I have not written a personal blog post in a while. I try and keep things positive on Fresh and Fearless, because it was always been a workspace for me to express my creativity. To showcase my talents and keep an online diary, for when i’m old. However, i’m struggling to keep up. My blog was never meant to be commercialised, it was started off being a diary for my family. However, back in 2014, a year into blogging, I took the first steps of lowering my barrier and accepted sponsored content and review opportunities. Whilst that was all new to me, my creativity and love for my blog flowed like the waterfalls of Ontario.
I’m approaching my fourth year as a blogger, and there has been a new term introduced, ‘influencer. Something i’m struggling to come to terms with. I never want to be an influencer, I detest the word. I want to be a creative that inspires people, I want people to get some sort of joy and knowledge from my blog. Whether it the side dribbling from looking at my food photos or some inspiration for my readers next travel destination. I want to inspire people to do things, get out and chase their dreams, just like I did.
I was never the popular boy at school and I have no intentions of being the popular kid on the blogging block either. I was happy with my half edited iPhone photo of my Haagen-Dazs dessert that reached a total of 30 likes. I still remember that ecstatic feeling because that was an achievement for me. Now I feel like i’ve lost that little buzz and little joy of excitement when I hit new milestones. As I scroll through my Instagram page, all I see is girls with designer handbags costing around £3,000 with an #ad in the caption. Is this reality, or just a faux perception of the glamorous lives of a twenty-something with 60,000 Instagram followers and a successful blog? Whether you like it or not, everyone is envious, even the boys. How did SHE get that opportunity? I want that opportunity. It’s this ‘must have’ attitude that is ruining the blogging community I once felt so connected to.
It’s all about what you have, how many Instagram followers you have, the type of engagement you have, how many press trips you have been invited on. Often enough, I find bloggers asking that, “where are your next press trips?” I often have one, maybe two trips lined up. As I come to finish my sentence, other bloggers have already begun listing their 12 trips they have planned for the next 2 months. Is it a competition now? What happened to supporting one another and helping each other? After all, we all do it for one reason. We love it. If you started a blog to get famous or get ‘freebies’, all I can say is good luck to you Captain. You certainly won’t be a part of my tribe, because I have no intention on being your sub-par competitor.
All I can say, is that i’m reverting back. I’m undoing all the damage I have caused myself over the past couple of months of getting sucked into this false sense of blogging and social media. I’m going back to using my iPhone for Instagram, instead of my camera to get crisp clear ‘perfect’ photos. I’m going back to tweeting about things that are on my mind, instead of filling for feeds with prescheduled content of old blog posts.
If you want to keep following along, reading my blog, and supporting me. Please, do. However, if you’re not okay with the changes i’m making… you know where the virtual door lies and I also invite you to use it.
Brands, PR’s, if you’re okay with me not getting 1,000’s of likes on content photos or millions of views of old blog posts. Please, keep emailing me. It will give me great pleasure to support your campaigns to the best of MY ability. However, if that’s not good enough, them i’m sorry. I can’t do anything for you.
I’m tired of feeling burnt out through worrying about things that are beyond my control. I’m tired of staying up until the late hours to get content up and out within 24 hours to ensure I always have new content going up. More over, I miss the love I once had for my blog, social media and sharing what I truly believed in.
I’m coming back, Fresh And Fearless is regrowing from the roots. I hope you’re ready!
Until next time…
I’m really sorry to read that you’re feeling that way, the pressure is never a good thing, and I hope that by taking it back to the old school you will feel much better. I’ve always really enjoyed all your posts, and I for one, will be sticking around, and I can’t wait to keep reading about your next adventures and most importantly, where the best porn star martinis are to be found. x
I don’t often get a chance to comment on your blog these days (but I’m always reading, promise!). However I couldn’t skip past this one without saying something. It’s precisely because of blog posts (and attitudes!) like this that you’re one of my favourite bloggers. I know that you’d never ‘sell’ a product or restaurant to your readers just because the brand were paying you a hefty sum of money to do so; I know you care more about what your readers get out of coming here than how much publicity you’re getting; and most of all I know that you’ll always keep it real! This is why I’ll keep coming back, while I’ll stop paying attention to those perfectly curated blogs and Instagram accounts – they’re not real life, they portray a fake existence and there’s nothing in it for me! Thanks for keeping blogging real and inspiring others (me included!) to do the same.
Polly xx
Honestly Aftab, I TOTALLY fell in love with blogging again once I stopped giving a crap about stats, numbers, followers, campaigns this, sponsored that, scheduled this – it was all just so far removed from the reasons why I blogged in the first place and when I stopped caring, the words came flowing back, the posts were better, the pictures were better and the people that read are the ones that seem genuinely interested and I write for passion and nothing else. Now it just makes me giggle when I meet bloggers who harp on about their blogs like the world would end if their blog didn’t exist. There is a much bigger picture and the only blogs I tend to read are the ones where the passion for actually writing comes across. Big hugs x
Well put! When I see #ad or something sponsored when the blogger can’t afford it or clearly wouldn’t choose it themselves then I actually want there to be a dislike button. It is to no ones benefit to be false and sadly competition breeds it. Be yourself and remember why you started. I love my little internet space – it may not get many readers but it is fully me, only me and none of my friends have a blog!
