Rise of the mummy bloggers

Bridget Whitteker, with children Noah (left), Ben, Ruby and Gabrielle, began blogging as a means to communicate with close friends. Photo / Simon Baker

They write about everything from their post-natal depression to parenting problems. Some post photos of their pregnant bellies or the cupcakes they've baked. They even share video footage of their kids. And, while the mundane details of family life might not sound like the most exciting reading, the world's "mummy bloggers" are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.

In the United States alone there are thought to be more 11,000 women writing online about the ups and downs of raising kids. For some it has become much more than a way to beat suburban neurosis - it's now a lucrative business.

The queen of the mummy bloggers is a mother-of-two from Salt Lake City, Utah. Heather Armstrong's dooce.com attracts four million hits a month and now brings in so much advertising revenue that her husband has quit his job to run the website. This year Forbes magazine listed her among the most influential women in the media.

Then there are others like Colleen Padilla of classymommy.com who reviews and endorses hundreds of products sent to her by companies eager to plug in to a network of women who are at the centre of family purchasing decisions.

Over in Britain, mum-of-one Jane Alexander isn't earning big bucks from exmoorjane.blogspot.com but was recently flown to Florida's Disney World for a free holiday along with six other mummy bloggers so she could write about it.

Alexander, the author of books about holistic living, started blogging three years ago because she thought it might be a creative way to market the rural house she was trying to sell.

"I had this wild idea that if I painted a gorgeous picture of our wonderful country lifestyle, I'd have townies racing to up-sticks and buy it," she says.

The idea was clearly ahead of its time since the house didn't get a single viewing through the blog. Even so, Alexander couldn't stop writing about her life online.

"I nearly fell off my chair when I realised I was a mummy blogger," she admits.

"I'd just thought I was a slightly odd woman writing about funny things that happened and, oh yes, I happen to have a child."

Friendship, rather than money and freebies, is Alexander's motivation to keep on blogging.