Confessions of a blogger

This is a watercolour image made by myself, please don't copy/save!

I have been a blogger since 2012, at the time I didn't know how much it would affect my life, what it would lead to or what it would entail but I am so glad I have stuck with it for over four years and I am so grateful to be part of this amazing, supportive online community. However, among the countless positives to blogging, there are some drawbacks and unusual things related to being a blogger...here are my blogger confessions. 

1. I don't own a marble table, faux marble table cover or a marble pot...I don't own anything made from genuine marble *hangs head in shame*

2. I can't use any product until I have taken 100 photos of it.

3. Blogger enabled or blog related purchases are not good for my bank balance and happen often. 

4. Comparing my blog to other blogs is torture!

5. Spam emails. So much spam. 

6. Hoarding empty products, keeping products in various boxes to photograph or review and having blog photo props are all 'normal'...

7. Non-bloggers(aka. muggles) who don't understand what blogging is or just how much time/work it takes. Just no. 

8. DA. PA. Bloglovin followers. Twitter analytics. Bounce rate. GFC followers. ALL THE NUMBERS. 

9. The horror of ugly packaging or bad lighting ruining photos! Damn you English weather. 

10. Having ten or more lipsticks which are almost identical but I find reasons to keep them all..one has slight shimmer, one could be good for dupe post, one smells nice and so on. 

11. "You're chatting on Twitter with other people you've met online"...I know it sounds dubious but it's just a blogger chat on twitter - that explanation is usually met with confused looks. 

12. All the neutral eyeshadows palettes shall be mine. My precious. 

13. Going for a day out somewhere just to take pretty OOTD photos. 

14. Wanting to buy all the stationery, homeware from H&M and rose gold everything. "It's for my blog". Justified. 

15. Worrying about someone stealing my photos which has happened once before - my lips were on a sellers listing on Portuguese eBay! 

Leave your 'blogger confessions' in the comments below!

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Interview with a PR: Bethanie Jane

Todays post is a little different as the lovely Bethanie has answered my questions about blogging and PR/digital marketing. I was curious to get a PRs opinion and I thought my blog readers would be interested too! Check out Bethanie's Blog (here) and twitter (here).

I’m Bethanie, a 24 year old Digital Marketing Manager from Newcastle. With my job I work with a lot of bloggers, so I see things from both sides (if "sides" is the way you would put it)! As well as working in PR, I’m a fashion and lifestyle blogger at bethaniejane.co.uk. 

1. From a PRs perspective, what do you look for in a blog/blogger?

When I’m looking for bloggers, it’s hard not to let personal tastes get in the way! I’m really a fan of clean and simple blogs, but I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. As well as the usual domain authority, page rank and following, it’s important to look at the content. I usually avoid blogs that have a big list of adverts down the side as it looks messy. I also usually avoid blogs that are sponsored post after sponsored post - this tells us that a blog has no real passion for what they are doing, and just wants to make money! 

2. What advice would you give to someone wanting to work in PR/digital marketing?

I would say get some experience! Volunteer for a charity, do some work experience with a company or an agency - that’s so valuable on your CV! A lot of charities welcome volunteers to take over their Twitter for a day or write a blog post for them. Volunteer work always looks great on a CV too, whatever your line of work is! 

3. What is the most challenging aspect of your job? 

The most challenging thing would be probably time. Working in an agency, we all have a list of clients with targets and deadlines which can be challenging sometimes. It’s no problem for me though as I love the business and the fast pace of it!

4. As a blogger yourself, what do you love/hate about blogging?

My moans would probably be about bloggers that give good ones a bad name. I read a blog post named “Dear PRs, sincerely bloggers” the other day and was a bit surprised at what I read! It was very matter of fact and even contained the phrase “deal with it”. It’s a shame that some of these blogs are around, but you’ll be pleased that PRs don’t tar all with the same brush! Another gripe is the #PRRequest hashtag that seems to have divided the community. As a PR I tend to avoid bloggers that are constantly asking for things on the hashtag, but I can’t say the same thing for everyone! 

