Call me what you will, but I am not a “sell out.”
That label, though, is being thrown around the blog world like spam e-mail and it has finally hit us mothers.
“Mommy blogging” has taken off in the last five years, and many moms turn to popular mom blogs to get advice on parenting issues such as potty training and discipline, and to read product reviews for kid-friendly items, from cereal to strollers. The ethical problem comes when bloggers start doing daily posts that turn into internet PR for the manufacturers rather than the advice, stories and personality that are the blog’s true substance. Along those same lines, readers may not be clear about what products the blogger genuinely likes and uses of their own volition, and those products that bloggers are merely being paid, or at least given free merchandise, to review.
The debate over the ethical side of blogging came to a climax at the BlogHer conference, held last month in Chicago, with bloggers joining to form a new blog about how to keep blogging to its’ truest form, called Blog With Integrity. Yes, a blog about blogging. Bloggerific. However, as a result of the site’s efforts, hundreds of bloggers have signed a pact vowing to disclose to readers which posts are true content, and which are paid advertisements.
As a blogger myself, I never accept offers from companies if it means using a product that I would never truly buy, and if I dislike a product, I do not hesitate to tell my readers. As a reader, it has been fairly obvious to me which product reviews are done because the blogger truly would normally use the product and if it falls into their blog genre, or if it is a product that is appearing on multiple blogs and is not something that would even have been on the blogger’s radar. For example, if a vegan mom blogger is suddenly promoting a new line of beef jerky, I’m going to get suspicious. As a result, there have been times when I have chosen not to return to a blog that I feel is no longer giving sincere, unsolicited content.
Maybe these bloggers are getting free blenders and jerky, but if the cost is readers, perhaps it’s just not worth it.
