When I first started blogging years ago, I only read a handful of bloggers. Blogging was just starting to become mainstream, Twitter wasn’t even heard of and MySpace was more popular than Facebook. It was a long time ago it seems.
I am not sure if it’s all the Blogher talk going around the interwebs this week or if I’m just old and bitter and jealous. But I remember when blogging was more… more, what is the word that best describes what I’m that I’m trying to say… organic? Yeah, organic seems perfect!
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that blogs that I once read with hardly any comments have grown in to full fledge powerhouses on the web. I think it’s pretty cool actually. And I’ve never been one to criticize another for making money from his/her blog via sponsors, commercials, ads and whatnots and everything in between. If you can make money by blogging, I think it’s pretty cool. They always say, “Find something you love to do and make money at it and you will never have to work a day in your life” right?
But I have been seeing more and more of “Lookie what I got!” or “Lookie at my sponsor who is sending me here and there and it’s awesome!” And reading about “SWAG!” It’s like what was once reading someone’s inter most personal thoughts have turned into trying to convince me to buy something OR by just clicking here I’m making the author of the blog money. It just doesn’t seem as real as it once was.
Of course, I can click the red X anytime and nobody is forcing me to read commercials disguised as blog posts, but I go back time to time to the blogs that once really struck a cord with me to find that feeling again that I felt when I read them long ago, that feeling of “Hey, I’m not the only one. Wow.” I enjoyed reading about the good days, the bad days because I too have good days and bad days. I enjoyed reading about troubles at work/husbands/friends and the triumphs of promotions/date nights/ friends connecting. Now, mixed in with the relatable posts, I am reading about “Lookie at what I got for going to Blogher (or whatever big thing coming up)” or “Please click on my sponsor’s link!”
And no I’m not jealous of those going to Blogher, Blogher is just the “next thing” that I’m using as an example. If it isn’t Blogher, it’s something else. I am glad for those going to Blogher (and the next event) and enjoy reading recaps and seeing pictures of people…. but I want read the feelings, not about the swag that you kinda have to write about because you have a sponsor. I mean if you really like something, like I LOVE my bounce dryer thingy that sticks to the inside of my dryer and makes my clothes smell yummy! But I can tell you about my bounce dryer thingy and my feelings about it because I honestly love it, not because Bounce is paying my way to some fancy shindig or giving me a lifetime supply of the bounce dryer thingies that I love. Does that make sense? It just seems that more and more bloggers that I once loved and could totally relate to, are now shoving bounce dryer thingies that they don’t even use or own! down my throat all in the name of money and freebies. And it makes me sad. I want to go back to the days when I felt like I was reading personal diaries that were sometimes funny, sometimes sad and sometimes mundane, are now just …. commercials. More and more and more and more seem to be turning to the dark side and more often.
I’m starting to ramble now and and I am aware that I’ve contradicted myself more than once in this post AND I’m sure I’ve pissed off a few people and for that, I’m sorry. The readers of this blog have stuck with me through a lot of stuff and I know each of you beyond this blog and I hope you know I’m not speaking about any of you, but yes, some of your nearest and dearest friends might just be what I consider commercial bloggers now instead of personal bloggers that they once were. But like I said, I still go back from time to time and peak in on those once cherished blogs to see if I am once again “not alone.” But I find more and more that I’m am, in fact, “alone.” And it’s so damn hard to find a blog that isn’t mostly peppered with commercials and ads and sponsored posts and the most annoying, when I click on the blog to leave a comment, A FREAKING POP UP AD TO ‘Click here!’ or the first thing I see is an ad before I even see the blog itself. Maybe I’m just not looking hard enough? But I’m on a mission to find another handful of real-to-life personal “organic” blogs* to replace the now commercial blogs that are filling up my feedreader. Wish me luck!
*There are four people that I used to LOVE reading that haven’t posted in a long, long time. I hope you four go back to writing because I miss you four oodles and oodles.
I've recently become a blogging purist and I love the idea of Organic Blogging. I'm not into the whole concept of writing for swag. I think I write just to write because it makes me happy.
ReplyDeleteHilly- I'm so glad someone else gets what I am trying to say. I really don't begrudge anyone for getting cool stuff because they blog, it's just when it starts to feel like I'm reading an infomercial once or twice a week, I get all like, "Oh man... you're taking the fun out it!" If I want to read up on something, or what I should buy, what I should do on my next vacation, etc, I will Google those things myself or go to blogs especially for those topics.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is a prime example of blogs that I love to read and if you started trying to sell me stuff in-between the excellent posts like the one tonight (bulletproof), I would be bummed about it. And more and more, awesome blogs that I love(d) like yours are becoming more and more a sales pitch. And events like Blogher when sponsors are involved for paying someone’s way; it really gets muddy for me as a reader as to what is genuine and what is just “well, I gotta write this damn post about {insert product/sponsor}”