Apparently I am in the completely wrong blogging game.

Technology is something I am passionate about, and while I love writing about it, it isn’t exactly making me rich. There is also an illusion that tech bloggers get piles of free products to review, but I can tell you with all honesty that I have received exactly three review units in the nearly three years I have been doing this, and one of those came to me after I wrote about the product and hadn’t even asked for it. The company just appreciated my favorable comments about the product.

So it has been a bit hard for those of us in the tech blogosphere to understand why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was going all nuts with the new guidelines about disclosure, but apparently we hadn’t thought much about the mommy bloggers.

If you aren’t familiar with the term, mommy bloggers are commonly considered to be stay at home moms that have taken up blogging as a way to share their views and share tips with one another.  Well, they have been elevated by marketers to a level where they think these are the ultimate online influencers of key demographics, and have in turn begun to lavish them with gifts, trips and perks to try to sway them to their side.

While there have been many stories on this subject, the Los Angeles Times had a very frank, and honestly disturbing, look into just how much companies are giving these people to win them over.  The article by P.J. Huffstutter and Jerry Hirsch will more than likely be decried by the rather … “outspoken” mommy blogger community as being one-sided and unfair to them, but facts are facts, and these little trips they go on are fairly well-known.

There are tales of how these people get flown to lavish events, meet celebrities, get put up in posh hotels, have steaks sent to their houses to feed their families while they are gone, dine with executives and so on, all in the hopes that they will write positive things.  And while some of these bloggers do disclose that these things happen, others don’t, and that is where the problem comes in.

The most disturbing portion of the article to me was the following section:

“They handle the family budget,” said Amanda Vega, an industry consultant who specializes in social media and public relations. “People read them and believe them, because they’re easy to identify with.”

They also rarely are critical. Christine Young, owner of the From Dates to Diapers blog, has a closet full of free baby products she never liked. She hasn’t mentioned them in her blog.

They’re still there, sitting on the shelves, waiting to be donated.

“My business is not to bash companies,” said Young, 32, who lives in the Sacramento area. “My business is to create buzz for the products and services we enjoy.”

Do you see the problem between these two sections?  The marketers know they are “trusted”, but how can readers really trust bloggers who only write positive things?  Ms. Young’s comment of “My business is to create buzz for the products and services we enjoy” basically translates into “Hi, I’m a product whore, and to continue to get these products I promise to never, ever say anything bad about your products … can you send me some steaks?”

I e-mailed fellow Cynical Bastard Steven Hodson about this story this morning and he had the same thought as me:

I’m writing about the wrong thing … jezzz

And he also shares the same opinion as I about just how wrong these people are in their thinking:

If you are going to do nothing but write high praises about all the stuff you have gotten for free don’t call yourself a blogger of any kind – you’re a shill. Period.

So what is it Mommy Bloggers? Are you being honest with your readers, or are you nothing but shameless shills?