I have been a bad blogger. I have sugar coated myself and altered my own writing style, and occasionally my content, simply to attract more readers and pageviews in hopes to get myself and my blog more "out there." And while my tactics may have worked a bit, growing my followers and such exponentially, they were low brow tactics and I'm rather ashamed to have taken part in them. So starting today, shit's getting real over here. I'm doing a massive overhaul on my blog, and the way I do things here are going to seriously change. The point of this post is to let you know what will be changing here and my reasons for changing said things. I hope none of you take this too personally, I'm not trying to attack anyone, but I'm so done with this fake ass bull shit. And yeah, this is how I talk in real life, so you might want to get used to it.
The first thing that a lot of you are going to notice is the change in my writing style. I'm not the sugar sweet politically correct person that I have been portraying for the past few months. I tend to be rather brutally honest and I do use harsh language on the regular. I was not raised in such a way that I am all love and hugs for everyone, and because so many bbloggers tend to be all about the love I've been throwing around a lot of x's and o's in an attempt to fit in. And let's be real, I'm 25 and most of my regular readers are in Europe, the fact that I care so much about what people think of me here is pretty pathetic, I mean it's not like if I piss you off you're going to come over to the US and kick my ass. Granted, there are some of you that read this blog that I do actually try and communicate with on the reg because I genuinely enjoy hearing from you, like Egle over at Makeup Demon (she's awesome, btw) and I'm not phony or anything with you guys, I really like you and your blogs. But I am going to be writing more like I speak, so you should expect less huggy-kissy Disney princess stuff, and more PG-13 content because seriously, if you're under 13 you shouldn't be sitting around reading makeup blogs you should be outside playing. I'm done censoring myself and if you don't like it, don't follow me.
Another thing that I've fallen into is blog hopping. I'm not saying that I hate blog hops, because I don't. I've found some awesome writers through the hops and I've gained some great followers from them. It's really a great way to promote yourself. However, I'm done with this follow me and I'll follow you bull shit. I don't want a bunch of fake followers that give no shits about what I'm writing, and I don't want to be following a bunch of people who write about things that I'm just not that interested in. It defeats the purpose of blogging for me. I have been doing this follow for a follow thing for a while, and now I have so much stuff in my feed that it's genuinely difficult for me to pick through and find posts that I actually want to read. So after I'm done with this post, I will be going through and unsubscribing to the blogs that don't really interest me. And if you are only following me because I'm following you, feel free to unsubscribe, I won't get all butt hurt over it. I know that it's my fault that my shit's all cluttered over here, I just got so excited when I started gaining mass followers that I didn't realize how counter productive my methods were for gaining said followers. So if you leave a comment and you want me to check out your blog, go ahead and leave your URL, I'll check it out and IF it's something that I'm interested in I'll follow. If it isn't my thing though, I'm not following. Sorry, but this shit is getting ridiculous.
And now for those of you who are still reading and not running to unsubscribe, this is who I am for real. I'm 25 years old, my real name is Danielle, and I hail from the USA. I'm a generally cynical bitch who spends most of my time hanging out with my family, blogging, and watching trashy tv while drinking coffee and chain smoking. I have very little direction in my life because I just don't see the point in most things and still have no idea what I want to do with my life. In effort to please my family and fit in with others in my age group I have thrown myself into many different things to "better myself." I have started and then dropped out of beauty school twice now because many members of my family think I should do something more with my life. This led to me starting and then dropping out of college 3 times. Yeah, I know, it's a sick sad existence. At this point in my life I am so confused as to what I want and what I have been pressured into liking by my family that I'm scared to do much of anything because either I will be miserable or my family will scorn me. This blog is the only thing that I have that is mine and mine alone, and even that I managed to sully with the expectations of others. And I just can't take it anymore. I'm done living for other people and doing things simply to please those around me, because if I don't start living for myself I'm going to lose my mind. So this is who I am; I'm confused with myself, I have no real direction, and no follow through. The only things that I know for certain are that I love playing with makeup, I love performing and listening to music, I love creating things, I love my little family, and that I just want to be happy with my life.