On a more positive note, I absolutely love the network we have - it’s a great environment. I love to try out new brands and share them with my readers now and again. I also like meeting new people at blogging events, people I would never ever bump into in a normal situations! 

5. With big bloggers signing big book deals and taking the world by storm, what do you think of the rise of bloggers in the mainstream media?

It’s absolutely great, blogs like Zoella and Tanya Burr are doing really well! Same with a blog I've followed for a while, Deliciously Ella. Brands are now really seeing the value of blogs these days so it’s a really positive step. 

Thanks to Bethanie for answering my questions! 

What are your answers and opinions with regards to my questions?

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My Blogging Experience: Brands/PRs

Todays post is a another in the 'My Blogging Experience' mini series that I started last month with my 'blogging pet peeves' post (here). As my blog is coming up to it's 3rd birthday (which is in May and I will have a rather exciting international giveaway to celebrate) I thought I would create a few blog posts to share my experience of blogging over the years including what I have learnt, my experience of working with brands/PRs, blog photography and more. 

This post is all about my personal experience and approach to working with brands and PR companies. When I started my blog, I didn't think that I would really work with brands as it was just a creative hobby for me rather than blogging for money or samples and it still isn't. I started my blog mainly as I always bought quite a lot of makeup and I wanted to share my views and I already wrote on two review websites (Dooyoo and Ciao) so my own website was a natural progression for me. It wasn't until almost one year after creating my blog that I was approached by a brand to work with them. The brand was The Skin Regime and I was so excited when I received Dana's email, especially as it is an American company. I remember feeling quite overwhelmed when I received my first product to review as I didn't want to disappoint the sender as they had sent me a product from America and I wanted my blog post to be amazing. Although I feel obliged to be up front and true to my readers and followers, even though I only had 30 or so at the time but every reader should be provided with the necessary information if they want to purchase as well as an honest review of the product. 

Since then I have been very lucky to work with some of my favourite brands that I bought from before I even started my blog such as Debenhams, Yves Rocher, Burts Bees and more; as well as being introduced to brands I never would have tried which is one of my favourite things about working with brands/PRs. The college above shows some of my favourite products that I have received for review recently, one of which I never thought I would own - the Silkn Glide HPL System.

Working with brands/PRs is a controversial topic in the blogging community but my personal view bloggers working with brands/PR companies that is the norm however honesty and transparency are so important. I also think that bloggers approaching brands/PR companies themselves is perfectly acceptable and I do it myself on occasion, it is just the way in which you approach the individual on the other end of the email which is what makes it controversial, in my opinion. For example, when I approach a brand I email something along the lines of: 'Hi, I'm emailing to ask if you work with bloggers' etc so they can say if they do or don't. What I do have an issue with is that some bloggers may think that brands owe them products to review because they are a blogger and have X number of followers. No brand/PR owes any blogger anything and what may need to be taken into consideration is that PRs are real people and they are just doing their job. I have been fortunate enough to have positive experiences with all brands/PRs, some of which are so lovely, especially the team at Media Hubb, Media Works and Total Media who work within digital marketing and media buying as well as blogger outreach - I would love to work in PR/digital marketing! 

On the other hand, I do receive emails from PRs that basically ask me to publish a post about a certain product, campaign or app/website with no benefit to myself or my blog - that's not ok. I didn't work hard for almost three years on my blog to provide brands with free targeted advertising, in my opinion. If I did publish their posts I would feel as though I am providing my readers with information they don't necessarily want and I would be lowering the value of my own blog; I wouldn't want to that as bloggers do work so hard. Some of my family and friends have described my blog and their experience of starting a blog as a 'part time job' and a 'mini business' and I think that sometimes bloggers are undervalued although with the rise of 'big' bloggers in the mainstream media, it is becoming much more valued and important as a new media outlet for consumers, brands and PRs. 

