I am participating in the Got Blog! Bloggers Challenge, you can find more information on this at Got Blog! Bloggers Challenge. I concocted this Bloggers Challenge with Gorgeous Aurelia of Juicybomb, so keep an eye out for her post as well.

I love to Blog, and a lot has been changing of late that has been really upsetting and unsettling amongst that community, with Social Media and Flickr changing rules often, that seem to impact how they go about Blogging. This is why now, and in the past I have always tried to encourage people to have an actual Blog/Website.

A Blog is yours, it is owned by and controlled by you, other than the basic TOS of the platform you choose, you have a world that you get to create and share however you want, you can be creative in your own space, and no one can tell you otherwise. Your content is your own, and it can be around for long after you may be gone, or waiting for you when you return, it can be your time well spent in Second Life, and even a timeline of content that you yourself want to refer back to, or just remember in your old age. We want to see more of you, and I hope that you will pick up this challenge and share with others why it is that you Blog, and that it may encourage others to maybe do the same.

I think I just made a new Sasy post length record…sorry not sorry.

I am tagging other Bloggers I hope will do this challenge, but we want as many Bloggers as possible to do it.

Gillian Waldman of DeuxLooks
Artifex Voxel of Artifex Silence
Sydd Sinister of Sydd Sinister
Gidge Uriza of It’s Only Fashion

Questions:

• When did you start your Second Life Blog?I was collaboration blogging on “Appearance Mode” from 2006 to 2007. Then that blog was closed, and I branched out on my own. Unfortunately, when they closed that blog, I was not given the chance to retrieve my posts, so everything was lost, posts and pictures.Why did you start Blogging in Second Life?

  I wanted to contribute somehow to Second Life. I couldn’t build or create anything at that time, but I could work as I was already doing, and I could be the person who brought readers/customers together with content creators/stores. I spent hours each day finding hidden places, exploring dozens of regions to find some hole-in-the-wall type store and post about it. I wanted to be able to share my discoveries with people who might be interested in the same things but who might have less time to spend searching for them.

• Do you feel the Blogging community in Second Life has changed since you started Blogging, and if so, in what ways?
  The early Second Life blogging community was small and tightly knit. We collaborated on blogs, shared information, and supported each other. We became the go-to resource for fashion, tips, and news. We helped launch new brands and were instrumental in educating our readers about new concepts. While the community has grown and evolved, the core values of collaboration and support persist in many.
• Do you think that Bloggers have a positive impact on Second Life culture and community, and if so, do you have any stories about that?
  Definitely, in many ways. I have posted in the past that a lot of the functionality of Second Life and how things are marketed relies heavily on tools and ideas that started with bloggers and blogging. All the feeds were run solely by bloggers, and IheartSL is still the oldest running feed. We have been promoters, beta testers, idea people, event coordinators, and many other facets of the Second Life community, we have also often become Store Managers and Blogger Managers based off of the relationships formed with store owners.

  It is bloggers who first started to use Flickr to embed their images for their blogs. It is bloggers who were also the first to create groups on Flickr, and even many of the original store groups were created by Bloggers so that they had a group to post that particular store’s content. Bloggers also marketed themselves while featuring content, and because of this, they were often the first to join social media platforms to share that content and make that the way marketing was carried further than it had previously. Originally, most stores did their advertising by putting the item in their store and sending out a notice. They didn’t have subscribers or other avenues for promotion; it was store groups and Bloggers… and Bloggers led the way to more outside promoting.

• Are you approachable as a Blogger by content creators that may have interest in you as a Blogger for their Brand/Store?
  – if you have review policies etc. feel free to include them.
  Yes, in the olden days, that is how it was done. A designer would IM or notecard us personally and ask to be considered as a store we might wish to blog about. I loved that, and still do love that, because it was showing that you were seen. Stores are always seen now; they don’t have that “hole in the wall, have to find them down an alley” sort of Second Life now. So if a store owner sees you as a blogger and thinks that you will be a good fit for them and what they want to project as a brand, that is a fantastic moment.
• Do you have any tips or tricks that help you with the Blogging process that you would like to share?

