With more and more companies turning to mom bloggers as a way to delve into the minds and social networks of mommy buying groups, it raises the question:

Do you take a Mom Blogger whom is on the payroll for a company, seriously?

Everyday moms that are blogging put out product recommendations, reviews, giveaways, and pat boutiques on the back through twitter, link love, forums, and more. And thankfully they do, otherwise my business would have fallen on its back way back when. But what about moms who do paid reviews? There are so many networks out there that offer paid links like:

• Paid Per Post
• Review Me
• Blogsvertise
• Blogative
• PayU2Blog
• Sponsored Review

And its very easy to get caught up in making a few dollars. How do I get paid, what can I do to make money at home, yadda yadda.  In fact, I credit infomercials for making it look like you can make $5000 from home every week via the Internet. The fact is, you wont be doing that as a paid reviewer or blog writer, unless your Perez Hilton ($18K a week to be on his site) But what you can do for a mere $5 to push a product in a post, is ruin your credibility with fellow online followers.

But I put the question out there first, do you believe paid bloggers? As we recently learned Dooce and Pioneer woman are on the payrolls of Federated Media and putting out their opinions on the Target website, Christmas Wrapped. And with an Alexa rating of over 1.2 million, we are pretty sure their traffic isn’t really bringing it in. Newsflash to Target: We don’t want internet celebrities telling us which coasters they like. In fact, I can pretty much say I would never go out and purchase the items “recommended” by these bloggers, (that read more like an ad, then an endorsement of a great product).

I don’t want to be sold EVER when I am reading a review, I want to be TOLD. Meaning, dont “sell” me something, tell me why the product is great, when you got it, your experience with it, I want to see real pictures of it, I want to know that your family used it and loved it …or hated it. What I am pretty sure we will never see, is Dooce hopping on her Target website saying she just had a terrible experience at Target today with thier customer service. Or on her blog.

Even McDonalds has Moms out to tell us what to buy. From  the McDonald’s Moms Quality Correspondent site, they say ” Here they are – six real moms from all over the country, selected to represent you by asking tough questions to get real answers. They will help keep you informed as they continue to examine McDonald’s from the inside out.” These women are given a laptop and are paid for their “expenses” but McDonald’s insists they are not paid.

I believe that by buying a review or consultation, you take the integrity out of who is saying it. Trust me, if Target was signing my $5000 a month ad check, I may be recommending them all over the place, but who is going to say ‘Trisha said go to Target, it must be great, lets go’, instead, y’all are going to back up and say..how can we trust you now if someone is paying you to say it.  Now, if I get on here and said, today I went to Target and bought this amazing toy and the store was so clean, you are going to understand that experience because its sincere.

What companies have to realize is they have to keep it real. Moms are the smartest, and most influential, buyers out there. Please don’t insult us by assuming we would buy something because you found the biggest (already highest paid) bloggers on the net. Now, I get it, they have a lot of traffic in one swoop, but it makes more sense to take on several control groups across the US that represent a variety of online places to create a global atmosphere of women working together for a wonderful company. That is where the difference will be made.  Your going to turn more people into actually customers, by giving actual experiences, otherwise its nothing more then one big long infomercial.

When I run a review, I have a formula. I talk about first impressions, the item, the company, and then make a clear list on the things I like AND the things I didn’t like. The way I figure it, is if someone from here goes out and buys the product I’m talking about, I want them to know that I already listed the things i loved and didn’t love right there. Now the things I usually have negative to say are minor, but almost every product is going to have a plus and minus for every family, so I do my best to identify for both sides. I encourage any reviewer that is on the MomDot blog staff to do the same.

If a product is really bad, chances are you will never see it on MomDot at all because we don’t waste your time. I have twice let companies know that I could not recommend a product after using it and if they wanted me to print the review, I would, but it would not be positive. Both companies were receptive regarding my opinion. One chose for me not to print at all and one gave me the choice, and I chose not to waste any one’s time in the write up.

Recently Walmart joined the ranks of bringing on Mom Bloggers to assist with their image in the market place. But this isn’t the first time Walmart has touched blogging. In 2007 Walmart hired a couple to go across country and stop at Walmart locations and ‘blog’ it, but once the public got wind that the bloggers were paid, readers stopped coming. In fact, it was dubbed a “Flog”, a Fake Blog.  The long and short of it is, no one wants a month long ad that reads like a blog. Its nice to see Walmart with its hands back in the pot doing it the RIGHT way this time.

Reviews in general can backfire. There are bloggers everywhere that take on reviews and products to test for their  family. They do it for the products, for fun, for the feedback, to assist the marketplace, and in some cases, for payment. MomDot has been asked several times to include paid information in our posts and you can be rest assured, those have been turned down. I think what bloggers have to remember is to keep with your own integrity. Dont get so caught up in a product or a few dollars, that you end up hawking Casinos on a site that you talk about your family (and oh yes, they do hit us up all the time).

I think one way companies are going wrong is that they have found mom blogging sites to be a huge resource of advertising and in some ways, utilizing our traffic to reach consumers on a level they would otherwise never touch. Because of this, its very easy for a site to be taken advantage of, which can lead to a negative reaction in the marketplace you are trying to reach. I don’t want to be used by a company for $10 at the end of the month. Its insulting to myself and my visitors.  For the record, I do agree with paid front page ads that don’t interfere with posts, but I cant personally stand ads that run throughout posts, scroll over words that popup, and more. I do believe moms should be able to use their site as a resource and many do very successfully. I can personally attest to several expenses that come out of our families pockets if we don’t take paid sidebar ads. But basically, I don’t want a blog to READ “sell out” when I approach it.There is nothing worse then 10 google spots, 4 pop ups, and banners in between the posts.

The key to companies working with mom bloggers is to allow those bloggers, paid or not, to be able to be completely who they are. The reason blogs are so popular is because they allow a normal person to live in a narcissistic little universe where we can pour out our opinions, whatever they are, in our own space and in a way, regulate how we are perceived. Bloggers, for the most part, are genuine in who they are. I had someone recently tell me they don’t like my blog because they are a christian. Ok. So I am assuming it was implied that i am NOT a christian (untrue, btw). And in one way, I got her point. We do some racy things here all in good fun. But I am who I am, what you see, is what you get. Underwear and all.

What we saw in the Motrin Fiasco is how quickly a chain reaction can work. It can also work that way for companies to put products in front of our faces. No offense, but I have never got a ‘tweet’ from a blogger on the payroll of ANY company, for any reason, whatsoever.  In fact, Dooce follows 61 people on twitter and over 20K follow her. And this is the person I am taking advice from for Target? Its like Beyonce selling Direct TV.

I have a base here of 50K visitors a month and last month had 200K page views. It just seems smarter to find people that belong inside COMMUNITIES and don’t SELL us, don’t pay us, but rather SHOW us why we should be sharing you with our visitors.

But not for $5…because your company is worth it.

~Trisha