Alas, a blog and good feminist business practices
There are days that I honestly just want to throw in the towel and just say, "The hell with it!"
Barry Deutsch of Alas A Blog did what no business saavy blogpreneur would have done for less than a million dollars : He sold off Amptoons.com to a pornography company that wants to raise the search engine ranking of their sites.
As I wrote in the comments section of I sold Amptoons.com, comments are now open, Barry could have chosen to speak to other blogpreneurs in his search for a better educated decision about this deal. Alas, it didn't happen.
Here's some of the problems I see with this deal:
- How much is too much or too little for a domain name? Amptoons is the name of his cartooning brand. Did he have anybody evaluate and estimate the worth of Amptoons in the market? Did he actually have someone assess the actual monetary value of his domain name?
- One of the most serious issues I have with his move is that Barry didn't seem to understand how he could have monetized better his site. If he was eventually selling the site to a link farm, why not just sell a subdomain and still hold ownership of his domain name?
- Wouldn't this deal constitute a self-inflicted tarnishing of his trademark? And if he has to fight for his cartoons' copyright and trademark eventually, wouldn't this deal prove he has no legal grounds to defend it because he was so eager to sell it off in the first place?
My head has been spinning with tons of questions.
Now, to the best part : I have too been approached by pornographers. I have too been asked to sell my domains.
I own now about 500+ domain names; or should I say, culturekitchen Media, ltd owns about 500+ domains. Many of those domains have sex, abortion and choice in their names. At one point I have thought about developing them but, from a feminist business standpoint, I have bought them for one very simple reason: When it comes to the business of the internet, many feminist organizations have proven quite inept. Many, many times I have clicked on a link of a pro-choice sounding domain name to find that the site is owned by rabid pregnacists. Given how little a top level domain name costs (as little as $6), I took it upon myself to fight back the forces of reproductive restrictions evil with their own game.
I personally could sell off quite a few and make more than a couple of thou in the process. But then, I know the best business opportunity will come for me to develop these properties.
Reproductive rights are a business after all.
Let's go back to the pornographers requests : I get several of those a month. I used to get more of them when I bought most of my domains at GoDaddy. I have been moving them to 1and1.com because I have the option of private registration at no extra cost. And that way, I can develop a property quietly and privately.
Why don't I sell out?
Reputation. Being delinked by a few political bloggers is small potatoes. Losing the respect of most of my colleagues in tech, business and the estroblogosphere, that's a whole different story. It's not that I will never develop a blog about sex and pornography. I will. It's just that at the moment, I don't have the resources to develop it in the good feminist business sense I need to put (it) out ... all pun intended.
Which leads me to ask you all: How would you define good feminist business practices?
Bookmark/Search this post with:
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
Blogs | Business | Copyright | Feminism | Internet | Pornography | Technology | Trademarks
It's a collective sin, though
Submitted by liza on 16 October 2006 - 2:30pm.
I find most feminists to be extremely patriarchal about their ideas of having a profession. Usually it revolves around a corporate daddy structure, not independent means of not just survival but long-term sustainability and growth.
In other words, it seems most feminists --and let me lump politically progressive men-- have a huge problem talking about making money and doing business.
» email this comment | 1 point
Business? I thought this was a hobby
Submitted by Elayne Riggs (not verified) on 16 October 2006 - 9:13pm.
Thank goodness I'm not a "blogpreneur"! I just do this for a hobby. I think everybody shold. Once you give your first devotion to the God Mammon, you're never truly free.
Blogs ought to have nothing to do with "business practices" unless they're business blogs.
» email this comment | 0 points
You call it "hobby" but on the net it's a business model
Submitted by liza on 17 October 2006 - 9:00am.
Here's the thing Elayne : Just as any homeowner needs to know at least the minimum of how to do business with a bank, building contractors, fuel suppliers and maybe landscapers and housekeepers --and needless to say the city, state and federal government-- so do bloggers need to know the minimum amount necessary to understand the implications of having a home online.
Just because you choose to call it a hobby it does not free you of knowing your rights, responsibilities; but more important the legal and social liabilities of blogging. Whether you like it or not you are creating value --a value that is quantifiable in dollars.
You and I have had this conversation before. I think this is the first time I can articulate the problem of saying "it's just a hobby".
Blogging could be a real hobby if you are doing it anonymously. If people can track you down, then honestly, it can't be just a hobby.
» email this comment | 0 points
hmmm, rambling response
Submitted by yabadabado (not verified) on 17 October 2006 - 2:58pm.
glad you brought it up. i have a BS in management and I am often frustrated by the lack of business sense in profem blogs. there seems to be little sense of real goals and a plan to obtain those objectives. they seem easily distracted by BS "debates" of whether you are a "real" woman depending on if you shave your legs or wear makeup - who the F cares? I have been looking for a more organized website for women who are action oriented, but, alas (hehe) hard to find, if not nonexistent. the discussion blogs are very important, but action blogs, to me, are more important big picture. making change, not simply talking about the need.