  I tend to do tutorials whenever I can for tips and tricks, but I will say that knowing your Second Life and how it functions overall is very powerful as a blogger. There are many times while doing what we do that an issue can arise or something is not quite right. Knowing the difference between a Second Life issue and a product issue is very important. Also, knowing how important it is to let a designer know if anything seems off is crucial. Thinking that someone else will let them know, or that it is not your place to tell them, is not beneficial to anyone, especially yourself.

  Understanding how an item you are featuring works is also very important, because if you do not look under the hood, then you cannot show it in its best light.
  As far as tools I would not be able to blog without, the VR Studio by VR Foundry is used for everything, it is the posestand/studio system that I use for everything, whether at my studio or on location as it has the ability to pose me off the stand also, and shows me clearly the pose and store I am using for crediting. If a facial change is needed for any post, to give more of a look to the picture, I use the Lelutka Axis HUD, so both of these HUDs are on my screen most of the time.

• Have you yourself ever benefited from another Blogger’s post, such as learning a new skill for Blogging, or Second Life functions that you may not have known about?
  – if yes, please share their Name and Blog url.
  Absolutely, we have all been able to grow en masse as bloggers and even creators due to blog posts that had that little nugget of information we may not have known about. Even if you do not put those exact things into action yourself, seeing how others do things helps us provide help for others or simply adds to our repertoire of knowledge. I remember reading in 2006 about using shift-drag to make a replicate of a prim, and then passing that knowledge on to a creator who, up until that time, had been rezzing a new prim each time he needed another piece for his work. It changed his whole Second Life. I remember Anya Ohmai breaking the grid when she posted about how she sorted her inventory; that post still comes up in conversations even now. Unfortunately, her blog from then is gone, which is something horrible – please never delete your blogs, because they have longevity.
• What kind of Blogs appeal to you as a reader, and what would you like to see more of in the Second Life Blogging world?

  I read a fair few blogs. I like the blogs by bloggers who cover information about Second Life itself, like Daniel Voyager and Inara Pey. I like to know what is going on in our world. I read through the IheartSL feed so that I can see many blog posts in one location, and if I see a particular image that I like on Flickr and they link to a blog, then off I go, excited about the prospect of their writing.

  I like posts that include the experience and not only credits of items worn. I want to know why people pair up items, or experience through them the world we are all part of. I love blogs that make me feel not only connected with the items, locations, and information shared but also with the person sharing it. I like to feel that in that moment they are sharing those things with me.

  I also want to see more languages. I do not want my ability to read only English to be a reason not to experience those things. Blogs have an awesome ability for translation, and I have had conversations with many bloggers over the years who were hesitant to write in their non-native language. I have told them this: “If someone else out there only understands your language, don’t you want them to have you showing them the way through Second Life?” A past blogger, Ana Lutetia, used to blog in her own language and in English. She had a huge following because of that; people even joined Second Life because there was suddenly content out there in their language that made it inviting. I think the same about all languages: that if you write in your own, then you could be making a connection that someone needs in that moment. Someone who feels a little safer here because you are out there guiding them. Another example of great coverage in your own language is Novata, who vlogs Second Life on YouTube.

• Do you Blog content that you yourself would wear/use always, or do you blog content that is expected of you to blog due to commitments to stores/events?
  I have shopped a lot in the many years here; my inventory is over 470K, and I have deleted a lot more. I only blog items that I would wear, but that can actually factor in ‘if I was male or a furry, or a doll or a hamster’ because at some point I have been many of those things. I do not blog items that I do not feel actual passion for, but that can also mean that I blog things that I feel are important to see by others. I am odd, but my blog has always been, as stated, a way of connecting reader/customer with store/creators. So if I see something that is not already everywhere and known, and I have the opportunity to feature it, I have done so. I am not going to go out of my way or waste my time blogging content that I have zero interest in, and I am not into being forced into posting multiple items in one post, because then I am not styling me, they are, and I do not need to blog anything that much that I would change who I am for something that I can buy for a dollar.
• Do you feel that imposed time limits, and a set amount of content featured changes the way you blog content, and does it feel less authentically you?

  I think that a lot of that is a bad marketing decision. I have worked, as mentioned, since day two of being here, for many Brands, and I have managed Bloggers, directly and indirectly. I work in stealth mode in most cases. I have no issue with an expectation that an item is Blogged if taken in a realistic amount of time. If the item is provided in a way that means you are taking it and that is recorded, but that time is, and should be, factored by when taken, not when presented and to a schedule based on an event.

