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Monday, May 21, 2012

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"Better Half" Series: Jon Armstrong, the Man Behind Dooce.com

Heather & Jon Armstrong

For the past three weeks, our "Better Half" series has chronicled the tales of the men behind the women who pen some of today's best design blogs. In every case, these men are invaluable partners—not just on the homefront, but also in the business of blogging, which has become a full-time gig for all of the women and several of the men. Check out our previous interviews with Bob Cho of Oh Joy!, Tait Larson of Style Me Pretty and Aaron Coles of Design*Sponge. Then read below for a fascinating chat with John Armstrong, who runs the ads and operations side of Dooce.com. (left, Heather & Jon Armstrong) 

 

Heather Armstrong might be the super mommy of mommy bloggers. She started Dooce.com in 2001 as a single ex-Mormon living in LA and has poignantly and humorously taken her ever-expanding readership (we're talking four to five million monthly page views!) through her ups and downs: from the time she was infamously fired for unloading on coworkers on her lifestyle blog, to meeting and marrying her “best friend,” moving back to her home state of Utah, having two children, and bravely—and openly—dealing with post-partum depression. A mom blog about everyday life sounds deceptively simple, but Heather Armstrong's entertaining, relatable and reliable approach has earned her those huge traffic numbers, a Dooce.com Twitter following of 1.5 million, a designation as one of Forbes’ Most Influential Women in Media and a crowning as “The Queen of Mommy Bloggers” by the New York Times.


Select Posts from Dooce.com

  • Mid-morning collapse
    See Coco's leg? That's how she sleeps. Once it starts to fall she'll pop it right back up. IN HER SLEEP.
    "Why is your dog waving her leg in the air?"
    "Because apparently crazy doesn't sleep."

    All images and text copyright Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

  • Yesterday morning
    I am indifferent. I am indifferent. I am indifferent. I am indifferent.
    If I keep repeating this I will believe it. It helps that I'm waving my middle finger in the air.

  • Pony!
    She will drape on him like this forever waiting patiently for him to get up and trot across the room. And he never does.
    You've got a moody goth and Baby Rambo playing a game of chicken. Who needs recreational drugs?

  • The heeeeels are aliiiiive!
    With the sound of me squealing! That's probably what you heard just now.

  • Purple people eater
    This is the outfit I wore when Jon and I went out together last week. I was feeling Springish (even though there's a blizzard outside my window right now), hence the color. Both the necklace (seen before here) and the dress are from a local boutique. The sweater is Old Navy, the tights are Vera Wang, and the heels are BCBG.

  • The powder room
    The first [powder room] I want to show you is one of two powder rooms on the main floor. I didn't want to get too much into a theme, but then I got carried away and spilled theme all over myself. This is our beach bathroom.

So what of her king? In October of 2005, Heather’s husband, Jon Armstrong, quit his job to start running the ads and operations side of Dooce.com full-time. (With a background in web and advertising, Jon had already been helping Heather run the site part-time since 2003.) Like any partner (business or life), Armstrong is endearingly in awe of his mommy blogger wife: He delights in citing a long list of credentials that have led to Heather’s enormous popularity: her ability to translate a seemingly mundane story about lunch into a side-splitting blog post; her authoring of two books; the photographs she takes of the Utah landscape, their dogs and loved ones; and the beautiful interior designs she brought into their home. 

Jon filled us in on his favorite part of watching Heather Armstrong's ourney, why he will never get used to people knowing about his vasectomy, and his favorite high tech gadgets to score on eBay.

Jon ArmstrongThe Inside Source: Could you tell us a little bit more about how you and mommy blogger Heather Armstrong met?

 Jon Armstrong: Our history goes back quite a way. I met Heather in the summer of 1997 when she was a freelance writer for a music magazine that I was an art director for. The magazine folded in January of 1998.  But we didn’t get together for two more years.

 

The Inside Source: And then in February of 2002, Heather, we hear, proposed to you via your blog on Dooce.com?

Jon Armstrong: Yes! She proposed to me via the comments section of a blog post I had written. I said yes, of course, but I thought she was totally joking. I called her and asked her if she was serious and she said, “I am completely serious.” I said "yes, let’s do it." We got married in Yosemite in the park at Glacier Point. It was just the two of us and really beautiful. (The Armstrong's family)

 

The Inside Source: In 2005 you left your full-time job to help Heather Armstrong run Dooce.com. What has been your favorite part about being the “Better Half” to Dooce.com? 

Jon Armstrong: I think my first favorite thing about being the better half is that I get to work from home. It’s pretty great. I get to be a larger part of my kids’ lives and their significant milestones.  I also get to work with my wife, who I love. She is my best friend. I am pretty lucky be able to do that. I think the other thing is that via Dooce, I have had to learn a lot, such as how to run a business and the finances of a business.  I have had baptism by fire with that. And finally, I get to be part of a successful brand, which has been incredibly enjoyable.

 

 The Inside Source: Do you have any favorite items that Heather has written about or posted on the top mommy blog site?

