Just how easy is it, being a Fashion Blogger? Quite simple, really.

You just wear new (sometimes nice) clothes, get someone to take a picture of you (in the case of girls, sometimes a strategically chosen boyfriend, sometimes a boy-friend-zoned) or worse still a selfie in front of a mirror, post it on Instagram and you have followers increasing by the day and brands approaching you to help promote their merchandise.

Wrong answer!

To people on the other side, who are only privy to the Instagram lives of bloggers it may appear to be an easy life. In fact, however, bloggers work a lot more hours than a salaried employee. Like it is, with any other initiative that you launch by yourself. Because most often, blogging does not pay the bills and at times, only a few of the bills. Not unless you have “arrived”! Which means you have to work a job to foot your expenses and be able to buy yourself stuff which keeps you stylish (and hence relevant) at all times.

I said most often, about blogging not paying the bills, on purpose. In some cases (fortunate or not depends on how you look at it) blogging is the only thing some, errr, bloggers do. Now you will be all like, “oh what a relaxed and fancy life is that”. Wait, because it is not. As a full-time blogger, you don’t know when is the next assignment going to come your way or the pay for the work completed and delivered, for that matter. On-time payments are a myth and stuff made of candy-floss in the blogger world, with wait times being as high as 3 months in some scenarios. In which case you better have a solid savings balance in your account.

Now, to complicate things, a lot of bloggers focus on trends rather than personal style. Why is that a bad thing? Well, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But if you are going to talk about trends, you have to keep up with, if not stay ahead of, them. Which means you are either spending your earnings on shopping to be on trend or you are constantly borrowing/sourcing and shooting at your expense to stay true to the topic.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to generate original content? To think of a mood board and find a professional photographer who is good at his/her work and then execute the shoot? Then there is the edit, promotions, social media shares, etc. While styling and shooting takes a day, developing content at times takes longer. No, am not talking about bloggers who publish press releases or copy paste content from brand websites or guidelines that are shared. Those kinds don’t qualify. If you feel it does, you don’t earn any respect.

Now let us talk about something other than content. Brand building. A blogger is a brand and there has to be consistency in their presentation when on social media and when seen in real life. I can’t be talking about the slickest sneakers and then wearing bathroom slippers to get a beer from a neighbourhood bar. Because that would mean that I am pretending to be “stylish” but only in front of the camera. You have to be at your effortless best at all times. You have to be “on”.

Then there are haters. Maybe you deserve some of the hate, you never know. I get a lot of hate for speaking my mind and some times because I am not physically athletic in build. But I don’t care because I would rather say what am thinking than pretend like I don’t have an opinion. And I really love my biryanis! But there are people who sling mud at you. And you need to know how to handle that. There are some that choose to react, others who choose to ignore. The audience (hates in specific) just need to remember that as a blogger, the individuals are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and doing stuff outside of the rigmarole of college, corporate jobs and pay cheques. The least you could do is perhaps respect that. Critique all you want, as long as the intention is right. That is always welcome. But hating to make yourself feel or look good, that is just pathetic. In any situation.

Plagiarism is another problem. Of ideas, concepts, locations (ok, so we are an overly populated country of bloggers so maybe locations can’t be included), the way the content is put out and so on.

As for the hours, there is no break when you are a blogger. Weekends are spent scheduling and executing shoots. Then there are the zillion events, press releases and other activities that need attending. Which requires bloggers to be on, like Donkey Kong.

How easy is it being a blogger? Anything but.

On Allen:
Shirt – Mitesh Lodha
Denims – Jack and Jones
Sneakers – adidas Originals
Watch – Tissot
Sunglasses – American Optical 

On Namita:
Shirt – Borrowed
Faux Leather Skirt – Zara
Sandals – Thrifted

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Shot by Pretika Menon, featuring Namita Gautham of Take A Bow and Allen Claudius of Bowties and Bones.

 

As seen on myntra.com