Some recent studies support the idea that  blogs and online product reviews are gaining steam among various demographic groups, including moms. Moreover, a study by Jupiter Research and Buzzlogic found that blogs influence consumers more than social networks, while findings from Rubicon indicated that online word-of-mouth (WOM) is second only to in-person recommendation. In 2008, eight in 10  holiday shoppers reportedly read web reviews of products, a number likely to increase this season.

Very interesting reading!

Now, a Publishers Weekly article states that these rules are not intended for individual bloggers. From Mary Engle, an FTC lawyer who addressed KidlitCon 09, a conference of kids’ book bloggers held last weekend in Virginia:  Someone with a “personal blog, writing a genuine or organic review,” did not need to disclose how they got the book or assign it a value.

According to the article, the revised guidelines are aimed at advertisers and marketers, not individual bloggers. More on how these new rules specifically affect testimonials and affiliates can be found at Kevin Houchin’s blog here.

Even if your broadcast campaign lands big print or morning TV (which these days is quite rare), you can’t rely on that to DO anything for the book anymore…Heck, I sold more books from a single review on a killer blog than I did from a 1/4 page review in USA Today and a mention in People Magazine…together!

Feel free to comment on this post if you’ve had experience having your book reviewed on a popular blog. Were the results tangible?