I've written a range of blogging posts, but there are some things that annoy me on a daily basis. Things that I can't get out of my head or things that I see over on social media that really grind my gears. I thought to myself 'why not just write a post'. Here we are, so I'm discussing what really annoys bloggers and how these situations can be avoided. A few other bloggers have also put their thoughts into this post, so make sure to check out their links too.

Asking them to regram a photo for a 'chance' to become an ambassador.

This annoys me for a few reasons. First of all, if you need an ambassador then you should search for one that will benefit your company, ask them if they want to be an ambassador then go from there. Secondly, it's so clear that you're just using this method to advertise your brand, but if I see these photos on Instagram then you've made me totally lose respect for you. Finally, you get new blogger's hopes up and it's really not fair. To be an ambassador for a brand it should benefit you both in terms of advertising and content. Note to brands, please don't do this.

Asking for 50k followers to review one item when the product value is low.

This is a tricky one since brands work with bloggers in multiple ways. If you're a new brand, with low-value products but you want to get your word across, please don't advertise that you want people with a ridiculous amount of followers to review your products. Chances are, if you have 50,000 followers then brands will be offering paid reviews your way, and it wouldn't benefit the blogger to review a low-value item if it wasn't unique or in line with their content. Brands who fit this description are much better off asking a few smaller bloggers to review items and then collabs will be mutually beneficial.

Asking for YouTube reviews to bloggers who don't have YouTube. 

Massive bugbear. There are three types of influencer in my opinion. 1) people with just written content so bloggers or Instagram influencers etc, 2) people with just video content, and 3) people with both. It is vital that you do your research on who you want to work with, so don't ask someone in category 1 to create video content if they don't already provide videos. I fall into category three, as I have a travel YouTube channel. This means that although I provide written content for beauty products, it does not mean that I will do a sit-down video for a product when my video content is in vlog format that doesn't feature very much of myself, let alone my voice. If you want written content ask bloggers, and if you're looking for video content, ask YouTubers.

Asking for extras to be added to posts after it has gone live.

There is a grey area when it comes to blogging, and that is the law. Now I'm only going to touch on this subject but from having a law degree myself, I feel fairly confident that I can speak a little about this. Some dispute whether collaborations actually form contracts. There are essentially three things that make a contract up: agreement, intention and consideration. Two parties agreeing to a review campaign consists of one party making an offer i.e. emailing you to say they'd like you to review an item. You then accept the offer (over email for example) if it suits you, based upon all terms they have laid out such as must include 2 photos or must include the full name of the product. Consideration is something of value, say receiving the product and keeping it in return for the review, or being paid to review something, the payment is the consideration. 
Now for intention (to create legal relations). If a company sends you a contract to sign and you do sign it, there is intention there. Now I'm not saying that without a formal contract there are no legal relations, but a court would have to decide whether your collaboration forms a contract if something went wrong. I hear you say 'but why would we go to court' and I know for the most part blog collabs don't end up there, but in all seriousness, they could. Treat every collaboration like it's a matter of law and agree with all terms before a product is sent out to you. If you post your review and a brand asks you to add a link in, that's a term that should have previously agreed, so in the blogging world I wouldn't say you have to do it, but you could either as 1, a gesture of kindness or 2, ask them to pay for a no-follow link.

Asking bloggers to post content on their website for nothing.

If you own a website, then someone has to do the written work. That person will be paid to write that content, so when people ask bloggers to write content for their website then surely they should be paid too. Some people don't think so, but what benefits could come from this? If they have a higher domain authority than you and they add your link in then there will be a short-term benefit there. Aside from that, I can see no benefit from you taking time out of your day to write quality content that may as well just go on your blog.

Asking for follow-links.

This is possibly the thing that annoys me most and was suggested by Paige. I've written about this in more depth over on this article but brands need to be clear about what they want. They need to read blogger's Work With Me pages to determine whether they accept follow links or not. For the bloggers who don't want to be penalised, we include no-follow links only. Don't ask bloggers to add a follow link, or more so try to offer money to do something frowned upon which to me seems like a bribe.


Asking if they can post their own content on your blog for nothing in return. 

Rosie suggested this one, and I've seen a lot of it online. This has been seen with both brands and other bloggers, asking if they can publish their content on your blog so that you have an extra blog post. What some people don't realise is, bloggers love writing their own content. Unless you ask yourself for a guest piece, we don't tend to offer it. Brands try to wiggle around this by saying it's just a guest post when in reality it's content that would have to be paid for, therefore if you accept it's 'free advertising'. I actually saw on Facebook the other day, someone asking for payment to host your guest post like it was a huge favour to you. 

Asking for reviews but you have to put your own money into it.

This is something that annoyed Justine and many other bloggers. If you want someone to review a product for you, then them keeping the product is payment in return for the content. Asking for a blogger to pay for a product to then review it for them is a huge no. If someone wanted to review the product out of their own pocket anyway, then that's fine. But requesting them to part with their money to provide a service is not only disrespectful but it shows us that you don't value our work. There's a difference between offering a big discount for bloggers in return for a review and then emailing with an opportunity then adding it in later that they need to be the ones coughing up the money.