Type-A Mom Conference is a unique mom blogging and social media conference designed to help you take it to the next level. The conference will feature some of the most influential, admired and insightful mom bloggers and movers and shakers in the business community talking about topics like power social networking, branding, blogging, finding your voice, and turning your passion for blogging into a real paycheck.

Friday day-time will be devoted to Type-A Mom Business, and then in the afternoon we will feature the speed dating and reception. Saturday will feature break-out sessions for the following tracks: passions, practicalities, dads and tribes, followed in the evening by a cocktail reception. Sunday will open with the Mom Market, followed by a general session, the popular Blogger Town Hall Meeting, the keynote, and possibly an evening activity of some sort.

The Super Early Bird rate is available now, but the time is limited and the number of tickets available at this price is limited as well.

Find out more: Type-A Mom Conference

Photos of Type-A Mom Blogger Town Hall Meeting by Rick Bucich of Tiny Prints.

We are not simply complaining about that article. There is a pattern heavily in the New York Times, but also in other major newspapers, of condescending to and insulting mom bloggers. I am here to say that it is time we take a stand against it.

Here are but a few snippets from the latest New York Times article about the Bloggy Bootcamp conference in Baltimore:

ON a brisk Saturday morning this month, a dedicated crew of about 90 women, most in their 30s or thereabouts, arrived at a waterfront hotel here, prepared for a daylong conference that offered to school them in the latest must-have skill set for the minivan crowd.

Teaching your baby to read? Please. How to hide vegetables in your children’s food? Oh, that’s so 2008.

And this is in reference to my friend Tara’s session on SEO (something, incidentally, many companies have budgets for in the thousands annually):

Heed the speaker’s advice, and you, too, might get 28,549 views of your tutu-making tutorial! Whereas so-called mommy blogs were once little more than glorified electronic scrapbooks, a place to share the latest pictures of little Aidan and Ava with Great-Aunt Sylvia in Omaha, they have more recently evolved into a cultural force to be reckoned with.

Why is it so shocking that moms would discuss something besides parenting? How ridiculous. Why was this even in the Style section? If it were a tech conference for men the tone would be entirely different. It would go in business. It would not mention minivans. And I won’t even get into “glorified electronic scrapbooks.” I know many moms who have blogged about topics such as business and social media and politics for years that go well beyond that little dig.

Yes, mom blogging is an industry. It isn’t something cute we adorable widdle mommies do to share diaper stories. Whether we’re making money or not (mostly not), it is an industry. There are plenty of industries in which many workers in it make little or no money, such as writing, fine art and acting.

We get marginalized for a few reasons, including:

• We are women who are, perhaps for one of the first times, far better at something than men in many cases and far better in an industry that is making a major impact. I should explain that I know many, many men who are talented, brilliant bloggers, but that isn’t surprising. For women to stand out in an industry that major corporations are clamoring to get involved with just sits wrong with some people.
• We are excelling in the media landscape, which doesn’t sit well with traditional media.
• We are turning our backs on the mold that has been created for us.
• We are threatening to traditional publishers, mostly old white men who couldn’t write a blog or use Twitter if you put a gun to their heads.
• Newspaper circulation keeps declining, while blog readership and authorship keeps growing.
• Writing snarky articles about mom bloggers encourages mom bloggers to share links and drive readers to the newspaper’s web site. (Here’s a hint, New York Times… we would share positive coverage just as much, if not more).

We are trying to make a living by creating content, and for that we get demeaned, criticized, talked down to, made fun of, and stereotyped as unethical money and swag grabbing whores.

I know of a few other organizations that make their money creating content. Namely, mainstream media.

Mom blogging is a new media revolution.

Many moms blog because we have found the current establishment unacceptable in many cases. How many mom bloggers were once career women? How many have a day job but hope to one day make enough from their blog to leave it? How many found it difficult to balance career and family? How many found it even more difficult to convince their employer to give an inch to make it easier: allow working from home, allow flex time, allow job sharing?

In the midst of this down economy, how many blogging moms kept food on their children’s tables or a roof over their heads?

Mom bias begins in the newsroom.

I left newspapers after 15 years, despite loving my work and being a third-generation journalist raised by two journalists because the field was so family-unfriendly. In fact, another layer of this bias against mom bloggers in media is that the same bias exists in many newsrooms against moms who work there.