To those of you who continue to follow my blog after this point, thanks for sticking around and I'm sorry for all the bull shit. I'm going to do my part to be real here, and when you leave a comment I encourage you to do the same. If you don't like what I have to say, tell me. This is my space on the web, and I appreciate and encourage complete and total honesty. Don't worry about hurting my feelings or being *gasp* a little offensive, I'm a big girl and I can take it. And just so you know, this is a beauty blog so most of what I write and share here will be beauty related, but I'm going to be including more non beauty related posts as well. So please, help me keep shit real here, because I am so over fake people, myself included. I'm quite interested to see who actually sticks around, and I can't wait to get more involved with those of you that do. Til next time!
Good on you! Never apologise for who you are, and no, you should never, ever be pressured into doing something you don't really enjoy, or into pretending to be someone else. I've pretended to be someone else and it was awful. When the storm broke, many people suffered. Be yourself and live for yourself! Way to go, Danielle! I'm inspired to go tell a few people what I *really* think of them - if I post with a black eye tomorrow, you'll know the reason.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I hope you don't really end up with a black eye. But you should tell people what you really think of them or just not have them in your life. It's toxic to have people around that want to change you or who just feel the need to bring you down for being you. And I, personally, am done with being someone that I'm not. Thanks for the support lady! I really appreciate it. :)
Deletehahaha I love this post! yeah, you do end up like a kind of stepford wife if you're not careful. and I will still keep reading your posts (and all the more now that I've read this post)
ReplyDeleteLorraine
http://lolalovessparkles.blogspot.com/
Haha, thanks. And yeah, it's really easy to lose yourself to the stereotypical bblogger. And that's really funny to me because the blogs I tend to read aren't all Stepford-y, so how I became so cookie cutter-ish is unknown. And I'm glad to see that you'll be a regular reader. Because I really do appreciate my followers that, ya know, actually follow what I read.
Deletehi Danielle I have always thought you were sweet and when you commented on my blog the times you did I really appreciated those comments. I don't think you are fake to be sweet and nice to people-infact I think that is something you cant really fake. I did not follow your blog because you followed mine I toured your blog and read some of your posts before I followed you. You are a whole person and people will have to accept you as a whole (the sweet side and the no bull sh*t side) and I am glad you have decided not to misrepresent or be someone you're not :) I'm staying mama :) oh and I have added your blog to my network.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're stickin with me! And I may have come off a bit harsh in this post, I am a pretty nice person. I just cut out a lot of what I really have to say on my blog and I feel like I'm not accurately portraying my personality.
DeleteThanks for the ego bump as well. :)
lol no worries mija just do what you love. I do not bother with the going around follow me I follow you bit and I follow the blogs I like and I would hope people followed my blog because they like it and are interested in my posts. Girl I got about 47 followers and honestly I do add my links to blog hops and the ratio of actual readers and persons who interact on my blog did not change much and truth be told nobody seems to really read my blog...and I want to say that's okay but it kinda dampers the desire to write...lol point is you seem to have people here that care for your posts so in my opinion you doing good huni :) I for one would like to see more makeup looks :D cuz I love the one wid the blue cut crease.
DeleteI had a bit of an issue with the blog hopping.. I gained around 100 followers in 2 weeks from hops, but that meant that I ended up following almost all those blogs as well. So I was missing out on a lot of the blogs that I REALLY liked because they were getting lost in my feed. Like yours actually. It was just so damn discouraging that my blogging started suffering for it.
DeleteAnd I was kind of worried that this post might piss people off and that I was going to lose followers, but you guys are amazingly supportive! It's funny how many people seem to feel the same way that I do about this. But all the positive responses to this have kind of revitalized me and have gotten my creative juices flowing again. :)
And thanks for letting me know what you want to see more of!! Nobody ever wants to say what they want to see, and it's so frustrating!! I prefer doing makeup looks, they don't cost me anything and they're more fun. I'll do my best to put out more cool looks. :)
Ha I love this post too... I read your blog because I like it not because I want to be hip and cool... I write what I want to write and it is all 100% me and my view, whether I have a PR gift or not.
