I donāt mean to be all negative nelly here so letās start with a disclaimer.
I love blogging. I really do. Iāve never stuck at anything for this long in my life. Blogging has bought so many cool people and experiences into my life. Itās my jam. For sure.
BUT that doesnāt mean I love every part of it. There are some aspects of this blogging business that feel more like hard work than others. Here are a few sides of blogging that really bore me.
You guys, I think we killed Pinterest. Remember the days when it was about saving pretty pictures and creating these visual inspiration boards? And then bloggers came along and we realised that Pinterest had the potential to send us a shed load of traffic so we created all these pins that shouted āCLICK MEā, āREAD MY THINGā. Pretty pictures were replaced with garish fonts and key-word filled captions and thatās really not my thing. Ā So despite having a pretty sizeable audience on Pinterest Iām not all that active over there. Iām trying to be but itās not somewhere I go willingly, if you know what I mean.
Comment Pods
Lately Iāve seen a lot of chat about comment pods coming up in Facebook blogger groups. (For the uninitiated you basically team up with a group of bloggers whose content you love and agree to comment on their posts a certain number of times per week.) These sort of things have been around informally for a number of years and Iāve mainly shied away because Iām too short of time (read: lazy) to leave relevant comments on things I wouldnāt read/see naturally. I get that algorithms are forcing bloggers to work extra hard to make sure their content is shown in peopleās feeds but there is something quite inauthentic to me about agreeing in advance to comment on certain posts. What if you have nothing interesting to say? Iām not knocking anyone who is in a pod, Iām probably missing a massive trick here, itās just not a side of blogging that interests me.
Facebook Groups
Similarly, Iām really selective about what Facebook Groups I participate in because there are just too many. How do people keep up with all the posts? I get notification anxiety!
I also get disproportionately irked by posts that start with āadmin please delete if inappropriateā.Ā 9 times out of 10 it is inappropriate (ie breaks the group rules) and the naughty poster knows it. Iām way too intolerant towards rule breakers to be a Facebook Group admin!
(PS the one group I do like is Girls vs Globe ā Sabina and her team do a great job at keeping the posts helpful.)
Liebster Awards
Sorry not sorry.
Alt Text On Images
You pour your heart out into a post, read and reread every word, select photos, edit photos, upload photos AND THEN need to write a million times the image name/alt text/caption/description. Yes I know I could copy and paste these fields but for some reason that whole part of the blogging process really bores me. I just want to press publish already.
Thereās lots I love about blogging too though, including some of the bits there are really fiddly. For balance here are 3 bits I love:
Updating my blog header and theme ā I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to change how things looks around here. Although changing a blog theme is fiddly AF, Iāve massively enjoyed uploading this new look this week, even if it took me years to get all the bits in place again. I also worked with the amazing Sarah from Love Swah/ Peachy Keen Design Co to spruce up the header and love how sheās interpreted the random bits of inspo I sent her. What do you think?
Networking IRL ā I love hanging out with blogger buds and chewing the fat about everything from time management to media packs. I also donāt think Iāll ever bore of meeting readers and chatting about our dream trips.
Comments from readers ā I still get a geeky blogger buzz whenever someone leaves a new comment. Every time someone gets in touch to say they enjoyed a post or had a great holiday I feel like Iām back at school getting an A* onĀ my coursework. (Thanks guys!)
Are you a blogger? Are there any bitsĀ that bore you?
Friggin’ Instagram drives me insane. The follow/unfollow shenanigans – who has time for that!!?! And now everyone is whining because they changed the algorithm and no-one likes their posts anymore. Boo hoo. So over it. I just want to post and look at pretty pictures.
Haha me too. It is so frustrating when the algorithm changes but it just reminds me how important it is to focus on your own blog as a platform that you own/have control of.
Ugh, I did not enjoy leaving this comment, nor the forthcoming relevant hashtag. #tiresome.
LOLZ
Yes to all of this, especially the alt text/description/caption shiz. Why does it take so bloody long???
I swear I skip so many of the bits a good blogger should do – who has the time to be perfect?!
YES to all of this! Man, I really hate the comment pods and follow/unfollow on Instagram and blogs. It’s all completely fake, and what’s the point of being part of these groups when all the comments on your posts are actually not genuine! I don’t see the point!
And yep, Liebster awards! What the hell even is that!? I remember getting nominated and I just ignored it because it seemed so dumb…..
Haha me too! Think I first heard of it 4 or so years ago and I still haven’t worked out what it’s about.
Haha, so true. There are so many boring bits with blogging.
I’m a bit over Instagram at the minute. There’s just so much spam and like-unlike-like-unlike going on. I just want to share pretty pictures!
One thing I’m back into is Facebook. There’s less spam and it’s just a nicer place to have a chat. It also drives loads of traffic so that’s a bonus!
Me too and it’s so funny isn’t it as I completely went off FB for a while as my reach seemed to be tiny but I get a tonne more traffic from FB – and it’s my smallest following! There also seems to be far less spam accounts on FB than Insta so at least you know you are engaging with a real person. Insta needs a big clean up I reckon!
I’m with the comment above, I can’t stand follow / unfollow especially on Instagram. Can’t we just go back to genuinely following people for inspiration?
Amen! Can we go back to a time when users who weren’t gaming the site weren’t losing out for being real!!
I like the idea of comment pods but similar to what you said too, I don’t want to be commenting on posts I have no interest in. I also don’t post that often so i’d have to find a people the same or i’d be commenting a million times just for a comment on mine every so often.
I don’t like instagram because it is too fake and I hate seeing people stressing over not fitting their theme!
Me too. It worries me when we start to game things that were primarily effective because they happened organically. I guess many bloggers have their own informal pods of sort. I read the same blogs religiously and I comment on their posts every now and then if it speaks to me. But the idea of formalizing that into an agreement doesn’t sit right with me.
I feel so behind when it comes to Pinterest! I mean, I know how it works, and I’m well aware of the traffic it can drive, but I just can’t get into it authentically. Maybe one day!
Me neither. I feel like I’ve read all the guidance and (admittedly halfheartedly) follow all the advice but it never yields the traffic other bloggers speak of. I’m definitely missing something here…
Hahaha, ‘We Killed Pinterest’! I’m dying, and I couldn’t agree more with the comment pods and Liebster Awards! Loved this post! š
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Real question though – what even is a Liebster Award? Let me start practicing my acceptance speech…
I’m not entirely sure. It seems to be something that bloggers nominate each other for but it’s been going around for years now.
But I was just going to nominate you for a Liebster!
š Agree to all the above!
Well now this is awkward š
Oh my gosh! 100% agree with all these things!! I love Pinterest, but just don’t have time to design a bunch of stuff, darn. And yes to Liebster Award, it’s not 2014 anymore lol. Someone got me on a comment pod recently and after a week it felt so strange that all my photos had literally the same people commenting on it…looks fake af. I love their insta but only comment when I really want to now.
I did wonder if it would start to look obvious if all the same names are popping up on every post. I hate that algorithms have made people feel this sort of thing is necessary!
Love the new header! It’s so you I agree with nearly all of these, except for Pinterest. I love making Pinterest pins and while so many commenting groups I find tedious, am happy to do re-pinning – the lucky side effect is finding great content related to my own travels or to share on my other social channels.
Ugh…how about a Pinterest re-pinning pod where you have to Pin someone’s post about their Liebster Award? Literally THE. WORST. Why would anyone who follows by boards care about your fake “award?”