blog – ranking, followers, demographics, etc.) code. It’s sent via email, has no expiration date, and will apply to shipping if there is enough of a balance on the gift card. Also, gift cards can be combined, meaning you could use multiple gift cards to treat yourself to a splurgy shopping fest on EdenFantasys.com.
For more information, send an email to ambassador@edenfantasys.com.
Lately I have been on a giveaway entering spree. Marketers have realized how beneficial it can be for them to team up with bloggers, offer them a spiffy product for free, then offer them the same product to give away. The result is hundreds and even thousands of entries via email newsletter subscriptions, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers. The downside? Now your email inbox, Facebook timeline and Twitter stream are all overrun with newsletters and promotions and blurbs.
Fortunately, through my own experience, I’ve managed to maintain control over my email inbox, Facebook feed, and Twitter stream, so that I’m still receiving newsletters and am following bloggers and companies alike on both Facebook and Twitter, but I’m not being overwhelmed with their content, which can often hide and push out content from family members and friends.
Email inbox
The easiest solution to preventing your inbox from exploding with dozens of emails on any given day is to use filters. I use Gmail, and its filters work wonderfully. I simply apply filters to newsletter subscriptions – I instruct Gmail to mark them as read, label them as “Newsletters”, and then archive them. There, that’s so much better. By using this particular filter, I never even see the email in my inbox. Instead, it’s waiting in my archives, filed under “Newsletters”, waiting for me to view it at my leisure. Outlook and other email programs have similar features, usually labeled as rules rather than filters.
Facebook feed
Facebook has a super-awesome feature that, while not broadly advertised, is still available on all Facebook updates from users, both users posting on personal walls and on company page walls. It’s known as “Hide all by X”, and when you click it, all updates from that person or company will be hidden – and you’ll still be a fan/follower of theirs. This option is located to the right of a wall post, right where the little “down arrow” appears when you hover your mouse.
Twitter stream
While I’ve heard that Twitter itself may (or may not?) offer filtering features, what I do to keep my stream from being overrun with nothing but promotional posts is create lists (twitter.com/lists) – one for the people whose tweets I want to see at any given time, and another for those people whose tweets I don’t want to see unless I specifically see them out. Then, I use TweetDeck to create columns just for those lists.
I know blog giveaways can be fun to enter, so I hope these tips help you keep control over your inbox and streams. 
For weeks now I have had trouble with blogging. On Jenn.nu I have been using The 30 Day Meme as a way of fueling my blogging for the month of December (though I could easily fill up a month’s worth of posts in a single day just by babbling about my Christmas excitement), but on my other blogs I’m totally fizzling out… and it’s not for a lack of things to talk about. I could tell you about the awesome gift exchanges I’ve had with my friends (Jason and Amanda), I could tell you about the random emails about cookie recipes and miller welding helmets that I get, I could tell you about some of the awesome presents that are under the Christmas tree.
But instead I’m all…
Of course, what doesn’t help is a stressful home situation. Five months ago we took in my sixteen year old brother, who is autistic and has been diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder. And to be honest, those issues combined with some home issues and his own laziness and refusal to accept responsibility for anything and to just shut the fuck up and quit arguing and just DO what he has told is really pushing us to the breaking point. Sooner or later, possibly sooner than later, it’s going to come down to our kids or my brother… and sorry bro, but my kids win. 
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend with new mothers and mothers of toddlers and young children. They read an article in a magazine or watch a live talk show, and suddenly they’re all, “Ooh, I want to start a blog!”, and then they do. Except that they don’t bother to really read about what goes into a blog. Instead, they set up some lame-ass name on Blogger, like MargieMotherofTwoBoys, because heaven forbid Margie just be Margie, grab as many processor-grinding widgets (powered by Javascript and Flash, of course) as they can find, and load up their blogs with hideous layouts and posts that are in major need of a spell checker.
Finding quality bloggers and quality blogs is a hard thing to do these days.
