image credit: romanlily

It’s hard to be in the marketing biz without hearing about the power of bloggers — particularly “mommy” bloggers. These are the parents — usually fascinating people with large groups of friends — who put thoughts on parenthood, baby products and the other cavalcade of topics that surround the first few years of having a kid.
 
Because of the monumental nature of parenthood, people are hungry for content, companionship and comraderie when it happens to them. And a friendly face in the form of a personal blog is an obvious oasis amid all the sales pitches, self-help books and professional cockamamy of those who want your dollars to help that kid grow.
 
To this end, us folks in the social media group have been chewing on what this means and where it’s heading. We’ve gone to conferences, read numerous opinions and stories, and even helped formed strategies to influence the mommy bloggers for our clients.
 
More and more, you can see a line of discomfort for all parties developing along the issue of advertising. The concern for the mommy blogger is that a personal blog ceases to be personal when it’s overly influenced by corporations or outside forces. And the popular ones are being constantly hit with pitches for event attendance, product samples and so on.

I remember from my time reviewing cars for Edmunds.com
starting to see the bloggers first showing up on press trips to test
drive vehicles. Manufacturers have wined and dined the automotive press
for decades. Some publications would even reimburse the manufacturer
for the trip. But as blogs grew in influence, their authors would be
invited on these trips. And you could see the difficulty they had
giving a bad review to a car they had just driven in Hawaii while
staying in a five star resort. And when the reader realizes the author
has been bought, it’s not worth reading.
 
The mommies are right
in the crosshairs at this moment. Here in Los Angeles, Google is
actively running ads on the radio directing mom bloggers to sign up for
their advertising network, with step by step instructions on how to add
the service. Incredible.
 
So we at Threeminds tracked down a popular mom blogger Katja Presnal
who features some advertising on her site and is actively being courted
by marketers aplenty. Here’s a look at where she comes down on the
current state of the parenting blog and advertising.
 
Do you avoid advertising? Would it compromise anything in your mind?
I
already belong to an advertising network, and have some ads on my site,
and I don’t want my blog to have any more. If my readers think I blog
only to make money from it via advertising I think it might affect the
relationship with my readers. My personal goal isn’t make money
directly with my blog via advertising or affiliate sales.
 
Is there a $ point at which it would simply be ridiculous to turn it down?
Yes, I’m sure there is, but I still wouldn’t advertise certain products or services how ever much they paid.
 
How
have you felt on blogs where advertising has been aggressively adopted?
Is there a point at which you as a reader are turned off?
Yes,
because it makes me question which the blogger cares [about] more – the
readers and the content or making money with ads. But if it is a person
I have known for a long time, and still writing the same way as before
ads on the site, it doesn’t bother me. I go there for content, not for
ads. But it’s different if I am visiting a new blog and don’t know the
blogger yet.
 
Is there any special treatment of
advertising in this genre? Do you feel like you are somewhat endorsing
products if you feature ads? And given the nature of parenthood…this
raises that stakes as compared to a baseball or comic book blog, for
instance?
In mommy blogs, I think differently if they are
small buttons and directly sold ads – then I do sometimes think they
are products the blogger endorses and recommends. If the ads are google
ads or ad network ads, I know the blogger doesn’t have same control
over them, and I don’t think they personally recommend the products or
services. I think every parent makes their own parenting choices and
there are a lot of things other parents recommend me and I would never
do, and I certainly could never “blame” a blogger or anyone else for me
making a bad parenting or purchasing choice.
 
So, really, it
all comes down to choices. If you’re a blogger — female, mom or
otherwise — do you think Google is capitalizing on a growing, perhaps
vulnerable, market?

Mike Hudson