It's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged and prior to that, a few people on Twitter had commented that it was obvious that my heart wasn't 'in' my blog. They were right! I feel like I owe you a bit of an explanation, so grab a coffee (or a gin, I'll have one if there's any spare...) it's going to be a long one.
WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON?
I've still been working in the background on my blog and social media channels. I've been doing some social media management for other brands and that, teamed with the pressures of my own life has been overwhelming.
I'm still working 50+ hours a week, but my priorities are being divided left, right and center which is overwhelming for anyone, but as someone who is easily overwhelmed, is literally stressing me oot ma box. Ten points if you even understand what that means..
My social life has been busy aswell. I'm in a relatively new relationship and I have amazing friends that I love seeing too. Not forgetting about my lovely family.
Mentally, I'm tired but happy. Stressed but excited. Worried but in a good way. Life is going great but my blog content took a bit of a nosedive for another reason...
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BLOG?
When I first started my blog back in 2010, it was literally just a space where I talked about things I did or didn't like, trends and my life. Since then, the blogging game has changed a shiz load and if I'm honest, I struggle to keep up with the demands of it.
Every industry has competition, it's healthy, but the blogging industry has become oversaturated, fake & contrived. Obviously, I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about the industry where brands won't even respond to your tweet to thank you for promoting them for free unless you have 50k followers, I'm talking about the 'influencers' who buy followers, the bloggers who undercut, steal content, lie and cheat their way through the game.
A lot of my friends tell me "if you can't beat them join them" but that's just not for me. It's not how I started out and I'm not going to play the game that the cheaters want us all to play.
I'll be perfectly honest, some brands that I've worked with closely for 8 years have over the past year in particular, been honest with me and told me my stats aren't impressive enough to work with me anymore. My stats have grown year on year, but sadly, I can't compete with the people who buy their stats. You can even 'buy' your domain authority nowadays. It's a sad and false 'reality' that genuine bloggers have to face nowadays.
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT NOW?
If you're an OG follower you will remember the days where I would post about my life, use pictures I took with my phone of myself, friends and products, talked about TV shows and beauty products I liked without much structure.
It's what got me to stay here 8 years later, and it's what I'm going back to - reality.
DEAR BLOGGERS, PR'S & BRANDS..
If you are like me and want the industry to be more genuine, you need to make a change to make it that way. It won't be easy to stand out in a crowd of people if nothing ever changes.
If you want to work with someone who isn't going anywhere, who is genuine, who will work hard and isn't here for the 'free' shiz, then look for the bloggers that started out prior to 2013, look for the bloggers with low, growing stats, look for the bloggers who have conversations and who don't have a filtered life.
Let's strip it back!
H x
