Blogging Mom: Sensation Draws Huge Crowd

BLOOMINGTON - Nearly 550 people waited in line for hours to meet internet phenomenon turned best selling book author Ree Drummond at the Mall of America Saturday.. In the blog world she is known as The Pioneer Woman and she is the undisputed queen of the so called “mommy bloggers.”

“Excited and nervous. I was too excited to sleep,” that’s what one woman who’d been waiting in hours said just before climbing on to a makeshift stage to meet Ree Drummond.

Drummond was at the Mall of America Saturday afternoon signing copies of her newly released cookbook, “The Pioneer Woman Cooks.” The book shot to the top of New York Time best seller list, landing for one week at the number one spot.

Drummond has been greeted by large, enthusiastic crowds at all her signings. “She seems so personable. She does it all,” said one fan at the Mall of America.

That’s why it’s hard to believe that, according to Drummond, “The whole thing has been an accident. A nice accident.”

Drummond says she started to blog in May of 2006. She had only seen one other blog. She began to write her story in installments in her on line journal. She was city girl who had planned to go to law school but who fell in love with a cowboy and instead settled in the country.

“I think connection is probably the main thing blogging provides,” Drummond explained. In my case, I lived on an isolated cattle ranch for 10 years with my husband and I had four children. And while I loved it and still love it, it is a very isolated existence. Luckily I was ready for that in my life. But when I started blogging I was able to come in contact with people in all 50 states.”

Drummond taught herself photography and weaves stories with pictures and words.

She chooses her stories carefully. And it's worked. Her blog gets more than 15 million page views a month. That is an incredibly high number.

“I think when people come to my site and spend some time there, they won't go away feeling depressed or weighed down, Drummond said. “I don't really take political stances on my blog. I don’t debate issues. I just provide a slice of life.

And a slice of cake....and steak....and...you get the idea. Her online recipes are clearly a big part of the draw to her blog....

If you ask her two young sons what the best thing their mom make is, they tell you, “Pork chops.”

They may not be surprised their mom’s cookbook is a best seller. But their mom was.

“I was surprised. It was fun that day and week but it didn't really change anything. It's not like when you hit the New York Times best seller list that a gold carriage is going to pull up and do your laundry for you. I still have a pile of laundry up to the ceiling and cow manure on my porch.

And it's because she says stuff like that that people from all over the country identify with her and feel like they really know her.

I've written on my blog daily for 3 1/2 years so it's only natural that people who have read for even one, two, three years would feel like they know me just as though we have exchanged letters for that long,” Drummond said.

In the beginning Pioneer.Com was just a personal blog. It carried no ads. It is now one of the blogs most highly coveted my advertisers who value women readers above all others.

We ask Drummond when she realized blogging was something she could make a living doing. “It was a good year and a half or two years in before that came in to play. and I'm okay with it because I do pour my heart and soul and time into it. And I think it's a quality product. And I don't pepper my whole site with ads. I'm not really interested in extracting every drop of value out of it. I have one or two ads per page. Some times just one. So I think I’ve found a nice balance.

Drummond is working on another cook book and has another book project in the works.

If you’ve never been to her blog and want to check it out you can click right here, http://thepioneerwoman.com/