What you are about to read is certainly not in anyway a personal attack against Wendy Piersall. I have been following Wendy’s blog eMoms at Home for some time. I have watched with amazement at how she has taken her initial blog and grown it into one of the best “work at home” blogging networks out there. But, I have been biting the side of my mouth; and I do not feel those of us in the blog world would be doing Wendy any favors by not expressing our views on the new name. So, here it goes.
As many of you already know, eMoms at Home is no more. Wendy Piersall made the change just the other day to Sparkplugging which we mentioned HERE.
After much work, long hours and sleepless nights, eMomsatHome is now Sparkplugging. New name, new design and some new network blogs make up this re-release of Wendy Piersall’s “little hobby” that is now “Thinking Big in the New Work at Home Generation.”
That was our announcement for Wendy’s change.
Since the announcement, I have been pondering the new name just as Martin Neumann over at HomeOfficeVoice has been doing. In fact, Martin put a post up this morning discussing, “From eMoms at Home to Sparkplugging.”
Martin states:
Wendy Peirsall had a problem.
The problem was, in fact, that she had become too popular.
You might know Wendy as the founder of eMoms at Home.
Ever since launching the little blog called eMoms at Home, Wendy’s star has been growing at an amazing rate.
And leveraging that amazing growth she re-launched her blog into an “internet magazine” with a handful of new blogs or channels.
But there remained one small problem. The eMoms at Home name and brand simply outgrew what she was now doing. A change was in the making.
If Wendy did have a problem, it was a problem many of us would kill for. I have to say, eMoms at Home was one of my favorite blogs to read and follow. The post were timely, relevant and well written. Which I know will continue. I loved the design. It was easy to navigate and things were easy to find.
And, I liked the name. I remember some conversations Wendy had with us, her readers and she mentioned she felt she was leaving some of “us” out by calling her blog eMoms at Home. She felt as if there was an entire group of people who themselves felt left out. That she was focusing too much on the “Moms” aspect in her blog. She was concerned that non-parents, dads and others were being left out.
Well, I am a dad, and I never felt left out because Wendy’s blog was called eMoms at Home. In fact, it never crossed my mind. I loved the title as it was a great brand and it focused on two things dear to my heart. the “e”worker and working at home.
My first reaction to the new name, Sparkplugging was similar to Martin’s, Hmmm…. And after a few days, my reaction is still the same too. I later kept thinking about Daytona 500 when I would think about the name or see it on my screen. I just don’t equate it to the “e”worker at home.
I have seen Wendy’s statements that the name has been around since the 1900’s, though not commonly used today. And perhaps that is my problem. I just can’t get my mind wrapped around the idea of how “Sparkplugging” has anything to do with working at home. If you have to educate me on what your brand is or how it connects to what you are doing, how is it a brand?
And, while I am on names, I know I am not the only one who does not like the new name for “Dads Balance.” It is now called, The Man Page. I have to say, when I first read it, I actually took offense to it. What was wrong with “Dads Balance”? Read the comments on The Man Page :: Rebranding Dad Balance, I am not the only one wondering about this name too.
My concern is that in a rush perhaps to get a new brand out and replace eMoms at Home, one of the best brands for working at home may have been lost. In fact, I would love to have the domain eDads at Home as my brand, but it was already taken.
Categories: Home Office, Home Office Warrior
9 Comments
Grant, really, c’mon.
If I started Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Kraft, Google, or Dell today, I’d have to “explain” to you what the brand is.
Wendy — Thanks for commenting. But, I think you missed the bigger picture of my post. You had a brand that worked and I just don’t believe you were ignoring a portion of your readers. In fact, I for one feel the new direction you are going excludes more of your readers than eMoms did. IMHO, and that is all it is, eMoms was a great brand. You had an audience of a great cross section of readers.
And, Wendy, really, c’mon, “The Man Page”. I hope you put up hot babes holding a bud light as that is what I see with the name. It reminds me of “The Man Show” which was on TV a few years ago. And that is what they had on “The Man Show.” Hot babes holding a bud light.
I am sorry for being so blunt with my comments. But, I also think others are being too nice in theirs, fearing the wrath of the Internet. I hope you value an honest opinion of the new brand. Because that is what this is. I honestly don’t get it. I honestly don’t see why you felt it was necessary to change what I and others felt was one of the great brands in the home office worker niche.
