I don’t do blogger related posts mainly because I have to remember many of my readers aren’t bloggers therefore they won’t necessarily recognise the etiquette or understand what goes on in the blogsphere, but when blogging has smashed into the mainstream and anchorman Jon Snow is reporting on it…
…then it’s time to make an exception.
I’ve been blogging for over five years, which is like 23 cat years, so I can safely comment on how it’s evolved and what off-shoots it’s opened up. Bloggers have really upped the game and some have set trends running. When once upon a time a blog was a personal log, organic, pure and individual, there now is a trail of cliches that have quite frankly been grating on me and it seems the point has got lost along the way.
I’ll cut straight to the chase here: I’ve compiled a top 10 of Blogging/Blogger Annoying Cliches. Maybe I am guilty of one or two, some amuse me but a lot of them just piss me off. So, buckle up and we’ll get this thing rolling…
- Candles
I do not know where the idea of using a burning scented candle in the background or casually placed on the side of product shots came from but it is extremely annoying. It has to be Diptyque or Neom with the possible exception of Yankee. I got to say something here, Yankee candles are so 1997-2000 for me. (That’s when I used to buy them) Now I’m well and truly over them. - Flowers
I do not know where the idea of using aburning scented candleflowers in the foreground of product shots came from but it is extremely annoying. Usually peonies. Maybe some roses. STAPH IT! Please! It detracts from the actual product and for crying out loud, it’s a blog, not Elle Deco or Good Housekeeping. - Flowery bed sheets or duvets
Still on the floral theme, products are usually laid out on a pretty bed sheet (ideally Cath Kidston). I loathe Cath Kidston. How one grannified design could be milked to death and yet become so lucrative is a mystery to me. - “Oh-so”
Like reading an Enid Blyton book. I read Enid Blyton when I was nine years old. Lashings and lashings of Ginger Beer. Enough. No one speaks like that. - Shortening words
This excruiating tendency to shorten words for no logical reason gets on my wick. You know, like ‘gorge(ous)’, ‘incred(ible)’ and ‘beaut(iful)’. Stop bastardizing the English language, it’s boll(ocks). - The bird’s eye view/magazine spread shot
Is this a case of blurred lines where blogs merge into magazines? The bird’s eye view of looking down on products neatly laid out is a horrendous blogging cliché and everybody and the cat does it. I don’t. Thank God. - Scattering props in pictures for no given reason
In a similar vein to cliche number 6. I am exhausted from taking photos after two hours and usually all I’ve accomplished are five product shots. It’s a task in itself to get a clear photo with the right lighting, so who has time to sex it up? Wait…wait! I have a job, that’s why I can’t do this. - Fashion magazines stacked up
In a similar vein to cliches number 6 and 7, using fashion rags like Vogue as props for blog photos. Maybe I should jump on the bandwagon and use my copies of Delicious, Olive and BBC Good Food. They’re better than Vogue by a long shot. - ‘Drug store’
Slap yourself repeatedly if you do this. Then remind yourself you live in the United Kingdom, not the United States of America where we refer to such retail places as ‘chemists’ (because – duh- they dispense medicine) or by their trade names Superdrug and Boots. Repeat till a little thing called ‘sense’ makes its way in. - ‘Haul’
Slap yourself repeatedly if you do this. Then remind yourself you live in the United Kingdom, not the United States of America.
OK, I’m done. Here’s a picture of my handsome boy. Don’t any of you dare to use a cat in your blog photos, OK?
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