back from the easter hols, work and no chocolate eggs

Hey everyone, here’s another blog post and I know it’s been a good few weeks since I last posted but it was the Easter Holidays, filled with chocolate eggs and I was definitely in need of some relaxation! As much as I did slack off a bit, I did get a good chunk of research done so let’s jump straight back into the topic. I do wish I got a lot more done but laziness certainly took over.

So over the holidays I had an interview with one of my friends who actually has their own blog. She focuses mainly on beauty and fashion but dabbles in seasonal stuff like seasonal treats. She gets quite a lot of readers and she admitted that she does it as more of an enjoyment thing but if she had the opportunity to turn it into a career she would. She can see why so many bloggers take on a lot of sponsorships and advertisements because it does earn them a lot of money and gives them a jump on a blogging career. It is becoming a competitive industry as time goes by and people are struggling to make money out of it because of the well-established blogs that are already out there.  

On another note I did come across some funny blogs that I definitely want to recommend, http://www.sadanduseless.com/ is brilliant, it’s so random and even just the titles can make you chuckle. The same goes for http://pleated-jeans.com/ the titles can be so out of the blue but can crack most people up, these are good for boring or crappy days. Both of these blogs feature advertisements or some sort of sponsorship and I personally didn’t take any notice of them. I still found the posts funny and still want people to read them. Blogs can still have a personal feel even with the pop up ads or the mentioning of a brand or product to advertise them, as long as it isn’t over flowing with crap that has nothing to do with the post then most people agree with me and think that they aren’t that big of a deal, even the surveys I put a post-up about a while ago proved that to an extent, I mean I can’t speak for the entire population but I don’t think I’m wrong. (Feel free to disagree and give me a counteracting argument in the comments) Finally, I recommend that you read this blog, kforkirsty.wordpress.com she’s just starting out but already I love her posts, I know she has more to come and I know the some of you will be able to relate to them!

Anyway guys, this is just my return from the holidays post, nice and simple but its back to the hard hitting stuff now, its worse knowing that there's no more chocolate eggs for another year so bring on the hard work and research! I’ll keep you posted and please leave some comments once you’ve had a read to suggest any other blogs for me to analyse.

number trois

Hey again, this is my third post and basically I’ve done some research which I know you will all think, “boring” but I promise I’ll try to keep it interesting. I have conducted some interviews and a focus group to get other people’s opinions instead of just mine which has helped a lot. In the focus group I asked similar questions to the ones I asked in the interview:

1)      What is everyone’s favourite type of blogs?

2)      What is everyone’s favourite blog?

3)      How often do you read blogs?

4)      What reasons make you enjoy reading blogs?

5)      Is there any blogs you know to avoid and why?

6)      What blogs are the most known?

7)      Do you think blogs are more focused on gaining the sponsorships or advertisements?

8)      If so, what makes this noticeable?

9)      What do you think makes a blog readable?

Question 1 got a few different answers, humorous blogs was a big one. Beauty blogs was a close second just because the beauty industry is huge now.

Question 3 got the same answer mainly, not often. I can understand that though because people don’t have that much spare time nowadays but they usually flock through blogs when they are bored.

The answers did vary which made it more interesting.  When it came to question 4, people struggled to think. What reasons do make people want to read blogs? Well I was told that curiosity is a big reason. Another reason is that blogs are more authentic than plain articles, the fact that people can relate and agree with certain feelings that other people feel. Some people weren’t even sure why they were reading them, they just felt drawn to them through boredom.

I’m not going to tell you what I got for number 5 as some of the responses were a bit mean..

Question 7 is important for my investigation because that is the overall question I need answered. Most of the people I asked weren’t too bothered about sponsorships or advertisements. They were so used to them on other websites that they aren’t actually noticed. A few of the people that were asked couldn’t stand advertisements while they were reading posts just because it distracted them and wanted to then go buy things from that advertisement which in a way has worked for that business but could be seen as a nuisance to someone just trying to relax and read a post so these people that felt this way thought that blogs are now starting to focus more on gaining a sponsorship or advertisement deal but the bloggers aren’t to blame especially if they are trying to make a career out of it but they were more enjoyable before this. I’ll go into more detail on this next week, this is just a brief explanation.

