There’s a slight kerfluffle with CNET, a well respected tech blog, calling mommyblogger’s posts “low grade content”. I wrote it up on my site for all things blogging, Houston Blogging Chicks.
If you’re a mommyblogger, you might want to give it a read!
Are Mommyblogger Sponsored Posts Low Grade Content?
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Karen (1)
Raso @ lasagnarec... (1)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t like it when I find great blogs to read, and then as soon as the writer gets followers/readers and then starts doing sponsored posts/reviews/etc and gives up on their normal things that made them great. I understand that they are trying to help their family- extra money and extra things, and to get a return on their blogging, but when the real content becomes nonexistent, I usually stop reading and following. If google sponsored a post, who really cares. I doubt most of the people who are complaining read Mom-blogs anyways.
Jenn,
I agree with you. On my site, I only accept sponsored posts that genuinely interest me and that I think would be helpful to my readers. I don’t follow very many sites that are *only* sponsored posts, because they aren’t useful to me. I like to connect with real people and read about their lives and find out tips and tricks and things that will help me in my vocation as a mother. But others love to follow sites that are filled with nothing but giveaways and reviews- it all comes down to audience and purpose, I think. But what I really hate is when a blogger will a sponsored post that has NOTHING to do with their site, like suddenly there will be a sponsored post about baby gear on a site of a childless woman, for example. Those feel so inauthentic to me and I’ll usually unfollow.
It’s a hard line to straddle- the fact is, it does take lots of time and money investment to create a nice looking site and I absolutely think bloggers should be paid for their work. But I also think bloggers have a responsibility to blog with integrity and be authentic, too.
I am not a fan of blogs that do too many sponsored posts. Like you Lisa, I don’t want a commercial, I want to connect. I want to learn about the people behind the blog. Now, if the post acutually is highlighting something the blogger finds useful, then I might too, and that. . . . I don’t mind.
With all that being said, I want to make money for my family as well. So if I get an offer for a sponsored post, and it fits my nitch, I’d actually use it, and somehow I can creatively weave my personal life into the product to offer my reader a piece of me and some added information about a product, then I’ll do it everytime if the pay is good.