Sunday 16 August 2015

6 Blogging Myths

Following on from my '6 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging' and '6 Things I've Learnt While Blogging' I decided to follow up with a post on Blogging Myths. Blogging can be a strange new world to come and I wanted to put aside some myths about blogging. There are so many rumours that say what makes a blog good or bad that aren't necessarily true!
 


1. All bloggers get loads of free gifts and do nothing else but blog
Of course there are 100s of bloggers out there who have blogging as their main income or their only job but many bloggers blog for the fun of it along side normal family life and their working life. At the moment I'm at university and I have a part-time job as well as two casual jobs and I blog when I can get around to it as it's a hobby of mine, this is totally normal in the blogging world. I've also been blogging for many years now and let me tell you 'free gifts' do not pay the bills! It actually annoys me when people think blogging is all about the free gifts. Bloggers have to work hard for what they write and no gifts are actually free, I'll break it down. You spend time speaking and networking with brands, a brand may offer you a product to review, you accept and the product comes, depending on what the brand has asked of you you'd then have to test the product, spend hours taking the perfect pictures of the product, map out a plan of what you're going to write, spend an hour+ writing, editing and promotion your post. It is a business at the end of the day, hobby or not time is money and you spend a lot of it writing and editing. 
2. You need to write well to be a successful blogger
Although writing well, in good English (or other languages, depending on where you live) is a bonus writing a blog post like you're writing your dissertation isn't exactly necessary. As long as you get your point across, you're honest and you know what you're saying you will get people reading your blog. Spelling and forgetting to reread my posts are two of my biggest faults and I'm pretty happy with the amount of readers I get. 
3. Writing a post takes less than 30 minutes 
Yes, a simple post can take less than 30 minutes to write but in general posts take about an hour, I've spoke to other bloggers and seen posts and I'm not the only one who can take hours, sometimes days writing a post. As I said in #1 you need to think about the post, sometimes to research, take pictures, edit pictures, write the post, edit the post and tweak it until it's your level of perfect then you finally post it. I've timed this post and it's actually taken me 53 minutes to write all 6 myths, I then took 10 minutes reading my post and editing it (spelling...) I then took 15 minutes to create my header, I then had to decide when I'd publish the post as it is going to be a scheduled post so overall it took me longer than an hour on what I'd call a pretty simple post. 
4. Posts need to be 500+ words
I don't think people should limit their posts to a 'you need to write more than this many words' it isn't an assignment, if you get your point across and you're happy with 100 words so be it, if a post takes 1000 words so be it. Your readers won't be upset if your post is short or long if you're informative and they enjoy the topic. 
5. Other bloggers are competition
I take every blogger on their own merits, there isn't two bloggers out there that are identical. I read so many different blogs and even if I read a review on a product on one blog I'll read three or more other bloggers review of the product just to see what they think, I like to get a wide variety of reviews and comments. I don't see any bloggers as competition because of this, if someone likes my blog I'd like to think they love loads of other blogs too. I actually have 8 top blogs which I read weekly and sometimes they write similar content but their writing styles are so different you can barely tell. 
6. You don't need social media icons on your blog
Without social media no one would see your content. It's fine if you've just started out but to stay present you need to be active on social media and part of being active on social media is having share buttons on your posts so readers can connect with you and share content that they love. Having auto tweet for my new blog posts helps me so much, I can schedule posts and be busy at work and know that as soon as a post goes live a tweet will be going out to all my followers. 

Do you have any myths about blogging you'd like to bust? 
 

24 comments:

  1. Yes I would definitely agree strongly with your point 3. My posts take hours, sometimes days. I always include my own photos in my posts so that includes shooting, selecting and editing and I am not one that can write quickly and post. I write, read, edit, read again, edit some more.... You get the picture. It is something that I really enjoy though and I'm so glad to have found blogging x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely post, totally agree with you about the freebies, nothing is ever free when it comes down to it and blogs are a lot of hard work

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with most of what you have said. I see blogging as a full time job and I am also a freelance writer so my views are slightly different from yours. Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blogging is becoming so much about PR and 'gifts' now that most people are so desperate for them they resort to using the pr request hashtag on twitter! When I started my blog I never realised that people were SO involved with brand and it makes me wonder if anyone even does this because they enjoy it or because they want free stuff :( It's hard to trust people when 50% of their posts are sponsored or they got something for free..

    I really enjoyed this post!


    www.natashakendall.com x

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are some very good points, people always think I get free stuff because I am a blogger and it annoys me so much!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Some of my posts take hours, especially if I edit photos or I'm doing a review. I also think it is important to have social media icons on your blog so that you can reach a wider audience.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing post, a must read and must share. I may republish it on my blog giving back full credit and back links.
    - Heena
    iCynosure Fashion Blog
    iCynosure on G+
    iCynosure on Bloglovin

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't think I've ever wrote a post in 30 min. Even a photo post takes me longer to set up.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for sharing the myth! I guess ppl will have clearer views on bloggers now..

    http://cre8toneprincess.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. i think i write a post in a minimum time of one hour.. And i totally agree with seeing other bloggers as friends, not competitors :D

    Love,
    Pudding Monster

    ReplyDelete
  11. i totally agree with u ... its really annoying when people says oh i should also start blogging then i will get free goodies .... its hectic to blog when u r studying + job and then blogging sigh people will neevr knwo until they get into it ...

    ReplyDelete
  12. The first one is so funny. Heard a lot about it from other people brcause some blogger brag about having free gifts all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Writing a post in less than 30 mins is impossible for me ha

    ReplyDelete
  14. def agree with all the points! blogging is not easy at all especially considering the need to put photos and stuff.
    great post!
    http://popiahc.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are very good points! The first and second one I can relate it =)

    ReplyDelete
  16. You have busted some really common myths! Great post. Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. ha ha that first point! sadly everyone thinks so...and guess what it takes me two days to write a post actually, 30min i cant imagine that!

    do drop by... GreenStory

    ReplyDelete
  18. #2 made me laugh .. You make some good points there :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. #1, 2 and 5 so true for me.. People have no idea really .. No idea

    ReplyDelete
  20. free gifts are so not free when you have to review them, test them and photograph them. It takes a lot of time. Agree with all the points.

    ReplyDelete
  21. load with free gift and pay higher for sponsored post!
    hahaha thats not true, i might say this :p
    i know that feeling

    ReplyDelete
  22. hahha it's so true..nothing is free and easy..we put in effort to get what own today..

    ReplyDelete
  23. I've never ever done a word count on any of my posts! I just write until it's done and if that's really short or really long then so be it
    AliceMegan

    ReplyDelete
  24. I've heard about most of these and people assuming it's all true is very annoying.

    ReplyDelete