Bloggers and Brands 3

[CookingUpAStormTonight]

New thread I hope.

@KatFarmer still one of the best tips for trying on clothes from you. If what you're trying on doesn't look as good as what you walked in wearing. Don't buy it.

I'm sitting here now wondering why the hidden links piss me off so much. Because as some bloggers like to remind us from time to time, it doesn't cost me any more to buy via a link than it does to buy direct. I think it comes down to value. I wouldn't walk up to someone in the street and say 'oh I like your dress where did you get it from?' and then hand them a tenner when they tell me its from Zara. But if someone took me into Zara, showed me the stuff that was not going to fall apart made from good quality fabrics and picked out the really cool dresses for me, then yes I probably would give them the tenner.

@DogZombies for me the affiliate thing comes down very simply if it annoys me or not if the person is recommending it as they like it.

I blog on a very small scale and use amazon affiliate links. But the posts I write are about stuff I've bought and love. And I know people thing oh a blog post takes 10 mins to do. But it really doesn't if you want it to look good with the right images etc. And yes I disclose them.

I usually make a total of £40 a year on mine. As I'm shit at blogging as it always comes last on my to do list.

@totallyliterally I do get that creating a blog post takes time and effort. Some bloggers hardly blog any more though and just use IG which I think anyone with a IG account would say is pretty easy to post to. (The ones that claim it isn’t tend to over engineer their pages and it ends up looking fake). Some blogs have extensive shop my look or wish list page which are basically massive shopping lists comprised of affilIate links. It just feels like a huge fishing exercise to get their cookies on your computer for every possible brand you may ever shop from online!

DogZombies, "basically massive shopping lists comprised of affilIate links" - you've just described Wardrobe Icons' raison d'etre!

And that's the main reason I walked away from Wardrobe Icons.

All the same links all the time too.

Pity as I love LFs style but these threads taught me what was really going on.

Just wanted to delurk again - I ve found these treads helpful and I think it has influenced my opinions on lots of bloggers / IG ers
Massive respect for ED and DMBL for changes they have made - and also because. I just really like them both and I would follow them regardless - but neither of them are my 'style' I just like their IG / blogs (well actually I love Ed interiors )

AH has done a blog post today about some (very nice) & Other Stories trousers in which she says that she is on a monthly retainer with & Other Stories and gets to pick out a couple of pieces each month. She says a 'few other influencers' have a similar arrangement. That certainly puts the insta-love for that brand into a bit more context for me.

AB is selling off a whole load more of stuff tonight. She has a serious (and a bit sad) shopping problem. Noticed in her blog about the baby's routine that she had about five bouncy seat type things but they were "gifted". She really should think about donating some stuff to womens aid or similar.

Blimey, its a bit overwhelming, all that "stuff", makes me feel a bit stressed out and I don't even have a newborn to worry about. As a complete contrast, I really really like Junkaholique. She is the antithesis of some of the shopping haul/unboxing bloggers, her photography is beautiful (but not contrived), she's amazingly creative, and her blogs make me want to slow my life down and (literally and metaphorically) smell the roses. She runs her own business which she mentions sometimes in passing on her IG page, but its never in your face nor the main focus of her blog. She hasn't really changed over the years that I have been following her.

@WipsGlitter who is AB?

Harmless bloggers they ain't - salespeople they are sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing/

Anneli Bush

Interesting to see DMBL40 insta-storying from Lily & Lionel this morning saying she’d been invited to pick a dress as a gift. Totally clear and transparent.

Co-incidentally, Fran from TheFashionLift is in the same shop a little later trying on dresses, deciding what to dress to select but absolutely no mention of the gift word.

Bloody nice dress too. Well jell.

DMBL's stories are really good at the moment, I love the way she shows things that work as well as the things that don't - we have all had that moment in the changing room when it goes horribly wrong off the hanger. Very entertaining. I nearly choked on my Diet Coke when I saw her in that frilly ASOS dress the other day .

It's interesting that the bloggers appear to be dictating the extent of the transparency. I really feel like the brands make them these offers of gifts and collaborations and then wash their hands of how they are presented to consumers.

@DillyDilly I was just about to say the same thing. Am tempted to message Fran to ask why. Very disappointing.

DMBL40 is pretty good at showing the trying room failures, doesn’t usually feature the swipe up to shop links in changing rooms, unlike the Fadhionlift who does and mostly everything she tries on is ‘really nice’ or ‘really lush’.

And surprise, surprise Chloelovestoshop was in Lily & Lionel today - but no mention of #gift either. So out of three bloggers there today, only DMBL40 was open and transparent! Or maybe the other two actually paid for their dresses???

I doubt it! I don't really understand the strategy of the brands. There must be so much overlap in followers between bloggers that get invited to the same things or gifted the same stuff. Why don't they focus their attention on one or two bloggers that offer them the best exposure? (my money is on DMBL40). I guess in the past maybe they wanted to create a buzz around a product so multiple gifting works - the product becomes desirable because "everyone" is wearing it. But when you know it is gifted, it doesn't become a must-have product, it just looks like over saturation.

I had to unfollow Fashion Lift. My tiny brain couldn't cope with how she was managing to take pictures with her phone when it wasn't pointing in the right direction

Interesting article in the Guardian today about beauty vloggers - echoing many of the points that have been raised on these threads:

www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/mar/08/glam-or-sham-are-youtubes-beauty-vloggers-selling-out

I think lots of brands are doing themselves a disservice using the same blogger clique (can’t think of another word for it, they’re all invited to the same events, all wearing the same things). Would be nice to see brands diversify a bit. I have a long list of brands on my shit list because of this, and I’m quite an avid buyer of fashion, must be loads of us put off by this.

Really interesting article June thanks for the link. Heavy fines for Australian bloggers for non compliance, wow. I follow quite a few Australian accounts and I noticed their disclosures stepped up with #ads and paid partnerships creeping in. The disclosure of gifts is still very hit and miss though.

I really like dmbl40, I have completely the opposite shape to her and really not a similar style but I just find her trying on sessions really interesting and entertaining, I'm not surprised she's leading the way in transparency, she seems like a good egg.

Interestingly I saw those items from lily and Lionel she tried on and clicked on their shop as I thought they looked beautiful...just slightly out of my spending range then

Looks like several of the more high end bloggers got invited to Zimmermann to pick out a dress. None of the ones I follow (Laura F, Petro, Lucy Williams) mentioned any gifts or ads, yet I can't believe they'd all splash out £500-£1000 on a dress at the same time and Lucy usually seems really good at making it clear she's working with a brand or invited to be a guest at a hotel?