Blogger giveaways and free stuff.

As a blogger, I read other people's blogs both for inspiration, and because I find them interesting. I mostly read fashion blogs, as this seems to be the most popular choice of blog among other women my age. I like the idea of myself doing a fashion blog, but I'm not willing to show my face when blogging as I work with teenagers, and sometimes say some controversial things about teaching that the institution I work for could may dislike if I am putting a face to the informaiton I include.

                                            Blogs often give away free items in order to promote for companies

When reading other blogs, I like to see new products, get fashion ideas and to hear about places or recipes that they've discovered. I like the realness of it, compared to magazines where the writer of an article is given a brief of which items to report on and make look fantastic.

 

Increasingly, the blogs I read are becoming based on free-gifts they have been offered by companies. Although this is obviously brilliant for the blogger, I sometimes feel cheated by this. Obviously I'm slightly jealous, it would be nice to get free stuff, but there seems to be an element of selling-out. The bloggers clearly always praise the items and talk about how fantastic they are (particularly if they are being given away as prizes). It just seems like I am reading magazines all over again. In some ways, at least the magazines are shamelessly promoting items, wheras bloggers are trying to give the impression of being sincere.

 

It also starts to feel like I am reading one big advert. The photographs are all designed to make the product look good and the information is heavily biased. I would rather a blogger bought an item themselves and gave an honest, objective review, rather than knowing that the product designer will be reading their blog and expecting some promotion.

 

In reponse to this, there are blogs I am starting to read less often. It is repetitive constantly reading about how the blogger has got another free item, and again, it's totally amazing and wonderful. I would rather spend more time hunting out some more honest bloggers who are writing to give their audience honest advice based on their own experiences. This is what I consider blogging to be about!