You had a huge market identity with eMoms that did not exclude anyone.
Grant - Honestly I have had at least 50 people tell me in some way shape or form that they felt the name “eMoms at Home” excluded them. And that means there are hundreds if not thousands of people who would never have the ability to tell me that directly. I’ve only heard that ‘Sparkplugging’ was exclusionary from one person - you.
In fact, the site and the name is receiving rave reviews and I’ve sold more advertising in the last two days than I have in the last 3 weeks.
So we must be doing something right.
I’m all for positive discussion about it, but eMoms at Home was NOT a brand that worked. Not for my audience, anyway. The new name won’t please everyone, but if the last two days are any indication, our audience is going to be a lot bigger thanks to the new name.
Wendy - Believe me when I say, I hope I stand corrected. And if it happens, I will be the first one to admit it and say so.
I, for one, agree with Grant on this. You took a solid focused brand and diffused it. What you should have done was make sparkplugging (which is just an unrelatable name to me) and made it your umbrella company leaving eMoms in place and growing into your other areas of home office entrepreneurs so those who felt ‘left out’ had a special place of their own and unique to their situation. By changing eMoms you diluted your laser-focused target, told us we are not special anymore just so you could capture some dads and non-parents and increase your revenue. When you swim in the ocean you are hard to spot. When you own the river, everybody knows you.
And don’t let advertising revenue dictate your success unless you determine success by initial advertising revenue. The internet is about niching in a unique voice. You were Madonna (who reinvented herself many times without giving up her brand.) Now, you are part of the choir.
As for sparkplugging, I think of a mother calling her five year old a little sparkplug because he is feisty and precocious. When I think of entrepreneurial womam or men, struggling to survive in this world by being enterprising and innovative…sparkplug just sounds demeaning and childish, definitely not contemporary.
Sometimes we have a such a good thing…we want more…and in grasping for more…we can lose what we have.
And The Man Page…well, amen to Grant on that one and he is a reader, a father and a man. Comes across as the token minority in the room…and demeaning to men.
Just my .02
“An eMom” - hard to respond to you as you are unwilling to say your real name. But if you truly believe what you just wrote, then I don’t believe you know me, or my audience, very well.
I’m sorry that you feel that way. I know in my heart I am 100% where I should be.
Wendy,
This is about branding, target audiences, defining niches and strategic growth…not about my name or whether I ‘know’ you or not. I hope you can appreciate this is not personal.
I don’t know what kind of research you did to determine sparkplugging was the right choice. I don’t know if you did focus groups with your audience, had them participate in a poll, invited those who felt disenfranchised under the eMom banner to discuss how you could help them feel more a part of the audience, all while maintaining your strong branding.
Did you ask the men what would make them feel more incorporated? The non-parents feel more welcomed? Or did you ask others outside your audience to project upon your audience what is best for them?
Think about the revenue generating giants on television today - American Idol, Dancing With the Start…the audience drives its direction while the concept stays clearn and tight and focused. Imagine if the audience had participated in your creative expansion…they certainly would have felt more ownership and commitment.
You should be able to incorporate constructive criticism and grow from it whether it is posted anonymously or not.
This isn’t an attack. This is an observation whether my name is gail, george or geronimo.
And, of course, you are always free to disregard and discount.
An eMom
Actually, I put up three posts on the subject and gathered more than 175 comments on my blog specifically about their feelings on the name. I also listened to (at the time) the input from over 800 followers on Twitter. All of it was closely listened to. In fact, I wanted to continue to name the site something for parents - it was our readers who pushed back and specifically requested that we leave ‘parenting’ out of the name.
And based on the feedback I have received from nearly all of the people that gave their initial input (and even more that never weighed in at first), they love the new name and new direction.
Based on your comment above, that “By changing eMoms you diluted your laser-focused target, told us we are not special anymore just so you could capture some dads and non-parents and increase your revenue” - I DO take that personally. I didn’t change our name to make more money. I do hope that is a side benefit, but first and foremost I changed our name to reflect the changing needs of our readers.
They have, and always will, come before profits.
Did anyone you polled ahead of time say that they *didn’t* like the new name?