  I have always said, and have been quoted as saying by others, ‘Everything old is new to someone’. I fully believe that. If an event has Bloggers, and then the store itself has Bloggers, all that is happening is a whole lot of everyone wearing the same item to the same party… NO ONE WANTS THAT. It not only makes blogs, feeds, social media, Flickr and the like boring as hell, it removes any belief in the integrity of the Bloggers. A Blogger taking an item to post on 5 months after its release is still giving it attention, and probably more so.

  Customers are definitely not stupid; since stores started posting Blogger Searches publicly and not doing so in private, everyone was exposed to the rules and guidelines put forth by the stores. This means that customers are seeing the strict rules that also say blog this item by this date. Readers/customers would look to Bloggers for guidance on their purchases, look to them for their style and choices they make, to see what they put together and in some cases why. Bloggers built those relationships with their followers, whether silent or spoken, that trust was there, but the rules that say Bloggers are only wearing it to get it, and must toe the line or else, destroys all of that. Even if a Blogger not in a store group was to blog the item because they purchased it and loved it, it doesn’t matter now, because customers will just think they were made to do so; it takes us all down.

  I am lucky to be in a few groups that have no limitations on me like that; I have built those relationships over many years. I am not interested in taking to not blog, so that trust is there for me not to run off with everything for nothing. I even visit the stores and demo everything before I take, so that I am sure it will be something I can use. I wear items that are years old with items that are hours old, and it is awesome. I am not interested in applying for stores that impose the big rules; that does not mean I would not still Blog their items if I buy them, it just means you are not the boss of me or my Blog. So yes, if I was to start doing that, I would have to pack it in. I have applied for a few that have rules, but those rules worked for me, because in most cases I was doing that many posts on their content anyway. I do so love the search function on Blogs, because when someone says ‘show me a past post with our items’, I can post a URL that shows I have often many, many pages featuring them.

   

• Do you use Social Media, and/or other platforms outside of your Blog/Website to promote the content you have shared?– please list your links so that others can perhaps follow you in other locations.
  Always, as stated before Bloggers have always gone the extra mile, because promoting our content promotes us as well as the brands we blog. I share the blog link in all those platforms every post.
  Blog
  Flickr
  Facebook
  Instagram
  Twitter/X
  Plurk
  Tumblr
  BlueSky
  Primfeed
• Do you pay for any aspect of your blogging other than the clothing or items in your images, such as Website Hosting, Photoshop etc?
  – please list the things that you spend money on so that you can function as a Blogger.
  – Photoshop Creative Cloud – Annually since 2007
  – Flickr Pro – Annually since 2007
  – Webhosting – Annually
  – Domain Registration – Annually
  – Blue Yeti Microphone system – one time payment
  – Logitech Macro G13 board – one time payment
  – Camtasia system – One time payment
  – Premium SL Account Tier for Land – Usually you need land for studio space – Lifetime Premium Plus now but Annually since 2006
  – Wacom Tablet – Not needed, but one gets excited and one shops.
  – High end computer and two very large Monitors – it is very hard to do as much as is needed without good machines, those that manage that I give big snaps to.
  – Red Bull should also get some sort of credit for my ability to function.
• Do you think that Stores/Content Creators should have a Website/Blog for their Brand?
  – please expand on your answer if you have reasons why.
  
  Yes, I do. There is much more that can be gained by stores having their own websites; again, back to the limitations that platforms like Flickr put on them, their own hosted blog has the ability to upload their content without any restrictions other than its own terms of service. If an item needs a notecard, that information can be provided much better on a blog; it can be enlarged, highlighted, and even translated. If there is a tutorial available, it has more longevity being searchable on a blog than a one-time post on social media that is gone almost as fast as it appeared. They can post WIP images, they can post information about the functionality of a product, they can notify people of updates, link to all social media, and provide a clickable SLurl to their locations in-world and on the marketplace. It should be the foundation of all their marketing, and then that information shared through other platforms but bringing them back to you. It can be something customers share across conversations, group chats, or public forums, because someone asking about an item may need to be directed to more information. It is something that can also be delegated; if you have a Blogger Manager or a Store Manager, that is someone who can keep the store’s blog up to date.
• Do you have any suggestions for Content Creators/Stores to consider, when it comes to their Bloggers, and Bloggers that they may want to have Blog for them?
  

