I was reading an interesting post this morning by Kelby Carr of Type-A Mom on Blogging Ethics. In light of the recent article in The Wall Street Journal, “Paid to Pitch,” she suggests that mom bloggers need to do a little soul searching, and I agree.

It is pretty amazing to realize, as Kelby notes, that mom bloggers weren’t taken very seriously as recently as a year ago. Today, mom bloggers are a highly sought after group, with the biggest national brands, from Walmart to Ford to Pampers, and every brand in between, wanting a piece of mommy blogger mania.

With all the corporate attention being paid to mom bloggers these days it can be very easy for moms to forget why they started a blog in the first place. Maybe the goal was always to become a brand spokesmom, or maybe it was simply to document a pregnancy or a baby’s first year and somewhere along the way it became a promotional vehicle for infant formula or diapers.

Lots of mom bloggers, including me, work with major brands, and that’s okay. But I’d like to ask all mom bloggers to take a step back and think about your blog. Are you being paid to promote products? Are you happy doing so? Are you being critical in your reviews or simply saying what the brand wants to hear because you are getting paid?

Or, would you like to work with big brands to promote products? Then what steps can you take to get noticed and what policies should you put in place and in plain view on your blog to disclose to readers your promotional relationships?

Just take a moment to think about where you are and where you’re going. If you’re not happy with your path, then make a change, and make it today.

Erin Gifford runs Mom 2 Mom Media to help brands and products effectively reach and engage moms on the web. She also has a popular money-saving mom blog at Coupon Cravings. She's a former PR director and mom of three girls with one more on the way in August. Follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/ErinGifford.