Being A Blogger, Being A Writer vs Shopping Adviser

Being modest is very hard in today’s world. The job you are seeking or your supervisor push you to be more and more aggressive for successful.  Even in our blogger world, I don’t feel the beauty of the beginning of blogosphere anymore, being a blogger was every interesting around that times. Now, everybody’s obsessed with likes, followers and all the things look important but not necessarily. People don’t understand the power of being a blogger anymore. They only use their platforms as a money maker tool.

When I told someone I started to blog when It was 2005, people are shocked. I never started as to get free stuff or to be invited to the next cool party in the town. I was secretly making fun of college professor at that time. And It was just great to get comments from people because they didn’t know me and I was doing my blogging anonymously.

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I had multiple blogs over the years, and I always use different blogging platforms (the internet monster inside me :)). This is why I started to share my blogging and social media (did you know I found my first job via social media post back in 2009?) knowledge here.

Crop tee: Zara
Ripped boyfriend jeans: Berskha
Sandals: Birkenstock
Bag: Chanel Vintage
Sunglasses: Ray-Ban (similar)

Even though I have plenty of experience on social media and this world, I sometimes caught by the trends on social media but I really don’t wanna. I don’t always share what I receive from brands. I don’t feel right to share everything I received. First of all, I believe I have followers who don’t have enough money to buy stuff I have and that’s not helpful to these people, opposite, they feel hopeless and helpless. And I don’t wanna be part of such a thing. Secondly, I don’t always get very excited about the things they send me and so It’s not right to share something that I wouldn’t buy myself.

I started to see so many friends that I knew via social media become shopping influencers but not necessarily bloggers. Because they don’t offer me anything from their mind or from their experience. All they do is offering me the cutest new tops which are under $50 or the nice gift from a brand, they recently received.

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What I heard from one of the closer blogger friends, some PR agencies or influencer networks blacklist people like me. Because we don’t share enough of what they send us or we share sometimes negative opinions. Geez, I didn’t want to believe this first but I also read this article. A PR person should let me know about new product or service not necessarily pay me for that but also respects me for not covering that product or service. I, as a blogger, have an independence to cover that or not.

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Why do I blogging? Because of the independence of it. I always think my blog as my column in a newspaper. I’m lucky that I don’t have an editor so I could talk whatever I want. As a person who wants to make enough money to write full-time, I have to have a solid salary. (even a half of my current salary) But I try to be true to myself and my beliefs. And It’s getting harder and harder in this environment. Because I refused to feature only products all the time. Because I didn’t start this blog to receive free stuff. My main goal is to improve my writing skills in English and meet new people, new opportunities in the fashion tech world.

Even though being a blogger is hard today, It is great to have a platform to explain yourself and be yourself and connect with the same minded people.

Comments

2 responses to “Being A Blogger, Being A Writer vs Shopping Adviser”

  1. Izabela Nair Avatar

    This was very interesting. As a fellow blogger, I don’t like the pressure bloggers feel to share every PR sample the receive. We are independent so we need to have a freedom to choose what we want to promote.

    Her Hive

    1. Alley Girl Avatar

      Definitely, I received broken product one time and the one which is close to expiration time. And I want to share bad things to as well as good stuff right. But when you do that, you’re in that blacklist 🙂

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