You guys know I don't usually do this. I maintain a very positive and happy atmosphere here at Everything According to Erin. I do that because drama in the blog world is...well let's face it...it's dumb. Also, I never intended this blog to be about my rants and what irritates me. This blog is an extension of me, what I like, sometimes what I don't like (mostly in terms of products), what I do and what I want to do.
Recently, I've witnessed some things going on in the blog world that are down right irritating me. And to be honest, I've kept my mouth shut long enough. It's time to blow off some steam.
#1 - This has only happened to me once, but I know that it's happened to a bunch of other people. Don't promise what you can't deliver. I'm speaking in terms of giveaways. I won a giveaway from a blogger who shall remain nameless (even though I want to call her slimy butt out) earlier this year. I was supposed to win a scentsy candle which was sponsored by another blogger (which I received and loved) AND a really nice gift basket full of products I really wanted to try. I received the scentsy and NEVER received the gift basket. So I checked in with the blogger who was super apologetic and was apparently shocked I never received it. Long story short, we exchanged 3 emails back and forth with her giving me excuse after excuse. Finally I said, at this point please don't worry about it because it's obviously not going to happen. She never replied. I stopped following her on everything and that's been that.
I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. You have a giveaway, you come through. Enough said. I know things happen out of your control, but if someone was supposed to receive something from me and I wasn't the one sending it (like if it was from a sponsor) you best be sure I'd do whatever I can to make it up to that person.
#2 - A few weeks ago, I posted about my issue with Photobucket changing their collage app so I asked for your help. A lot of you sent me some ideas and that was great thank you. I also reached out to other bloggers when I saw they were using collages on their sites. Wanna know how many got back to me? 2. I probably reached out to at least 10 other bloggers. I should have known because I've commented on their sites before and never got a response. I don't care how many followers you have, you're not too cool to respond to us smaller bloggers.
I follow blogs that have 3 followers all the way up to 10,000. I cannot believe how much people are ignored. Now I have to say that it's a small select few, but it's still very frustrating. I may only have 260 followers, but I'm proud of that and I respond to every one of them. I also get help from bloggers who have a crap ton of followers. It's just this select few that apparently only talk to certain people. Whatever, if you think I'm not cool enough then I'm sorry. I understand that if you have 86 comments on one blog post every day, it can get a little tiresome. But if someone asks you a direct question more than once, don't you think you should take the 30 seconds and answer them? That's just my opinion. And what really sucks is, I LOVE their blogs! And I don't want to stop reading them, but I get really irritated every time I want to comment! Let me just say this for the record. If you leave me a comment and I don't email you, it's because your comment shows up with noreply@blogger.com. That means people can't reply to your comments. I know a few of you who comment all the time have this. You should update your settings, I want to talk to you!!
#3 - All blogs are 6 degrees of separation. You find someones blog because of someone else, it's never ending. When someone new comments on my blog, the first thing I do is see if they have a blog. If they do, I check it out. If it interests me, I follow them. If I follow them, I leave them a comment so they know I'm a fan. In this "world", it can be a lot about self gratification.
Sometimes though, it's just about making someone's day and letting them know you appreciate what they do. I'm not going to lie, I don't follow everyone who follows me. If I'm not going to take the time to read what you have to say, it's not worth wasting either of our time. I've followed and unfollowed a ton of blogs over the last couple of years. People that I read religiously 2 years ago may no longer post things that interest me anymore. It happens. Don't feel guilty. I'm all about giving people chances because people gave me chances. Your favorite blog may turn out to be the one that only has 8 followers and doesn't do giveaways every other week.
That's it folks! Thanks for listening to my little rant. I promise your regularly scheduled Everything According to Erin post will be posted in a couple of hours.
♥ Erin