Newspapers want employees who place their job above all else in their lives. Moms just won’t do that, and that is a problem. There is this sense that moms, who can’t be on call 24-7 because they have children they need to care for, have it easier than childless reporters. Anyone who thinks being a reporter and a parent is an easily life is a fool.

Women blogging is a revolution, a rejection of the status quo. We have been forced into a box for centuries, and we refuse to accept it. We refuse to be told we have to choose between success and motherhood. We refuse to follow the unbending rules of corporate jobs that in many cases make you prioritize job over family. Most of all, we refuse to accept that mainstream media, with its quality decline and clear bias, should be the only source of information.

It is getting to the point that I am frankly embarrassed for the traditional media. They are making fools of themselves. They are abandoning all of their allegedly dear principles, such as bias, fair reporting and serving readers, in their need to belittle moms and women, in their desperation to remain viable and profitable. They could devote that energy instead to pursuing real journalism, investigative journalism, interacting and hearing their readers, and learning the social media landscape so they could cease the deterioration of their industry.

It amazes me how many commented at Liz’s post that mom bloggers should just be happy to be getting coverage. We don’t need coverage. We are far better masters at building buzz and engaging with readers than newspapers are. Thanks, but no thanks.

When I was a reporter, even covering controversial beats (which is really all I did cover), I always balanced reporting even of cops, courts, politics and business with a mix of positive and negative articles. That, my friends, is lacking bias. You should cover the whole picture, and represent the beat comprehensively.

Liz did a fabulous job of listing the many amazing stories from the mom blogosphere that are being missed, so I won’t try to replicate that. Major newspapers missed the entire story of Jaeli, where mom bloggers joined forces to save the life of a baby. Apparently, that isn’t newsworthy. Most missed the amazing and inspirational story of Anissa Mayhew, a fellow mom blogger whose stroke motivated an entire community of hundreds of bloggers to rally in her support.

If you think this post is about one snarky article, or even just one snarky article by the New York Times, I would like to offer a collective of their so-called fair and balanced reporting of the mom blogosphere. (I use so-called because I find it amusing, considering how many times news articles have referred to us as “so-called mom bloggers,” like it’s some sort of scam).

Here is just a small sampling of mainstream media coverage of mom bloggers. I’ll start with New York Times:

There was Drinking in the Land of Mommy Blogdom (and yes, it’s about what you think it is).

Then there was Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor, which goes so far as to insinuate that moms get kickbacks:

The proliferation of paid sponsorships online has not been without controversy. Some in the online world deride the actions as kickbacks. Others also question the legitimacy of bloggers’ opinions, even when the commercial relationships are clearly outlined to readers.

And the Federal Trade Commission is taking a hard look at such practices and may soon require online media to comply with disclosure rules under its truth-in-advertising guidelines.

A short two months later, the New York Times writes about dad bloggers getting in on this action. You can read the two articles for yourself to compare tones, but this one has but a brief mention of FTC guidelines. Instead, this is mentioned:

Sony emphasizes that the products it is sending daddy bloggers are on loan, not gifts, and bloggers are not being pressured to write positive reviews. “We expect the reviews to be very honest,” said Marcy Cohen, a Sony spokeswoman.

I believe the title of this one speaks for itself: Beauty Blogs Come of Age: Swag Please!

Ah, and he is an oldie but a goodie. Mom’s Mad. And She’s Organized. Noteworthy quote:

A BABY was passed around like the hors d’oeuvres.

Nice. Clearly, this was an article about something cute and trite, right? Not so much. It was about MomsRising, an organization to empower and give political might to moms.

The only nugget of wisdom about moms I found on New York Times has such irony, especially when you consider their coverage of an industry of women bloggers. The Anti-Mommy Bias isn’t specific to mom bloggers (that must be how it slipped past editors), but it sure is enlightening on this topic. Just replace employers with journalists for a snicker.

Employers sometimes assume that women with care responsibilities will be, and should be, less committed to their jobs. Such assumptions and beliefs can influence employment outcomes even when caregivers work just as long and hard as everybody else…

In one experiment, about 200 undergraduates were asked to rate paired applications for an imaginary midlevel managerial job. Both female and male students rated mothers lower on competence and commitment, recommended lower salaries for them, and judged them less worthy of promotion than childless women.

