THE EVOLUTION OF THE BLOG: IS THERE STILL A ROLE FOR POSTS WITH NO PURPOSE?

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BLOG

Thoughts In A Moment In Time: Is There A Role For Posts With No Purpose?

As I sit here in Greece, sun setting to my left, a ‘special of the day’ thyme & botanist Gin in front of me, and Jase giggling away on whatsapp next to me (sending Gifs to Sarah and Tref who are at home with their new beautiful baby girl, Mya, who we already cannot wait to get home to – your best friends having babies is quite literally the most exciting and magical thing ever) I am trying to find words to fill my post with …

Usually I have so much to say, plentiful ideas but simply no content or time to shoot visuals to share with it, but currently I have the opposite. I have beautiful pictures I’ve managed to steal some time to shoot this summer (the long sun filled days in the UK have been a real revelation), from new outfits, to summer days out, to more excitingly my travels in the US and now Greece too … but my mind is just out of the writing game and struggling to keep up. So much so I almost have a back log to share with you. It’s much simpler these days to share my travel guides and stories of my adventures when tales of my explorations are fresh in my head, tips and learnings from my career or blogging experience which I live and breath day in and day out, or rational posts perhaps about a new purchase or styling advise (not that I have all much of that to give, mine is more personal findings rather than fashion industry worthy recommendations), than speak simply from my mind, without a purpose, a plan or an ultimate goal.

When I started this blog, as I know i’ve mentioned time and time again, I simply shot a picture of my outfit that morning before work and by the time I arrived at work I’d have my thoughts of the day written ready to post my daily blog, without wondering if its of value, interesting or serving a real purpose!! But times changed, content improved, we strove to deliver more than shoddy photos captured without much thought or preparation, and we wanted to write content that in some way added value to our readers, ultimately to keep our little blogs of interest to our lovely readers and hopefully some new ones too!

We ploughed love, sweat and even tears into improving our offering, defining our purpose and pushing ourselves to an editorial standard. Then came instagram and switched things up entirely … throwing everything up in the air. An open field for anyone to make a star of themselves. In reality instagram followed the same cycle as blogs; fresh, instant, unfiltered shots, then to polished, curated & aspirational content, and now in some way it’s shifting back to honest, relatable and more personal stories and visuals (some with, and some without the editorial style visuals to follow). If you don’t keep up, then you risk truly losing out. Trust me, I know.

In my (over) 6 year ‘blogging’ journey, I’ve in large stuck to my own approach, passions and interests. I didn’t switch to instagram like everyone else did (the most stupid thing I’ve -not- done in my blogging career so far), I plugged away at my little space online and wanted to continue to focus my energy and passion into my blog.  I started to share my blog & career tips, but this was back in 2012 before ‘building a successful blog’ or advancing your career posts became a business in itself … at which point I backed a way a little. And still to this day my love and effort is mostly channeled to blog editorial rather than my instagram (i’ve come to accept that my instagram will literally never grow – woe me. Support a pitiful account and go follow it if you don’t already), in fact my recent blog relaunch and investment in my redesign says it all really – my blog, and my way, really has always been my approach. Truthfully from a business point of view, it’s a real tale of ‘missed opportunity’ and one I grapple with constantly. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda is the perfect sound track to my blogging journey really. The opportunities to grow and create something a lot more than what I have was there. My Career stopped me truly progressing that, and I wouldn’t change that for sure. But what comes with that, still and despite the acceptance of why I made the decisions I made, is the bursts of sadness or disappointment that my work doesn’t do better, spread further, or sometimes get noticed.

Despite that, my love for photography, my blog and this little world we have created in the last decade hasn’t faded. I love to write, I love to shoot and I love to share, I love being apart of this community, reading other peoples stories and of course people reading mine too. The joy of views, comments, shares and likes hasn’t faded, brands wanting to work with me and being able to create something I love and that you happen to as well, is something I don’t really foresee ever changing.

And that is why despite the summer slow down, and the little (original) purpose to this post, I wanted to share it anyway. A new dress from my favourite brand of the moment, And Other Stories (sadly this particular dress is actually sold out now – but this one is just as cool), some pictures captured in the beautiful British countryside on a glorious day just before I went away to the US, by Jase (reluctantly, obviously!), after a sunny al fresco brunch in Clifton village.  A perfect day. A perfect summer. 

And A Question to you, is there still a role for posts like this, with no real purpose? Simply words, thoughts, musings and pictures I love and a new dress I’ve been wearing?