Being A Blogger Does Not Make You King Of The World

i recently met someone who said that bloggers are a difficult bunch to deal with. his exact words were, “bloggers these days are so damn demanding. they think just because they have a couple of hundred hits a day, everyone has to treat them like royalty or like some celebrity.”

and you know, it’s so damn true.

for the information of those who werent aware of this, i was working with Nuffnang for some time a couple of months back. so i got to see firsthand all that diva attitude some of our so-called ‘celebrity’ (and some not-so-celebrity) bloggers are capable of when it comes to making money from their blog. “where’s my ad???” is the number one question we field. and then giving them ads is not enough wan you know, must give them two stacked ads so that they can make double the amount per week. if not, they will complain and complain and complain till the cows come home.

first, there is the ‘celebrity’ blogger (i use this term with much pain) who gets a lot of traffic and whines about not getting ads. then, there is the blogger who gets less than 20 hits a day and also whines about not getting ads.

let’s talk about the greedy celebrity blogger first. granted, we dont have that many celeb bloggers, and luckily for us only very VERY few of them are divas. but these divas still exist. and to be honest sometimes i dont know why they are celebrity bloggers. they write like crap - quality that does not warrant the kind of ego they have - ie absolutely no substance or clarity in their writing, coupled with horrendous grammar and spelling. broken english everywhere, sometimes cant even spell the product name right. yet they keep talking about and marketing themselves as if they’re some kind of revolutionary new wave of media, capable of propelling your business to greater heights just with a link or two on their oh-so-famous blog. well, if you wanna have so HUGE an ego, at least have some goods to bring to the table besides rotten writing and an over-dependence on random pictures you ripped off the internet.

i just cant stand it when so-called celebrity bloggers get all smug about their supposedly more-popular-than-thou status, thinking they are better than all the ‘little bloggers’ out there who by the way WRITE MUCH BETTER THAN THEM ANYWAY -___- it’s like there is this huge cloud above their head that says, ‘i may have lousy english and writing skills but that’s okay because i’m a CELEBRITY BLOGGER, and i can hence tell YOU off for having bad english because YOU’RE not a celebrity blogger like ME.’ true story, people, true story. seriously lah there is nothing wrong with a blogger having bad english; in my opinion you dont need to have better language skills than everyone else to write a really good blog.. but i think it’s totally hypocritical, RUDE and delusional if someone with bad english thinks they can go around telling people how bad their english is simply because they are some sort of ‘celebrity blogger’. the lack of humility pisses me off so much. honestly, it does not the fuck matter that you have a gazillion hits a day and make a couple of thousand dollars from your blog if you are by nature a disgusting, greedy person with too big an ego and absolutely no integrity whatsoever.

these bloggers have made so much profit from Nuffnang, but when asked to go on a revenue share for certain projects, REFUSE TO DO SO. i am just so in awe as to how anyone can be so terribly ungrateful. is 30% so much to give up? would you even have that other 70% if it were not for Nuffnang? and to add to that, they have the nerve to keep demanding higher pay per advertorial even if it means Nuffnang makes less. like i said - disgusting, greedy and ungrateful.

and it’s not like these bloggers are the next in line for Pulitzers or something. these are blogs that are littered with random glowing reviews about lousy food and products, but are written anyway in the hopes of catching the eye of the involved businesses. these are blogs that are filled with advertorial after advertorial with no substance in between. and it’s become all about being famous and making money and getting free food. what’s the point in having a blog like that? what’s the point in being so proud of a commercial blog that hides behind a pseudo-personal front? have you no shame that you are so smug about being the face of the Malaysian blogosphere and yet maintain a blog that is just out to make a quick buck?

the perfect example of nice and down-to-earth celebrity bloggers are Kenny Sia and Suanie. despite his monster-sized daily traffic that could populate a small country, Kenny has got to be one of the most humble and approachable celebrity bloggers i have ever met. if anyone has a right to be a diva blogger, it is him, but he simply doesnt pull that shit. in fact, he was one of the few people who urged Nuffnang to start doing revenue share because he felt Nuffnang deserved it :) Suanie is a blogging celebrity in her own right, but so down-to-earth about her status and influence, and unpretentious in her blogging. if you want a semblance of what the old pre-traffic obsession blogosphere used to be like, Suanie’s blog is the best place to find it.

sigh. i have absolutely no respect for so-called celebrity bloggers who like to throw their weight around. if you have a high readership, put it to good use instead of taking advantage of each hit to make money for yourself. get your brain working and churn out some meaningful writing like the rest of the other ‘little bloggers’ that you look down upon so. if you cant do that, then stop touting yourself as “XYZ the blogger” and just be a regular XYZ like the rest of us. how about that. how about some humility and some grace while you’re at it.

and it’s not just celebrity bloggers who can be greedy and ungrateful. when i was working with Nuffnang, i received scores of emails a day from bloggers who have like 10 hits a day or something, threatening to leave the network if they didnt get anymore ads. or simply going “eh why i so long no ad ah??” how about it’s because you dont even meet the freaking traffic requirement, you MORON. and even if you have what, 21 hits a day, stop complaining about the cents you’re making compared to the dollars you think you deserve; because without Nuffnang, that space on your sidebar is NOTHING. you wouldnt be making ANY cents if Nuffnang wasn’t out there touting your blog for you to advertisers. dont forget that you make as much money as your traffic gets you; so if your traffic is next to nothing, know that you are in no place to demand more money.

so you think your sidebar space is worth more than the amount you’re getting? quit gabbing and remove the unit lah then. we’d rather give the money to other bloggers who have the same amount of traffic that you do, but actually appreciate the work that we do for them. pulling power goes to the nice or the influential. so what happens if you’re neither? fuck off then, and take your precious sidebar space with you.

what angers me the most is blogs that sport the classic url of makemoneywithblogging.blogspot.com or something; set up SOLELY to make money from blog advertising, are full of weird Click Me banners and little adsense thingies, have random lyrics and other copy+paste shit, or sometimes even nothing at all… and then they can write us emails asking us WHY THEY HAVE NO ADS. hello????? your blog is not even a blog!!!!!!!!!

i’m just lamenting the fact that Nuffnang, who has been doing so much for the blogosphere, is not getting the gratitude that they deserve, from big bloggers and small bloggers alike. dont take all that money in your Earnings panel for granted - us folks in the office have to work long and hard to deliver that kinda money to you. our bosses have sleepless nights and dont even declare themselves a salary each month just so they can do this one thing for the blogging community. and yet, what do you as a blogger do? refuse revenue share. demand more ads. email boss to ask him to ‘check’ why you have no ads. pester about the status of your cheques. please lah. it’s time some gratitude is shown.

and i’m also lamenting the degenerating state of personal blogging. what happened to the days where blogging was all about getting your point across and sharing opinions and writing about your day-to-day experiences? now it’s become all about updating every 2-3 days so that your readers dont go away, it’s become all about stupid little gimmicks to keep your traffic up, it’s become a science and a business rather than the art and hobby it used to be.

haih. actually i didnt mean to sound so angry. i totally got carried away, didnt i? but i just cant help ittttt i’ve got so much pent up ANGST!!

one of these days, i’m going to give 5 links of 5 malaysian blogs that i think have good, sincere and heartfelt writing. none of that whiny give-me-ads commercial stuff. i think it’s about time we called some attention to the blogs that really deserve it. so if you have any hidden treasure blogs that you love to read, do drop a comment here and we can all partake in the good stuff :)

Comments November 23rd, 2007