I have been writing and publishing original articles on my blog site, Music Photo Life since 2006. My site has enough traffic to attract brands and agencies to reach out to me and request for product reviews. It’s a double-edged sword really, especially with the growing attention to content creators. If your site is not popular, you will not get access to products from brands, but if your site is hugely popular, you will get incentives to write for income.
Content creators and content readers both contribute to the ecosystem of consumerism, and I can mean both consuming the content that is published and consuming the product that is reviewed. They all contribute to the growing economy, encourage spending, but more importantly to me, advocate informed spending. They are smarter in being skeptical about reading reviews, but are also dependent on search engines to provide recommendations. So the function of articles is less so about giving positive reviews, but more on raising awareness that such a product is available, putting them on top of the search results (of course it would help if there are positive reviews that will convince purchases).
So essentially, my website is a tool for these brands to make their products searchable on the web. People don’t read as much as before, they watch more videos, but I don’t like to create videos. So, while my visit traffic will never be as high as other content creators on TikTok or IG or YouTube, I continue to enjoy writing, a process of putting my experience into words and sharing to anyone with access to the Internet. I spend time testing products and I spend time writing them (no AI). Then people read them, get some knowledge, and decide whether to buy.
In 2024 alone, I published 46 articles, not a lot in comparison to some years. What keeps me blogging? It’s not about making money or gaining traffic. It’s really about the fun of trying new products without spending money. Since there is no free lunch, I have to write an article after trying out the products.
Readers might wonder whether product sponsorships affect the review outcome. It all depends on the integrity and the trustworthiness of the writer. I always believe that every product is designed for a type of consumer. No one wants to make a product that no one wants to buy. A normal-sounding headphones will still be popular because of the design, the features, or for gifting.
I have stopped mentioning which products I review are free to keep or “sponsored”, because I think the word is misleading. So, imagine I write about a product and I mention it is “sponsored”, you will probably think my opinions are not truthful. But if I truly stand by my opinion, then I do not see the reason why I should mislead my readers by saying it’s “sponsored” when my opinions are truthful regardless of the benefits I get from the brand. On the other hand, if I am “forced” to write positively about a product, I probably would want to shout that this review is “sponsored” so that you know that I have certain benefits to influence what I write, that is, I’m paid to say good things.
This is also a big reason why I don’t like to regurgitate the marketing terms that are skillfully crafted to make a product sound better than it is. I like to discuss about the tangible and functional aspects. I enjoy photographing these new products, describing the good and bad of the materials, the functions that works for me and doesn’t. I no longer cover 100% of the product features, because other professional review sites will drill into the technicalities. The Internet is massive, don’t be lazy, read more articles and watch more videos before concluding if a product is good or bad. Don’t rely only on one reviewer. Research. Research. Research.
This year, my blog faced two scares. One was that my hosted server accidentally used an outdated copy of the database, causing me to lose a few articles. Fortunately, I did regular backups myself and so I restored my database. To think that my life’s work is all down to a small SQL database.
The second scare was that I found out my website was duplicated in its entirety and hosted in a different website. The audacity! I am impressed with how the thief can copy everything including the theme, which I never thought was possible. But truth is, web scraping is not difficult to accomplish, just like ripping songs or movies. So the truth is, anything that is published on the public platform can be copied. While I cannot stop my content from being copied, all I hope is that the stealer can attribute the content to me, albeit wishful thinking. So, somewhere in the online universe, someone could be publishing my original content and call it his own, establishing as a “trusted reviewer”. But eventually, truth will come to light, just like how I somehow found this “fake copy” of my musicphotolife site. Anyway, the site is now taken down after I blocked the IP and applied some additional preventive measures to make scraping a little less convenient.
Here’s to another new year 2025 of rewarding life, appreciative joy, and more fun products to review!