The Blogging Debate
9/20/2010
So there's been a bit of controversy about the SA Blog Awards. Some people are sour grapes, some judges are upset their votes seemingly counted for nothing and others are insulting the top 2 finalists. I have a different take. Everything is objective and everyone is putting time and effort into it. I'm not privy to information on how well-organised the whole competition is but I'm grateful that they are giving attention given to SA bloggers.
I often get told that "everyone and their grandmother has a blog". It's true, the internet is laden with blogs about any and every subject you can think of. Most people are of the opinion that it is easy to blog and while blogging platforms have made it very accessible, it's not as hassle-free as most assume. When people see the fruits of a seemingly easy "hobby" they are patronising. I have been using HTML and making websites since I was 11. I did not wake up one day and decide to blog, while the other kids were playing with Tamagotchis and Furbies (well, I also played with those because they were suh-weet except Tamagotchis should have had an off button), I was on Angelfire, Expage, Bravenet, Gurl and Geocities toying with frames and javascript. These sites were platforms to host webpages with barely any features, the coding was empty and up to you. Things have changed, everything is much more user friendly but that doesn't make it of any less value like most people believe (AKA sour grapes "but I memorised all the hex codes and this blogger has the chutzpah to just click on colours and volia?!!?"), it only makes it easier for everyone to connect and that's a great thing. Embrace le blog!
Everything is trial and error and if you're passionate about blogging, please blog! No matter how new you are, don't get discouraged. Blogging has made it easier for aspiring writers to get their feet in the door. So what if some girl in Figi blogs about the adventures of her cat, I'm sure someone out there might be interested in Mittens and even if they're not, if she is happy to write for herself then I think that's cool. I'm happy to be within a large community of creative writers. A lot of bloggers work really hard every day with regards to content, responding to emails, reviewing, spell-checking and researching. Images compiled from other sources are credited and others are Photoshopped by that one person behind the keyboard. To blog by yourself all the time is an accomplishment in itself, I have discovered many amazing international blogs I read have a "face" and several writers who will blog under their name while they're busy. There is only one thing that seperates bloggers in my mind, a blogger should do it because they love it, never for the wrong reasons. Success is a bonus. I will never whore out my blog for a quick buck, any money I make from advertisers is sitting in an account that I will use to purchase a domain and continue to put back into the blog. I have plans to do giveaways next year for readers out of that money because without your readers, you wouldn't have gotten anywhere in the first place. Treat others with the same respect you want from them and your life will be drama free.
Thank you to all my regular readers and new ones, I love looking at your blogs and responding to you. Thank you as well for voting for Musings Of A Fashion Student, I didn't make the final cut this year but I really appreciate it!
Happy blogging to fellow writers and happy reading to all the lovely readers!
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