  When it comes to blogger searches and applications, educate yourselves about what is happening in that world, and ensure your blogger manager does the same. Numbers and statistics are often misleading.

  Firstly, if a Blogger has a blog, you lack data on their reach. You do not know how many daily views they receive, nor how many subscribers they have unless it is publicly displayed. You have no information about how many platforms they distribute their content to, meaning potentially thousands of views might not be registered on their site but on external feeds. Then consider Flickr’s issues: account losses, and so on. While many of these losses result from terms of service violations, it is crucial to recognise that Flickr’s backend changes have significantly impacted view and favourite counts compared to the past. This is essential to remember when setting targeted view or favourite requirements for blogger selection; it is a lazy approach. 

  A Blogger might have 5,000 views and 485 favourites per image, but if the favourites are from non-shoppers or the views are from irrelevant groups, does it benefit you? Requiring Bloggers to join a specific number of groups is also absurd. Flickr users create groups, not the platform itself. Demanding 100 group adds allows Bloggers to easily circumvent the rule by creating their own groups – I have nothing to say this happens, but it could, there are only that many groups in existence because people kept making groups that were already available.

  Additionally, if a Blogger shares content across multiple platforms, view counts multiply. Unless viewers explicitly like or favourite the content, you cannot track this data. Yet, this widely shared Blogger could be responsible for half your daily sales. Understand this: analyse the Blogger’s engagement; who comments and favourites their content? Are interactions genuine or merely reciprocal favours?

  Crucially, if you have hired someone to manage this, ensure they prioritise your store’s interests. If they work with multiple brands, confirm they handle yours independently. Personal biases should never influence decisions. Passing on a potentially beneficial Blogger due to personal reasons is unacceptable. Similarly, adding unqualified Bloggers based on personal connections is detrimental. As the brand owner, maintain oversight. You do not need to do all the work, but be prepared to intervene if necessary.

• Do you have any advice that you can give other Bloggers that may be new to the experience, or even advice/wisdom that you want to share with the Blogging community as a whole, new or old?
  
  To blog for yourself first and foremost, to have no expectation of content to come your way – if you are even imagining yourself as a content blogger, you might decide to blog rocks in pretty places all over Second Life (now I want to do that). Your blog is for you first, and others second; it is your timeline and existence in this virtual world. It will support you through many challenges; it will inspire you and possibly bring you way down at times – hugs – it will motivate you and educate you. I started blogging using Paint, and now I can use most editing software and create content; all of that grew from blogging. Do not take rejection harder than it needs to be… if you apply for anything, do so with the understanding that no one owes you anything, you are one amongst many, and you cannot control the outcome in any way other than just being the best you you can be. If they do not see you now, they may see you in the future, but they may also just be blinded by how fantastic you are… make connections with people, readers, creators, residents of all kinds; do not look back at your time in Second Life and realise that you spent way too much time on a posestand alone, no fatpack is worth that. Occasionally step back and away from it all and remind yourself why you do it in the first place, and then if you still want to do it, go forth and rule the world. I have no doubt you can ♥
• Do you have suggestions for which Blogging Platform to use, and why you chose it over others?
  – WordPress, Blogspot, Wix, Tumblr, etc.
  
  I use WordPress, it has been good to me for a long time – until today when I lost the original of this whole post and had to redo it, seriously such a huge mishap on a post about blogging is hilarious.
• What do you enjoy and are most passionate about when it comes to Blogging?
  Everything! was that not already clear? I love and enjoy knowing that nearly everything around us, on us and ahead of us started with a cube. I love watching stores start out and grow, not only with their content but just overall as Creators. I love sharing them with people that enjoy my Blog, and adore connecting the two sides through Blogging. I get as much of a thrill hearing one person say they liked something I said or posted about in a Blog, than if a hundred said so – but a hundred is awesome too. I love when I get to ramble on and no one can stop me – Gogo has tried a dozen or so times so far this post, because I talk too much and she thinks I need to keep it brief, as I told her…NOPE!  I am so honored to have been able to be part of this community for 18+ years, and I am so blessed to have met some incredible people that often I get to call Friends.