My most recent search included a platform for profemale/feminists/whatever you want to call yourself if you are working for womens interests and equality. Can't find one. I would love to see a ten step goal sheet for profemale activists. An organized, these are ten goals we want to accomplish in the next five years - and here is how to help. Not to be found. Or rather I havent found one. Would love to see a model. 1. Universal child care 2. Free birth control, sterilization and vasectomy, as well as family planning classes 3. Equal wages 4. Freedom in Medical Decisions Act or Medical Privacy Act (get family planning out of congress) 5. Regulated Porn Industry - minimum age to participate (i say 25 years old at least) no violence or occupational hazards 6. Mandatory Domestic Violence Housing in each county to address the epidemic of violence against women 7. Redefine and Take back the Rape discussion...idk, it would be nice if we could agree on ten things that all women deserve to see in the next five years. 8. Get out the female vote 9. X amount of women in office or running for office in the next five years...
I look at what FOX tv station has managed to accomplish in ten years and keep thinking , we have got to get organized. look at how they managed to change the entire news aganda - very impressive. not admirable, but impressive.
Good practices for me:
Not using female form or sexuality to sell products
The use of diversity is always good, women come in many forms, would be nice to see more women represented.
Would donate a certain % of profits to womens issues
Equal wages
Provide healthcare and flextime
Honesty in advertising and issues
No use of child labor for cheap product
Environmentally responsible
Not abusing those in bad situations for money
Respectful of others, not rolling over, but agreeing to disagree without being disagreeable
» email this comment | 0 points
I completely agree about the action part
Submitted by liza on 19 October 2006 - 11:13am.
I like the list you have thrown in there. I should have been a bit more specific : I am asking about good business and community practices for feminist bloggers.
I so wish I could pay and give benefits not just to myself but my editors. That's not possible at the moment. There are things I feel I can do as a blog developer and publisher that would be good from a progressive and feminist perspective.
I am not sure that not using female sexuality is one of them. We use sexuality in a very tactical way that I believe is pro-women. And I am not beneath using men as sex-objects if it helps to get, in a lustfully entertaining way, a point across.
» email this comment | 0 points
Feminist Business Practices
Submitted by elana (not verified) on 18 October 2006 - 7:00am.
If there is one thing that I think all women can start doing today to promote a feminist agenda in business ( my definition of a feminist agenda is equal pay, equal opportunity, respect and acknowledgement of the need and benefits of work-family balance) it's demanding that media and other women stop using language that reinforces an image of inferiority.
When women bosses are called "bitches", when women who are unhappy with the business environment are accused of "whining", we are continuing to feed into stereotypes that women are not as capable in business as men.
We have done it before and it has made a difference. We just have not finished the job. In the 1970s when the men at work called us 'the girls' we stood up to them and demanded they change the corporate patois. When we didn't want to be called Miss, we demanded they accept us as Ms.
Why did we stop? Did we become too complacent or did we believe the childhood chant..sticks and stones may break my bones but words.....
We allowed men to frame our leadership in negative terminology. We allowed men, women, and the media to view strong women as 'bitches." We allowed men,women and the media to describe women as "whining", "menopausal maniacs",
We mistakenly thought that winning a few battles was a victory. It wasn't. Men quickly developed a strategy that the way to keep the power was to demonstrate that women didn't have what it takes to do the job.
Where is the outrage? Recently on Blogher there was a huge discussion because someone from a different culture used the "N" word in her comments. Her comments were radacted. There was outrage.
But where is the outrage when women are continually painted using inferior language?
It's a place to start.
» email this comment | 0 points
How to insult someone you dislike? Is that a feminist issue?
Submitted by liza on 18 October 2006 - 9:10am.
You're conflating two issues: How to best insult your opponent vs. How not to insult a woman you disagree with who you may end up needing as an ally.
There is no such thing as PC or pro-fem insulting. It's not supposed to not hurt other people's feelings in the first place.
Now, how to qualify a person as dissenter vs. an opponent, that's a whole different issue.
» email this comment | 0 points
Is it really conflating?
Submitted by Elana (not verified) on 20 October 2006 - 8:25am.
I don't think I am conflating the issues: to me language is the issue when it comes to promoting a perception that women are less than. I'm not interested in insulting anyone. If I disagree with them, I want to to stay on issue.
What I want is to use gender neutral language to describe workplace behavior. What I don't want is gender enduced language such as "whining" to describe a woman who is unhappy with a particular experience in the workplace. ..unless men who also express these views are described as "whining."
Equalize the language and perceptions about women will improve. If that is conflating issues-then I'm all for it.
» email this comment | 0 points
yes, can you help?
Submitted by sea on 21 October 2006 - 9:54pm.
I notice that within myself. I work on it. I'm opening my own office this weekend. I noticed, (bizarrely enough) within myself a sort of "shock" -- and the (funny) thought that I'm a woman I can't be having my own business.
Of course, that's weird and not true. Of course it is a deeply engrained message particularly of my mother's day. Her dad had a very large commercial farm. It was never considered to turn it over to her and her sisters. But her dad and his brothers turned it over to her (male) cousins.
» email this comment | 0 points
Kudos to you for defensive domain squatting!
Cheers from back here in the cheap seats!
I've avoided this Alas topic mainly because I find it so so sad. Amp should have known better, could have known better. Alas....