Three Years Of Blogging: Followers + Views

This post might be a little controversial as I think gaining followers and wanting to increase your page views is a taboo topic in the blogging community. Not many bloggers say 'I want more follower's and page views' but I think most of us would like that. 

I started out rather stupidly when it comes to blog followers, as for months when I started my blog I forgot to even add the GFC (google friend connect) widget to my blog...no wonder no one was following my blog! I didn't have many followers for a long time, I remember being so excited telling my mum that I had 10 followers; now three years on I have over 1,600 on GFC and over 2,000 on Bloglovin which just blows my mind! I'm so glad that so many people seem to enjoy my content. 

One way of gaining followers and traffic is commenting on other blogs. I only started doing this a couple of years ago and since then my numbers have increased so much. I love reading other bloggers posts (particularly unique posts or ones that I can relate to) and I love finding new blogs. I will have a 'my current favourite blogs' post coming within the next few weeks. 

Although you do not want to spam bloggers *that's not cool*, I try to leave a thoughtful, kind or opinionated comment as getting comments like that on my blog makes my day! Follow for a follow type comments are the opposite, it can be so rude and disheartening that someone only wants to follow your blog so they gain a follower. However, I do encourage readers to leave their blog links so I can check them out at some point. 

Social media interaction and joining in with blogger chats on Twitter are also great ways of getting your blog out there. I only started joining in with twitter chats last year and I don't know why I didn't sooner - I LOVE blogger chats on twitter, especially the #lblogger, #bblogger chats and more recently the #BDIB chat! 

The points above are my two main ways of gaining more traffic and followers that have personally worked for me; here are a few other points to consider:

- Tag brands in photos/posts on your social media accounts. I mainly do this on twitter and instagram so brands know I wrote about them and they might regram/retweet sharing your content with a wide audience. Just look at My Pale Skins instagram follower numbers since Anastasia Beverly Hills regramed her photo - she now has an insane number of followers!

- With regards to the point above, if you've been sent something from a brand/PR company, email the link to your post so they can share your post too. Again this can increase blog traffic, especially if it's a big brand.

- Following blogs, as they may follow back. I remember when I had about 100 followers and the lovely Evelyn from We Were Raised By Wolves followed me *I was so over the moon* and I still love her blog!

- Make it easy for your readers to find your social media accounts/blog - I see this so many times, blog/twitter pages with no blog link or social media icons that are hard to find!

- This point may be a bit controversial - giveaways. I love to host giveaways on my blog as they are a great way of celebrating a blog milestone and to thank followers. They can also give your page views and follower numbers a little boost. I only host giveaways once every couple of months generally as I wouldn't want them to distract from the rest of my blog content. 

- Make your posts as interesting, unique and helpful as interesting content will naturally bring in more readers and traffic. I personally think that great photos and a simple blog design also help as well as an honest, easy writing style.

Please remember that this post contains my personal opinions and yours may differ. Also different ways to increase followers/traffic may work best for different people and don't spam other bloggers/brands. This post isn't about SEO as I'm definitely no expert but if you would like some basic tips let me know in the comments. Last but not least, remember in the end it's not all about the numbers, it takes some of the fun out of blogging and it can be disheartening. 

Do you have any tips? What are your favourite social media accounts for your blog? Do you join in with the blogger twitter chats?

Read More

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? 

Read More