In an even more convincing audit study, fictional résumés and cover letters were sent to employers advertising midlevel marketing and business job openings at a large Northeastern city newspaper. Childless women received 2.1 times as many callbacks as mothers. Fathers, however, were not penalized.

What did I say about bias against moms in the newsroom? Yeah.

To be fair, New York Times is not the only newspaper to show bias against moms who blog. Here is a sampling of some of the oh-so flattering coverage in other major newspapers:

• Paid to Pitch by Wall Street Journal
• Is a Crackdown Looking for Parent Blogs? by Wall Street Journal. Just FYI, WSJ, but the FTC regulations were for bloggers. I’m not sure where parent came from there.
• To Create Buzz, TV Networks Try a Little ‘Blogola’ by Wall Street Journal
• Blogging Moms Wooed by Firms: Food Giants Provide Lavish Goodies, Parents Provide the Buzz. Is it Ethical? by LA Times.

I know this is a long post and I know these are a lot of links. But I have a reason for that. This is not an isolated incident. This isn’t even just one major newspaper. This is a pattern.

I would say that we should boycott newspapers, but are we even reading them? I mean, except when they write this drivel? And we are forced to either ignore it or drive readers their way by criticizing it.

We need to take a stand. So what are we going to do about it?

Edited to add: I think we are all at a loss as to what to do about this. I wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times, and I highly recommend you also write one. There are instructions here. I would also recommend emailing the Times’ ombudsman at public@nytimes.com. His name is Clark Hoyt, and this is the paper’s description of his role: “The public editor works outside of the reporting and editing structure of the newspaper and receives and answers questions or comments from readers and the public, principally about articles published in the paper.” We may not be a big corporation, but our voices are our might.

Photo of man with newspaper and woman with laptop, © FaceMePLS on Flickr.

You can find out more at Mom Blog SEO.

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Many mom bloggers I know are brilliant. They know the ins and outs of social media, Twitter, Facebook and blogging far better than many other so-called gurus do. They are connected, and they are influential. They have a following of loyal and devoted readers, subscribers and social network friends.

Yet they get asked to work for free. They are free spokesbloggers. They get asked to promote companies without pay, or for products or for coupons or for trips.

It’s insulting.

Look, here’s the deal. Mom bloggers do not need companies to not make money. We can do that all on our own. Really. If you are approaching a blogger, asking her to promote your company for free is wrong. It’s as simple as that. If you can say with a straight face that your paycheck is paid in your company’s or client’s products, then please. Call me on this.

We get asked constantly if people can “pick our brains.” No! Our brains are our commodity. They ARE our service. That is called consulting. And moms, if you find you are on the end of this, figure out your hourly rate. Figure out what it is worth to take time away from your work, your blogging, your children and your husband.

When you get asked to have your brain picked, quote your hourly rate for that service.

Now I do understand that many times it is tempting. You see an opportunity to work with a major brand. You think working for free will lead to more work. I do understand that. But it is a slippery slope. Why should someone pay you (or anyone for that matter) for work you are doing for free?

Accepting an item to do a review (if you really want to do that review and it serves your readers) is fine. I would just recommend having a policy of including both pros and cons in all reviews. A review should serve readers first and foremost. Any company that doesn’t understand that? Well, I wouldn’t work with that company. Believe me. They are not insisting traditional journalists do positive reviews. Mom bloggers can and should write reviews that show both the negative and positive about products.

And ladies, I am here to say something else. We have to behave like professionals. If we want to be treated as small business women, which is what we are, we should act like entrepreneurs. No more attacks and back-stabbing. We are adults here.

That includes not judging and condemning fellow mom bloggers. Yes, even those who accept products and trips. They are not bad people. Let’s stop jumping down their throats about it. Because the bottom line is surely every mom blogger would work for pay if there were ethical ways to do it, it did not compromise their readers and they actually wanted to do the work involved. But first, companies have to offer it as a standard mode of doing business with mom bloggers.

