Bloggers For Hire

Last week, someone I follow on Twitter shared a picture of her being at Primanti's in Pittsburgh. Then, I saw that she and her family visited the Carnegie Science Center. Then I noticed that her tweets included the hashtag #KidsBurgh and discovered that there were others using the same hashtag. Apparently, Visit Pittsburgh invited about a half-dozen mommy bloggers (and one daddy blogger) to Pittsburgh to promote and encourage families to visit my hometown. I'll admit that I'm a bit jealous that I wasn't invited since the group also went to Kennywood, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and a Pirates game.

Despite having a blog for 13+ years, I understand that I have a limited following. (Thanks to all of you for reading!) I've written several times over the years that if I wanted a bigger audience, I would be better served to have a single topic blog. Maybe I could be a daddy blogger. I've certainly written many posts over the years about my kids and being a dad. However, if anyone has followed the history of parent blogs, you would know how things have changed. Instead of sharing personal stories and anecdotes, parent blogs have turned into constant sponsored posts on a wide variety of products and services. (The Washington Post had an article about this earlier this year.) Besides sharing pictures of their Pittsburgh trip on Twitter and Instagram, you can be sure that the bloggers will write all about their trips on their blogs.

Look, I don't begrudge these bloggers. Some have been able to make blogging a full-time job. If someone wanted to treat me and my family on an all-expenses trip in exchange for a blog post and some tweets, I would jump at the chance. I've had a handful of opportunities over the years to attend events or write about a product, and I've done so. And I'd do it again. And in full disclosure, I'm hoping to be a guest blogger on a different site where I get to attend some cool events in the future. However, I just don't understand how someone can write a blog with all sponsored content. Personally, I like writing about a wide variety of topics. More importantly, though, why would someone read a blog with all sponsored content? (Well, unless there are contests and giveaways.)

Photo by Visit Pittsburgh.