Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

Before purchasing and reading Mom Blogging for Dummies   I had assumed that Chapter 9 “Mastering Blogging Ethics” was going to be the main point of interest for me based off the title alone. To be fair, it was a great chapter and I found it very informative it just didn’t cover any of the topics I had expected. For a brief review of the entire book see “Mom Blogging forDummies Part 1: A review” .                 What Chapter nine did include was some very practical advice on both legality and integrity when working with other brands, sponsors, or companies. The best part of “Mastering Blogging Ethics” was Piersall’s informative break down of FTC guidelines as they apply to blogging. She also walks us through editorial policies, disclosure policies, privacy policies (regarding the collection/use of reader information), conducting lawful giveaways and contests, truthful product reviews, and tax laws ...

                When discussing what makes mom blogging stand out in Chapter 1 of Mom Blogging for Dummies author Wendy Piersall states: Mom bloggers –especially mommy bloggers who write about parenting –are in a position to disclose highly personal subject matter about themselves and their families. It is this personal, from the heart writing that allows readers to so deeply connect with the blogger. But there are things mom bloggers should all do in this day and age to ensure their families are kept from embarrassment or worse, harassment, threats, and personal attacks (pg 4).   As discussed in our previous post , this guide book overwhelmingly focuses on the business side of blogging, in my opinion to the detriment of the personal aspects of this type of public discourse, but Piersall isn’t neglectful and does touch on issues regarding privacy (mostly in Chapter 3 “Finding Your Voice and...

In our last post we talked about the advice for mom bloggers that was freely available online and it was mentioned that there have been entire books devoted to the topic as well. MomBlogging for Dummies from the ever-expanding For Dummies guide book series is a popular resource for people to turn to when attempting to begin or better their own blogging practice, making it a valuable text for study. Image retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Mom-Blogging-For-Dummies.productCd-1118038436.html                 Mom Blogging for Dummies was published in 2011 and written by author (and well known mom blogger herself) WendyPiersall . It is available in print and e-book format, 384 pages long, and its content is broken up into five parts with 18 total chapters. What follows is a brief summary of each main section to get a general idea of the book’s subject matter: Part 1: “Discove...