While I was away, Ember Adored made a blog post regarding feeling tied down as a blogger, and how she broke free of the stress that tends to come with blogging nowadays in Second Life. When I read the post I really wanted to respond, but wasn’t able to.
Hair: Exile:: Eyes On Me (@ December’s C88)
Skin: –Glam Affair – Summer v3 – Jamaica – August
Glasses: Glamistry Sunglasses PU2002
Earrings: Chop Zuey – Pentecostal Shoulder Duster Diam Earrings
Jacket: …Mutresse… Tita Coat (@ December’s C88)
Location: The Cyprian Garden
It’s no secret about how I feel about blogging; I have shared some of my sentiments in the past.
https://monisworldsl.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/blogger-sponsorship-in-second-life/
https://monisworldsl.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/why-do-i-blog/
And I have also had meetings with fellow bloggers:
https://monisworldsl.wordpress.com/2015/10/23/sl-blogger-meetup-today-at-9-am-slt/
https://monisworldsl.wordpress.com/2016/06/26/bloggers-office-hours-today-1-5-pm-slt/
When a blogger creates a post, it’s comparable to creating art. You have styling (fashion), staging a scene (H&G), taking a photo (involves photography), and writing up a post (for those who still like to express their sentiments). And whereas it’s nice and can even boost our self-esteem when our art is appreciated, I believe that bloggers that are in it for the long run are intrinsically motivated. That is who I feel content creators should look for when selecting bloggers, and not base it on criteria that can be easily manipulated. But what do I know?
Let’s get to the questions that Ember asked us:
What are some of the biggest things you have agreed to in an application in order to get into a bloggers group?
Honestly for my own sanity, I stay away from too many crazy requirements. All of the stores that I blog for at the moment have reasonable requirements. For events it can get a bit more hectic, but that is more so because of the number of items that you receive. This is why I am hesitant to join a monthly event.
Some of the following requirements have turned me away from applying:
- Blogging ALL releases. I have no idea what you would release in a given calendar month, and just because you want to overextend yourself doesn’t mean I am able to do the same).
- Getting 99+ faves /1k+ views on every Flickr photo. Suppose if my audience doesn’t like a particular photo that I did. Does that really take away from me being a blogger? It’s another thing if you were working as a social media manager and the team notices that certain releases aren’t responding well to the public. But that is marketing and research, not a personal blog.
- Blogging x% of all releases. This is the same as the first requirement. Suppose if a store wants 50% of all releases blogged, and one month they double or even triple the amount of releases. It’s not like you know in advance that this is happening – all you see is the huge amount of releases sent to you, and you get slammed with work.
- (For events) Blog x amount of posts, and have at least x amount of items in each post. This can be tricky to do if you do not know what you are getting in advance. This requirement wouldn’t necessarily turn me away, but I would have to look into it before making a decision.
- Assigned stores to blog (for an event). This is not necessarily a turn off either, but what tends to happen is that while your assigned stores still have not sent out the items for you to blog, other stores are sending items. These are items that you want to blog as well. Then the event or blogger manager sees that there are lots of posts that feature the same content creators, and get upset that people are not doing their job. So yeah – this is not a deal breaker but it can get messy.
Why do you blog?
