Measuring My Influence

Note to readers: This is somewhere between a rant, a self-reflection and a personal bragging session. Read at your own risk.

This week, I was notably absent from a number of invitations to upcoming blogger marketing drives. I’m not surprised, really, as this blog is relatively new and small and I don’t have the same obvious influence as some other bloggers. I don’t blog as frequently as some, and I don’t have as many readers as others. You know the drill. I’m not one of the Nielson 50 or what-have-you for the same reason.

Every so often, I get mildly upset that I’m not on a top 50 list somewhere. Today was one of those days. But, as I was feeling kind of bad for not posting on my blogs, I decided to take stock in how I spent my day and capture it for other days when I feel like a slacker.

Today, while I wasn’t blogging here, I was:

• Working on my site at About.com (where I am fairly influential, if I do say so myself)
• Promoting the party I’m co-hosting next Friday with my sponsor POGO.com, EA Sports and the Wii Mommies
• Finding last-minute sponsors for the party I’m hosting next Wednesday (Thanks, 360PR and RIDEMAKERZ)
• Scouring Chicago (virtually and on the phone) for a restaurant the RIDEMAKERZ/360PR
• Creating an invitation for the aforementioned party
• Promoting the new plug-in my husband wrote for e-How writers (yay, Big Guy!)
• Writing an article on the new Air Protect technology and side impact crash safety
• Helping a variety of other people with random Internet and technology-related issues
• Preparing for BlogHer
• Then all that *other* stuff like email, voice mail, blah, blah. I don’t really count that.

Basically, I was busy wearing a lot of hats and making things happen. That’s what I do.

So, here’s my resolution to myself (and the point of this point, which I’ve decided to share with the world): I am going to remember that I am influential – especially to my children, husband, family and friends. It’s easy to get caught up in the high school drama of who’s in the “in” crowd, so I’m also going to remember that I am not necessarily an “in” crowd person. And, I’m not going to make myself feel bad for DOING rather than blogging about doing. Lastly, I’m going to keep my feet more firmly on the right path (see my post at MorethanMommy). I love writing, event planning, creative brainstorming, learning new things and problem solving. I’m going to do more of it, even if it means that I only blog once a month and never get invited to Disney World (sob).

To the companies that are looking for a creative voice, a quality writer, and a loyal brand advocate, you can drop me an email. I’ll try to fit you in if I have the time.

P.S. As I was writing this, a friend pointed out that my picture is on the masthead of BlogHer today and that the lovely  (and highly influential) Liz Gumbinner (who I think I met in person years ago) quoted me in a blog post. Is there such a thing as influence Karma?

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