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I believe that it is easy to get caught up in the reviews. It's like a drug and you have to learn to balance it out or it can take over your blog. I found this true on my own blog. Now that I am finishing up the reviews waiting for me, I will be making my blog more about my family and life as a mom. That is how it started and what my intentions were. I will continue to accept reviews but will begin to be very picky about those I pick.

I do not see blogs that are strictly review blogs as less credible. I do want to KNOW the person behind the review though. The more that person lets me in, the more I trust their opinion. I do research products (on more than just one blog) before I buy and before I accept a review. It is just logical. Since I began reviews, I have learned of so many products and companies that I have since become loyal to.

Great article.

I am a soon-to-be first-time mom (any day now!), and someone who has become literally obsessed with mom-blogs over the last few months. I think it is amazing and inspirational that women who blog can actually make a living doing it. I am jealous, in fact!

As for advertisements, they don't bother me. Everyone needs to make a living, and the enjoyment I get from reading the blogs is FAR outweighed by any banners/links/ads that are up on the page.

Endorsements are also par for the course, but I would be suspicious of a mom-blog which focused almost exclusively on reviewing products. To me, that is not a "mommy blog," and I would be much less likely to give credence to the reviews I find in a blog like that. However, when someone is judicious in their use of reviews, I am more likely to listen - and then do research of my own. Heather Armstrong over at Dooce is a great example of that. In the years since her blog has been up, I can count only a small number of times I have read something like "You need to try THIS!"

If advertisers want to cash in on what they see as a popular (i.e., potentially lucrative) website, and they send products, coupons and the like to the blogger in question in the hopes they will get a positive writeup - more power to the blogger, I say. I wouldn't run out and buy something that a blogger told me to without doing my own research any more than I would buy something because a stranger stopped me on the street and said "You need THIS!" I don't need the FTC or a PR Blackout week to teach me to be a savvy consumer - and I would hope that no one else does, either!

I just read a stupid Clorox based one. Ugg I feel so pandered too

" love the fact that my kids know that the house is clean and safe when they see the Clorox Wipes container on the counter, too." That is such an annoying statement!

I made the case for having a separate review blog (which is what I have) a while back on my Suburban Turmoil blog and all hell broke loose. But that's what I prefer, both as a writer and reader.

I think mom bloggers can and should enjoy the perks that come with being a mom blogger right now (i.e, free stuff) if they choose, but I like keeping my reviews/giveaways and my personal stories separate. That way, everybody wins and no one's being "tricked" into reading a review post unless she wants to.

As for the argument that reviews are more effective if they're "woven into your personal narrative?" The idea actually nauseates me, although I have nothing against women who choose to do it. It's just something I'm personally dislike as a practice.

I liken it to the old-school days of Avon/Mary Kay and Tupperware parties (now adays it's bags, right??).  Personally, at least with regard to mommyblogs I regularly read, I kind of think of the bloggers as my "friends" (in a loose sense-- not in a a stalker wierdo sense!).  I would be annoyed if my friends were CONSTANTLY hitting me up to come to their Tupperware/Avon etc. parties, as if all I am is a potential income source.  Yeah sure, I'll come to a party or two-- you like a product, maybe I will too-- but if every time I see you it's [product placement here],  forget it.

I don't care one way or the other.  I ignore ads and reviews on blogs.   If I want to see a product review, I'll go to a reliable source like Consumer Reports or Cooks Illustrated (I like to cook, and nobody beats their tests/reviews of cooking equipment).  I can't imagine paying any attention to what some blogger says about the new-and-better brand of dish detergent, or Pampers vs. Luvs, or whatever.  I might as well just wander down the street and ask the first stranger I meet.

Advertising, of all kinds, has always involved a degree of "spoiling of the commons". If any kind of advertising -- billboards, newspaper ads, TV ads, browser pop-unders -- is effective, other advertisers will leap at it, increase the quantity of it, and thus render it annoying and cause its effectiveness to decrease.

But to some degree the advertisers don't care. If using a particular kind of advertising works today, why should they give a damn if it makes that kind of advertising useless tomorrow? That's tomorrow's problem to solve.

In this particular case, it's the bloggers themselves who are the only ones who would have any incentive to try to maintain the value of their blogs as ways of communicating. If a blogger becomes greedy and turns their blog into 100% advertising, readers will bleed away and soon there won't be any.

I completely agree with this Katie!