How can companies ethically pay mom bloggers? Here are some simple options:

• Pay them for content on your site, not theirs. In response to this issue, I recently launched Momtent. It is geared at connecting companies with mom bloggers. I am not a fan of paid posts (although with full disclosure, it is a personal choice and I don’t like people telling moms the right way to blog). Momtent’s model is for companies to pay bloggers to write on the company blog. But with or without Momtent, why not hire a mom to write for your blog? Or build it for you? Or tell you how you’re blogging wrong?
• Advertise. Quit looking at blog advertising the same way you look at traditional advertising. It isn’t the 1990s. They aren’t the same, and never will be. Besides, all those metrics that make you feel all warm and fuzzy about traditional media? They are a smoke screen. Traditional advertising metrics like viewers and circulation mean nothing. Who is seeing your ad? Who cares about it when they see it? Who ACTS on it? And treat blogs with some degree of respect. For traditional media, companies pursue two prongs: they hope to get PR coverage but know it’s a toss-up, and they do media buys. On blogs, they just want free coverage. Watch for a future post about the less tangible benefits of advertising on blogs.
• Hire her as a spokesblogger. This certainly isn’t a new concept. Celebrities have been doing this for years. Hire a mom blogger to promote your company with transparency, and to clearly state she is a spokesblogger. Pay her as you would any spokesperson. The same rules apply for moms here as celebrities: don’t endorse something (even for pay) that you don’t already love.
• Hire her as a social media consultant. Mom bloggers know so much more than the average person (or company) about the social web. Hire a mom to walk you through the ins and outs, to have conference calls with your staff, to do training, to run your social media campaigns, to develop your social media strategy. Believe me, doing it wrong can have dreadful repercussions.

I have become increasingly concerned about all of these issues. So many mom bloggers are influence-rich but cash-poor. That is a disturbing disparity. It’s also one destined to blow up as moms get increasingly frustrated while getting increasingly influential.

Let’s all do the right thing here. Companies (and the agencies that represent them), if you want to show your support of the mom blogosphere and engage those of us who control the purse strings, put your money where your mouth is. Bloggers, if you want to be taken seriously act like a business person. And the next time you get a pitch and you are agonizing over whether it even interests your readers, send them your ad rates.

_{Image of Rosie the Blogger, © Michael Licht}

I really would welcome your thoughts on this topic. What do you think? If you have worked for a company without pay, why? Was it because you thought it would lead to paid work down the road?  Did it? Have you had any luck responding to companies with an invitation to advertise when they pitch you? Companies and agencies, have you been paying bloggers and have some good examples of projects?

• Provide professional training such as business advice on things like setting up a company, registering for a trademark, etc.
• Have a group health plan to make insurance more affordable and accessible to WAHMs who blog.
• Have sample contracts as well as a lawyer who can review contracts for members (certainly some lawyer would consider doing it pro bono in exchange for massive mom blogger buzz).
• Establish minimum rates for paying bloggers for content, spokesperson roles, advertising, etc. (I am thinking an extensive survey of members could produce great information for that)
• Establish some basic standards and ethics (again, community-driven).
• Have job listings to match bloggers with paying gigs.
• Perhaps some day have a lobbyist in Washington to represent the blogger perspective when issues such as the FTC regulations surface.

I think it’s very important to have people both on the corporate side who work with bloggers as well as bloggers involved. I am even thinking there could be two types of memberships with different benefits for bloggers and companies.

Bottom line: there needs to be a voice for mom bloggers.

Of course, it is very important that the guild be representative of the community and that some of the brightest minds involved in the mom blogosphere help guide the guild. I am forming an advisory board. I have some wonderful inquiries already but want to be sure as many people hear about this as possible before the board is selected. If you are interested, please fill out the form below. Yes, company representatives who work heavily with mom bloggers are welcome to apply (and yes, men too).

_{Graphic of women copyright Hilde Vanstraelen.}

The reason I can offer tips? I spent 15 years in newspapers. Writer’s block was not a luxury that could be afforded when you have multiple stories some days that have to be written or they are no longer timely. In that business, you have to feed the beast. And it is hungry.

