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Stay-At-Home LI Mom Turns Her Passion Into Profits
Vera Sweeney's Love For Hollywood Gossip Led Her To Create Highly Popular ImNotObsessed.com
For many stay-at-home moms, the idea of bringing home a pay check while raising a family full-time is a pipe dream.
Garden City mother Vera Sweeney, however, figured out a way to make that dream a reality, turning her passion into profits.
Sweeney used to spend her days devouring every juicy tidbit of celebrity gossip, and when she found her own love for the latest Hollywood news couldn't be satisfied through a myriad of celebrity shows, Web sites, and magazines already out there, she decided to take matters into her own fingertips.
"It's a shock every morning, like who shaved whose head, who is in rehab – everyday it's something new," she tells CBS 2's Kirstin Cole.
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Sweeney is the brain behind the extremely popular celebrity gossip site ImNotObsessed.com, a blog-like bulletin page that keeps readers up-to-date with the latest rumors.
"I'm not obsessed, I am obsessed, I'm writing about this all day long," she says.
While mainstream sites like PerezHilton.com pokes fun at many celebrities, Sweeney says she doesn't talk trash.
"I try to keep it kid and work friendly," she says.
It used to be that one of the only ways that stay-at-home moms could earn a little financial independence was by stuffing envelopes. Now many are finding business begins at home and online.
"On average, I get about 6 million hits a month," Sweeney says, which she admits attracts a lot of advertisers, and helps bring home the bacon. "It's a pretty good payoff, that's for sure!"
Sweeney's husband, Bill, says their mailbox used to be filled with subscriptions to celebrity magazines. Now he's thrilled his wife is the one getting paid to dish the dirt.
"I know who is dating who, I even know the names of people's kids," he says.
The site's popularity has grown so much, Sweeney has even hired a couple of employees.
So how deos a Long Island housewife get Hollywood dish? A little mommy networking does the trick. For Sweeney, that involved getting in touch with celebrity public relations reps.
"Eva Longoria's PR person let me know where she got her earrings from, where she got her bag from, and people want to know that," she says.
That's just how this mom turned her passion into profits.
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