Conducting article research under the guise of general conversation, I ask a guy in my hall if he knows anyone who blogs. ‘Apart from you?’ he sniggers. ‘Well, there was one girl from my school who posted her outfits on a blog for a month or so, it was really dumb.’ It seems that everyone knows that girl or some guy who once started up a blog, posted about it on their Facebook for a while, then promptly gave up the ghost when they realised nobody was reading.  Blogs are reserved for those carrying an expensive camera, overblown opinions and an inflated ego. Right?

Wrong (mostly). The face of blogging is in constant revolution, to the extent that anyone who started up as far back as ’08 can feel positively grannyish. In just the three short years since, we have been witness to a veritable blogger explosion, with every man and his dog setting up shop on Blogspot, or now, Tumblr (no, really - look up doggy blogs for an insight into the true modern condition). Such fast-food blogging via Tumblr has certainly kept things interesting: image-heavy and inspiration-heavy, they reflect what people want to read - or rather, see - online today.

But whatever platform you choose to blog from, the opportunities - both fun-related and career-related - are endless. As a blogger, you possess that unique claim that other publications simply cannot: a personal relationship with the reader that stands apart from product association. There exists a dialogue and a community quite unique to bloggers, and, if you can gain a following whilst maintaining your authenticity, you harness more power than you may realise over brands, publications and employers. Thus, nowadays, we have star ratings from film bloggers such as Ultra Culture plastered across film posters alongside the usual newspaper suspects, and success stories such as that of food blogger Julie Powell being made into Hollywood smash hits (the 2009 film, Julie & Julia). My own smash hits have varied from free trips to Paris, fashion show tickets, and working as a copywriter for a global fashion brand.

However, whilst the explosion of blogging may have opened out certain elusive industries to the ‘common people’, for those already there, it’s a case of one blogger too many. This saturation is particularly the case in the fashion world, where a recent blogger backlash has spread across the industry like an angsty rash: my personal favourite being the tempest in a trilby caused by a Grazia reporter having to watch Couture through 13 year-old blogger Tavi’s oversized hat. But, to quote the queen of fashion bloggers Susie Bubble (of stylebubble.co.uk), ‘At the end of the day, readers are what count.’ In an unprecedented move, it was those 25,000-odd readers per day that meant Miss Bubble could give up a job at Dazed and Confused because her personal blog got her more dollar. When the going’s this good - creatively and financially - who cares about a little bit of backlash? No publicity is bad publicity, and, if our oversized hats get people talking, we must be relevant.

So how does one keep one’s head above the rest in the blogging world? No matter what kind of blog niche you are involved with, an original voice and original content are what will keep readers coming back. For me? That’s a fashion blog that doesn’t take the fashion thing too seriously, that trash talks Alexa Chung and pokes fun at awkward street style. For you? Perhaps it’s a blog that takes photos of your lecturers’ shoes and then transforms said shoes into elegant moving gifs. For your dog? Well, as noted, the opportunities there are endless. You say you want to be a writer/an art curator/a music promoter? Why wouldn’t you blog about it - it could be the diary entry that really gets you somewhere.

Claire Healy writes the blog www.youngshields.co.uk.

 

discothequeconfusion.co.uk

Non-pretentious fashion inspiration that isn’t all about the images - harder to find than you might think. My go-to blog that made me want to start my own.

hungoverowls.tumblr.com

Just very, very good. Your friends and acquaintances will begin to look increasingly owl-like. No, really. Ps. Watch out for Sobriety Hawk.

accidentalmysteries.blogspot.com

Insightful blog about art forms at their most encompassing: from children’s book illustrations from the 50s, to the graphics label designs on crates of peaches.

nevver.com

An image every day and an mp3 to go with it, ‘for no obvious reason.’ But isn’t that where the best blogs come from?

lawrenceandjulieandjulia.com

Meta-blogging just got real. Guy called Lawrence takes inspiration from a chick who blogged her way through Julia Childs’ cookbook in a year, by watching the film adaptation Julie & Julia. Every day. For a year. He’s on day 329, and I’m still laughing.