This is why I blog with knobs off

This is why I blog. To tell people stuff that they won’t find in the newspapers or glossy magazines, like the time I told you that expensive Miele cooktops are crap simply because they are badly designed.

Now thanks to a house sitting stint, I can reveal that Smeg cooktops are just as bad. The problem is that the knobs sit higher than the trivets. And that means in the panic of pans rattling across the cooktop, the knobs snap.

Both Miele and Smeg share this problem.

After my Miele post, I was phoned by the company which offered to send a technician out. But I didn’t accept the offer because what could they do apart from replace the cheap plastic knobs and they would be knocked off again next time I was being a little to vigorous with my frying pan. Short of refunding me or replacing the whole top there is nothing they can do.

I’m writing this as an illustration of how blogs can differentiate themselves from the old media but don’t choose to.

Too many bloggers are accepting money to write purely promotional stories. Too many are taking freebies and writing about them, as if readers really want to know. And I’m not the only person to think that it has gone too far.

If you want to serve readers then you need to give them honest, unique content. They don’t want to read five near identical posts on the same topic.

I will admit I’ve taken free dinners and attending blogger events. I’ve even accepted trips. And St Ali has paid me to do video blog posts on its behalf. But by and large I haven’t followed the crowd.

From now on I promise to get my cranky blogging mojo back and will post more frequently.