So it is 2am and I wanted to just have a ramble if that’s ok with you? I have been having some serious blogging blues recently and I figured the best people to speak to about that would be to the people that read my blog and fellow bloggers who know how it feels too! I just feel like since I started blogging it has changed so dramatically and sometimes I wonder where my blog fits in? Or if indeed I want to have a blog that ‘fits in’. I started this blog purely by accident, I knew nothing about blogging, webdesign or this whole world of beauty obsessed girls just like me!
My blog has grown so much since those early days (am I the only one who cringes when looking at their earlier pictures/posts?) I try not to get involved in any blog drama or bitchiness because if I am honest I just think it isn’t that interesting and I am a big fan of rejecting negative energy as I really believe it just brings you down! It is sometimes hard when I say newer bloggers gain a massive following or I see lots of bloggers being invited to events that I haven’t been but at the same time I genuinely never got into blogging thinking you could have ‘followers’ or ‘p.r samples’, I am still learning the etiquette of blogging nearly 2 years in!
I guess what I wanted to say was I think I lost my way a little bit, I was getting a little too concerned with ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ and that involved a big compromise on certain blog posts quality in order to get things out by certain times/days! Although blogging isn’t my full time job it has allowed me to cut back my working hours to part time, I guess because of that I started to panic about where my blog is going and what I need to do to reach the next milestone etc.
I am actually quite embarrassed to write this because I know alot of bloggers say they don’t care about follower numbers/p.r contacts/event invites but I have to admit I got sucked into that side for a little while this year and it made me a bit miserable if I am honest! I have been really poorly over these past few days and a lot of it is due to personal stress and being quite run down. The upside of being off sick is that I have managed to get my head together, sort through my priorities and make some blogging decisions which I just couldn’t do before.
I want to grow my blog organically and make it the best it can be. For me that means getting better at taking better quality pictures (I am thinking of doing a photography course, if you’ve taken one that you rate then let me know the details!) branching out into my other passions such as cooking and travel, being more active in the bbloggers/blogging community and most of all getting to know all of you that read my little blog.
I cringe when I see bloggers give ‘oscar acceptance speech’ style thankyou’s to their readers but I wanted to let you know that I have the biggest smile on my face when I get a notification to tell me someone has commented on a post or when someone has taken the time to email me to let me know they enjoy my blog, it really does mean the absolute world to me. I know it is cheesy but I am definitely not one of those people that life comes easily too yet blogging is something that seems to just be ‘me’ and I can’t tell you how nice that feels!
all my love
Charlotte
Aww everyone gets a bit lost in life at some point I think!hopefully you will find your way again!positive energy!:)…oh yeh I totally cringe when I look at my earlier posts and photos!
It’s a tough one huh? The whole samples/events thing makes you feel sometimes like you’ve “arrived” and when you’re excluded for some reason you start looking at what you do, why it isn’t good enough or big enough for xyz brand.
The problem I have is I set up as a magazine and that was always my mission statement, the beauty pages are only one aspect but I’m viewed against the bbloggers for those posts. I want to make the site engaging, informative and honest however people just aren’t interested in commenting on my posts!
I’m not going to compromise on my vision, I wanted a magazine but you really do get sucked into the beauty world and the whole blogging community. I just need to find out how to get people interested in what I post!
Simply Woman Magazine
You are doing a great job though, don’t let stress get the better of you.
x
Fantastic post! It really is so easy to get sucked into that world. I go through stages of getting sucked into the whole followers thing but now I’ve reached the 200 milestone, I’m content. I really am. I enjoy blogging but I make no money from it despite being offered sponsored posts etc. It’s just not me and I don’t feel successful enough to monetise my blog either. It’s been an amazing hobby this past year while I’ve been unemployed and I’d recommend it to anybody but the key thing is not to compare yourself to other bloggers. I have grown my blog as organically as possible and it has been a verrryyy slow process but I’m proud I didn’t use tactics to help me grow 🙂
I just want to say I’ve only just started my own blog recently, but your blog was the first ever beauty blog I read over a year ago, stumbling across it one night luckily on the internet. I’ve been reading your blog and others ever since. As a new blog we’ve only got 100ish readers on each platform, but it’a all quality not quantity. I’d rather have 20 followers that read the blog regularly and pop by rather than thousands who have only ever been on the page once 🙂
Chin up chick and please keep writing!!
Becky http://beautyhotsquad.blogspot.co.uk