The good news is that Hallie Lord (Betty Beguiles) and I communicated via Twitter and I am not the blogger who is riffing her blog. The bad news is that I am not the blogger who is riffing her blog because if I were that blogger it would be fixed or stopped by now. Since it isn't me stepping on toes, I can only hope, like any other Betty Beguiles fan, that all this will resolve quickly. If it was me, I would do everything I could to differentiate what I am trying to do from what she is doing and if that wasn't possible, I'd pull the series.
Here's why: for me, blogging is a hobby. For her, blogging is income. Hallie Lord is a freelance writer and author. She makes her living writing and the quality of our two blogs reflect that very clearly. She's like a fine wine and I'm like Diet Dr. Pepper. When it comes to fashion, we are Macys versus Kmart (okay, maybe Dollar General). I am not competition for her on any level and would love to send any of my 59 regular readers interested in style and fashion her way by pointing out the impressive quality of both her work and her carefully chosen advertisers. That's likely not all of the 59 of you because it's a rare day that any given post gets 59 views (I should probably put the regular in regular readers in quotes). All those 59 "regular" readers who know me, tolerate me for what I am--basically, a weird Catholic momblogger with goats and some wide ranging interests that hit some of you here, some of you there. One of those interest is currently seeing beauty through a Catholic lens and its role in my duties as a wife and woman. Weird, yes, but as I am well aware, I'm weird.
That said, there were enough similarities now that I've had some discussions with others who have pointed them out (yeah, I know, duh, but if you could get in my head you'd realize why it wasn't so obvious to me) that I will be making some changes, one of which is stating overtly where we're headed with all this. I will also point readers directly to Hallie Lord's blog (Betty Beguiles) throughout the series of posts here. Check out her advertisers (there won't be a direct link to them because when we bypass her blog to look at them, she loses the reference and the revenue), very high quality stuff!
I dont see how your blog was ripping off hers at all, but I do understand that any overlap, especially when it comes to income can be seen as problematic.
ReplyDeleteI say stay the course, talk with Hallie, and things will be fine. It seems that is what you are doing, and dont lose faith. :)