Blogging 101 Archives

IG Influencers: A Bubble Soon to Pop

07/29/2018 By Sarah 1 Comment

I have come to accept it, and I’m sure there are people out there refusing to talk about it. Especially since last year it became a $1 billion industry, and could be worth $2.38 billion by the time 2019 hits. But while the influencer industry looks promising, there are some truths we need to acknowledge for it to remain so.

Think of how much money companies can save now by advertising with independent influencers. Their cost for running ads with services before the time of influencers included magazines, celebrities, commercials, billboards, street signs, etc. Influencers now offer not only more content than brands ever had a need for before, but a new, more intuitive kind of promotion. Less broad, and more acute/niche specific.

Here’s why I predict what is happening right now in the industry is going to cause it to crumble…

[Read more…]

#TakeBackInstagram is Born

01/26/2018 By Sarah Leave a Comment

On the night of January 23rd, I had just about had enough of the struggle I’ve been experiencing on Instagram. I decided the ridiculous way my account was behaving couldn’t be due to something I was doing wrong. I have spent enough time questioning my content and my self, and spending countless hour on the app to engage with users to keep up my engagement, only to see literally next to nothing in return. With all the strange penalizing happening to mine and other accounts I knew, like being shadow banned and not showing up in hashtags, I started writing a Letter to Instagram to submit through their “Something Isn’t Working” Form on the app.

About 20 minutes later, after a list of issues turned into a rant to Instagram about just how much they are ruining this community, I frustratedly shared the Letter on my Stories and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up with maybe 15 DM’s from people who were sharing my Letter, responding with shock that they weren’t the only one going through this, and the discussion began. I started sharing these crazy messages on my Stories because I realized we were all suffering in silence, thinking we were just doing something wrong, our account was broken, or Instagram was punishing us for some reason. But the truth is, there is something happening with the algorithm that is causing major trouble for ALL our accounts! The only ones who are safe, seem to be the huge “elite” celebs and bloggers that IG has protected from their algorithm and deemed “safe” from their penalizing bans.

Through maybe 100 DM’s I’ve been trying to keep up with day and night since posting my Letter, I’ve been able to put together a pretty complete picture of what’s actually happening to us, and it’s not pretty.

From accounts losing massive amounts of followers, projected growth for the year being in the negative thousands, being blocked from writing captions, being shadow banned, being restricted to following 1-2 people a day, or only certain accounts, forced unfollows of people you still want to follow, the following counter being “Stuck” at a certain number for months, though you see followers come in daily, engagement being cut in half or more, paid IG ads not bringing in any clicks or views but they take our money anyway, our posts not being shown to our followers for maybe up to a week later, and never seeing posts from people we used to loyally follow. And there’s still so much more!

If this were a service company, they’d be sued… BIG time.

The good news? You’re not alone if you’ve been dealing with these issues. The bad news? Instagram doesn’t seem to care about us or completely manipulating us to use their app longer in order to make money off us. How can they be getting away with this?

“It’s common knowledge in the industry that Instagram exploits this craving [for notifications and positive feedback] by strategically withholding likes from certain users. If the photo-sharing app decides you need to use the service more often, it’ll show only a fraction of the likes you’ve received on a given post at first, hoping you’ll be disappointed in your haul and check back again in. a minute or two. They’re tying into your greatest insecurities.” – Matt Maybury, Dopamine Labs via The Globe and Mail

If Instagram knowingly withholds likes, and bans certain actions of “spammy” accounts, what would stop them from using these “powers” to completely control any or all users on the app?! What would keep them from deciding normal people are too spammy to get normal rights to engage on the app? What keeps them from controlling the number of your following so it seems as if you’re not growing, and you’re not successful?

This is the reason I believe it’s time to speak out. So many of you had no idea this was happening to everyone, and now you can share the info to make more people aware! The more who learn about this, and the more people who speak up, Instagram will have to hear us. Our best tactic is to keep the fire burning and tell our friends, tell fellow IGers, and use the hashtag to become viral on Instagram. Another great idea submitted by someone who joined the discussion, is to leave a 1 star honest review on the Instagram App, in the App Store!

As I learn more information, I’ll update the blog with new posts! And share tips on what I find works best to keep up engagement and growth during these tough times!

Join the Movement – BE the Change!

1. Tell your friends
2. Use the #TakeBackInstagram
3. Help take back control of exposure- join #FollowFriday every week on IG Stories!
4. Post the flyers below or make your own!
5. Leave an honest 1 star review on the Instagram App!
6. Pin one a flyer to Pinterest to help spread the word!

You don’t have to tag me, but I would love to be tagged so I can see how many of you are joining in, and get to thank you! When we stick together, we make an amazing team!

Flyer for IG Stories:

Flyer for IG Feed Crop:

SaveSave

Blogging 101: How to get “The Look”

12/15/2017 By Sarah Leave a Comment

When I was a beginner photographer, I would look at photographers I followed and wonder why, even with all the editing possible, I couldn’t get my photos to look like the ones I was trying to mimic. From colors, to vibe, to quality… I had high expectations but couldn’t execute. Sometimes all the vision and inspiration in the world won’t lead to the outcome you are aiming for. All artists require learning the necessary skills to bring their vision to life. And there was one day when it finally clicked, and I was able to take my work to that level I was striving for. This is also a big factor when creating content for your blog or Instagram!

So what’s the secret to getting the outcome you want with your photography? People always ask me, “how do you get ‘the look’?”

It comes down to three factors: Color Scheme, Light, and Theme.

This is the line I drilled into my head, and I always tell beginners:

“Shoot the colors you want to see in the photo.”

It sounds so simple, but sometimes beginners don’t realize that it’s more than just “pointing and shooting” the camera to get the shot. Or showing up in an outfit with a photographer. Especially when it comes to these three things! With coordination, pre-planning, and styling, you can get “the look” by yourself, or with the help of a photographer.

Read More to learn the importance of each of these factors, when it comes to making your vision a reality…

[Read more…]

Blogging 101: Mastering the Flat Lay

10/16/2017 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Flat Lays are sort of the bread and butter content for bloggers. Its our way of making a boring product photo feel relatable and less commercial. When you have to shoot as many products as us, it’s one of the go-to options for churning out content quickly and breaking up the monotonous model photos on our feed. If you’re like I used to be, you probably find flat lays a struggle to shoot. Some people have a natural knack for composition, but even with that, I found it hard to get outside my OCD to sort of “toss” products and props down to look like an effortless flat lay. I used to have to map out flat lays I liked and study the composition to learn how to set up the perfect flat lay. Then one time I had to spend a few days shooting lots of flat lays, and it really clicked with me when I let go and got creative with it. Through that I realized what I was doing differently that made the shots looks so much more professional, and here is what I’m now sharing with you!

Read more to get all the BEST tips, first hand from moi, for mastering the Flat Lay! I promise these will give you a breakthrough for shooting these tricky photos!

[Read more…]

How I Started Blogging

09/15/2017 By Sarah 1 Comment

This post was a long time coming, as I get SO many messages regarding this topic. So I finally sat down to organize my whole story into a blog post, to shed some light on my personal journey. This isn’t a guide to success, or a one size fits all story. But hopefully it will answer your questions, and give you some insight and inspiration on just what I did to become a full time blogger!