A post over on Jessica Knows about her experience with some reporters misreporting how she discloses on her blog got me thinking about how mom blogs in general seem to be the ones getting an awful lot of the attention when it comes to disclosure issues and advertising. There’s been a lot of talk lately about more regulation of social media marketing and how bloggers disclose. For some reason, mom bloggers seem to be a popular focus of attention.

This drives me nuts. Mom bloggers are far from the only ones getting merchandise to try in order to review it. That’s something that has been going on for a long time in many other areas, as commenter Crunchy Carpets pointed out, and as I’ve been wondering as well. I’ll quote her, as she has it right:

What I am curious about is why the ‘mom’ bloggers seem to be getting more heat about reviews than other areas on the blogosphere. Are the male tech writers getting scrutinized by mainstream media and the FTC? They all get sent free stuff. Are the video game or movie sites getting grilled for their ‘promotional’ efforts. They all get sent free stuff.
Movie sites get sent to sets and on press junkets and given all sorts of freebies in return for ‘good reviews. Their morals have been argued about for years. It is all nothing new.

All this doesn’t mean that I don’t agree with appropriate disclosure. It just means that I don’t see why it’s suddenly a big deal when mom bloggers get the things other sites have long been getting.

It strikes me as sexist too.

Momblebee makes similar points, as do some of the other commenters.

Free samples have been given in exchange for review for a long time, longer than blogging has been around. It’s nothing new. Perhaps the only new thing about it is that just about anyone can start a blog, and not have the costs associated with starting a print magazine or newspaper. It’s very open.

Yes, that means some people will lie about the products because they think only a good review should be posted. Yes, some people will be fooled into buying things they wouldn’t have if an honest review had been posted. Goodness knows that dishonest reviews are common enough in the work at home arena!

But does that mean we need special disclosure rules?

I tend to think not. I would expect the standard rules on making false advertising claims should be sufficient. Best aimed at the blogger, and at the advertiser more if there seems to be a pattern of encouraging false claims. It’s awfully hard for advertisers to control what bloggers say, after all, and still keep things honest in both positive and negative comments about the product.

There’s no doubt that the internet is very much a wild frontier in many ways as of yet. It’s much harder to control what goes on when it’s so easy for content to be created. That’s not a call for speedy, harsh regulation. There’s an advantage to the wild growth and free flow of information that the internet provides.

Should buyers beware when they read online reviews? Absolutely.

Should reviewers disclose if they got products free or have a relationship with the business whose product they are reviewing? Of course.

But no matter how the disclosure is done, it comes down to a matter of trust. A good source will be trusted with or without the disclosure.

A bad one may be trusted once or twice, but if they share false information people will learn. Certainly not as quickly as the FTC would like, but that’s going to happen even with regulation, as new sites and blogs will pop up faster than they can be reviewed… not to mention everything that is based from outside the United States.

Much as one might like all reviews to be honest, it’s not going to happen.

As a blogger or business owner, all you can do is keep yourself honest. Being transparent about when you get something for free is a generally good idea. If nothing else, it will help you if the FTC does keep getting serious about this. It also makes it clearer why you’re talking about a product that maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise. Say what you really feel, even when it’s not 100% positive.

Of course, the focus on mom bloggers may in large part be simply due to the media. And if you think the disclosure issues are going to be a problem, you’ll also want to pay attention to the part about “atypical results”. Lynn Terry has a really good post on this issue. The FTC doesn’t even want atypical results to be used, even if they’re your own experience. They only want typical results, which strikes me as beyond problematic. How can you discuss your own experience then? How do you know what’s typical?

If you review products, whether you’re paid to do so or just receive them free, or even if you’re hoping to get an affiliate commission for sales through your links, it’s really going to pay to think about what you’re saying. Have a disclosure policy and stick strictly to it.

And, of course, keep paying attention to the story as it develops. It doesn’t matter what kind of blog or site you have, if you’re talking about products you need to know what’s might impact your business.

This post kicks off my new weekly posts on starting a home business. I will be offering a range of ideas for things you could do as a home business. No guarantees that any idea will be the right one for you or that it will earn any money at all. Sharing ideas is more about getting you thinking about what it is that you would like to do.