Here are a few ways to break past it:

• Step away from the computer. Grab a notebook or journal, head outside on your deck or porch with a cup of coffee, and try blogging old school. Sometimes a simple change of scenery is all you need. Our brain needs new stimulus to be, well, stimulated.
• Read blogs. Spend a day in which you vow to do nothing but poke around fellow bloggers’ feeds. Vow there will be no chatting, no Twitter (OK, limited Twitter…), just consuming blogs. You are bound to be inspired or get a few ideas sparked. Grab that same notebook and write down any blog headlines you think up. There’s no need to get fancy, just make a list of potential post ideas.
• Brainstorm ideas. The SEO on me loves a way to break blogger’s block and do some site optimization at the same time. Yes, SEO can be creative. (I keep saying that and people look at me like I am crazy). Here’s how: go into your stats program. See which keyword phrases are sending you the most traffic. See which posts get the most clicks from Twitter. Now start from there, and brainstorm ideas for similar posts or posts that expand on your original one. Don’t fret over whether the ideas are excellent, just freewrite. You don’t have to do them all. You just want a list of ideas to consult when you are blocked. The great part? When you write them, you can link to your original post and go to your original post to link to the new content. That will make your blog stickier.
• Walk away. Sometimes what our brain needs is a break. Get outside. Do something fun. Visit a local attraction. Hey, you have to do something to have material for the blog anyway, right? Your mind might just need a reboot.
• Forget the distractions. Blogging is so much more than writing. That can be good, and that can be bad. The bad side is that it can become easy getting so caught up in the tasks of being a publisher (that is really what bloggers are) that we forget the reason we are doing this to begin with: we enjoy it! Don’t look at your stats. Don’t worry about what your readers like. Write for you and just for the joy of it. And odds are? You’ll get the traffic and your readers will love it.

I hope some of this is helpful. I would love to hear what works for you when your brain just won’t blog. How do you break blogger’s block?

Photo of frustrated blogger, copyright channah at sxc.hu

In a nutshell, I have this to say about the conference: it was so much more than I ever could have hoped! It was inspiring, moving, I dare say cathartic!

Whether we like it or not, whether we planned it or not, mom blogging is a new industry and we are its pioneers. To be in a room full of 250-300 pioneers, laying it all on the line, was unbelievable. To engage with the brands and marketers who get it, who want to be immersed in our community, was stunning.

My main takeaways from Type-A Mom Conference:

• We moms who blog are wildly diverse, as beautifully, splendidly different from one another as (to be painfully cliche) snowflakes. Yet we are all part of the same community. We can debate civilly. We can support one another. We can laugh and cry together (OK, much more than I would have preferred since I hate crying in public). We can join together to make a difference.
• There is something intangible and valuable beyond a pricetag about bringing us together in the same room. The relationships we form online, on blogs, on Twitter, on Facebook, those allow us to seek out people with much more in common than geography ever would. Meeting face to face creates an evolved relationship, something forged with stronger bonds than friends we have solely online or solely in real life can.
• Many of us are rich in influence and cash poor, and something needs to be done about that. For some, blogging is done purely for the joy of it. That is wonderful! For many moms, blogging is a business. It’s time we command respect and begin to earn real revenue for our knowledge, reach and hard work.

I have so much more to say about the conference. This is just the slightest summary. I have so many people, both companies and moms, to thank. There are so many people who, without their support, effort and investment, Type-A Mom Conference would not have been possible. I will devote an entire post to thanking people because I am afraid (being quite tired and sick right now) that I will forget someone important.

Just know that I am in awe of our community, of our minds, or our abilities, of our creativity and our hearts. There is nothing we can’t accomplish. That was my lesson from Type-A Mom.

Here are some details about the conference:

Type-A Mom Conference is a unique mom blogging conference designed to help you take it to the next level. The conference will feature some of the most influential, admired and insightful mom bloggers talking about topics like power social networking, branding, blogging, finding your voice, and turning your passion for blogging into a real paycheck.

When? Sept. 24-27

Where? Asheville, NC

Find out more at the official Type-A Mom Conference site.

And be sure to register before 11:55 p.m. July 1st. The current Super Early Bird rate of $100 is half the full price, and it ends (and bumps up $50) in mere hours.

_{Photo © National Rural account on Flickr, used via Creative Commons license.}

Beyond that, I think everyone needs to remember that there are no clear answers on all of this. That’s the bottom line.

It’s easy to say bloggers can’t take money for any reason, but don’t moms who put time and effort into their blogs deserve to earn some money for them? Blogging is not traditional journalism. I’ve said it many, many times, but the key here is disclosure. And when I say disclosure, I mean obvious and clear disclosure. And a little soul searching before you accept a check from a company is in order because there is no secret code about when that is appropriate or not.

