My Thoughts On Blogging And What It Means To Me

Blogging has changed a lot since I first started out back in 2010 (has it really been that long!?)  Back then the web was alive with hobby bloggers, people sharing their crafts and lifestyles with the world.  Those bloggers are all still out there, but they are just fewer and further between.  In the day of Instagram and Twitter it is so much easier to micro blog these days, and many have turned to these channels leaving their blogs behind.

For many now, blogging is a business.  They make mega bucks from it.  Advertising brands with product placements, some even launching their very own brands and businesses.  I don't feel that there is so much variety today as what there was back then, but please correct me if you think I'm wrong.  Each blog has a label and I'm just as much guilty of doing this as the next person is.  There seems to have been an explosion of beauty and fashion bloggers taking over the show with parent and lifestyle bloggers following closely behind, anything else is rarely seen, else I'm just not looking in the right places.    

My blog reading habits have changed, they have had to in order to keep up with things.  I still really enjoy reading the original lifestyle type blogs such as A Life In The English Rain and Madelief, but I do now read a lot of the more brand driven type blogs and it isn't all bad, it's just different.     

The thing I love most about blogging is that there is really no right or wrong way of doing it.  It is what works best for you.  

For me it is an outlet for my creativity.  Its somewhere for me to reflect on things and a place to log life's adventures and milestones.  I really enjoy writing and love taking photos, styling out mini photo shoots.  I do also really like working with brands and small businesses.  However it is my blog and I like my blog to reflect me, so writing about my home and lifestyle is imperative to me and what I want my blog to be about.  I don't want to lose the originality of what blogging used to be, but on the same token I want to try and keep up with the times.  I suppose to a degree, in a bid to fit in, which I know in a way sounds silly as there is space for all of us, but we all like to be noticed and we all like to be successful, I'm no different in that. 

Rightly or wrongly I do look at my blog as a job, except I don't get paid for it and alongside blogging I do have a full time paid job.  Don't get me wrong though, I would love to be a full time paid blogger, but we don't always get what we want in life, so for now I'm settling for second best.

~ Gem x