There is a trick I use in this article: writing in English provides me more courage to be more open adressing some issues about blogging that are both personal and professional. Some scary, some sad and some kind of private and self-defecating.
To a Romanian audience, articles about blogging written in English seem more insightful and trusful. If a I use some references too and start dropping names, I might gain an aura of authority.

They say blogging is about influencing your audience and leveraging this skill to make money.
Is not about self-discovery, forget it.

It’s not about making good art and improving your creative abilities. It is about having campaign ideas, to roll projects and attending sponsored events where the years are passing by and they talk the same shit over and over again.

Blogging is about projecting self confidence and authority. Be cocky, speak loud and make definitive statements. Don’t be vulnerable, it’s a tough world out there full of sharks ready to trace the blood to your hesitant heart, to your emo insecurities, to your genuine wonder, to your whispering words between the lines.

It is not about meeting interesting people. It’s about networking with benefits. It’s back-patting with the same old clique.

It is not about encouragement. It is about critique and more than that it’s all about criticism. It used to be about love, helping strangers, raising money for good causes, but now you have to take your time to fight the hate.
It’s not about searching new blogs to read and recommend them to others. It’s more about searching yourself to find the blogs you get bashed on.

Some people are really hurt when you have a car on a weekend test drive. Viscerally hurt. Why you and not them? Why you and not some other dude? Why? Maybe you fucked a PR babe who hooked you up with a car brand. Maybe you kissed some asses. Who knows?

There is not a particular day when you start to loose your passion. It’s like that boiling frog story. You don’t feel the water boiling until it is too late. Late meaning losing confidence, losing your readers trust, not being invited to speak at your industry events, losing the cash cow, feeling like an impostor and most important losing my passion to write and meeting new people.

Now you have to think about crisis management when our reputation is being tarnished, when people are lying about you, when you see your name getting hashtagged.

I am trying not to be a hypocrite. I like to make money writting on my blog, but I missed my passion about writting while I was too busy making money and selling myself.
New banners, new sponsored post and trips, new concert tickets, products to test and cars to drive. Movies premieres and launching parties. Boxes full of corporate gifts you supposed to brag about on Facebook. Paying the gift.
“Look, I am important, they are sending me gifts. Look, I am a good person, I thanked them publicly. And guess what? Totally by coincidence, just as it happened, it’s a damn good product.”

Way to many days I spent thinking how to please an agency who sent me a gift. To write something about that gift. To be funny, to be creative, to come up with something new and different. It is not coming for free, you know, you have to give something back.

They say I do need a niche, but I am my own niche and I am the best at being me in the whole world. Maybe there is a Chinese or an Indian who can beat me too, but other than that I am pretty much better at being myself than anybody else.

They say blogging is about reputation, it about building a personal brand. Blogging is not about building a character. You don’t have to worry about who you are, you need to worry about the way others may see you.

Blogging is about performance. More traffic, more engagement, more money. It’s not about self-improvement, it’s not about becoming a better person.
It is not about who you are, it’s about who they think you are.
It is not about chasing a dream and it’s more about chasing the paper.

When and why blogging has become a zero-sum game?