Woes of a Blogger

I know it should’ve been worries instead of woes of a blogger. But that’s not the point here. Before getting into any further details, can anyone please tell me whose who amongst blogger, influencer, content creator, key opinion leader, Instagrammer and all sorts of these fancy shmancy words?

I don’t even know if I am a blogger or not. Google’s no help either.  I know it may sound ‘chauvinist‘ but this whole thing feels like being a self-conscious 18 year old girl on a party. She takes pretty much time in selecting outfit, spends good amount of time in front of mirror adjusting looks, applying makeup & all and still causally ask peeps ‘hey am i looking okay‘ to be sure. Sometimes I feel like asking the same to my peers, readers and people who keep giving campaigns etc but then I decide otherwise. what-if anyone say ‘nah you’re not okay’. I won’t stop writing even though but still.

I know the blog might seem pointless, useless and aimless til this point. It’s intentional. I just wanted to say it out loud that blogging (all sub-categories included) is a thankless job and feels like all those “what my friends think I do – what I really do” memes we share on social media, laugh about it knowing deep inside, the shit’s true.

Exhibit A:

So here’s my version of ‘(bloggers) What my friends think I do & what i actually do’ suggestions & feedback are welcome.

Note: All the images used in this blog are properties of their respective owners, used with link-backs just to make my point

What My (Non Blogger) Friends Think I Do

Friends are friends anyway and regardless of whatever you do, friends take it for granted and doesn’t pay much heed to it anyway. Many of my friends think blogging is all about fun, free giveaways, tickets to movies or invites to events & concerts. And in return we ‘just have to write few words – whats the big deal huh!’. Wish someone tell them how much effort conceptualizing, arranging and writing those few words take. And then they complain ‘ why are you always busy‘

What My Family Thinks I Do

Like friends, family also never takes you seriously or accept the fact that you’re actually doing something praise-worthy. With friends you can at least respond or retaliate but with family you can do nothing. They look down on you, think you’re just wasting precious time online and could have done something productive instead. Like creating a blog-post of 500-1000 words out of nowhere is nothing and doing an internship where you can’t learn or express ideas is productivity. I bet you go convince them and name what you need in return, I’ll wait!

What People Think I Do

Generally people who are not related to you don’t say mean things to your face but doesn’t say nice things either. Many think blogging’s like a lottery, you do nothing and by sheer luck get rich. I mean, seriously? There’s nothing as easy-money or what they call ‘there’s no free-lunch’. Then there’s another type of people who call you sell-outs for God-knows what enmity because last i checked promoting different brands or being part of campaigns simultaneously still wasn’t a sin.

What Brands Think I Do

In most cases where you’re writing paid reviews or doing a campaign. Brands are the beneficiaries and they think you don’t put in any effort, just sit on couch and see the traffic pouring in to your blog due to brand power. Like its not about the content its about the brand name that attracts the audience. Slow clap, may I? If it was the case why would you approach me to write a piece about your brand or campaign?Yeah, I like that look on your face its called ‘sheepish smile‘

What Agency Think I Do

Usually agencies are the ones on-boarding bloggers for the brands. Brands and bloggers interact through the agency. Brands think content is nothing its power of their brand that does the magic and push agencies to get more value for little compensation.

Here starts the tug-war. Agency acting on brands instructions outline KPIs like:

• Share content from brand’s page on all mediums every 10 seconds

here’s the content “pasha is a good boy” create 10,000 unique tweets and please show some creativity as client is directly monitoring

• Comment on everything that is posted on brands page for 20 years
• Increase YouTube & Facebook video likes to 1 Million
• Increase Twitter & Instagram followers by 2K
• Increase Sales by 10% and revenues by 5%
• Write a post of 8000 words praising brand and agency very subtly
• For every negative comment posted anywhere, counter and say 100 good things about the brand

For this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity you’ll also be remunerated (with peanuts) after verification of all above KPIs that too in next 15 years if the client pays in time.

What I Actually Do

Its not like bloggers do all the hard work, they do smart work. Yes they are blessed with words & stamina required for write-ups but it consumes time & effort. It requires research on the subject matter, know-how about technicalities and involves a maintenance cost to keep the blog up & running.

I don’t say love them and be all praises but show a little compassion may be. Be respectful to their work & effort, be a little patient, pay on time and that’s about it.

Now that I’ve ranted much, it actually feels great and trust me blogging is fun and totally worth all the drama. Ending with beautiful line I read at this blog:

As writers, we sometimes get lost in our power with words. We detach ourselves from the real world and tell stories about it

End Note To all those having me on-board for campaigns or planning for future campaigns: