As a preamble, I don’t profess to hold myself above or below other bloggers but there are certain things that really “Grind My Gears” when it comes to the world of blogging as I’m sure they do to you too. If you’re reading this not as a blogger, but as a fabulous reader, PR or professional, then I’m sure you’ll have encountered some of these things along the way.
The following will be preceded by about 10, badly shot, low light photographs:
So I bought this today as part of a Boots 3 for 2, it smells really good. I’ve heard about it before but don’t know anything about it or what it will do to my skin/face/body but the packaging is really pretty and it was really cheap so I’m not that bothered anyway. Tried it on and don’t know what it’s doing but I’ve used it once and it feels really nice and obviously because it smells so good then I’m going to recommend it to all my friends. By the way, I love candy drops, rainbows, unicorns and paper doilies because they’re so cute.
Please pay attention the the central alignment and the lack of any real paragraphing or punctuation.
Now, I’m not wanting to discourage anyone from blogging. When I started out, my writing was, to be kind, appallingly horrific (and sometimes, when I’m typing tired, it still is). But what makes this Manface moan, is that blogs are set up and delivering what is presented as authority on topics which the blogger has no real knowledge of.
I’m not going to play the same old tune about how many bloggers set up sites just for the samples because that’s been excellently vocalised many, many times. Actually, yes I am. STOP sending PR’s shopping lists, they hate it and it’s damn rude; if you’re determined to do it, send in your analytics data and if you don’t have it, have a word with yourself and put your life in order. It’s exceedingly difficult for PR firms to spot the crap from the cream and I have been shown some of the nasty things bloggers send out, particularly if they don’t get what they want. PR is a business, so act professional goddamnit!
I guess the crux of what I have to say in regards to undeserving authority is that just because, from time to time, I take medicine bought from the pharmacy, it doesn’t make me a pharmacist or medical practitioner.
Then following on from this, what aggravates me even more is the number of hits these sites and vlogs get. I just don’t understand it. It’s hardly SEO worthy content? I have to finally pin my colours to the board here and say I’m insanely put out by Google Blogger, it’s not fair (spits the dummy out). 9/10 these sites gain hits through the forced community of Google Blogger and that Google obviously optimises its own content to suit its own search engine. Anyone who uses WordPress, especially self hosted, will know when starting out that it can be a very cold and lonely place out here.
With the champions of the blogging world being the likes of Lee (Grooming Guru), Jane (British Beauty Blogger) and Ree (Really Ree), you can see how much love, care and attention as well as ACTUAL INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE AND INSIGHT goes into their work. However the rest of the industry is cluttered like a jungle of, well, crap – making it harder and harder to find these deserving gems.
At the same time, the more successful blogs can’t hold a monopoly over the industry. Site hits don’t mean everything; for instance, if someone comes onto your blog, takes one scan at your opening line or image and thinks it’s rubbish and clicks off, this is a totally irrelevant hit, but a hit all the same. It’s hard for everyone involved to find a consistent and reliable metric across all platforms.
Rant over… for now. Would love to hear your comments on this or any other issues that really make you #moanface