The BritMums Blog

Guest post: Why I quit blogging*

Her blog, Scribbling Mum, won awards, fans and oodles of traffic – plus offers of tv and radio appearances. So why the heck did Caroline Black give it all up?  

Like many of us I’m sure, I didn't set out to become a mummy blogger. I just wanted to see if I could write. No master plan, no strategy.

When a colleague suggested it, I didn’t know what a blog was but he help me set up Scribbling Mum and within weeks I was immersed in the online world. Clicking on links, ending up in new blogs, reading, commenting - the hours flew by. Oh yes I thought, this is fun, I could do this. 

#BritMumsSTC: BritMums are blogging for a better world

Blogger Christine Mosler’s trip to Mozambique with Save the Children opened her eyes to the grave situation facing millions of people around the world who have no access to healthcare. 

Determined to make a difference, Christine and Save the Children's Liz Scarff are currently at the UN General Assembly in New York to try to persuade governments to provide healthcare to help save lives in East Africa and they have been asking fellow bloggers to help. 

On Saturday, Save the Children held a bloggers’ conference to reach out to the thousands of bloggers and encourage them to send people to sign the No Child Born To Die petition which will be sent to David Cameron. 

To inspire other bloggers to share Save the Children’s message and highlight good causes through their blogs, Christine joined BritMums for a Twitter party this lunchtime.

What the new ASA online guidelines mean for mum bloggers

How blogs and brands work together has been an ongoing topic of conversation in the blogging world as well as at the Office of Fair Trading and the Advertising Standards Agency. This week the ASA has issued new guidelines for online advertising and marketing that have provoked mixed reaction.

The goal of the guidelines is to promote clear and truthful advertising and marketing to protect consumers.

So what does this mean for you?

According to a conversation I had yesterday with a man at Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), what you say on your blog is not affected. CAP is the committee that writes the advertising rules for the industry. Using his example of a shampoo review, you can write your review as usual - eg, “I loved this shampoo. It left my hair shinier than my usual brand.”

What the OFT ruling means for bloggers and Tweeters

Update: This post and what the OFT's ruling means for blogs has generated a lot of debate! It's obvious that the issue of how to handle commercial relationships and transparency is one that engenders a lot of opinions (and emotions) in bloggers.

Our idea of creating badges/icons/visual elements that immediately convey has drawn praise and criticism, which you can see in the attached comments. The idea is that it's a way for bloggers - in individual posts - to include an easily recognisable element that tells the reader exactly what kind of commercial connections that post has.

Our idea was to create simple, easy-to-grab elements that don't mess with the overall design and feel of a blog - "badge" is probably the wrong word since it connotes a big box that goes in the right-hand column rather than a smaller logo in the text. But it would get the point across and meet the OFT's guidelines.

It wouldn't be the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval or be policed. The point is for blogger themselves to divulge the origins of their posts, and for readers not to have to read through several paragraphs before they know the bloggers' relationship with the company or product they're writing about.

It's a work in progress. What's inspiring is the depth of feeling and thought that everyone is giving this issue, by considering how it reflects on them, on their peers and on blogs in general.

This discussion is just part of a larger conversation and will continue to grow and change. If you haven't already, jump in and tell us what you think!

***

In December we blogged about the ruling from the OFT regarding consumer protection laws. The OFT is enforcing these laws with bloggers, to ensure that any content promoting a product or service where the content has been paid for is clearly marked.

Now, in a new Q&A on its site, the OFT says it will NOT be monitoring the Internet and going after individual bloggers. (It considered the action with Handpicked Media appropriate because Handpicked is a blogging network.) This is not a witch hunt. But it will be taking appropriate and proportionate action to ensure the laws are followed.

Blogging With Integrity is more important than ever

Way back in 2009 British Mummy Bloggers started the Blogging With Integrity campaign, to encourage mum bloggers to be above-board and transparent in all their dealings with sponsors. At that time in America, the Federal Trade Commission was getting involved in regulating blogs’ sponsorship relationships, and our hope was that this voluntary program would avoid the back-tracking and PR blackouts that were going on in the States.

Now, recent action by the UK’s Office to Fair Trading demonstrates that Blogging With Integrity is more relevant than ever. The OFT has required a network of blogs to clearly identify promotional and sponsored content. It states that not disclosing paid-for promotional content – on a blog or microblog like Twitter - constitutes deceptive practice under fair trading laws. And this wasn’t some little network you’ve never heard of. This was Handpicked Media, one of the most visible blogging networks, best known for its focus on fashion and beauty.