Today's post is something a little outside my usual realms but it's something that's been bugging me for a while. In classic Dani fashion, I've decided to put my rant pants on, write a post about it and get it off my chest. Here's what's been bugging me lately...
When I first started my blog (a year and a half ago), I did it as a way to express my creative side and talk about something that I was interested in. I had very little idea how blogging actually worked, how big the beauty community was or how many amazing things would come my way as a result. Before I get into the nitty gritty, I do want to just say that by and large, I love the beauty community. I love watching YouTube videos, I love the blogger groups that I'm part of and I've loved being able to meet and mingle with fellow bloggers.
However, as with most things in life, there are a select few who make it an unpleasant place. In the past year and a half, I've come across more and more people who want to hop on the blogger bandwagon for nothing more than the freebies. I've seen so many people recently asking how to start a blog just so they can get free products or what the best way is to ask PR companies for products etc etc etc and it really makes me mad! To me, and most of my fellow blogger, that's not what blogging is about. If you're in it for the freebies, then you'll quickly get bored. Blogging may be a hobby but it requires a lot of time and effort to produce good quality posts that people actually want to read.
A second point, why so much competition? Certain bloggers tend to get very bogged down with how well others are doing, who has been sent free stuff, who is making more money, how they are making it and so on. To use one of my favourite quotes, calm your tits! It's not a competition! We should be lifting each other up, not tearing each other down. The beauty blogging community is small enough that word gets around when someone is dishonest or not very nice to work with. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Leaving a nasty comment achieves nothing.
Which brings me to point number three: there are very few bloggers who make it to the big time. My guess is that most of them didn't worry about how many Instagram followers they had or how much free stuff they were getting. I've recently felt a lot of pressure to monetise or make my blog into a business. I'm not staying that's not an amazing and fabulous thing to do but I've realised that maybe it's not for me. I started blogging because it was, and still is, something fun that I enjoy doing and I'm more than happy to leave it that way for now. The odds of making it big in blogging are pretty slim, so why not just enjoy it because it's something fun to do? If you happen to get the opportunity to do amazing things, work with awesome brands and generally have fun at the same time then HOORAH!
With that massive word vomit over, I do just want to say thank you to everyone who reads my blog, likes my Instagram photos and watches my videos. I'm one of the bloggers unlikely to make it to the big time but I'm still having the time of my life being a blogger and writing about things that I love.
Dani XO
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