TIPS AND TRICKS: 10 Blogging Myths

Back with the first blogging tips post of 2015 and today I’m talking about blogging myths. This was inspired by the #bdib chat on Friday night where people were talking about scheduling and being organised, and a few comments made me raise my eyebrows a little. So, in this rather lengthy post, I’ve decided to address a few little blogging do’s-and-dont’s that I’ve heard before and to say shattaaaaap to it all.

One: Scheduling Means Your Posts Won’t Be As Good | Complete rubbish. Some say if you schedule a post, it won’t be spontaneous and have no passion. I mean, if I write the post days earlier and click publish that day, is it still spontaneous? Or if I write it that morning yet schedule it for a peak traffic time? See? Rubbish. I honestly don’t have enough time in the day (every single day) to think of a post, take photos and write it to publish then and there. If you do however, that’s fantastic. Like I said in the chat; if you schedule a post, that’s ok, if you write up a post and hit publish, that’s also ok. There’s isn’t a ‘lack of passion and spontaneity’ in either of them.

Two: You Need A DSLR | Don’t get me wrong, I’m over the moon I got mine as I’ve found a passion for photography that I never had before, but did I need one to blog? Nope. Having an expensive camera doesn’t make you the next Park & Cube and unless you know how to actually use it, it’s a complete waste of money. Learn the settings of your current one, composition, lighting and editing before dropping the £500+ on a new fancy thang (plus the price of the lenses!).

Three: You Need All of the New Releases | Also not true. I know we all get caught up in blogger hype sometimes (for example, effaclar duo (which destroyed my face)) but one thing we definitely do not need is something everyone else has. It won’t make your blog any less relevant or current if you don’t have it.

Four: You Have to Post Every Day | So hugely unrealistic. At the moment, I blog every day because I only work two days a week (as of tomorrow, eeek) so I physically have the time. Some of my favourite blogs only post 2-3 times a week. Want to blog more? Go right ahead. Want to blog once a week? No one will hold a single thing against you. Please don’t let people dictate your routine to you!

Five: You Have to Spend Lots of Money | There are some wonderfully thrifty bloggers out there, turning old items into new outfits just by mixing it up. You can create new beauty posts out of old favourites or just a different way of presenting things. Blogging doesn’t have to cost you anything, really.

Six: No One Reads Long Posts | These posts are a testament to this being rubbish. The length of a post doesn’t determine the success of it. The content, the layout, the photos, your writing style and, ultimately, how you feel about it, does. If someone can’t be arsed to read a post you’ve put your heart and soul into, then that’s a reflection on them and not you.

Seven: You Have To Have XX Amount of Followers (or Get PR Samples) to be Successful | This is the one I find most annoying. Working with brands and getting samples doesn’t determine your success. Gaining a certain amount of followers doesn’t determine your success. If, and this is just my personal view, you think getting a free lipstick means you’ve ‘made it’, then you need to re-evaluate what you want out of blogging. It’s not the be all and end all and you don’t need to be ‘recognised’ by a company to gain a sense of worth.

Eight: You Can Only Promote a Post a Once a Day | Good luck driving traffic and utilising social media with that tactic. I promote my latest blog post every 1.5-2hrs and a good 40% of my daily views comes from social media, so imagine how much I’d lose if I only tweeted once a day!? Madness.

Nine: Bloggers Who Don’t Reply Are Just Rude | Bit of a weird one, as I know it’s seen as being fundamentally quite rude, but literally picture how many tweets and instagram comments some bloggers must get. I mean, I’m a teeny blogger and according to my twitter analytics, in the past 7 days I got over 800 replies to tweets, which is over 100 a day. I’m not completely defending some, but I’d imagine they’d have to be sat on social media all day to reply to everything. I’m certainly not gonna cry if a ‘big blogger’ doesn’t reply…

Ten: Blogging is Time Consuming | It’s not, really. Like I said, I spend time on it because I’ve got time to spend at the moment. Realistically, I could get everything done for the week in a day if I really wanted to. Blogging can take as long as you want it to take. It’s entirely up to you.

Don’t forget to check out my big beauty blog sale! It all needs to go by the 11th.

Helen x
ps. Check out these blogs: Abracadabra Girl, A Dash of Ginger, Gyudy’s Notes of Beauty and Adventures of an Anglophile

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