OASAP romper c/o// Target shoes// Ami Club purse c/o// Vi Mondi necklace c/o// Photo credit: Amy Hess Photography
I’ve seen a lot of conversations happening over the interwebz recently about blogging dying . That unless you’re selling something on your blog, like an e-book, educational course, whatever…you’ve got nothing. And although I disagree that blogging is dying, I do agree that it’s definitely changed courses since I first started blogging four years ago.
I wrote a blog post last week about blogs changing on a personal level. My interests, stage of life and level of maturity have changed, and therefore so has my blog content. But it seems as if the entire blogging community has taken a shift over the past couple of years as well. Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily. It’s just different and it makes you reevaluate your approach to your own blog.
I started blogging as a hobby and as an outlet, and a few months into it I realized it could be my own little side business. That I could actually make a career out of it. And although this was the case, most of my posts were still very personal and I shared a lot about my life. Somewhere in the process of this blogging community shift, I realized that I didn’t want to share so much info anymore. That I loved to write and share certain things with the world, but some things I wanted to keep to myself. Personally, one of the first things I changed was sharing a lot about my kids. I share general info here and there, but for me personally, I didn’t want to continue to share things specifically about them. Activities, ideas, recipes? Sure. But them as people? That is something I decided to keep private. Absolutely nothing against anyone who does that and wants to share, that’s a personal decision and I’m not knocking it in anyway.
My point in that is that I sort of knocked myself out of the mommy blogging category. I knew I liked fashion but let’s be honest, I would never make it in the world of “fashion” blogging. When I think fashion bloggers, I think absolutely gorgeous, flawless, perfect people. I am not any of those things and I just didn’t want to throw myself into a competitive niche where I felt like I was setting myself up to fail. So why do I do outfit posts? Enter style blogging….
Where as before I consider myself a lifestyle blogger, I now consider myself a life + style blogger. It kind of gives me free reign when it comes to what I share about my life and then my own personal style. I’m a real person; I’m 5’2”, I’ve had two kids, I don’t have long flowing locks, and I struggle with my body image everyday. I share those things. The imperfect life, the good and the bad, and the constant journey to finding the person I want to be.
Some of my posts may be less “personal” and may simply be sharing products or brands with you. Some may be super deep and be written with tears in my eyes or a lump in my throat. When at one point in time sponsored posts were almost frowned upon and somewhat looked at as “selling out”, it doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Because it seems that more brands are turning to bloggers to share their story and weave their products into their lives. So in that regard, the blogging community has changed. Sponsored posts are more common that not now.
But I don’t think blogging is dying. We all have stories to tell and we all can choose what to share and what not to share. When sharing our stories, or products, or brands… whatever, we are helping others in ways that we might not even realize. If it brings us happiness, we should continue to do it. Sure, blogging has changed and all of the loyal readers I had at one point may have tapered off and moved on from the “blog world” or reading blogs, but that’s not a reason to stop is it? Blogging should be for ourselves, first and foremost. But it should also be to help others, create relationships with brands, and help solve problems through our writing. In the end, we should be striving to be better people and making a difference in the world.
Do you think blogging is dying? How have you seen a shift in recent years?
