Blogging: where's the community spirit?

There seems to be a general discomfort in parts of the beauty blogging world at the moment. With so many blogs around, things have got a lot more competitive and as a blogger you feel you have to offer more and more in order to retain readers, grow your network and still be in with a chance of working with brands of some great collaborations.

I’m by no means a veteran blogger – I’ve been doing this for about three years now, but since I started I can definitely feel the change in the air. In the past, it felt like I belonged to a community of sorts. There were tons of people, both online and in real-life that I could ask for advice, or generally just discuss ideas with. There was a lot less cynicism around and people seemed to genuinely support each other.

Fast forward to 2015 and I feel that because the blogging market has become so competitive, that sense of community has now been lost. People get incredibly cagey about things – from what kinds of blog posts they might be working on, to how much to charge for certain types of work, or even just a good ol’ chin-wag on blogging. And god forbid you ask someone what their stats are. It’s as though people feel like they have to keep this all to themselves in order to protect it. When really, I think that we would all benefit from being just that bit more open.

If we felt more happy to discuss these kinds of things, surely it would mean that we all win in the end? It might mean that we feel more confident in how much we’re charging for sponsored posts, and feel more confident in responding to brands when they say they can usually get that kind of feature for a fifth of that cost (please make this stop). It would be great to be able to ask a blogger who’s photography you think is amazing a question, or maybe some writing tips from another. You might want to be the best blogger you can, but surely that doesn’t mean you can’t help others along the way?

I’d love to see a more community feel to blogging in the future. I don’t know if this is just a pipedream, but for me it’s a goal to work to. Blogging in 2015 might be competitive, but it doesn’t mean we have to trample on others to achieve our goals. If anything, I think it will be a more positive experience for everyone if we all bond together a bit more and create that community spirit.