8 Years On: Being a Blogger
A blogger. Me? When I first started Anoushka Loves, it was back in hey day where people were using blogs as their own space on the internet, to share thoughts and feelings on any topic. I have always loved beauty, and with the work that I was doing in my career I wanted an outlet to share all the fantastic brands that I was working with closely whilst at my day job. I never in a million years expected to still be blogging away eight years on. It’s certainly quite an achievement considering that I have never taken it to the next step of wanting it to be my sole career. After all, travel is in my blood and I have never been able to stop taking that travel drug or having the travel bug to want to stop. But, to still have my outlet where I can sit and write and let all my thoughts out. A personal journey through my life and love of makeup that started in 2013 and it’s almost certain that I will hit the 10 year milestone. Being a blogger in the 2020’s has definitely changed somewhat and here’s my thoughts on why having a blog has change my life.
The Early Days of being a Blogger
Looking back at the beginning, being an influencer wasn’t a thing. People blogged for the love and passion of what they were sharing. We took our pictures on our phones, with products placed on our Ikea Alex drawers and floral bedding. We splurged in Boots at the latest drugstore products and we all loved the Soap and Glory, Rimmel Apocalips and Maybelline Baby Lips. We treated ourselves to the Canon D600 which I still use to this day, and played around with outfit collages on Polyvore and PicMonkey. Oh the memories are flooding back. Looking at my earlier posts fills me with a mixture of pride and embarrassment. Pride because I did something that I had never done before, and because I am still doing it. Embarrassment because I feel like I was trying too hard. We were in a world of Lily Pebbles, Zoella, Tanya Burr and Vivianna Does Makeup who ran blogs and YouTube channels and I think I tried to replicate them quite a lot. Until I found my feet and voice, the earlier years do make me laugh. I’ve still never taken to YouTube or video content as I am most definitely a writer.
The Blogger Lessons
The skills I have learnt over the last eight years are quite extensive. I know how to work a website from the background, and feel confident changing things through a control panel. I’ve tried my hand at CSS and coding. I’ve improved my photography skills and knowledge of how to work my camera to it’s best advantage. I’ve built a brand, promoted it, marketed it and gave it an identity that gets recognised. I’ve networked and grown. I’ve learnt SEO and the benefits to bring in the views and give me a good standing in search engines and so much more. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have worked with the most incredible brands on this earth and I am still so grateful for every opportunity that it brings. I’ve even managed to make some quite nice pocket money to keep me living a nice life with no immediate worries which is a position I’ve always wished to be in and that I can support myself nicely.
What’s next?
The world of blogging has changed a lot. With the focus on immediate content using platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok, I have still never felt an urge to have to plaster myself over every possible media site. I still find the value in the blog and the return on investment is so much stronger than social media. I get approximately 70% of my traffic from organic searches which means that my site comes up high on Google search for so many different products that I have written about. With Instagram, Facebook and Whats App recently going down for several hours, it really brought home that not only do I own my website but I am also in control of it meaning should any of those social media platforms disappear for good then I still have my own site where all my content is safe and under lock and key.
The rise of the influencer has really taken over the bloggers and content creators, but it’s so nice to see so many of the OG bloggers from back in the day still ploughing everything into their blogs to keep their corner of the internet alive. Whilst there is a question of whether the blog is dead or not, I would have to say that according to my site traffic that the blog is very much alive and kicking.
If you are thinking of starting a blog, do it. It’s one of the greatest things you can have under your belt and I am so glad that I took the plunge to start mine.
