Lolita Carrico, original founder of ModernMom.com, and pioneer in the online and marketing to moms space, launched a new online magazine for women, myGloss.

myGloss soft launched this week – we have lots of exciting developments planned including original video, community tools and more – but in the meantime, we would love to get feedback from our friends on what you’d like to see.

myGloss is debuting with seven channels:

…and soon we’ll add goGLOSS (travel) and savvyGLOSS (work & finance).

I wrote about some of the common sense rules of business that I learned from my parents. Moms who blog have gotten a bad name in the media in 2009—for a lot of good reasons.   I wrote about the Grandma and Secretary Rules of Business on Friday.  Here are the rest of the simple rules for being professional.

The Checking Account Rule – If you wouldn’t write a check for the advertising/sponsorship out of your personal checking account, why would you expect the client (or your boss)  to pay for it?

What the Checking Account Rule Means

As a blogger, don’t accept money to write about a product or service you don’t believe in.  If you wouldn’t PAY for the product with your own money, why would you write about the product?  If you are working with clients on a blog outreach campaign, if you are the person pitching the sponsors to do a blog campaign, ask yourself if you would pay for the campaign out of your own checking account.  If the answer is NO—-don’t do it!

Social media and blogging are so new to business, credibility is everything.  In my career, I find the checking account rule is a great way to make decisions about marketing campaigns.  If I would not pay for it with my own money, then I don’t ask the sponsor or client to pay for it.

The Know It All Rule – The people that act like they know it all usually don’t.  The smartest people I know aren’t embarrassed to admit they are still learning.

What the Know It All Rule Means

Everyone is a social media expert these days. The funny thing is that new media is so…NEW…how can anyone really know it all?  If you meet someone who claims to be an “expert” and who acts as if they know EVERYTHING about social media, blogs, online advertising—-run.   It’s literally the wild west, in the world of social media and blogging.  Welcome to the party.

Read about Blog with Integrity on my blog or just go straight to the source, BlogwithIntegrity.com

Good links for weekend reading!

• Brief and Informal Guide to Twitter (ChrisBrogan)
• Facebook vs Twitter (Mashable)
• 10 Words I Would Like to See Banned from Press Releases (TechCrunch)

Trust Agents is coming out in late August and it needs to be on your must read list.  Trust Agents. the soon to be released book by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, will become one of the primary resources on social media communication and marketing. Because everything Chris Brogan writes is authentic, smart…and just GOOD.

Full disclosure: Chris Brogan is a friend.  Even if he wasn’t a friend—-I would rush to buy this book.  Chris Brogan breaks communication down into simple terms, full of common sense wisdom.

Order this book. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go and order Trust Agents NOW.

Moms who blog have gotten a bad name in the media in 2009.   There are some bloggers who need to act more professional, in my humble opinion.  Some amazing women started an initiative called Blog with Integrity. Blog with Integrity is an attempt to try to move the mom blogging community to a more positive place and I am all for it!

This week, I wrote about some of the common sense rules of business that I learned from my parents.  I think some of the people who are involved in the blogging community (bloggers AND sponsors) could benefit from reading a few of the rules . Today I’ll review the Grandma Rule and the Secretary Rule.

The Grandma Rule – Act like your grandmother is in the room with you. If you wouldn’t say it in front of her, don’t say it in a business setting.

The Grandma Rule of Business

This rule is pretty easy to understand.  If you wouldn’t say something in front of your grandma, don’t say it in a business setting.  For example, one of my fellow mom bloggers literally threatened to blog about a sponsor’s competitor if he didn’t give her free product!  Is that REALLY polite behavior?  Would this blogger say that to someone if her grandma was standing next to her?  I don’t think so.  At Blogher 2009, I saw women pushing fellow bloggers out of the way…so they could get a swag bag!  I’ll be a million dollars these women wouldn’t act that way if their grandmother was next to them.

The Secretary Rule – Be nice to everyone.  Show every person respect. It’s the right thing to do and it’s good business.  People are always nice to the CEO—-but not that many people treat his/her assistant well.  But the fact is, much of the real work is done by the the CEO’s assistant.

The Secretary Rule of Business

At BlogHer 2009, I watched as bloggers ignored new members of our tribe, while falling over themselves to gush at some of the “popular girls”.  I’ve been part of the blogging community since 2005 and one of the best parts of being a blogger is the people I’ve met!  I found myself talking to many new bloggers at this conference, trying to explain that not all mom bloggers are like this!

Something else really disturbed me about BlogHer 2009, regarding some of the sponsored events.  There were so many off-site parties and gatherings for a few, select bloggers.

Some of the sponsored events were bad for the community, in my opinion. There was one sponsored party that was particularly divisive.  It was a large invite only, celebrity event. There were enough people invited to this event—every person attending the conference knew about the party. The sponsor may have showed some important bloggers a great time—-but they made the other 1200 women feel lousy.

I understand that sponsors can’t invite 1500 women to every event. But this year there were so many high dollar, very fancy events for a select few “influential”bloggers.

Hello?  Don’t these sponsors realize that blogging and online media can change overnight? The hot blogger of today could have no audience this time next year!  Some of the “unknown” writers at Blogher 2009 will have the hottest blogs of 2010.  It’s a fact of life and the sponsors should remember this fact of business.  The “lowly” secretary will be a CEO someday.

