YUP. We’re going there. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. This is no new news… am I right?

Rewind to last week when I got offered a great collaboration that I was super excited about. I was out & about doing a shoot for the blog when I saw the email come through on my phone & wanted to give it my full attention… so I waited until I got home to reply.

Unfortunately for me (& the brand), another blogger got back to them before me & ended up getting the job. I was bummed, until I found out which blogger they chose… & then I was just frustrated/kinda pissed.

Why? Because the blogger they ended up going with was very obviously NOT authentic, & it just wasn’t sitting well with me. I ended up sharing on my Insta-Stories one way to spot a pretend blogger (don’t worry, I will share with you guys too in a sec!) & the messages came pouring in… so I figured I am not the only person who wants to talk about this growing problem of fake-ness in the blog industry.

Okay, so first of all let’s talk about the business of buying followers & why it doesn’t work.

If you didn’t know, which I am sure you did because everyone does it, you can buy your entire following on all social networks. You can buy the followers, the likes, the video views, the comments, EVERYTHING.

I am not ashamed to admit that I’ve done it in the past & if you meet a blogger and they try to claim they have never bought followers, they’re lying. I am really not trying to piss anyone off here, I just think it’s going to be the downfall of this industry & that’s not fair to all of the bloggers out there trying to do it the right, authentic way.

I have been blogging for 8 years now & have seen COUNTLESS people enter the blogging scene and fake their way right past me. The worst part is… sometimes it works out really well for people. They fake it so good, they do make it… they get the free designer clothes, the big paychecks, & the sponsored trips.

Here is where the problem lies though, brands are veryyy slowly catching on because they aren’t seeing the ROI (return on investment) you would expect to see with a blogger who has 500k+ followers.

At the end of the day, CONVERSION is king & if you’ve got a fake following, brands won’t see that conversion & the less conversion brands see, the less they will want to work with influencers.&

& THAT RUINS THE FUN FOR EVERYONE. Ya feel me??

SO- how can you tell if someone’s following is B.S.?

I’ve got a few little tricks up my sleeve… if you know anymore, feel free to share in the comments below!

+ ratios: first & foremost, the easiest way to tell a users following authenticity is to look at the ratios. If a user has 100k+ followers & 5 comments… I mean, no brainer that those followers are faux. You really don’t need to dig deeper than that… but if you’re good at math, you can calculate ratios.

Personally, I suck at math so I am not gonna even try… but if you want to get down & dirty with numbers, check out this site to go over all of the ratios.

+ follower quality: quick glance, look at the last 20 followers on a persons instagram account. If they are fake, you can tell. No picture, less than 5 photos, a 12 year old Indian boy or a 30 year old Indian man w/ lots of soccer photos, or someone who is following 7k+ people and has less than 50 followers. Those are all fake accounts.

+ Alexa website rating: Lastly, this is my latest favorite tool to measure bullshit. Alexa is site that measures global traffic rank, which is basically a measure of how well a website is doing in relation to other sites on the web over a 3 month time period. It combines a site’s estimated average of daily unique visitors w/ estimated pageviews over the past 3 months. It measure global rank & rank in your home country as well.

You guys can check out my Alexa rating here, because that’s what I am using today as a comparison tool. READY FOR THIS (mind about to be blown… maybe!):

☆ In the U.S. my rank is 163,264 & globally my rank is 474,577. It’s not the best of the best, but it’s DAMN GOOD & I am proud of it… plus, it says I am on the rise big time with my traffic which is a good thing… obviously.

☆ Blogger A: whose name will not be mentioned, has over 1 million followers on Instagram & her rank is 120,454 in the U.S. & 445,214 globally.

– Blogger B: someone who has been blogging for a short time & has already made it to 500k+ Instagram followers, ranks 210,304 in the U.S. & 615,540 globally

☆ Blogger C: the one who was chosen for the job over me, has 200k+ followers on Instagram & had a global rank over 3.5 MILLION & didn’t even have a ranking in the United States.

MAKES YA THINK…. AM I RIGHT?

Again, I am not putting anyone on blast, but just giving all you authentic bloggers out there some tools to help uncover the truth & maybe even spread the word to the brands you’re working with.

The more brands become aware of all of this, the better the climate of the blogging industry will be.

The last thing we need is for all the fakers to kill the blog game… ya know?

Keep on trucking, keep the conversation going, & your hard work will pay off (I’d like to kinda think I am proof… or atleast on my way to being proof!)

x, E

[ PHOTOS BY ARIELLE LEVY ]