On the one extreme, we have far too many mommy bloggers who don’t see their value at all. On the other extreme, we have bloggers who do nothing but use their blogs to pimp out products and make money. I say to all mommy bloggers: you need to find a place between those two extremes. Where exactly we all belong is the tricky part.

I also would argue that if you call it a review, it can’t be paid to do it. That is highly misleading. On Type-A Mom, for example, the guidelines call for all reviews to have both pros and cons. I want to be sure that we are all fairly testing and writing about the products there. I would recommend any blogger who labels a post a review do the same thing. It’s one thing to get the product to review, which simply makes sense if a company wants items reviewed. It’s another to accept cold cash to do the review.

When it boils down to it, blogging ethics shouldn’t be all that complicated. Like in any medium, the reader should come first. That sounds nice on paper, but even traditional outlets stopped putting the reader or viewer first years ago. So let me break down a few of the angles and considerations here.

Because this discussion about blogging ethics is one that needs to happen, and now. In fact, several months ago I bought the domain BloggerCodeofEthics.com. I think it’s well past time to launch it. This will be a site to develop a basic code of ethics with a strong emphasis on disclosure vs. the traditional media emphasis on avoiding bias (which was never truly realistic anyway). It will not make anyone any money. I would love to have some contributors there on the various topics related to blogging ethics, so if you are interested please comment below and I’ll be in touch.

Bloggers and Ethics

Let’s start with bloggers. Queen of Spain Blog featured a great post, I’m Calling Out the Carpetbagging Mommybloggers. Bloggers, you need to do some soul searching. Why ARE you blogging? If it is just to make a buck, I would suggest blogging isn’t the way to go about it at all.

I would say, however, the idea that advertising and editorial can be separate in blogging like they are in traditional media is just not realistic. First of all, it isn’t entirely separate in traditional media. It is in theory, but not in reality.

I’m here to say that traditional media is NOT the epitome of ethics and standards we’d all like to believe. I always found it rather hilarious that the Journalist’s Code of Ethics stated journalists cannot receive any compensation, gifts, free travel, or items of value on the sources they cover, yet travel writers for years have gotten a pass on that rule by many newspapers and magazines. Why? Because media outlets cannot afford to pay the expenses of the high cost of travel. So basically, it works like this: we will be ethical until it is just too expensive or inconvenient.

I had to laugh to read what Jessica Smith posted. She was quoted in the Wall Street Journal and is taking a ton of heat about it. But she nailed it. The idea that traditional media would slam bloggers about ethics? Laughable!

Here is a snippet from her post, Blogging, Double Standards and Recommendations:

Bloggers are being scrutinized for transparency and disclosure issues but the same “traditional” media that’s reporting on it?  Pot.  Meet.  Kettle.

The other point to note there is that mommy bloggers cannot separate it. A newspaper or TV station has one whole part of the building filled with humans who sell ads, and a whole other part of the building filled with humans who report the news. They rarely cross paths.

A mom blogger is usually writer, editor, administrator, general manager, producer and ad sales rep all rolled into one. There is no true separation. So that makes it all the more important for we bloggers to establish ethics standards and guidelines.

Obvious, Clear Disclosure is the Answer

So I get back to my main point of disclosure. As I said a while back in my post about bias in newspapers, readers don’t seem terribly concerned that bloggers are biased. What is crucial is that readers get informed about those biases. It is a breach of reader trust if you do something for pay and don’t say that is why you are doing it. It’s as simple as that, and that part is not complicated.

I don’t mean with a sidebar or bottom of page button that links to a computer-generated page that generally states you might be paid to write certain posts. That’s not good enough. Any post that was touched by a payment or a personal bias in some way should say so. It doesn’t need to be detailed, but you should share. And if you would feel awkward or embarrassed stating it in the post, you probably are doing something wrong.

The main guide I always used as a newspaper reporter was this: would I be embarrassed if this was reporter in the newspaper? Could I defend myself? I say the same thing applies to bloggers. Whenever you are blogging for pay or any sort of benefit, ask yourself those questions.

I love the ideas that Amy Lupold Bair, a.k.a. Resourcefulmommy, put out there after reading the Wall Street Journal article and the Queen of Spain post. In her post, Resourcefulmommy Changes, she indicates that she will include a button that says “product provided” in reviews where that is the case.

