Feeling Sour In Blogging.
When life hands you a lemon decorated tray...Instagram it.
I don't have any plan for this post at all, no structure at all; I know full well I'm about to go on a rant and I didn't know if was a rant I wanted to publish or one I wanted to keep in my head or maybe Whatsapp the picnic gals but I decided in the end my blog is the perfect way to brain dump and rant and actually maybe it's an internal rant a lot of us have.
It relates to blogging and more directly; brand collaborations and opportunities.
I've been lucky enough - and I genuinely mean lucky, I really appreciate it - to be gifted items, been hosted for free at events, worked on a bunch of collabs and been paid for posts before. But do you ever see a sponsored Instagram or a blog post collab or a campaign and think "but how the fuck didn't I get approached for that?"
This post (and these sour feelings) has mainly been inspired by the amount of National Stationery Week blog posts surrounding my feed and my social media lately. It's a big event, I have posts planned too but it seems a lot of brands have rolled out some blogger collabs, namely stationery related - no shocker there.
And I keep seeing them, and I keep seeing the people that have secured them and I keep thinking 'whut', Like some of the placements don't get me wrong are ace, like the posts are fab, it's relevant, the imagery is awesome - it's all dandy. And then some of them I'm like 'k so you just did this for the followers didn't you?'
I'm so bitter over it, and jealous, like I know what I am don't be mistaken - I'm so bitter about it and I hate feeling negative toward blogging and bloggers and collabs. And I don't expect this'll get me any more brand collabs either.
I get that brands want the biggest possible outreach hence they go for the bigger following and I get that bloggers want the dollah so they agree to sponsored content but sometimes I'm like 'really? really?'
Ya know, sometimes you'd hope a brand would take a chance on a blogger with an apparent smaller following where their product would be better placed. A blog whose readers are likely to click on links and buy a product or visit a site or follow. Idk, just someone better placed.
I feel bitter about it because I have seen A LOT of sponsored content over the course of the last year that I think as a blogger and illustrator, I'd have been ace for, I'd have done SUCH a good job on and been so motivated and excited to do it. You know the ones, the ones you know paid top dollah for it when you'd have done it for free for the genuine love of the product or service.
This post is going nowhere, I have no ending to it, no conclusion. It's just a rant and a brain dump and not one I'm massively happy about cos lol worst blogger award goes to me. But for reals, sometimes you don't feel all hunky dory and the blogger envy is real and that's fine. I'll get over it because I know people would be crying out for the opportunities I have had - ones that I genuinely loved working on.
Idk, if you have any tips for securing blogger brand collabs you're proud of, ones you reached out for lemme know cos lord knows I'm not a blogging queen and we all need all the help we can get.