Aftab, you are a boy after my own heart. A post that has been LOOOOOONG overdue in my opinion. I feel you a hundred times over and you have echoed what I have been feeling for a few months now. I’ve been in the blogosphere since 2003. That’s 5 years now! And this has always been a passion that started off because my husband and I travel(lled) more than others and we would get so many questions about our trips and itineraries, the blog became the easiest way to share all that and to inspire. My stories and adventures of an ordinary girl living an extraordinary life. Fast forward to today: travel has become a ‘lets see how many countries we can check off quest’, everyone that can put two words together is suddenly a ‘blogger’ be it travel, lifestyle or whatever (whatever happened to quality???) and anyone that can take a picture is a ‘photographer’. I’m all in for some healthy competition but recently its like everyone is out to steal the others thunder and out do someone else. I alluded to this in my first post of 2017 after my epiphany when I was off the grid in Botswana. And I have decided: you do you, and I’ll do me. Because I cant keep up and wont keep up because then it isnt a passion anymore. I wish I could buy you a bottle of champagne for saying what I have been feeling for a loooooong time!!! Well well WELL said boy! Many many hugs from Nairobi xxxx
Ah, I love this! I wrote about being disenchanted with the blogging world some time ago – but I still hadn’t managed to shake the habits I’d gotten into (and the panic that I had to keep up with those whose lives looked so much more glamorous than mine). Recently though, other life priorities have taken precedence and blogging has taken a bit of a back seat. And you know what? It feels gooood. I haven’t posted to Instagram in over a week (shock, horror!) and I’m still OK. And I’m chasing my dream – my real dream, which is not to be a famous blogger – which in the end is far more rewarding. I hope you know there are still loads of us who do it for the love of it – and we’ll be supporting you no matter where this blog goes in the future! Good luck x
Great post Aftab. I’m not big of competing either….I just want to enjoy blogging and social xx
Yeah it’s easy to get wrapped up in the competitive side of it and feel like you’re not doing enough but always just remember why you’re doing it and be appreciative of what you have gained from it! 🙂 Love AP xo
Andrea’s Passions
Oh Aftab I loved this!! I’m the same, ever since I quit my job back in August to move back to Aus, I’ve taken more time for myself to write about the things I actually enjoy, rather than doing paid and freebie stuff. I’ve cut down so much on paid and comped campaigns and it feels SO good! Every so often I’ll do something if I *really* love it and want to, but for the most part I just say no. I have so much more free time to actually live my life instead of worrying about posting on Instagram 3x a day and responding to every single person on twitter and commenting on every single blog post to try and be a ‘present face’ in the blogging world. It’s crazy how much pressure we put on ourselves! Now I just try and make sure to instagram once a day, comment on other blogs when I actually have random/unexpected free time (instead of choosing to spend a coupla hours commenting on blogs over exercising or treating myself to going to see a movie).
At the end of the day I started my blog for me, not to get free stuff and to turn it into a job, and I’ve been so much happier since I put less pressure on myself and started turning more things down.
C x
It’s so hard not to get burnt out trying to keep up. I took a break at the start of the year as a result of feeling sub-par for not continuing to post over Christmas.
I’ve had to remind myself to start taking the photos I love all over again. I’m starting to do more restaurant reviews and bring back the ‘Lifestyle’ element of my blog because those are the posts that I love to write and read back once in a while.
You should ALWAYS stay true to yourself. I’ve unfollowed a lot of people on Instagram because I solely ended up resenting them… I’m looking forward to seeing all the ‘new’ content over the next few months Aftab!
Katie xx
http://www.kalanchoe.co.uk
Hey, great post. I recently began a blog in Nov 2016, as I see it as an opportunity to express my own creativity and interests while building up an online portfolio that could land me writing opportunities at other online magazines. I’m following my dream to be a writer, of things I love like food and travel, as well as novels and other stories. Only a few months in, but it’s indeed overwhelming the amount of social media engagement I see from bloggers I admire. Will I ever have that many likes? Will I be like them? I don’t know. But I’m staying true to my goal. I refuse to pay for likes, or follow Instagram tricks to get attention. I have a few friends already who told me that they have been touched by my work and that’s what inspires me to go on and to write. I’m still experimenting, still learning, but my blog will never be my measure of success, rather a reflection of it. Other bloggers will always be my peers, not my competition. I’m always happy to talk and collaborate. Success is not something to guard as your own. I want it for everyone. Your friend, Miss Portmanteau XO
I drift in and out of blogging as you know and have all but stopped going to events as it’s the same people, in the same cliques talking about the same things. The conversation is invariably an attempt to one up the other person which is a shame.
Personally, I don’t care how many followers I have, it’s all about how much I can vent my spleen when I hate something I’ve paid for or show off something that is great value for money. I like to think the unpolished, no nonsense approach is my appeal and actually what real people want to read and see.
Onwards Aftab, I hope the new approach works for you, and if you fancy a beer and to see your jewellery on display in our offices you are always welcome for a beer.
A million yes to this. Thank you for writing this and sharing this with us. I completely agree. And you see, my point is also that I’m not a big fan of the really big popular blogs where bloggers don’t even answer comments and don’t interact with you and I never want to be that either. While I do hope to keep going in my blogging path, I want to grow as a person and keep sharing my very simple and honest life. And I look forward to following yours too! Keep up the good work!x
I have to admit, I’m sometimes the person wondering how some bloggers get certain trips or experiences and feeling envious but then I think,’would I actually enjoy it, knowing I then had to produce x amount of posts, photos, tweets etc?’ It’s work, not a jolly so probably not. I think we all just have to do what makes us happy and what makes me happy is writing as a creative outlet, at own pace.