Jon Armstrong: I think that my one of favorite things that Heather has posted to the site has been the letters to our daughter, Leta. I really love those. I also really love her photos. I think that every day, they are awesome treats to see on the site. I do the same thing that the readers do, where I wonder what she is going to post each day. I have that same excitement. She captures the chaos of modern life so well.

 

The Inside Source: What have been some of your favorite parts of watching Heather’s journey?

Jon Armstrong: Heather is such a strong writer. And one of the amazing things about Heather, and I am still amazed by this, is that it is like she was born to write in the blogging format. She is just so good at it. For example, Heather will write about a lunch we had, but that is not the real story. The story happens within the lunch where the dog came over and barfed up everything and the baby did something ridiculous. The lunch was just the mere framework and Heather turns it into something you actually want to read.

Also, when you work with your spouse you are always learning new things about them. This past year we have done a lot of video and it has been great to see Heather be such a real natural in front of the camera.

Jon Armstrong

Jon and Heather's seven-year-old daughter, Leta Elise, and 20-month-old daughter, Marlo Iris


The Inside Source: What is the weirdest part of being the “Better Half” of Dooce.com? 

Jon Armstrong: When I meet people, I have to go in my mind, “How long have you been reading this site, and how much do you know about me?” For example, a person I have just met might know that I have had a vasectomy. We have just met, but this person might know things about me that could be potentially socially awkward.

 

The Inside Source: What is something you wish the outside world knew about Dooce.com?

Jon Armstrong: I think one of the things that people don’t know about is the level of stamina and endurance that goes into what Heather does. Heather works her ass off. Even if it is a short post, she has put a lot of time and energy into it and I think that doesn’t get talked about very much. Blogging is often thought of as a throw-away form. I think Heather has proven that that is not true.

Jon Armstrong

The Armstrongs' nine-year-old SuperMutt, Chuck, and three-year-old miniature Australian Shepherd, Coco


The Inside Source: What is something you never expected to experience until becoming a part of Dooce.com? 

Jon Armstrong: When we got together, there was such a sense that we were going to go places that neither one of us expected to go. I think everyone feels this way when they fall in love. But, there was just a different element to it with Heather. She’s got a really big personality, so I figured there was going to be some good stuff. I figured both of us would do something else creatively for other people, but not for her personal website. Having both of us work under Dooce.com has been a huge surprise.

 

The Inside Source: You guys just moved into a new house that you are slowly decorating. Heather says that you two see eye-to-eye when it comes to home decor. Would you agree?

Jon Armstrong: I think Heather is a lot more on the pulse of what is happening right now in design, but our taste levels are very close.  However, Ikea is a nightmare for us. She will see something and love it and I say, “I can’t go home and spend 14 hours putting it together!” It is much more about practicality for me. I think the last thing we disagreed on was wallpaper. Wallpaper has made a comeback recently. But, as a kid, my parents once stripped all the wallpaper in our house.  I have all of these terrible post-traumatic stress memories of the giant wallpaper steamer. Then, when my mother wallpapered a room herself the pattern slipped by a tiny amount every roll. Because of this I will paint our house, but I will not wallpaper anything!

 

The Inside Source: Do you ever look to eBay online auctions to help you decorate your home or for anything else?

Jon Armstrong: Lately I have been looking at eBay for men’s clothing. I am getting older and I want to dress nice. I want to do it intelligently and if I am looking for clothing, I always go to eBay.

(images copyright Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)

 

Jon has been described on more than one occasion as a tech nerd. He looked for some gadgets on eBay that he thought could help him run Dooce.com or that he could just see buying for fun:

Roll over items for details
New Canon EF 85mm F1.2 L II Lens SLR
(buy it now price, $2,089)
Data Robotics DroboPro Diskless 8-Bay NAS
(buy it now price, $1,939)
Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drive
(buy it now price, $163.51)
Anthro 60" Desk with CPU Rack
(buy it now price, $1,032.54)

1. Canon Lens: "I've lusted after this lens for years. Not sure it's in the cards just yet, but hopefully soon. This lens takes stunning portraits."

2. DroboPro: "Time to update our server storage! We are starting to run out of room on our original Drobos. It's staggering to think about all the photos we take and the storage requirements for them."

3. Western Digital Caviar Black Hard Drive: "These raw drives are what we'll put inside the DroboPro. Sixteen Terabytes should cover us for the next few years."

4. Gigabit Switch: "Our home business is starting to bleed on the technology side. We need the ability to manage more wired network devices that aren't computers (such as TVs, Apple TVs, etc.). We also need to prioritize traffic during office hours to our computers and then after hours prioritize network traffic to other devices. A managed switch is the way to go."

5. Anthro Desk: "I wear a lot of proverbial hats: video editing, coding, voice work and some musical composition. While Heather might not like the design of this desk, I love the integration of music and technology that it affords."

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d903ea25-5e16-4991-98de-9f0b378b5f54 Thu, 7 Apr 2011 11:34:30 PDT Thu, 7 Apr 2011 11:34:30 PDT
Kristan
comment-post

Long time reader and fan of Dooce.com here, and I have to say that it's fascinating to get Jon's take on things. I read his blog as well, but this was a very focused interview. Thanks to both of you!

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