OMG! I was just about to transform my blog, since I saw one mommy blog that seemed to have so many followers, when it's obvious she doesn't have much content in her blog. I wanted people to visit my blog, and hear what I have to say, just like what's happening on her blog. I thought maybe, since I'm a mommy, I should pattern my blog after hers. And then I came across this post, "Don't Cry for Mommy Bloggers", and I realized I was about to jump into the bandwagon of mommy blogging with the wrong reasons. I felt guilty while reading the blog post, because that was my intention, to get sponsors to send me their products for me to review and give my 2 cents about them. I am a writer, for crying out loud! If followers would follow me, I really want it to be because they like what they are reading. However, I don't like the fact that the said article generalized mommy bloggers as the only ones who blog for money's sake. Maybe he just came across a lot of mommy bloggers who are like that, but that doesn't mean all mommy bloggers just blog to earn cash, even if it meant sacrificing their integrity.Is it really that bad, to want to earn money through your blog? I found a lot of articles about ways to earn cash online, and blogging is always in them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a huge part of the people that these articles invite to seek ways on how to earn money through the internet stay at home moms? Now that moms are making waves online through blogging, some people now want to put them down. The writer of the blog post I mentioned is a man - I think that says it all. He has a point, though, when he mentioned that you have to have integrity as a blogger. He mentioned that mommy bloggers tend to make their product reviews always positive, so that they can get freebies, discounts, and even money - which shouldn't be so. It's important for us bloggers to share the truth; it's a way to make us credible. If we do need to review a product by a sponsor, we can write about what's good about it, as well as its downside. That way, we can help the company who made the product do some revisions, just because of the un-biased review we provided.
So, what's my conclusion? Mommy blogging is a cool thing, as long as boundaries are set. Blogs should have content, not just advertisements. When I search mommy blogs, I look for advices on parenting, fun things to do with the kids, and craft making, and I do find most of them have interesting and useful content (well, except for the blog I mentioned at the beginning of this article). We mommies should continue what we started, and give cyber world a piece of our mind (and our cookies, too! LOL).
Just came across your post, more than a year later. I'm the person who wrote the post "Don't cry for Mommy bloggers" that you refer to.
ReplyDeleteI don't quite understand the part that says, "The writer of the blog post I mentioned is a man - I think that says it all." What exactly does that say?
I admit that I generalized, but at the time there were many mommy bloggers who were either in it for the freebies or else gave positive r3eviews in exchange for product or cash.
I have absolutely no problem with people making money from their blogs -- it can be a legitimate business enterprise. But I am against people -- whether bloggers or "mainstream" journalists -- exploiting the trust their readers have in them by hyping products they may not really believe in.
Mommy bloggers had a reputation among PR people as, in general, being sell-outs. That seems to be a bit less the case now, but when I wrote my post more than two years ago, it was a fairly accurate assessment.