#bbloggers

Okay so last night I stumbled into the middle of a maaaaassive blogger's discussion on Twitter and this is going to probably be the gayest blog post that there ever was, but it genuinely made me realise how much of a lovely bunch us blogging people are (me included, obv).

Apparently this Twitter hashtag (#bbloggers) occurs every Sunday night thanks to Fee (I think, correct me if I'm wrong!), but I think it ended up quite massive - massive as in, it was apparently the top trend in the UK for a while! - because it involved everyone and was a bunch of people sharing their thoughts about what they liked and disliked about blogs and just general opinions about the 'blogosphere' as a whole (sorry for inflicting that term on you!).

Anyway, I just wanted to share a few thoughts on here, for no reason in particular, mostly just because I wanted to. I've been blogging, publically and privately, for about eight years or so. It wasn't until summer 2009 that I decided to start this thing though and it took me about a year before I even hit 100 followers, that was and still is a big achievement for me. Mostly because I'd spent so many years keeping an online journal thing on Livejournal and only a select few people ever had access to it and I was never very comfortable with the idea of the world having access to my pointless ramblings about the woes of life.

The real reason I turned to Blogger was because I wanted a sort of online portfolio, as a journalism student I wanted something that would be easily accessible for potential employers to be able to turn to and I could be like "yeah, look here, this is an example of my writing" and that was it. I never expected to have 473 readers (and counting), I never expected to even be a part of this community and make a load of friends, I didn't even know this whole other 'world' even existed. I never knew I'd be contacted by PRs, I never knew there was events that bloggers were invited to, I didn't know any of that.

There's a lot of people starting blogs now and I think people expect too much straight away, people assume they're going to get loads of readers over night and be sent loads of free stuff; it doesn't happen like that. The only reason I started blogging was for me, nobody else. I didn't start out thinking this would turn into, essentially, a beauty blog. That just kind of happened over time and this is where I ended up. I've never once compared myself to more 'popular' bloggers, I've only ever posted what I wanted to post and I only post stuff that interests me, and if it gets a few comments then great, I'm honestly so unbelievably thankful for each and every reader and comment. I genuinely am. I know I'm a rubbish commenter too which makes me even more thankful - I read every single blog that I follow but my comments are usually so rubbish that there's no point in posting. If I have something worthwhile to say then sure, I'll go ahead and say it. I should definitely comment more!

I'm not sure where this is going, that's what usually ends up happening when I get all ~serious! I have this big post planned out in my head and then as soon as I start typing it turns into a load of rubbish and I sound like an idiot.

This is definitely turning into more of a ramble now but I'll leave it on this note; if you are just starting out then don't expect too much straight away, even the 'best' bloggers started somewhere! Try not to compare yourself and remember originality is key just like in the non-virtual world!

Oh, and if possible, take a few extra seconds and run a spell check over your post, there's nothing that bugs me (and probably other people) more than ridiculous spelling mistakes every other word. Nobody's expecting you to be a professional writer but it doesn't take much to double check! And most importantly, enjoy it - blogging is a hobby after all :)