February introduces Caroline May Ling, a perky young blogger who is passionate about sharing her life stories; which mainly encompass food, travel, beauty, and fashion, with her readers.
1. How did you first get into blogging? Did the idea came out of the blue, or did it come after a thoughtful consideration? Was there a blogger who inspired you to start your blog?
Thanks to my primary 6 school teacher, I learned how to write a diary and I used have one for every year until I found out that my family member secretly read it. And then, thanks to best friend when I was form 3, I discover a thing they call “blog”. Some of my friends were on xanga and then moved to blogspot which is now renamed to Blogger.
2. How can you describe your blogging style with regards to your content?
My blog is a lifestyle blog and I write about all things including personal stuff, travel, food, fashion, beauty, etc. I think blogging style is quite subjective, for example, I personally know my audience wouldn’t click in to read when they already know it’s an advertorial from the title itself. Hence, I always trying my best to make it more personal or at least related to my life in some way. But that may not work for other blog portals out there since their audience would be different than mine.
3. What was your greatest failure in blogging and what did you learn from that? On the contrary, what was your biggest achievement? How did it affect how you are now?
Every blogger dreams of working with brands they love, so am I. I used to have that FOMO (fear of missing out) feeling when I didn’t get selected for certain campaigns; I also used to tell myself that perhaps I wasn’t good enough compare to others. When I actually in the industry long enough, I realized that it’s not really the case, it actually affected by various factors and one of them simply because your audience is not the brand’s target market (eg. probably you are too young for a brand that wish to promote for their latest anti-aging skincare products).
My biggest achievement would be the day I get my first travel sponsorship. From now and then, I am glad that I am given the opportunity to fly out oversea to visit some of the cool places and get to experience a lot fancy stuff as well as for so many pinch-me moments along the journey.
4. What do you think is the best thing a blogger can give to his / her readers?
I think most of the people would say something like sharing valuable information or spread positivity around. Those are totally right, but I would say just be yourself. The best thing I can give to my readers is my honest self whether it is a review or a personal experience. Readers want sincerity and genuine opinions in order to help them understand certain things betters or even to be entertained.
5. How do you keep generating material / content for your blog?
I have this section for Blogging Ideas in my planner and I would normally write in some topics ideas that I can write on my blog. Also, I love reading blogs too! Especially blogs like Zoella (zoella.co.uk), Tanya Burr (tanyaburr.co.uk) and Victoria (inthefrow.com). These are some of the bloggers out there that actually makes me realise it’s important to have good contents, good quality photos as well as nice blog layout to ease the reader to read your blog.
6. What has been your strategy for creating visibility to your blog?
For now, I don’t really have any specific strategy for creating visibility for my blog. Basically I only share them on my social media accounts like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I always felt that good content will helps you generate the visibility needed as long as I post them to the right channel with the most people around.
7. What are some of the common reactions you would get when you mention that you are a blogger? Are there any misconceptions about blogging that you want to rectify?
Honestly, I never really tell my friends that I am a blogger. haha! But yea, people would think that it’s nice to be a blogger because you get sponsored with stuff and lots of freebies. To speak on behalf of some of the great bloggers out there who would actually take their time to plan for content, invest in expensive camera to produce high quality photos and spend hours to complete a blogpost - yes we get sponsored with products, trips, dine in fancy restaurants, etc - but not every brand actually pays in terms of monetary and those doesn’t pay our bills. Most importantly, most of us don’t do blogging full time, we still have a proper job to pay our bills.
8. What would you say is the greatest satisfaction derived from blogging?
When you get recognition for your content and when received emails from readers telling you how they really glad that they found your blog and that they are able to get the information they looking for.
9. Do you have any specific goals for your blog?
I do not have any specific goals for my blog nor planning to turn it into a blog portal, but it’s good to see how my blog audience grows throughout the years. :D
10. How has your blog evolved through the years, and where do you see it evolving to in the future?
My blog used to be a space for me to write anything I want and slowly has a number of audience which also means I can no longer write all things personal like how I used to back then. Since I don’t really plan to turn my blog into a “brand”, I am just hoping to be able to write something I enjoy writing and my audience like to read, and hopefully able to share all the valuable information with them.
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