Recently there has been quite a bit of press about the FTC and ethical implications of Mommy Bloggers doing product reviews.  I believe in transparency and  have always had a Disclosure Policy on all of my blogs.

Fortunately, Trisha over at Mom Dot has developed Pitch Bloggers, a partnership between moms who do product reviews, host giveaways and contests and the PR Advertising Representatives for companies looking to promote products.

Pitch Bloggers is a comprehensive resource to help PR and marketing professionals connect with mom bloggers and get up to speed on best practices for implementing blogger outreach campaigns.

There’s a lot of advice out there from PR pros about how to pitch mom bloggers and there’s an equal number of bloggers doling out advice about how to pitch them. But often these well-meaning groups lack something critical: a true, stand-in-my-shoes understanding of how the other half works.

Our dynamic team is made up of moms, seasoned PR professionals and long time, experienced bloggers. We provide the ideal combination of expertise and experience to help you effectively engage with bloggers.

In order to be considered as a Pitch Blogger member, mom product reviewers must fill out an application and sign and agree to an Ethics Agreement.

All those accepted will proudly display the banner showing that they meet the Ethical Blogger Professional Standards.

Whether you’re a mommy blogger trying to work at home and break into product reviews, or a PR  advertising rep for a company looking to have your product reviewed, check out Pitch Bloggers today!

Pitch Bloggers ~ Ethical Standards and Mommy Reviewers is a post from: Moomettes Magnificents

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See the little banner on the top right of my sidebar that I recently relocated due to an unfortunate incident?  It says “Yes, It’s Copyrighted.”

What that means, kiddos, is that we have to revisit what we all learned in Grade School:

You Do Not Copy Other People’s Work. Period.

• That means, you don’t look over your shoulder at the person sitting behind you and copy the answers off of their paper for a test;

• You don’t strain cross-eyed and look to your next-door seat-mate and copy their paper;

• And you don’t copy a fellow Blogger’s posts and pass them off as your own without giving proper credit to the author when due.

Now I’m sure this has happened to many bloggers before me.  But, being the Baby Boomer that I am, and having my policy re sugar-coating clearly stated in the Disclaimer on my About Me Page ~ I don’t put up with any carp.

I spend quite a bit of time on many of my posts, writing into the wee hours of the night.  I try to find just the right words and nuances, and research synonyms, grammar, all those neat things I learned along the way in life.  Some of my readers obviously were out to lunch in school, and didn’t pay attention.

It’s way too easy for those types of people to see a good post ~ and in this computer day and age ~ just do a “copy, paste” and voila ~ it’s on their blog page ~ as if they had written it themselves!

NOT.  You see, kiddies, I check to see if anyone is plagiarizing my material.  I take pride in my work, and the words I choose.

Bloggers cover the whole demographic spectrum.  Teens, Home-Schoolers, Moms, Dads, Businesses, yes, even Grandmas & Grandpas.  We are everyone ~ we are everywhere.

So now I’m going to get ugly.  Why?  Because I wrote what I considered a very nice post about my friend Suzanne, the eBay Coach, and a very generous giveaway contest for $120 worth of CVS products she recently sponsored.  Now granted, I didn’t pontificate on the State of the Union, the upcoming political conventions, the Olympics, or how the universe was created.

However, another mom blogger who “writes” saw fit to come along and copy my post.  You see, I posted about a CVS contest on August 21, and low and behold, there were my words, copied verbatim, posted by her on August 24.  No mention of any credit to me as the author.

If I see an article worthy of being mentioned in my posts, I give a “Hat Tip” to the author, with a link back to them.

Duh ~ it’s called “linky luv,” or a “back link,” or how about ~ being honest and giving credit where credit is due?

Plagiarism is a serious offense, not to mention it says a lot about the ethics, morals, and integrity of the writer who stole the work.  I know a wee bit about the law.

Now I’m not going to go off and write all the words I really want to write about how I feel about plagiarism, because this is a family blog.  Gram is not above spewing a few little profanities now and then whenever I’m hot-flashing.   But just to let you know, mommy blogger, occupation listed as “Assistant Librarian,” on Blogger,  not only got two comments on her blog from me indicating she stole my work, she also got an e-mail from me.

Her response?  “Sorry, Charlie.”

Go Suck an Egg, Elaina.

Pitch Bloggers ~ Ethical Standards and Mommy Reviewers is a post from: Moomettes Magnificents

Related posts:

1. How Mommy Bloggers Can Increase Their Technorati Authority
2. Business Cards for Mommy Bloggers: Vista Print – Review
3. Dream Team: Mommy Bloggers and PR Reps