- Blog: Man Wife & Dog
- Niche: Marriage/Relationships
- Founder: Charli Penn
- Twitter: @ManWifeDog
Charli Penn loves all things, well… love. In fact, she’s made a career out of her amorous passion via her day job and blog, ManWifeAndDog.com. A journalist by trade, Penn has been covering weddings, sex, dating and relationships for about five of her eight years in her career field. Currently serving as the Relationships Editor for Essence.com by day, Penn muses about the realities of marriage as a newlywed with a perspective so candid and down-to-Earth that her readers feel like they’re sitting in their living rooms chatting with their best girlfriend.
It’s not just readers that have taken note. Man, Wife & Dog has been profiled by Media Bistro’s 10,000 Words blog, and landed Penn a spot as Huffington Post’s “After the Wedding Blogger.†With 45,000 monthly visitors and counting, Man, Wife & Dog’s fan base is rapidly growing and Penn plans to utilize her platform to launch the next phase of her career as an author. The New Jersey native is almost done with an advice book that focuses on surviving the first year of marriage, which she plans to self-publish and sell on her site. As part of Black Blogger Month, BlackEnterprise.com chatted with the relationship maven about her inspiration behind starting her blog and why she’s dedicated to promoting positive Black love.
I started blogging because…
When I got engaged, my husband and I scoured the web in search of engaging and useful advice for newlyweds. There were a lot of books out there, but we didn’t see many positive resources for newlyweds who wanted to start their marriage off on the right foot. The sites we found seemed more technical than personal. We like to learn from experience and I felt that voice was missing. I’m a writer and online editor by trade, and I had recently been laid off from my full time job. I was planning a wedding and job hunting but I had a lot of time on my hands still. Starting a blog about my marriage, from it’s inception, seemed like the perfect way to combine my two passions–making our marriage work and writing–and have something to do with my time that might actually be of use to others.
Man, Wife & Dog stands out because…
I’m not lecturing my readers. I’m saying, Hey, we did this or tried that and it did or didn’t work for us. Here’s why, and what we learned. Perhaps if you read along, it can motivate or inspire you in some way too. That’s all I’m after. I think my readers appreciate my transparency and my ability to be vulnerable in my writing. Yet, at the same time, it does provide a service. I try to share useful information, tips, and new information that wives can appreciate and use in their day-to-day lives. There are so many mommy blogs out there, but not all wives are mothers. A lot of the mommy blogs focus so much on perfecting parenting that they neglect to cover the ins and outs of navigating marriage. I like to think I help to fill that void.
The biggest mistake I ever made in business was…
Not monetizing my blog from day one. I didn’t set out to make money doing this, so I was more focused on developing content than a business model. Although I think that’s honorable, it’s also a naïve approach to blogging I’ve since learned. There have been many days where I saw incredible spikes in traffic and had the site been fully monetized at that point, I would have earned a lot of money for the work I did that week or day. I’m more on top of that now.
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The biggest lesson I learned about branding in the digital space was…
You shouldn’t mess around with your brand. Experiment before you commit. I took months to decide on a name and editorial style for my blog. I knew that once I put it out there it would represent me, and my blog, to the masses and I wanted the message to be clear and something I could be proud of. When people hear the name of my blog they get what it’s about–that’s clear from jump, and trust me, that was no coincidence. Even the order of the names, and the style of my logo was planned and well thought out. I am the Wife
who’s in the middle of a new life with a man’s man for a husband and a dog we adore. So, the name Man, Wife & Dog fit. From it, you can see that I’ll probably be talking about marriage, pets, and men. That pretty much nails what we’re about. When I selected the name, I even envisioned what other ideas might come from it, so I purchased ManWifeandBaby.com domain names too. (Wink!) When it comes to branding, you really must think ahead.Networking in the digital space is important because…
It’s everything. Most of the amazing opportunities Man, Wife & Dog has had so far have come from getting to know other bloggers and digital gurus through Twitter and other social media platforms. It helps increase readership, as well. As I’ve met other bloggers, many of them have read my blog, been impressed and shared it with their readers. It helps with outreach and serves as free marketing.
The best piece of business advice I ever got was…
When I went to a SITS Girls Blogging conference and one of the speakers said, “Build the blog you want to run and those who appreciate it will come. Focus on the readers you want, not the readers you have.†This is key. If you open a store and you only have two regular shoppers and they want you to lower your prices, but you know ultimately when business begins to pick up lower prices won’t keep your business afloat, you’re polite to those customers, but you don’t change the store for them. I take the same approach to blogging.
I measure success according to…
If I’m happy with what I’ve produced for the day and I can go to sleep with a smile. I don’t gauge success by how others perceive it. I base it on whether or not I achieved the goals I set for myself in that moment.
None of my success would be possible if not for…
My faith. Life will knock you down, but you have to believe your future is worth lifting yourself back up in the present. When I was laid off from a job I was totally devoted to; for a moment, it caused me to question my talents. Then I remembered that it’s no one else’s job to believe in my, but mine, and the best revenge is succeeding despite others’ efforts to shut you down.
My advice for anyone who wants to follow in my footsteps is…
Do you, and don’t look back. A great blog begins with the first post–even if only one person reads it. Ignore the numbers and enjoy creating content you can be proud of.
Be sure to check out the rest of the digital thought leaders as they’re revealed each day by logging on to BlackEnterprise.com/BlackBloggerMonth.