Tide and Devries PR – How To Do Sponsored Events

One sponsor who did it right at BlogHer 2009, was Tide and Devries PR.  They brought Project Runway host Tim Gunn to BlogHer. But Tide and Devries had an event on Saturday afternoon, giving anyone who wanted to meet Tim Gunn an opportunity to get a picture and an autograph.  They also had a small, very low-key gathering at the hotel for about 25 bloggers who regularly write about Tide.  I thought Tide and Devries handled the situation in a very classy manner.

Monday I’ll review some other simple rules for business.

(Grandma Photo by ThemeParkReview.com)

I learned some of the most important business lessons from my dad and my mom. Dad was a wild Texas business (bid’ness) man who gave me valuable but simple rules for how to conduct business…and live life.  My mother valued good manners and she made sure we did too. Or else.

Blue Collar Business Rules from My Dad

The Grandma Rule – Act like your grandmother is in the room with you. If you wouldn’t say it in front of her, don’t say it in a business setting.

The Secretary Rule – Be nice to everyone.  Show every person respect. It’s the right thing to do and it’s good business.  People are always nice to the CEO—-but not that many people treat his/her assistant well.  But the fact is, much of the real work is done by the the CEO’s assistant.

The Checking Account Rule – If you wouldn’t write a check for the advertising/sponsorship out of your personal checking account, why would you expect the client (or your boss)  to pay for it?

The Know It All Rule – The people that act like they know it all usually don’t.  The smartest people I know aren’t embarrassed to admit they are still learning.

Good Manners as Business Rules from My Mom

The Thank You Note Rule -  Taking the time to write a note to someone shows them you are grateful for their time or their gift.

You can read why I call these rules The Pi Phi Speech by visiting my post from yesterday.  I am going to write about how each of these rules can be used over the next few days.

When I was a partner at an ad agency, I was forced to give my Pi Phi speech at least once a year.  New employees (usually just out of college) began their career in advertising based on the TV show Melrose Place.  They saw Heather Locklear in her short skirts, going to meetings and dinners—-what job could be more fun? Right?

Working at an ad agency, is work.  Just like any other business. It only looks like more fun on TV.  When the newbies couldn’t figure it out for themselves, I was forced to dust off the Pi Phi speech.

Susie (insert name here). We’re not at the Pi Phi House anymore, this is a business.  It may look like fun when we take the client out to dinner—and it can be! But you are working. That means you need to behave like you are at work.  It’s called being professional.  I want you to be yourself when you are with clients—but the cleaned-up and polished version of yourself.  The drunken sorority girl version of yourself is not the image I want to represent for my company.

More important, you need to learn that your behavior can hurt you and how other people see you.

As a woman, the cards are stacked against you in the business world.  Women are paid less than men and it’s harder for a woman to get respect—-it’s not fair but it’s the way it is.  You have to be better, sharper and more on the ball—and even THEN it’s going to be tough to get the same opportunities as a man.  Let me share with you a few rules about being professional.

Bloggers Need to Hear the Pi Phi Speech?

There are some things going on in the blogging community that are getting attention—-the wrong kind of attention.   Some of the bloggers AND some of the sponsors could benefit from my little speech.  I believe that some people just don’t KNOW some of the basic rules of how to act in a business setting—because no one ever told them.   Good manners are not valued in our popular culture.

I am lucky because I learned the right way to do business from my father.  I was taught the rules of good manners from my mother, who believed that not writing thank you notes was a criminal offense.  I was blessed to be surrounded by some incredible women mentors in my career, who taught me invaluable lessons.

Come back tomorrow for the first rule of the Pi Phi Speech.  And to all my Pi Phi friends, I am sorry to take your sorority name in vain.  I was a member of Delta Delta Delta and I had to give this speech to those young women too.

Read about Blog with Integrity on my blog or just go straight to the source, BlogwithIntegrity.com

PS: There is a great video about the Blog with Integrity initiative over on Ad Age.

The SciFi Channel’s switch to SyFy is a stunning example of bad marketing.  I can’t believe they actually paid money to have someone develop this idea! I’m a total geek, so naturally I’m a SciFi Channel fan.  The SyFy change screams of a brand trying to be something that it’s not.  SciFi Channel viewers are geeks. Don’t try to make your geeky product HIP by using a lame new name.

Even the co-founder of the SciFi Channel hates the name change! My friend Celeste and I were tweeting about the SciFi to SyFy change a few weeks ago.  Celeste is well known for her marketing expertise and her wicked sense of humor.  Her grade on the name change was a big, fat FAIL.

What’s your take on the name change? Love it? Hate it?

I’ve been obsessed with online marketing and the web since 1993, when I went to my first internet marketing conference for Jiffy Lube.

I started a blog in 2005  because I wanted to figure out what the blogging was about.  I started my career as a media buyer, so there is nothing I love more than figuring out a puzzle. I’m a card carrying geek, as you can tell.

Because my family has southern roots and I am a smart-aleck, I called my blog WhiteTrashMom.  It’s a popular parenting blog and is listed as one of the web’s best mom blogs on Alltop.com. St. Martin’s Press published a book based on the blog, The White Trash Mom Handbook in 2008.

Blogging about motherhood has enriched my life in so many ways, I am really glad I jumped into the blogging world when I did.

Mom Bloggers in the News

Moms who blog have gotten a bad name in the media in 2009. It seems like every news story in the national media about women who blog about their families (aka mommy bloggers) paints an ugly picture.

My friends Susan Getgood, Kristen Chase, Julie Marsh and Liz Gumbinner want to move the discussion about mom bloggers to a more positive direction. They started something called Blog with Integrity.

Read about how to Blog With Integrity on Mom 101 and please visit the Blog with Integrity website.