Reality is this: if mommy bloggers have to buy everything they review, there will be very few reviews. A professional blogger can still do a fair review.

Anyone whose opinion can be bought with a free product probably should reconsider blogging or sharing opinions, for that matter. Because blogging is about being personal, interacting with your readers, and being real. If you stop being real, you should stop blogging.

Blogging Ethics and Companies

I also think companies, ad agencies, PR firms all need to be brought into this discussion. Believe it or not, they are not evil people. I have some friends and clients in these realms, and I am here to tell you that many of them are struggling just like the bloggers. I would even say more so, since they don’t have the insider sense of the blogging community.

Just a few months ago, many bloggers would lament that companies don’t take bloggers seriously. Well, hey, we won! They are slowly but surely getting it. Sure, they might have some etiquette blunders, but let’s all cut them some slack.

And there is a reason why issues like paid posts are coming up. We all know that advertising is not terribly effective. Companies are doing what we have been TELLING them to do for years. They are trying to join the conversation. But for them, there aren’t as many natural ways to do that. So they are getting creative.

They are not out to offend bloggers. They want to engage with bloggers. They want to help their clients enter the social sphere. They have staff meetings, they attend webinars, and they go to conferences just to get the slightest hint of how to do that properly. There are not clear answers on how best to do that.

This is really the Wild West, and we should all keep in mind that things were much simpler for these people a year ago. I always feel like no matter what is said or done, I want to encourage marketers who are making an attempt. That is monumental.

But to those marketers, I also want to say this: some bloggers do not have a media background and are not that savvy. You should not take advantage. Blogging ethics are your responsibility, too. You should insist that bloggers disclose. You should be sure the bloggers are comfortable with the arrangement. You should NEVER attempt to buy a blogger’s opinion.

Buy an ad on their blog, and you might see the blogger naturally talks about your company. Even the blogs that don’t mention direct advertising would probably consider it if you make a polite offer. Personally, I think giveaways are a great way to get involved in the conversation since the blogger gets added traffic, the company gets exposure, and the readers love them.

You can insist that they also disclose that the company provided the prizes. Providing prizes for contests is not something remotely new to the blogosphere. But seriously. Contests decades before blogging even existed have had prizes provided by companies, so I doubt many readers think the bloggers themselves are buying all those prizes out of their own pockets.

Navigating the Blogging Ethics Gray Area

This is no simple thing for bloggers. There are no clear cut rules about what’s acceptable or not. I would say go with your gut.

If you don’t want your readers to know your arrangement, and in simple, non euphemistic terms that can confuse, then you should say no. If a company paid you to post, say it very clearly in the text. Tell exactly what was involved. You don’t have to say exact dollars, but if you received a gift card to write about something, say so. If you were paid to post on a certain subject by a company, say that. If you are writing about a company you do consultant work for, say so.

There are some very clever ways you can disclose besides the obvious. You can say so in the post in just a sentence or two near the top of the post. Plus, you can add a button that is high profile and not buried at the bottom that says the post is sponsored. Newspapers, magazines and TV all have had advertorials and paid programming for years (and I would argue some are not so clearly labeled as such). Bloggers are not the first to invent this.

You can have regular posts on your site that feature an icon like Featured Client. There are some fun ways to be clear to readers. If you find this all results in less traffic and interaction on your blog, then you need to think about what’s more important.

Personally, I don’t see how a review can be paid and still be a review, so I would consider using different terms.

But it all boils down to this. As bloggers, we will encounter many occasions to consider doing something for money. Every time, think about what that means.

When you represent a company as a blogger in some fashion, that is not the same as doing other work. You are selling a piece of your personal brand. If the company is a good fit for you, fine. If it’s something you would blog about or spread the word about for free because it is something you like or love or believe in, then great. If it’s something that interests your readers anyway, cool.

If not, walk away. We all need to feed our families, but let’s not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs here.

Each and every time, you have to decide whether the money is really worth it and whether it benefits your readers. Each and every time, you need to examine whether what you are about to do is ethical. Because like it or not, you are part of a community and you will be judged by that community for your actions. Be sure you can defend yourself, both to the community and to yourself.

And never forget: without your readers, none of these opportunities would happen. You owe them.

_{Photo of mommy blogger, © Channah at Sxc.hu}