This page outlines my professional relationships that can potentially influence my financial well being. 🙂
I am the founder and current CEO of the Woo! Jr. Kids Activities Network. Strangely enough, I have a vested interest in my current company becoming financially successful.
I am writing the book Mom Blogging for Dummies, being published by Wiley in the summer of 2011. In case you hand’t figured it out, I also have a vested interest in promoting my book and my publisher. (Weird, isn’t it?!)
I serve on the Advisory Board for IZEA, which is an unpaid position. I have been offered stock options in their company, which has led to me to provide very honest and forthright advice to the IZEA management team. My stock options are only worth money if IZEA succeeds, so I have a vested interest in helping their company to be trustworthy, successful and profitable.
I am the founder of the Sparkplugging Blog Network, which was sold to Greene Countrie Institute in September 2009. I will continue to receive revenue from Sparkplugging until October 2011.
I am an inactive member of IZEA services SocialSpark and SponsoredTweets, in which I have provided word of mouth marketing services to IZEA clients. I have been paid or have received free travel expenses in return for my services with these companies. These clients have included Kmart, Sears, SeaWorld and AT&T.
Past client relationships include Epson and CoolSavings.
I have received free travel and products from Disney and CreativeHands Crafts. I chose to accept these opportunities because they were in alignment with my editorial goals for CartoonJr.com and CraftJr.com, respectively. I have turned down tens of thousands of dollars worth of similar travel/products from other companies because they have not been in alignment with my site visitors’ best interests and/or my business goals.
I frequently receive travel expense compensation when I speak at conferences. I also sometimes am paid to speak at events. I promote these events on my own time because it is in all of our best interests that the event succeeds.
I can also disclose that as a prominent voice in blogging and social media, I have a vested interest in our entire community being successful. I believe that a rising tide raises all ships. So I will always be an advocate of honest & ethical business, marketing and disclosure practices, which is the only way our industry can continue to grow and make a difference in people’s lives.
These disclosures were originally published in October 2009.
They were updated in February 2011.