Blogging Your Hobby

Blogging is a pretty popular thing to do right now, and people are realizing that it can be a way to earn money. Not a guaranteed way at all; just take a look at this poll on blogger earnings done at Problogger. 29% of bloggers reported earning $10 or less per month. Only 30% made $500 or more per month from blogging.

But keep in mind that most home businesses fail in the first year. That most bloggers do not make a lot of money doesn’t mean you can’t try.

So why the heck am I suggesting it??

Blogs are an affordable way to start out in home business. Take it seriously and you may earn a respectable bit of money from it. You also have plenty of ways to monetize as things go along.

Skills Required

A hobby you’re good at and the ability to write about it in an interesting way.

Resources to Build Your Skills

There are two skills you need to build up for this. One would of course be the skills required in your hobby. Blogging what you do may help you with this. There’s something about explaining what you’re doing that can help you to improve.

But also read up on it. Follow other blogs, join forums, buy books or check them out at the library.

Same for learning to blog. You can read tips for free on sites such as Problogger, subscribe to the free blogging ecourse at eMoms, or you can buy ebooks such as Blogging to the Bank.

Common Expenses

Domain name
Hosting

Note that you don’t have to pay for either if you really need to get a free start. You can get a free site from Blogger, for example. However, you have less control and look less professional when you go with a completely free source. For the low costs of a domain name and basic hosting, I strongly recommend paying. A small investment makes you look more professional and can help to remind you that you are trying to start a business, not just a new hobby.

Possible Income Streams

1. Affiliate product recommendations.

These can be worked into your posts. Talk about the products you are actually using in your hobby. Find companies that will pay you a commission to sell that product. Amazon.com’s Associate Program is an easy one, but you may get better commissions by searching for other companies too. Commission Junction and ShareASale are also good places to look. You may need a site to join these programs.

2. Sell your own products.

Blog about your hobby, maybe share how you create something, and put it up for sale. You’ll need a payment processor and shopping cart software to do this one well. Paypal is a way to test out the waters, so to speak, but there are advantages to other payment processors as you build your business.

3. Sell ads.

You can sell ads in your sidebar, in the footer of individual posts and even within posts. You will probably need some traffic to really earn anything worthwhile.

4. Paid posting.

Sites such as SocialSpark will pay you to write posts on particular topics. There are a lot of rules to consider with paid posting, particularly disclosure issues that you should be aware of. Many of them are things you should consider for any sort of advertising you do on your site. Transparency is a good thing for your site.

I have more paid blogging companies listed in my blogging work at home jobs section.

5. AdSense

AdSense is one of the simplest ways to monetize, but in many niches you will not make much money from it. It’s not a bad choice as you research better options and just want to get going. In the long run, however, I recommend finding products you can recommend and link to, and ads you can be paid for more directly. More work, but more potential for earnings.

Related Scams

If you’re doing it all on your own, you are limiting your exposure to being scammed. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be taken advantage of.

If you post advertising on your site, you risk not getting paid at times. This can be particularly true with affiliate programs where you do not get paid until after an action is taken. Sometimes a company is dishonest, or maybe just has money flow issues.

Skip anything that talks about submitting your sites to the search engines for you for a fee. It’s not necessary.

You’re better off learning how to bring the search engines to your site. This is a business, and there’s more to it than just creating the content and waiting for the world to beat a path to your site.

So here I am, blogging after having a baby. Shouldn’t I be taking a rest?

Not to worry folks, I am!

As I said before I had Selene, I took time before she was born to prewrite a lot of posts. Most of what you see is the result of that activity. It’s giving me the chance to take things much easier without completely abandoning my site. All I have to do is keep up with comments and the forum, and write if I feel like it.

I’m also taking this time to work on some site updates and such. A little behind the scenes work, if you will, while letting everything else run on a touch of autopilot. It takes the stress away. I have no idea if I’ll finish before I run out of prewritten posts, and I don’t particularly care. This kind of work can wait longer if necessary.

Keeping up with a little work feels good to me. I’m not so good at keeping my focus only on family and home. Working is an outlet for me.