ReplyDeleteYou go girl xx
http://beautyqueenuk.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm glad that you like my blog, but I kind of knew that you weren't following me just for a follow back. You're a very regular visitor here, and I appreciate it. Thanks for the ongoing support!
DeleteI think I'm one of the people you un-followed :( It's all good. I personally love your blog, I think you're extremely talented at doing makeup, and you should really think about pursuing this as a career. I really like this post. I think when you start a blog, you start thinking that you have to have a million followers and everyone has to like you. I went through the whole I follow you, you follow me back, but who's genuinely reading your blog? Sometimes I still struggle with that because I think my blog is my baby like you think yours is and I do want people to like it. All you have to do is be you and the genuine readers will come. Sorry if it seems like I'm rambling and if this is a long comment. Like I said before though, I love your blog and will continue to follow you no matter what. I do have to say I'm not much of a commenter but I probably should be. Keep on being real! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for being so understanding. I am sorry that I bummed you out by un-following, I just follow so many beauty blogs that I can't keep up with them all. And I don't think you're rambling, I actually prefer comments where people give a lot of feedback. It makes it more fun and gives me some insight on to how they feel about what I have to say.
DeleteI agree with Katy, when I started blogging I was thinking of having million followers too so I went through the whole I follow you, you follow me back but at the end of the day, what's really important is that you keep it real and enjoy blogging.well yeah it's good to know you have many followers but it's better if they follow you not because you ask them but because they love what you're doing.I really love this blog post!! :) Your aura here is like..I don't know..bad ass?Which is very COOL!hehe..Keep it coming Danielle! :) I continue to follow you because you're one of my inspirations in makeup. :) You have a great blog, great followers and great talent!Two Thumps up!Take care! ;)
ReplyDeleteCj from www.pinayontheloose.com
It's too easy to get sucked into the follow me/follow you thing in hopes of internet fame. I'm pretty pissed that I let myself get sucked into it to the point where I barely knew who I was following. I like to get to know the people that read my blog and I like getting to know the bloggers that I follow as well, and that's pretty well impossible when you're just trading follows.
DeleteAnd I'm glad you dig the vibe here, it's going to be staying more like this from now on. Thanks for the compliments, you ladies are going to give me a big head over here!! Have a good one! :)
I think every blogger goes through a stage where they need try to be what they feel will be 'popular'. I know I did, but what really works is to just be you. Readers who 'get' you will find you (although it might feel like it takes ages) and you'll have that core readership every blogger wishes for.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am a terrible commenter- I am working on it- you've got me as a reader :D
Thanks for sticking with me lady! It's so refreshing to just be me for a change and not give a damn what anyone else thinks. Becaues yeah, I'd rather have followers that like what I have to say and actually read my posts then a bunch of followers that could care less about me and my blog. I'm so done trying to be popular.
DeleteAnd I'm not always a great commenter either. But it was so hard for me to comment on people's posts regularly because I was following SO many different blogs. Now that I've weened my list down to the blogs that I really like I'm hoping it gets easier for me to read and comment.
love this post :)! you should definitely be just who you are, i'm pretty sure most readers enjoy your writings better that way and in the long run you'll get the followers who truly want to follow you, not have you follow them :). i myself am an unemployed 27 year old who plays with makeup all day and has no "wonderfully bright future" right around the corner. sometimes i am a bit of ashamed of that because i feel some stupid need to be somehow "cooler" than i actually am so it's nice to see a post like this one :). i don't think i've ever seen one and yet a lot of people seem to be feeling the same way :).
ReplyDeletei'm still following because i enjoy your posts and i don't think the majority of people are going to judge you for saying fuck and being you :D!
Yeah, I don't think I was really trying to "cooler than I actually am. It was more like I was just trying to hide the fact that I'm an unemployed member of the American counter culture who is generally totally broke because my husband has a rather seasonal job. I just saw so many of these bloggers with their amazingly stable lives and it made me ashamed of the fact that stability isn't something that I've ever really had in my adult life.
DeleteGlad you're still following, cuz I think you're pretty fucking awesome!
:)!!
Delete