blogosphere

I've been blogging for a good 5 years at least. I only started doing paid advertorials and actually seeing any monetary benefit in having a blog very, very recently. So for the bulk of my time, I've been blogging because I enjoy it. I like almost everything about blogs: the writing, the photos, even the HTML. Essentially my blog is for me. It's one of my most prized possessions and having people take an interest in my blog was a surprising and flattering side effect, but it was never my intention; nor could it have been.

You know how most people tend to look down on blogs though? There's always that thing about: Why do you want to tell the whole world about your life? They think you're attention-seeking, they blame you if someone finds out something about them - even if you had nothing to do with it - just because you have a blog that's public. It's not "cool" to have a public blog. What's cool is to have a locked Livejournal or cryptic Tumblr.
Online, I'm quite proud of my blog. Offline, I have to feel embarrassed about it.

But lately I'm sure everyone has realised how having a blog can have many benefits. Some bloggers really can obtain large financial gains as well as sponsorships and at the same time, there's the "fame" element - having people care about who you are, what you do and what you say.

So what you're starting to get are people who have a renewed interest in having a blog. Whatever.

Ever so often I get a "question" on Formspring about so-and-so girl; with her blog URL included. Sometimes I post it, sometimes I don't. Well from now on, I NEVER WILL EVER AGAIN.

Sometimes the way it happens is just WAY TOO COINCIDENTAL. Tell me, why would there be people out there who are so keen so share your blog? Who are you, that people would go through the trouble of recommending your blog or supposedly trying to search for it?

You are not... Fann Wong. A.k.a someone that everyone already knows of and is curious to know more about. If there was a possibility of Fann Wong having a blog, of course people would want to find it. But you? YOU ARE NOBODY.

If someone recommended Xiaxue's blog, or even any of your other smaller bloggers, it wouldn't be particularly questionable. But you're telling me that out of the... maybe 20 readers you have now, some of them love your blog so much that they would put in the effort to go around to multiple Formsprings/blogs/forums to rave about how awesome your blog is?

Trying so hard to spread your blog URL is not really wrong or anything. I sound like a petty blogger. What makes me different from any other blogger? Maybe... they really want to share their words and writing.

But then... WHY is there a "contact xxx@gmail.com for advertorials" on the side of every one of these blogs? Some, a mere few weeks after the blog was started. WHY is there a "looking for xxx sponsorship"? I thought you just wanted to share your thoughts?

So basically... why do you have a blog? Before this, blogs were lame and attention-seeking. Okay maybe they're still attention-seeking, but now they're also worthwhile. So what are the intentions behind all these new blogs?

Some are a little more subtle with their attempts. You see it on Twitter; the people/things they Retweet, how they praise famous bloggers all the time, the name/@- dropping... You see it more blatantly and deviously when they leave anonymous comments asking about the most unrelated of topics (with key Googleable words or the URLs themselves) - that hopefully would lead to traffic driven to their site (this applies to blogshops too).

Pretty often I get questions/comments like, "should I buy xxx item from xxx.livejournal.com?" (always a new blogshop) or "xxx (insert URL here) looks like you!" Really meh... if that's the case then it seems like I have so many doppelgangers in Singapore alone.

Basically most of the old blogs around now... none of us ever had the intention of eventually getting paid advertorials and stuff like that. I mean back in those days advertorials didn't even exist. Over time, more and more people started reading our blogs. Surprising and unexpected, but nice. Now it seems like some actively pursue increased readership for...? Wouldn't it have something to do with the requests for advertorials and sponsorships?

Sure go ahead and be all gung-ho about your blog. It means more blogs for me to read anyway. But geez, I've been blogging for 5 years and many others for a few years too. Patience. And please, stop using existing blogs to propel your own, just because now blogs are some kind of "good" investment. No reason why I should use space on my Formspring because YOU want a nail/hair/whatever sponsor asap.

Now... cute pictures of my hamster Hamlet! (I still feel I hit jackpot with this name - so cute to put Shakespeare on a hamster and it's still so apt because there's HAM in it, like HAMster!)


Super curious! I think this is my favourite hamster out of the last like... 5 or 6 I've had. I remember the days when I used to refer to my hamster as my boyfriend (cause obviously back then I didn't have one).

And no it's not that I don't feed Hamlet. She likes to take all her food out of the food bowl and fill it with the grey pellets instead. I swear, till now I have NO idea what she does with the food.


Polka dots on the last two nails are super smeared; they became like that after I applied OPI's RapiDry over it so obviously I decided not to put top coat over the others.


Viciously attacking a toilet roll! She actually FULLY tore apart one entire toilet roll prior to this! The whole thing disappeared and are now seen as little cardboard bits all over her cage.


Bye!