Mommy blogger tries to introduce honesty seal, colonoize Mars

In response to the negative publicity surrounding “mommy bloggers” and kick backs, a group of mommy bloggers have banded together to launch an honesty seal program.

Led by Liz Gumbinner, Blog With Integrity has signed up nearly 300 bloggers who have pledged to disclose all “material relationships, policies and business practices,” and clearly differentiate editorial, advertorial and advertising according to Paid Content. Bloggers display the Blog With Integrity badge on their sites as a trust mark.

It’s a nice effort and I do wish the group the best, however in researching this post I naturally hit Gumbinner’s site and found one of the most hilarious posts on the topic I’ve ever read. Some highlights from “The Year That Shame Died.”

Much to my surprise however, what turned out to be the problem at BlogHer was not how the marketers acted, but how so many bloggers acted. Without pulling punches, I will say it was shameful….

The countless bloggers who combed the expo floor with the purpose of asking marketers for expensive free items (and of course, an identical one to giveaway to a reader).

The shameless swag frenzies at parties that led to a blogger with an arm so bruised she looked like a heroin addict, and a baby in a carrier who endured his first ever sharp elbow to the head

I won’t spoil it all, you can read the full post here, but it does highlight the problem Gumbinner faces: large numbers of mommy bloggers are greedy and can’t be trusted. Mars might be easier to colonize than trying to tame the mob that is blog mommy rule.