And of course I’m taking time for my older two kids. They certainly need a little extra while their baby sister takes so much time.

Yes, I’m extra tired. And achy. You know the litany of postpartum complaints if you’ve had a child yourself. That’s why I planned things out so much.

Working this way is something of a treat. No goals. No self imposed deadlines. Just doing what I feel up to doing.

It’ll drive me nuts if I keep it up too long. I like having goals and self imposed deadlines. They ensure that I actually accomplish things. But until I have the energy for them I can call it a treat.

I’ve always found linking to appropriate affiliate programs to be one of the more tedious things about blogging. Mostly because it’s a pain to remember individual links or go retrieve them. I have quite the .htaccess file from making manual links to affiliate products, but it’s getting dull.

So one of the things I’m working on these days is figuring out which plugin will make my life simplest for linking to affiliate products. I can remember an awful lot of links, as I make them logical, but remembering to add them in does not always happen.

Free Option

GoCodes

This one is pretty simple. Rather like using TinyURL and similar services, but you have more control. Once installed, you manage your URLs by entering a key and where you want the link to redirect to. Rather like what I do now in .htaccess, but the list might be easier to look through. Plus you don’t have to upload a new file every time you add a new link.

On the other hand, it’s not automatic. You have to add in the link to the post. This simplifies things somewhat, but still requires me to remember that I ought to be putting in a link.

Paid Options

WordPress Link Cloak

This is more advanced than GoCodes, and will automatically replace the keywords and phrases of your choice with 301 redirected links to the pages of your choosing. It also limits how many times replacements are made in posts, so you aren’t overdoing it.

This sounds really nice for sites where you mention products a lot. I don’t, even though I probably should.

Wp Affiliate Elite

Does much the same as Link Cloak. However, I see that they offer link tracking as well, so you know if your links are getting clicked at all. That’s some valuable data.

It also allows you to add in the “nofollow” attribute. Affiliate links don’t need to be followed by the search engines. There’s no benefit to your site, and in most cases none to the site you’re linking to. Adding the “nofollow” attribute is something that makes good sense to me.

It also allows for the maximum number of replacements in a post for a given keyword. Once again, you need this as you may use the same phrase over and over in a post. You really don’t want to overdo the links most of the time. It just gets to looking bad.

So Which Will I Try?

I’m thinking Wp Affiliate Elite. Price looks good. Features look good. The only reason I haven’t bought it yet is that I need a bit of time to get things settled around here with baby Selene. If by any chance I don’t like it, I don’t want to run out of time for returns, or to forget that I bought it in the first place, which at this point I could easily do.

Here I am, 38 weeks pregnant and really, really ready to go whenever this baby girl of mine decides to make her move. So what am I doing online?

Getting things ready to run smoothly while I’m busy, of course!

My husband jokes that I nest online. It’s true enough.

It amazes me that I’ve managed to get so much writing done in these past few weeks. If I’m lucky, I’ll have things pretty well done through February, and be able to just work lightly when I feel rested enough after baby comes. It’s a really nice feeling. But I’m not that far ahead yet.

Of course, I’m leaving room for those times that I want to make a more time sensitive post. Most of what I’ve written lately I could post any time of the year and it would work just fine.

I like that because it means that if I want to blog more for some reason, I can just move things around. Or not. Nothing wrong with multiple posts on a particular day, even if that’s something I rarely do.

This is also a lesson in just how much can be achieved in more normal times. If I were this productive normally, I’d probably be earning more. That’s quite a thought.

I’ve had some delays in my work, of course. Lots of heavy duty Braxton Hicks contractions one night meant I was just plain too tired the next day to get much done. That’s how it is when you’re pregnant. Sometimes your body makes it clear that a day off is the smarter choice.

But I’m thinking right now that it’s probably a good thing I don’t have a laptop, much as I want one. It would be fun to have in the hospital, but could I really trust myself to not overdo it? I don’t know. Free Wi-Fi….

Nah. I know how tired I get after childbirth. I don’t really think I’d be that tempted to work. But I’d sure hate to find out that I was wrong. Do you think the nurses would get mad if they came in for their middle of the night blood pressure check and caught me working?