"Best Mom Blogger" Awards Exploits Women

Posted by Joan Conde at 3:04 PM on April 9, 2007.

Does search engine marketer Daniel Kovach have mother issues? If he didn't before, he does now...

Last Thursday Mr. Kovach sent out the following email:

Way to go! You are now a 'Top 100 Mom Blogger'!

The staff at MothersDayCentral.com searched through the 'momosphere' and found your blog to be of exceptional quality.

The Top 100 Mom Blog Awards page lists all 100 winners.

Take a look here:http://www.mothersdaycentral.com/top-mom-blogs.php

You may proudly display an award button anywhere on your website.

I was excited, I work hard on my blog. Of course I want to win an award.

But Mama didn't raise no fool. I took a second look: I realized that the email had been cut and pasted using two fonts. The actual name of my blog wasn't mentioned in the body of the email and the link provided wasn't active. Very unprofessional. Curious, I pasted the link myself and followed it where I discovered "Mother's Day Central."

Turns out, my so-called "award" did not come from an actual organization, as implied in the email. There is no information on the site about an organization or its staff at all. There is not even a "contact" link. The site did direct me, however, to sites offering flowers, jewelry, etc. "Mothers Day Central" proved to be nothing more than a link farm. Our recognition was provided by a non-existent organization, via a site that would likely disappear right after Mother's Day.The object of the "award" became clear: to create sales for the site owner. Posting a link to the awarding "organization" is just free advertising for Mother's Day Central.

Respect Your Mama

Adding to my ire is the fact that the link sites all offer affiliate partnerships which any blogger can enroll in and possibly profit from. For the unitiated, this means that for every sale made through a click through from your site, you can receive a percentage.

Thus the awards provide free advertising for site owner and search engine marketer, Daniel Kovach. He runs a also runs a link farm on blogging. Here is a link to an article he wrote on search engine marketing vs. television advertising for the Super Bowl.

Mr. Kovach's very simple, cynical approach was to "reward" moms in order to make money from their considerable audiences. And the blogs, which include "Dooce," represent millions of readers. The inherent lack of respect evidenced in this manipulative marketing scheme insults bloggers and their readers. Women are no strangers to obvious, even cheesy marketing gimics. But this award is pure exploitation.

I urge any blogger receiving this bogus award to refuse to post a link to this site and to complain, via a post, about it. If you send me your links, I will post them here.

Tagged as: feminism, women, parenting, marketing, mothers, blogging

Joan Conde blogs at Mamacita.