Some readers emailed* to ask about the little banner I added to the side bar, so here it is in full size and with a little explanation.
The blogsphere is not exactly an exclusive club. Everyone, their mother-in-law and her hamster (no disrespect to hamsters) can blog. The internet is big enough for everyone, and as long as they don't do anything illegal (like stealing my content and trying to make money out of it- those are known as "splogs"), nobody cares.
I have no problem with official company blogs- those have their place and when you read them you don't need to guess who's behind it. They often give valuable information about the company, the way it works, and have well-written original content with full disclosure. The same goes for blogs of independent artists and artisans who write about their creative process and the making of their products. There are actually a few of those in my blogroll. They are awesome people and great bloggers. I also want to make it clear that I'm not talking about blogs that sell ads. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and most of my friends do it. It helps somewhat in covering the costs of maintaining a blog.
The thing I can't stand is being grouped as a blogger with those who sell posts, push products and get a cut of sales that are made through their "reviews". Featuring nothing but regurgitated press releases is also not blogging and presenting that as original content or worse, a review, is even uglier.
All I wish is for a better way to distinguish real blogs from commercial websites, especially since some of them are run by former bloggers, who now serve another interest and should be viewed as such. This is why I make it a point to label The Non-Blonde as a real beauty blog, independent, unaffiliated, non-commercial, featuring nothing but original content and honest reviews.
If you're a blogger who wishes to identify yourself as such, feel free to take the button and put it on your site. If you need to change the title and wording (to fashion, perfume or anything else, let me know and I'll send you the appropriate file.
For more information about my blogging guidelines you can read the FAQs.
The original picture I used by Erwin Blumenfeld appeared in Vogue in the 50s (taken from myvintagevogue.com). The photo editing and butchering is mine.
*I'm criminally behind on replying to emails. Hopefully this will be remedied in the next few days.
The blogsphere is not exactly an exclusive club. Everyone, their mother-in-law and her hamster (no disrespect to hamsters) can blog. The internet is big enough for everyone, and as long as they don't do anything illegal (like stealing my content and trying to make money out of it- those are known as "splogs"), nobody cares.
I have no problem with official company blogs- those have their place and when you read them you don't need to guess who's behind it. They often give valuable information about the company, the way it works, and have well-written original content with full disclosure. The same goes for blogs of independent artists and artisans who write about their creative process and the making of their products. There are actually a few of those in my blogroll. They are awesome people and great bloggers. I also want to make it clear that I'm not talking about blogs that sell ads. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and most of my friends do it. It helps somewhat in covering the costs of maintaining a blog.
The thing I can't stand is being grouped as a blogger with those who sell posts, push products and get a cut of sales that are made through their "reviews". Featuring nothing but regurgitated press releases is also not blogging and presenting that as original content or worse, a review, is even uglier.
All I wish is for a better way to distinguish real blogs from commercial websites, especially since some of them are run by former bloggers, who now serve another interest and should be viewed as such. This is why I make it a point to label The Non-Blonde as a real beauty blog, independent, unaffiliated, non-commercial, featuring nothing but original content and honest reviews.
If you're a blogger who wishes to identify yourself as such, feel free to take the button and put it on your site. If you need to change the title and wording (to fashion, perfume or anything else, let me know and I'll send you the appropriate file.
For more information about my blogging guidelines you can read the FAQs.
The original picture I used by Erwin Blumenfeld appeared in Vogue in the 50s (taken from myvintagevogue.com). The photo editing and butchering is mine.
*I'm criminally behind on replying to emails. Hopefully this will be remedied in the next few days.
