Blogger Blues

by - 9:17 PM

Some mornings I wake up with tons of ideas for new blog posts, new followers and never-ending excitement. Blogging is something I'm truly passionate about, I write my posts with my heart and pick my images with care (well, most of the time). Waking up on mornings like these is amazing.
Yet some mornings I wake up to comments from people asking for follow-for-follows, Twitter and Instagram follows from people who will unfollow if I don't follow them back within five minutes and generic sponsored posts. On those days I'm not excited to start working on my blog. On those days I suffer from Blogger Blues.

There are many awesome things about blogging, but lately I've got to known the ugly side of blogging much better. If you have time, read this post here - just promise you come back to my blog after reading.
If you don't have that much time I'll tell you about the post: a former mommy blogger just shared all the nasty secrets about how big blogs became big. Just reading about it made me feel sick to my stomach. All the things I hate were featured: following people only to unfollow if they don't return the favour (apparently that's a highly recommended strategy), or just writing what the brands want you to write, even though you don't like their products. How can anyone do that?
My case of Blogger Blues just became so much worse while reading this post. I never understood how boring blogs with tons of spelling mistakes and cliche posts could be so popular. Now I do: follow-for-follows, letting people follow so they can enter a giveaway and if necessary, buy followers.
When I was done reading I looked at my follower count and felt cheated. Just that. Cheated.

I see bloggers who post the same generic, badly written posts that a thousand others have already posted and these people make it big, while my blog buddies and I go almost unnoticed. The reason behind that? My buddies don't use cheap methods to quickly grow a huge (but largely uninterested) audience. It's frustrating to see genuine and awesome posts receive not even a fraction of the attention that an extremely obviously sponsored post about diapers gets. It's frustrating to scrape together pageviews on a post you've written with all your heart, it's frustrating to see your friend's amazing blog not get the amount of followers it deserves.

Now at this point I can do two things: let my Blogger Blues get the best of me and grow bitter, or try to make it big in the blogging world by remaining true to myself. I will always choose the latter of those two options.
Yes, a lot of bloggers 'cheat' their way to the top. A lot of them do not and will never produce the high quality posts some completely unknown bloggers write. A lot of them are only in it for the money and the goodies. That's not me. I started blogging because I love writing. I rather receive two sincere comments on my posts than a thousand generic ones. I only follow people on Twitter if I had a nice chat with them or if they're just simply awesome. That might not be the quickest way to the top, but I do believe it's a good way. In the end, awesomeness always wins.

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10 Fellow Ramblers

  1. This is so true. I'm tired of people asking me "So how many followers do you have?". It takes a lot of effort and tears and self-searching to come a with an idea that I care for and I do it for me...

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    1. I don't mind the 'How many followers do you have?" anymore, I've accepted it's just part of the deal. What does annoy me is that people who are not familiar with blogging at all just look down on me if I say I have just over a hundred followers. "Oh, well, that's decent, I guess" is what they say and if they do I just want to smack them in the face with my laptop. They have no idea how much effort we put into every little aspect of blogging!

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    1. Thank you! I think a lot of people don't want to accept it's the truth (like me :P), but it's true indeed.

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  3. This post actually summarises my life XP lovely one "winks"
    https://themysteriousemirati.blogspot.ae

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    1. Haha, thank you. Hope your Blogger blues won't get you down.

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  4. YES. I can't tell you how long I felt like this (& sometimes still do) I mean it's amazing when people follow & comment, but there are times when you realise how fake a lot of it is and feel like you're contributing to that by blogging. I stopped going after followers and working with brands and trying to make it 'big' because like you I woke up one morning and realised this is not the community I want around me. Now my community is much much smaller and blogs much more honest and I'm so much happier for it! Before I had that enviable minimalist blog, too many followers and a ridiculous amount of views, but I also had a site dedicated to the people who hated me and serious stalking issues. So I guess what I'm saying is, followers aren't everything. Be true to what you want to blog about & don't let anyone convince you to do otherwise :)

    This is a really important talking point, because 'blogger blues' as you call them affect us all from time to time & it's important people can read posts like this and realise they are not alone. I truly believe that one day it's these kind of blogs that will last, long after all the click bait, 10k follower counts and brand opportunities have gone and found a new platform to exploit.

    Good luck with your blogging and I hope one day you do make it big because you remained true to yourself anf what you believe. I'm rooting for you girl.

    Love,

    Anne // www.aportraitofyouth.co.uk

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    1. Everything you say it so, so true. When that realization hits, that it's all a bit fake and forced, I lose all motivation for a while. I wish it wasn't so, but there's so little I can do about it.
      I admire you for giving up on chasing the numbers and I'm so glad to hear you're happier now with the way things are on your blog :) I do like seeing the numbers go up, but on my terms, not with the strategies that 'professionals' advice us.

      I feel like most people don't want to address the issue. Blogging about it somehow makes it more true for people, and some bloggers aren't ready to accept that it's really this way instead of all the rainbows and unicorns they imagine.

      Thank you for your awesome comment and thank you for rooting for me :)

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  5. This post is completely relatable. As someone who just started blogging about 6 months, I'm already getting "blogger blues". (I think i'm the only one in the group, my co-authors seem okay) I actually wrote a similar post a couple of days ago where i talked about how it is ridiculously hard for teen bloggers to be big. When i first started blogging, i followed all the rules the big giant blogs recommend. Follow for follow, create a social media site on this app, promote, pay this much to get your blog out there. I'll see this blogs that will say oh i got 50,000 users in the first month, two month, and while i'm sitting here like how? lol. Sadly most people will actually stop blogging or go with these schemes to get more followers. I'm really happy you actually talked about this issue, because i thought i was the only one. Keep up the great work Envy :)

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    1. I remember from when I reached the 6 month milestone that I'd already had my first case of blogger blues. It's probably natural. Maybe your co-authors are less involved or less interested in the numbers game?
      I'll have to check out your post, 'cause there aren't many people who seem to blog about these kinds of things. I've never followed the rules (mainly because I didn't know there were rules), but I'd rather do things my way anyway :P
      Let's not give up and show the people who go with the schemes that it's possible to reach the top with sincerity :)

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