Can you believe that Christmas is just seven days away?! Less than that, actually, because seven days from now, this exact hour (8:22pm EST), Christmas will be over in terms of the excitement, the anticipation, the eagerness. Unfortunately, I have nothing really exciting to get me through the next six or so days before Christmas. I have to do some research and article writing on rv insurance, a crap ton of blogging, and some email-oriented work, but other than that I’ll be chomping at the bit, trying to get through each day until CHRISTMAS EVE SQUEE. Christmas Eve Eve is exciting too, since it’s the day before Christmas Eve. While the 23rd is kind of bittersweet for me, since it’s the seven year anniversary of my grandmother’s death, it’ll hopefully be a good day, since I’m having Christmas dinner here at home for my mom and brother. Hopefully things won’t be too awkward…
Last week, a few days after my friend Danielle mentioned it on Twitter, I finally got off my lazy butt and updated all of my WordPress installation to the newest version, which is 3.3. And it’s quite snazzy. I like how the WordPress developers implemented the collapsed-by-default menus in the sidebar which are darker and thus stand out more from the rest of the dashboard. Some of the other updates to features and usage are quite nice; and of course the security updates that were implemented are very much appreciated.
If you haven’t already updated to the latest version of WordPress, I highly recommend you do so!
I am super excited to announce that I will be going to BlogHer 2012! I attended BlogHer in 2010, and it was awesome. I didn’t go in 2011, but that was just as well since there was a lot going on at the time (family drama, brother coming to live with us, my husband’s broken neck, my abdominal pain issues, etc.), plus in order to have attended I would have had to fly out to California, ick. Not ick to California, but ick to flying for that long – flying from Pennsylvania to North Carolina was bad enough! Of course, going to California meant I would have been in the area for massages in Orange County, which definitely have their perks.
I am very excited about going to BlogHer 2012. I had a great time at BlogHer 2010, though I was constantly run ragged because I was representing a company. But it was definitely well worth it. And I can’t wait to repeat the experience!
Yesterday Crissy announced the birth of her second baby on Twitter, and I couldn’t help but think about how different things are nowadays. When I had Alyssa in October of 2004, nobody knew until Dan came home and wrote on my blog about it. In 2006 things weren’t much different, though I did text a few friends to give them the good news. Now, with smart phones and Facebook and Twitter and plenty of mobile options for them, it would be almost weird to not use them to announce good news – or any type of exciting news. For instance, when I had surgery three weeks ago, I tweeted a few times in pre-op, then tweeted several hours after surgery to let everyone know I survived, heh.
It’s amazing how social media has really shaped our everyday lives!
Tonight is one of those nights where I had everything all planned out: cleaning done in the afternoon, early dinner via Cici’s Buffet, early bedtime for the kids, then I’d sit down and get some much-needed blogging done. But then things went to hell in a handbasket, as they always do. First, we stopped at Target after Cici’s, with the intent of picking up my brother’s medication refills. But then I treated the kids to adorable (and cheap!) Christmas crafts, which they came home and promptly scattered all over the kitchen in their excitement and enthusiasm. I realized I forgot to vacuum after I finished sweeping up the kitchen. Alyssa needed me to show her again how to braid. Ryan wanted not one but two stories. Then I got super dizzy. And sidetracked.
And now it’s going on 9:00pm. Instead of blogging as I had originally planned, I’ve entered a few giveaways (I entered to win island baby gifts for a friend who is expecting; a giveaway for a $50 Game Stop gift card for Dan; and a giveaway for a KitchenAid Food Processor – for me!). And I still need to shower and organize some stuff I have, and hopefully be asleep by 10:00pm, because I want to get an early start tomorrow! Argh. I need more hours in a day. Or less sleep. Or a maid. Or all three!
The fact that I blog — and I’ve been blogging for a long time, long before blogging was so mainstream like it is now — and the fact that I am a mother are purely coincidental. I never have, nor will I ever be, a mommy blogger, at least in terms of being all about motherhood and parenthood and babies and toddlers and chronicling their every last moment. Yes, I blog sometimes about my kids, and of course I post photos of them, but that’s not all I do in relation to my blog. I also blog about me, my husband, my friends, my doings — basically, everything that’s a part of your life.
The label “mommy blogger” chafes so much, I think, because advertisers tend to look down upon mommy bloggers and consider them as easy prey for super-lame campaigns and little or even no compensation.
Hello, and welcome to Blogging Girl! Blogging Girl is a blog about blogs, and everything related to the maintaining of them. My name is Jenn. You may know me from my personal blog, 
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