It's 'Friend Friday' time again folks and this week Katy questions our motives…!

1. What's your main purpose in blogging?

Very good question, and a hard one to answer. The first blog I started was a branded blog for Stylesmith which had a definitive purpose and initially Dedicated began as an extension of that. I'd enjoyed writing again and finding my voice, it turned out I had a lot to say. I wanted a site dedicated (ha ha) to fashion, and I wanted it to be a magazine format. Now it's become pretty much a full time job. I devote my time to writing original content and educating myself on the technological side of things. So my main purpose is very much that of a magazine (or the BBC – ha!) To educate, inform and entertain.

2. Do you think bloggers should receive monetary compensation for their efforts?

I think it really depends on why you're blogging and if you really want to be. Personally I do think bloggers, not should, but could be compensated for what they do. It comes down to personal choice and whether that's a goal for you. I would certainly like to get to a position in which doing this full time became a real paying job.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the perks, and the freebies, but mascara and jeans do not pay the bills and when I work 30 hours a week on something, even if I love it (because lets face it I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't love it) it would be nice to be financially rewarded. To be clear though, my intention is never to charge to read the blog.

I just don't understand the disconnect some people have between doing something you love and getting paid for it. You can actually have your cake and eat it you know….and honestly what's the point in having cake if you can't eat it?

To summarize (yeah this has gone to stream of consciousness, I'm aware) the beauty of the blogging is the freedom. You want to write for fun and have no career motivations, then that's great for you. You want to get paid for what you do and more importantly, what you're worth, more power to you. It's too easy for bloggers to be taken for a ride as we're all still learning out boundaries, but I do believe in standing up for what you're worth… and what you're worth can be decided by you and only you.

I could honestly talk about this for days and I understand this isn't supposed to be an elaborate Q&A, so perhaps I'll talk about this in more detail in another post at some point.

3. What do you find the most frustrating aspect of
blogging?

Mainly that it's very hard to gauge when you're doing something right or not, I find myself over analyzing every aspect of my Google Analytics, comments, everything. It gets frustrating to have no definitive way of gauging success. But my hits keep climbing so that's always nice.

4. What's the most rewarding part?

The community. I've met some amazing folks in the past year, it's a fabulous group of people and wonderful to be a part of a relatively new movement.

5. What is one goal you have for improving your blog?

Well, without giving anything away, we've just launched DFOF TV so we'll definitely be broadening our horizons with that, something I'm very excited about. Other than that, there'll be a few changes in the next few months but I'm quite secretive about my plans…ha!

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Thanks to Katy from Modly Chic for providing this weeks 'Friend Friday' questions, I'll be back with more in two weeks as I'll away next Friday.

Kelsi Smith.