Olfactoria's Travels

In the last few days my personal state of bliss of recently having started my own perfume blog, gaining a few readers and forging cyberfriendships through Twitter and other blogs, was a little bruised by discussions flaring up around the perfume community about the proliferation of blogs and other venues where discourse over fragrance and perfume takes place. Apparently, there is a feeling that some venerable older bloggers may perceive that too great a variety of new blogs with too little value on credentials is taking hold.

Getting on the soapbox

This made me a little sad and I felt almost discouraged, but then I picked myself up and started to think about why I blogged and what this site means to me, not considering anything else for the moment.

I am no perfume critic, no perfume expert, no perfumer, no chemist, no journalist, no writer, in fact I have no ties to the industry whatsoever.

I love perfume. I love fragrance of any kind and I have a nose of my own, as well as a brain and a heart and I tend to strive to utilize all three of them to the best of their capacities. That I also like to write down what I smell, think and feel about perfume is another thing. The writing part is new, the other three I’ve been practicing for some time. And you know what? I love the writing part. I enjoy putting my humble ideas out there and I absolutely adore getting feedback from like minded people. Until starting the blog, perfume was something of a semi-secret obsession, I did not talk about it, I did not discuss it, I just smelled really good 😉

So what if there are many fragrance blogs (and millions of other blogs on pretty much any theme conceivable) out there?

A professor of mine always said “Everybody finds his audience” and that I find to be true, also in this case.

The people who read my blog are not under the impression that I am an expert, I think they can see that I am just a regular person with a passion for perfume and a love for writing about it. I am not pretending to have unique insights into anything, but what I provide is my personal, reflected view, for anybody to take or leave as they see fit.

And isn’t that okay?

Of course the world of blogging is large and one can’t read everything, everywhere. One is bound to make decisions. Decisions based on personal preferences, nothing more, nothing less. That fact surely has changed over the last decade. But that is not something exclusive to perfume blogging, it is a fact having to do with the change in media and the increasing accessibility of the internet for many. But that is nothing new, and everyone knows this.

I don’t see a reason for anyone to feel threatened or encroached upon his/her territory. Cyberspace is limitless after all!

I don’t want to be involved in any kind of fight or dispute over anything. I hope nobody feels attacked by this post, since that is not at all my intention.

What is my intention here is stating clearly, that I blog because I love to do it, I will keep on doing it and I appreciate each and every reader that takes it upon her/himself to come visit, because what I have to say maybe just a little interesting or informative or helpful or funny in some way.

Blogging about perfume and interacting with people who like it just as much as I do, gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction, energy and joy.

That is why I blog.

And that is why I keep on smelling terrific.

Picture source: sodahead.com, fragrantica.com some rights reserved, thank you!