I have put so much time and effort into my blog and one of the perks is working with some fantastic or not so fantastic brands but it shouldn't be the reason anyone starts a blog, you have to have a interest and passion for your chosen topics. I love blogging and after almost three years I cannot imagine stopping! There are controversial topics within blogging, as there are with everything, which can take some of the enjoyment out of it but if you are thinking of starting a blog I would suggest you do it. It is one of my best decisions I have made, not only because of the lovely perks such as events, samples to review and meeting new people but on the whole it is a fantastic, supportive community that I love being part of.

Just a little note, there was a #lbloggers chat last week I think about sponsorship and disclaimers which I was too late to join but I read through some of the chat (definitely look out for the blogger chats on twitter) and I wanted to be completely transparent regarding sponsored posts. For example, this post is sponsored and I personally have no problem with bloggers accepting sponsored post opportunities as long as they are honest, labelled as sponsored and are relevant or helpful to readers and followers which I hope this post is.

*this is a sponsored post*

If you are a blogger, what are your opinions on working with brands/PRs? Also what are your thoughts on sponsored posts? 

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Ultimate Girly Night In Giveaway (UK Only)

Todays post is a very exciting giveaway including all of the prizes you need to have a girly night in with family/friends.

The prizes are as follows: copies of Blended and The Other Woman on DVD from Cash Gen and a 7" Gourmet Chocolate Pizza from Qwerkity; as well as a Bingo Game, Face Masks (x4) and a £15 Supermarket Voucher for a shop of your choice from Paddy Power Bingo. 

This giveaway is UK only! Thanks to all three companies kindly supplying the prizes! To enter fill out the Rafflecopter form. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Design Your Own Makeup Bag With Sewlomax

As some of you may know, I'm an ambassador for Sewlomax! I have a few reviews of their products on my blog, including the *Sewlomax Cream Lipstick Print Pouch (here) and the *Sewlomax Lipstick Pop (here), both of which I genuinely love and use often. When I was offered the opportunity to use the new Sewlomax service/app to design my own makeup bag, I jumped at the chance!

For the app/tab on the website to work you need to have Google Chrome, which I didn't as I always use safari so I had to download it. There are three bag style options available, I picked the *box shape. The bag prices are all the same - £30. You can then choose the bag colours, I chose all grey as one of my favourite makeup bags from Sewlomax is the grey lipstick print pouch which I love. 

You can then add on the images to the bag such as makeup, hearts, stars, perfume bottles and holiday themed items. Rotating, resizing and changing the colour of the images to quick and easy. I chose the makeup images as I am a beauty blogger and I wanted my bag to be beauty blogger themed. The collage above shows the design process and some of the other designs I came up with. You can lay one image over the other so it creates a shadow/3D effect which is what I did with mine. There is a good choice of thread colour as well as images although hopefully with time they will bring out more images and thread colours as well as fonts, if possible.

The design process was easy, simple to follow and fun too, I could have spent more time experimenting with different designs, colours and styles! Here is the final design, I love it! I love the red and white threads overlapping on the lipstick image and I think all of the images look fantastic. I would recommend not making the images too small as they might not look as good as larger images. 

The bag size is perfect as is the shape, it will fit a lot of makeup and toiletries in - I will definitely be taking this bag on holiday with me this year. The bag is made to a high standard, it is soft and padded and it is perfect for a beauty obsessed blogger like me! 

Overall, I think these personalised bags would make amazing presents as they can be made however you want, with numerous images, text and colours. I personally love the box shape bag as it is so spacious and I am very happy with the end result. As each bag is hand embroidered and personalised, the manufacturing time is longer than the other bags - approximately 2-3 weeks. 

Have you bought anything from Sewlomax? What do you think of this design your own makeup bag app/service?

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Merry Christmas

Just a short blog post today just to say MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR from me! I hope everyone has a fantastic christmas day and I hope none of you get trampled in the boxing day sales - good luck! 

I will have a new year giveaway in the next week or so, so stay tuned. I will be back in a day or two with another blog post. 

If you have the time, could you leave me some end of year feedback, criticisms or ways I can improve my blog in the comments below.

Lots of love from,

Heather x

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