Mom Bloggers

Moms want the best for our children. They search every product, making sure it is the best for the little ones. For help on some of that advice, many mothers are turning into bloggers, helping other parents through advice and personal experiences shared on the web. And now, businesses are tapping into these mommy bloggers.

For some of the mom bloggers, what started out as hobby has turned into a lucrative business.

Sara's blog: Mom Blogs and Freebies
"In the not so olden days, moms would simply pick up the phone and call their friends for advice on everything from best baby formula and breast bump, to safest stroller and car seat. But today, we are turning to the internet. At least that's what I did...and I still do daily."

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Stacey DeBroff is C.E.O. of Mom Central, a Newton start-up that has turned into a $4 million business. 

“Along with the rise of the mom bloggers have come hundreds of brands seeking to understand how to engage them, how to talk to them, and how to get them to be persuasive on their behalf,” says DeBroff.

Vacation companies, pasta sauces, appliance companies, even the circus, are seeking out DeBroff’s consulting firm to connect their brand with mommy bloggers. DeBroff says they tend to be married, educated and tech-savvy moms who are willing to try a product, review it, and spread the word.

“Mom bloggers have become very powerful because they can attract large audiences who really value their first-person takes on the brands that they attract,” DeBroff says.

The information is key for companies who thrive on feedback from real, honest voices.

“I just felt like I wanted to have a place where, you know, the review on a product or the editorial about it would go a little deeper than just kind of line like ‘I love it, I hated it’," says Christine Koh, who founded bostonmamas.com three years ago after her daughter was born.

Already she has a following 18,000 strong and has made it to the top of many best-blogging lists.

With that kind of reach and reputation, companies are begging her to post their ads and review their products.

“Probably within a month that people started finding the site and asking to send product, and I kind of had to form my rules about it on the fly,” Koh says.

Though she sells ad space, Koh doesn't accept cash for postings and won't even talk about a product on the site unless she's seen it herself, avoiding the trap some blogging sites fall into, and something the Federal Trade Commission has begun to look into--the advertorial-- or an editorial that has been paid for by the brand.

“I think if you want your readers to trust you and trust what you're saying, they need to know that you haven't sold out for it in a way,” Koh says.

“The power of a positive or a negative review is astronomical in terms of people reading it,” says Anne Roggeveen, professor at Babson College.

Good or bad, Roggeveen says reaching out to moms in the blogosphere is much more effective than traditional advertising.

“If they have a good product that they believe in, then they can be confident in what customers are going to say about it. They don't need to be spending money to reach their audience,” Roggeveen says.

So when all is said and done, when you combine the power of the internet with some hard-working, enterprising women, one thing is clear: mother knows best.