"It's my belief that bloggers who do an excessive number of product reviews and endorsements likely don't wield the same kind of meaningful influence with their audience as the ones who do very few or more judiciously chosen paid reviews and endorsements. And some mombloggers may have a smaller audience, but within that audience, they have more credibility, meaning that their reviews are theoretically more valuable to sponsors."

yes yes yes!

I also have to agree with Katie on this one. I have begun to avoid mommyblogs that have an overload of endorsements and reviews. Don't get me wrong on this, I don't have a problem with product reviews and endorsements on a personal blog. It is just that when they are overly obvious and detracting from my enjoyment of the blog and what that particular blogger has to say then I move on. It takes a while for me to come to the decision to unsubscribe from a blog but it has been happening more frequently as more mommybloggers seem to get caught up in endorsements on their sites.

I agree with everything above. I've turned to reading only blogs of my friends and blogger "friends" (non-stalker meaning!)that are "keeping it real." As it turns out they're doing the best/funniest writing so I'm not losing anything, endorsements become such a distraction for the writer and reader.

The ads don't bother me; I simply tune them out, and rapidly skip over any simpering product love.  And I stop visiting any blogs that are more product endorsement than mommy blog.  I read mommy blogs because I love to read about moms and their daily lives.

Other than that, let moms endorse as much or as little as they wish and earn what they can based on their own analysis of the affect of such things on their blog stats.  

As well, you have to give the reading public some credit for being able to make discerning choices about what they choose to purchase.  I can't imagine there are too many of them rushing out irrationally and with no thought to buy some product to use on their children solely because they saw it on a mommy blog!

By the way, you have a link to this post from instapundit this morning.  Enjoy the traffic!

I've been blogging since 2004 and my blog has shifted into so many directions it's not even funny. When I first started blogging I always talked about my family and my children. Then that all started getting weird to me when people were coming in from Europe in droves looking at photos of my oldest daughter. I decided at that time that I would never blog about my kids or upload photos of them to the Net ever again. It really freaked me out.

Now my blog is only about product reviews and corporate campaigns I'm involved in. I talk about myself some, but mainly it's about products and brands. I'm okay with that. My traffic isn't huge, but it's large enough to make a difference in my life.

I'm not entirely sold that mom bloggers who blog about products and brands all of the time are less credible than those who choose who they work with more judiciously. I think it all depends on the mom and the relationship she has built with her readers/friends/followers. For example, a mom who works with few brands may have a small, but loyal following. A mom who meets with  

...and I didn't finish my thought. *The perils of commenting when helping your child sharpen a whole box of colored pencils. You forget where you're at.*

Anyway, what I was saying was:

For example, a mom who works with few brands may have a small, but loyal following. A mom who works with several brands may have a large following. It may not be a 100% loyal following, but it's a large following nonetheless. Who can tell who is more influential?

In this economy, we could all use a break from consumerism. Even when it's not a product-placement type of blog, parenting blogs are too much about "buy this, buy that", mostly useless or expensive designer stuff.

If a blogger is shilling a product please be up front about it, otherwise I don't care what you sell or say about a product. I'm not buying it anyway, I'm not a "consumer" anymore!

Advertising is a way for bloggers to make a good living. That's fine with me.

I like my advertisements served creatively with humor and not on a billboard. And no puppies killed making the ad.

antiadvertisingagency.com/.../foundation-for-freedom

I don't mind ads being featured on the side or top or bottom of the blog.  I can choose to look at them or not.  I don't like blogs that promote products, vacations, etc. That's not what I read a blog for and I usually don't read those entries and end up reading the actual blog less.  I read blogs to hear about the adventures of other moms and their kids.  I find it entertaining.  

I'm more likely to be drawn to interesting looking ads on the web page than to sit and read ad copy posing as a blog entry.  I know people need to make a living, and if they can manage to keep their readers while doing so, that's great.  But I won't be one of the patrons.

Great post -- in fact, it inspired our supermom copywriter to write one for our own blog (blog.cdginteractive.com/.../mamma-mia-are-mom-bloggers-selling-out-.html).

To us, especially in relationship to advising clients, it comes back to the social media tenet of transparency and disclosure.

Chris Brogan touched on a related concept when he talked about a different type of blog promotion, sponsored posting (www.chrisbrogan.com/i-support-the-future-of-sponsored-posts).

Disclose fully, provide something of value, and readers will decide whether to stay or go.