My Thoughts On The Blogging Community

In my two and a half years of being a beauty blogger (seriously, two and a half years?), I've learnt a great deal about blogging and the common misconceptions about what it is and the people who do it. As blogging has become more and more popular, a lot of people are now under the impression that no effort or hard work goes into it and all we do is sit in cafes, eat avocado on toast and take pretty pictures. However, this is a broad generalisation and there's so much work - yes actual work, that goes into running and maintaining a blog and to be honest I think it's really unfair that we get such a bad rap...

People forget or often just don't actually know exactly how much time and effort goes into creating a blog post. For example, I'll sit down and plan out my posts for the week, then I take all of the photos and edit them which for me, isn't the easiest of tasks! Then I move on to writing and scheduling the posts. All of this can sometimes take 2-3 days to complete which can be overwhelming when you have other things to do.

Another thing people don't think about is that there are a lot of 'bloggers' on social media who don't actually have a blog but don't really know what else to call themselves. I have absolutely nothing against these people but in my personal opinion, there is a difference between an Instagrammer and a blogger with an actual blog.

Blogging is about sharing your thoughts about something you love or perhaps don't love. But with the bloggersphere being so saturated and things like sponsored posts, affiliate links and PR packages being such a big part of it, blogging can sometimes feel a bit tedious as we're constantly having to justify ourselves, like with disclosure for example. I personally don't think there's any need to hide the fact a product has been sent to you or that you've been paid to make a post about something but nowadays, even if we're honest about these things, there's always someone who doesn't want to believe you.

There's a lot of stigma surrounding PR recently which I think is really unfair because it's made virtually every blogger look like they're just hungry for 'free' product. I know there's a small bunch who do get into blogging purely for the freebies and that's really not on, but the majority who are genuine shouldn't be given side eye because they've been gifted a product. People think it classifies as being 'free' but 99% of the time it's in exchange for a review/sponsored post which requires work. Hope I've cleared that up!

The last thing I wanted to mention is that over the past few months I've noticed a lot of comments stating that we as a community are shady, stuck up and that there's no real friendship or connection between us. I think this is utter nonsense and my guess is that the people who assume this, haven't spent enough time getting to know us. I've met and become friends with so many amazing bloggers over the past two and a half years and none of them have ever been unfriendly or given the impression of thinking that they're better than everybody else. They're actually some of the sweetest people I've ever met and one of the key things they focus on is making bonds and supporting one another. And having a good old gab about beauty, of course!

I'm sorry if this post was a bit all over the place or if it seemed ranty. I just really wanted to share my thoughts on the blogging community based on my personal experience as a beauty blogger and also to clarify that we do work hard, we are a close-knit community and that not all of us think we're a sparkly unicorn who poops glitter and sleeps on a marshmallow cloud! Unicorns are overrated anyway, I'd much rather be a fairy...

Thank you so much for reading and if you're a blogger, I'd love to know what you think about what I've said, if you agree or disagree with anything or if you have something else to add.

Maiya