If anyone wants to answer the questions in this post, please comment your answers, it’d be a great help. Try give me some blogs to look at and I can give my feedback and opinion on them.

IMO

Hey everyone, this is my second blog post and I thought for this one I’d maybe give my own opinions on the topic and maybe talk a little bit about blogs in general also.

The definition of a blog is “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group that is written in an informal or conversational style.” Obviously this definition isn’t the only one and can be branched out into so much more. There’s probably a lot of people who still don’t even know what a blog is but I can admit myself that I didn’t read a single blog up until about 2 or 3 years ago and it was the main gossip ones that I used to read. I now sort of flick through different ones just to see if I find one I like to read (usually funny ones) but this is where it sort of links back with the title about sponsorships or advertisements taking over blogs and sort of sucking the enjoyment out of it. It is a difficult point to get valid opinions on because I don’t think a lot of people particularly care because why would they? At the same time, it can make blog posts feel less personal and make people feel like products or services are being shoved in their faces when it isn’t really necessary. On a list of the top 15 blogs, (http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/blogs) Huffingon Post is number one and if you have a look on it you’ll see that there isn’t really advertisements or sponsorships. It’s just full of content and I think that is a good thing because it doesn’t distract readers from their posts.

Also on the top 15 list is Perez Hilton’s blog. I can put my hands up and say guilty as charged that I’ve read some of his stuff a fair few times. This is an example of a blog that does have a lot of advertisements and sponsorships. This is a power based blog so this means that it is primarily focused on gaining power and money through advertisements and sponsorships, it’s a blog that doesn’t really have a personal feel to it in my opinion. What can I say? Everybody’s opinions are going to be different, some may agree with me and others will feel the complete opposite but let me know in the comments what you think about it.

Something that has changed in the blog world is that now they make social media account to get the word out about their blogs and to communicate with the public and I think promoting through social media is one of the best ways because it is a modern world and people are on their phones/laptops/tablets every single day and people do pay attention a lot of the time so I think bloggers are doing the right thing taking advantage of that because it just makes sense.

I’ll be back in a few weeks with a more informative blog post as I will have gathered some more research to back up different points! Let me know what you guys think in the comments and give me some suggestions of blogs to check out!

Just a little intro...

Hey everyone this is just a little introduction on what this is all about so first things first here is a little bit about me. I’m Shannen, I’m 19 years old and I’m a 2^nd year student at NESCOL studying Advertising and PR. This blog is linked with my industrial investigation project and all of the research I will be looking into for the project itself. As weird as it may seem, This will actually be about other blogs.. So basically it’s a blog on blogs. Confusing I know but I swear it’ll all make sense soon enough.


I'll basically be chatting about what overall makes a blog successful. Is it the readers or is it the power from advertisements and sponsorships? From Perez Hilton to The Huffington Post, do we actually know what makes the most popular blogs in the world work in comparison to the ones who aren't doing so well and how does a blogger know they have become successful? Is it the power they’ve gained or just the satisfaction of having a lot of people interested? Obviously a blogger wants to have achieved a high readership and a high number of sponsorships or advertisements to make them feel like their blog is perfect but if the question is asked as to which one means more, the answer is more difficult to find so this will require research. Different blogs suit different people and everyone will compare them in their own way but there are always the strong blogs or the weak ones but what makes them like that? I wonder if anyone actually notices what makes a blog readable or what makes them skippable, obviously people have their own reasons but do advertisements make blogs annoying and make them less personal? This will be researched by myself and I will make sure to mention a list of blogs which I think are interesting along the way so you can give me your own verdict on those. This could maybe help out the people who are wanting to start writing their own blogs by giving them tips on what to avoid and what to do while publishing them.


I will upload information from the focus groups that I will be conducting to see what people have to say about what makes a blog work for them. I will also be observing some blog fans reading through different blogs to see what they think. Feel free to comment on any posts with thoughts or opinions, I’m more than happy to hear them. Also if anyone can comment a list of their favourite blogs or any other ideas, that could help me out loads!  


Thanks for listening guys, watch this space to keep an eye out for future posts and please comment as much as you can!