Why do mommy bloggers have such a strong online presence?

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

Later this summer I will probably end up doing some work at one of the companies that is working to reinvent publishing. I’ve spoken with the CEO and we seem in agreement on many things. I’ll post more details when appropriate. Suffice it for now to say this is one of the firms that is trying to find new ways to funnel money to writers, and this does not involve my co-developer-of-wpquestions, Darren Hoyt.

One thing the CEO said to me is that they were having big uptake among mommy bloggers. I’ve run into this before, and I’ve wondered at it. Why does this demographic have such an online presence? Simone Grant makes the argument for why mommy bloggers should not get so much attention from advertisers, relative to other demographic niches:

As a single blogger, the only advertisers who seem interested in me and my audience are in the dating (online dating, speed dating, dating experts) and sex industries (condoms, sex toys). And while (I guess) I should be flattered by the non-stop invites to speed dating events, this fact is a constant frustration.

We singles make up a huge segment of the US consumer market. We spend $2.2 trillion annually and 60% of us are homeowners. But advertisers continue to treat us like second class citizens.

Especially in the blogosphere, where mommy bloggers hold court.

Over the years I’ve considered a number of theories, all of them with weaknesses:

1.) Mommy bloggers get all the attention because they are online all day. I’ve had several female friends who almost went insane with the loneliness of having a 1-year-old. No one will visit you during that year of your life except your mother and, if you have a loyal partner, then your partner. So women with young children spend a lot of time online, looking for community and support.

The counter-argument: lots of single people are also online all day long.

2.) Single people do not self-identify the way married people do. Depending on how it is measured, “single people” can mean a lot of things. If it is defined as “Over the age of 18 and has no romantic partner” then it includes the 87 year old widower and the 38 year old paraplegic and the 20 year old who is deferring major life decisions until they are older. In other words, defined that way, it is too vague a demographic for marketers to target, unlike “married” or “has a young child” both of which imply an identity that can be targeted in a reliable way.

The counter-argument: technology should allow marketers to target ads to each visitor to a website, regardless of what their current demographic status is.

3.) New mothers are beset with fear, which makes them easy targets for marketers. And they are desperate for information, so they go online and congregate in ways that make it easy for marketers to pitch them.

The counter-argument: other demographics also have fears that can be easily targeted.

At a general level, in publishing there is a move away from general purpose information. This was actually going on long before the rise of the Internet. In the 1980s, the magazine world already saw the rise of niche publications. They heyday of general purpose magazines like Look and Life was back in the era 1920s-1970s. Most online publishing sites that do well have a specific focus: tech, dating, motherhood, politics, etc.

On a related note, back in 2009 I wrote, Online systems are hostile to niche markets, even if they expand individual experience, which surely applies here. The point may seem a contradiction, but it is not — the Internet allows each of us to get more news, of any type, than we ever got before, at the cost of widening the gap in popularity between the most popular and the least popular.

At the end of the day, each of us has a limited amount of time, and our current identity is shaped by how we spend that time. “Mommies” have the advantage/disadvantage that marketers can make easy predictions about how they will be spending their time for the next 5 or 6 years. Single people have the advantage/disadvantage that they can reinvent their lives whenever they like, which make them a less reliable target for marketers. I do think marketers target single people, but not while they are identifying as single people. Instead, such people get targeted when they show an interest in tech, or politics, or fishing, or travel. Or dating.