Is Blogger Underappreciated? The Ugly Truth.

I started this blog as a hobby with the intention to record and share all the wonderful moments of my life since many years ago. I wrote almost anything and everything about my life experience, which is also why I gave my blog the name "I Blog My Way". Along the way, I am grateful to have met a lot of friends through blogging, especially those bloggers that have attended food review together. But little do I know.... 

Through out the years, I have seen many bloggers come and go, simply because maintaining a blog takes time, effort and passion. It may sounds easy or looks simple from the blog itself, but what is often forgotten is the person behind the blog and their personal commitment and devotion. For example, a food review would takes at least 2 hours of time with photo shooting and food tasting, then another 2 hours of time to do photo editing, blog writing and even blog sharing. That's very time consuming!

Then here comes the important question, is this still a hobby or a job? Am I a blogger or a marketing channel?  Personally and ultimately, I would hope that this hobby would provides passive income or as compensation, at the same time, my audience still benefited from it. Like the saying goes, 'Turn your hobby into business and make money out of it!".

But how do the merchants/marketing agency perceived blogger as? That's the grey area that I can never comprehend. In most of the common cases, the objective is only one - to promote their own brands/restaurants. Then, at what cost? So here comes the question of my blog title... 

Is Blogger Underappreciated?

Take a look at a typical email that I received recently...

Should I reply the email with the link to this blog post? 😂😂😂

Usually I would reply politely, but sometimes these emails really pissing me off. It all started with the sentence "opportunity to offer you" and then "no pay unfortunately but think of the exposure". I might still consider about it if the time is right for me (2.30pm on weekday?!), but with the "sugar-coating", it is definitely a big NO. Definitely a bad way to "sugar-coat" a no-pay review. 

NOT GETTING PAID ENOUGH FOR WHAT YOU DO

This is probably the most common one. Many merchants/marketing agency would seek for free channel to save cost, after all who doesn't want that right? But what about the expectation? Many merchants/marketing agency would request to only write positive review and interfere with the content written; request to post it up within a short period of time; request to share the post through various social media; late payment and drag for a long time; does not care about your constructive feedback; and many more. This is like the Chinese proverb, "又要马儿好，又要马儿不吃草", which literally means you can't expect the horse to run fast when you don't let it graze. Why not the other way round, I "offer you an opportunity" to promote my blog for free but "think about the exposure"? 😒😒😒

OTHER PEOPLE TAKE CREDIT OF YOUR WORK

This is the shameless one. I believe most of the bloggers faced the same problem, our content and photos have been stolen and used without permission. Worst of all, they can earn from such content. Take for example, there are plenty of websites that paying the "contributors", who then stole our content and photos and created attractive topic that shared viral-ly across all the social media like "Top 5 Most Visited Cafe", "Top 10 Must Go Places", etc which probably none of it that they have been to. Imagine if you have spent averagely 5 hours for each cafe review for free (that would be 25 hours), while the so-called "contributor" just takes an hour to copy, paste and getting paid with the "Top 5 Most Visited Cafe". 

Now, do you feel being appreciated?  😉😉😉

In conclusion...

To merchants/marketing agency...

Not all merchants/marketing agency are that bad. I have worked with a few good ones which I would feel being appreciated with my effort even when there is no pay. So the key is how you make me feel and certainly, you get what you pay for. Even though I always strive for under-promise and over-deliver, but I would still hope that you set your expectation right, after all, good thing no cheap. 

To my readers...

If you read my blog frequently, you would know my style on how I review subtly, especially on those that not suit to my liking. I judge based on my taste-bud which may not be the same as everyone, but I believe one should at least be able to comment constructively on how to make it better. There were even times where no-pay food review that caused a number of us diarrhea and we ended up not to write about it at all. So yeah, that's pretty much the ugly truth about being a blogger. 

After reading my post, are you interested to be a blogger? Especially in Penang, where some of the merchants/marketing agency trying to squeeze everything out of you, even though they themselves are charging the client yet expecting you to do it free? Share you thoughts below in the comment! Have a great day!