SL fashion blogging + SL related Facebook groups - I'm afraid something is wrong | Forum

I am going to be harsh, but its an honest dialog. Its not an attack, merely my own observations as to how I view this world right now.

To be fair I honestly do not click through most of the time. Blogging is SATURATED. A blog to me has to catch my attention. I feel a lot of bloggers today do it for the wrong reasons. Usually its to try and get free items. Most pictures are often vanity shots with no story or dept. I enjoy a good story. The story does not have to come from words themselves, show me in the picture. Don't just mash together a bunch of things you are being forced to cover to clear your to do list.
If you want my attention I require the following things. 1. A good clean crisp quality picture. If you are a creator, I want you to give me an in world picture, not a 3D render. 2. Make it interesting. Give me something beyond a generic selfie. Make it in your style, do not mimic what works for other people. 3. Do not flood me. Once is good. I do not need 10 blog posts in one day. 4. Reciprocate. Talk to people. Engage. If you do not care about what I have to say, I do not care about you. 5. Flickr. Honestly, I do my shopping off Flickr. I go to specific groups for stores and events there to see what is coming out. I can one stop shop all in one place. 6. Styling! Make me say wow. So you cannot jam 5 releases in one post? Quality over quantity. Does your backdrop make sense? Are you in head to toe orange and I cannot differentiate what is what?

So what things would grab a person's attention?

What would make the blog more valuable?

What things make a good blog post?

I know that Cordelia mentioned a few things and, as a rl photographer and an amateur SL photographer, I totally understand what she is saying. IF I were to blog for a creator, I would make sure that it was a high quality photo while making sure not to change how it appears in SL. (Trust me, some of the things I have purchased in SL look way different in the ad than they look in SL. Yes, I know, buy the demo first. But even that does not help when the colors are 'off'. Just sayin.) I would make sure that whatever I am blogging about is the star - which means using a relevant backdrop, but not one where the outfit or product gets 'lost'. But what else, content-wise or photo-wise or headline-wise, makes a good blog post?

I'll chime in too.

I absolutely loathe facebook. Cordelia knows as she has to do all of our social medial presences there. Facebook groups for SL have no value to me personally. The way Facebook arranges content is annoying on a good day. I do not have the patience to click through to the content.

I am more or less our blogger manager, yep the facebook hater... all I care about is if they have a flickr. Any other social media or their own blog? Doesn't matter to me I am not even gonna click the link. It is useless. People are not gonna click your blog 98% of the time. Just because a blogger puts their credits on their site doesn't mean I'll look at it, I'll discard it as useless to me and not bother. Credit everything on Flickr and we are in business.

I am also the one that fires our bloggers for bad pictures. We focus on make up. Anything that doesn't have a close-up available will be a strike against you when I evaluate bloggers. Want to show a full image? Fine also add a close-up or I am not going to accept it in blogotex. Images need to be crisp in good light. Artistic image? Great, but does it use blur or softening effects? Ok no longer great.

Just taking a close-up doesn't do it either. A good picture that will draw attention has a mix of interesting styling, a fitting background, a good pose. Something that looks like it is dynamic. Not just static and boring. And hair, hair is so important. it has to fit well, enhance your face and not look like a poorly fitted wig. Perspective and proportions. Look up the rule of thirds and apply it to your pictures, a poorly framed shot distracts the eye and people are not going to look at it beyond skimming over it.

Did I mention lighting? A good windlight will make or break your picture after you have staged it. There is nothing worse than a good picture with terrible light.

Don't spam. Post into the right groups. A lot of people look at specific groups on Flickr. Pertaining to their interests and the creators their like. Put your images into the creators group, into a new release group, into whatever applicable group that has something to do with the image. Personally I check the groups that have to do with the meshes I wear and the furniture creators I like. Nothing else. I do not browse blogs for fun and entertainment. I can say I have never clicked a blog link on avatarbook, as that is not what I am here for.

I just read this now and like to react:
I personally dont expect or even want SL to be the same as RL. Why would we want that? and the definition of what blogging is, is free to everyone, be it only pictures with store info, or more storytelling, lets not keep it defined too narrow. And if you only do pictures and they are amazing, and get lots of favs on flick it totally serves the main purpose of a blog: to connect you to the relevant audience, and for fashion the public wants to see the items with credits, for decorating a great decor set up in a picture, that is enough for that relevant audience.

What is most important is the quality of the product you are making, you can have all the great bloggers in the world, if your product is not good it will not work.
I blog since 2014, my fashion interest in SL started to get more serious with Moldavia Fashion Week 2011, the first time I saw high fashion/Couture in SL. I always loved fashion, styling, photography, decorating, landscaping and art, so that is a great mix that has kept me in SL since 2009. I have a blog, post on flickr, facebook, instagram. But not much in fb groups anymore cause it is taking up too much time which I dont have RL. I dont have time to look at a lot of groups anyway. FB is very good for Giveaways, Events for art/gallery openings, ppl's birthdays, pictures of ppl's RL cats, new releases from stores I like.

I also can relate and agree to Cordelia and Morrigan on what they say about blogging, I always listen and ask for feedback on my posts :-)

No idea if you already posted an article about this. If its there I amgGoing to read it to see what you come up with!

In regard to your disclaimer: I like to know why you want to offer help, who asked for it? cause I always think: lets not create solutions to non-problems.