I'm not part of The Session, a monthly topic that a number of the beer bloggers that I follow partake in.
I find that editing my audio reviews and writing up my very short twitter-able baron ratings keeps me busy enough but reading this month's entries has driven me to write an entry myself.
Q: What drives me to blog & tweet about beer?
A: Friendship!
I met my beer review buddy Chris due to a common interest in ale and forged a good friendship with Paul & Matt from the excellent Source Deli due to my interest in trying new beers (and them stocking excellent new beers).
I've been invited on personal tours of breweries due to Twitter, been sent countless bottles of ales to try thanks to very generous brewers who I've met through running my blog.
I've travelled to twissups and beer festivals on my own safe in the knowledge that there will be people there who I know through talking about beer on the internet.
Not to mention the countless evenings where the Baroness is out for the evening and I've only got myself, a few bottles of ale and Twitter to keep me company - I can guarantee that a fun and engaging conversation is never far away.
The main reason that I blog and tweet about beer is due to the friendships that have been gained and are constantly being added to thanks to the wonderful beer community!
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| @Christopher_R & The Ormskirk Baron having a little Christmas party |
16 comments:
love the picture... I've heard that it's always Christmas at the Baron's castle
Well you can't move for beer bottle packaging...
Honestly though it does feel like Christmas on audio beer review night - you should join us for one some time?
No navel-gazing there, Baron - just good positive reasons. Some blogging analyses itself far too much. A bit like writing songs about writing songs ...
Could it be a desire to scam beer off breweries?
RedNev, cheers for the comment :)
Cooking Lager, how very dare you!
Surely a scam is when one side is ripped off when the other is being fraudulent?
In return for sending the beer the brewery gets an honest audio and written review. If a beer is crap then it gets a crap score. If it was just a scam to get free beer then all the reviews would be 7.5, the photo's would be out of focus and the reviews would be badly spelt.
Apologies for any spelling mistakes in above post. ;-)
It's a well done scam, convincing breweries that they ought to provide review samples to a review read by between 3 and 6 people because the internet is the future or summat. Nice work.
I'm sure the readership is between 10-20 but that might count for repeat viewings by one person
I've been blogging since March 2009 and have yet to be offered any freebies. Not complaining because that's not why I set up a blog in the first place.
Never feed the trolls! Advocacy is one of the biggest marketing tools going, the breweries know this, hence the odd freebie. Reviews should be cogent and literate in my opinion, keep up the good work Baron.
Thanks chaps for all the comments, freebies is not the reason that I set up the blog (in fact when I started it I had no idea that people would send me beer) but it's a very welcome side-effect which means that I don't need to re-mortgage my house to be able to continue with this fun and enjoyable past time.
Well that's not true, Baron. You ask for freebies. Red doesn't.
Sometimes free offers are made, and it is welcome. I get them even though I no longer blog. But you explicitly contact breweries and ask for free samples.
Now I am not saying that is wrong, but it is not honest to suggest people just offer to send you stuff when you ask for stuff.
The reason that ought to be clear is that it does affect the perception of the validity of the review. It is only natural that one would be kinder about a free beer than one you paid for. It ought be clear what the beer cost you, to the reader.
I didn't say that I don't ask for freebies as I certainly have done over the past 3 years of running my blog, what I was saying was it wasn't the reason that I started blogging about beer.
I do get offered a lot of ales though these days (rather than ask for it) so I feel a little put out that you suggest that I ask for it all.
As for being open and honest about where the beer comes from, I'm completely with you on that one, hence the reason why I always write a 'thank you' post for ever ale which arrives as well as linking back to the 'thank you' post on the final review page.
I don't think I can be clearer than that, can I?
Stop being lazy Cookie and start your blog back up...
Is that a bottle of Chockwork that I can see you taking a cheeky swig from???? good call!
It certainly is... ;)
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