On being an international blogger

As many of you would probably already know, I am Italian, live and blog from Italy. This may sounds nice and intriguing to some of you, but this also means I'm an international blogger, which has its long list of pros as well as a lot of cons. Being an international blogger it's a whole different story and there are times when I wish I was British, not kidding... but here is a list of pros and cons on being an international blogger!

PROS

. You can write in two languages, even though this is not my case! I decided to start writing only in English because I wanted to keep this blog always updated and it was difficult to write 4/5 posts a week when I had to manage two different languages in every post (which means double the work I do right now). Knowing two languages can be a pro and if you can manage to write in two languages your blog will for sure be open at more opportunities and maybe followers (not really sure about that though), but it's such a hard work!
. You have a completely different story to tell: something I love about reading lifestyle blogs is to get to know different cultures and habits and being an international blogger can make you more interesting as you might eat different food or have different habits than every other British blogger which is nice to share. And you know deep down people it's very curious...
. You can snap different places and probably people would be very interested in that as well because they can see places they don't usually get to see only by browsing your blog. However it's not as interesting as discovering new places where to eat or go and explore that are way closer to you...
. You have access to different products & brands - this can be a pro because it's nice to blog about your local products, however we have not access to a lot of interesting brands that everyone talks about and that's such a shame! Blessing the existence of online shops that ship internationally!

CONS

. You may feel excluded. Sometimes being an international blogger sucks: a lot of times I can't take part to chats or events due to the different timezone or location. Also I don't know the language as well as a native and not even close which can penalize me in the world of beautifully written blogs.
. PRs might reject you and this is sometimes that happens to me all the time. They write me emails about working with them and reviewing their products, and as soon as I reveal I'm Italian they simply don't ever get back to me or, in the best of the cases, they apologize but they don't work with bloggers that aren't based in the UK and it doesn't matter if the majority of my readers and visitors are British. This sucks and I always feel excluded and disappointed about these behaviors but it's our reality as international bloggers and since the majority of the times things go this way, you somehow get used to it.
. This can make you feel like your blog lacks in something but it's not true and I just recently learnt thinking this way. As soon as you get rejected by PRs or get criticize because you are not that good in English grammar, you'll feel like you lack in something and you won't ever see your blog growing as many others. But this is not true and if you're an international blogger, you can still have a successful blog and I like to think I'm growing with it everyday as well, because I get to practice my English and learn new things about me, writing, photography and a lot of other stuff like any other blogger do. And if PRs reject me, they simply don't know what they are missing...
. You won't be able to meet other bloggers, go to events or have access to all the most popular brands that everyone blogs about. If you live in a different location, you will for sure be penalized somehow. I had contacts with Italian PRs that keep also international well known brands when I was still writing both in English and Italian and that way I was able to take part of some blogger events (and I was very lucky because most of them were in Milan and I live there), but as soon as I quitted my own language, I've lost all of those contacts and of course I can't take part of events based in Britain being that I live in Italy. Also I have not access to a lot of brands I would love to try but that are not sold here in Italy.

Even though being an international blogger can be difficult sometimes, if you're an international blogger you will get used to it at some point. There are a lot of pros and cons and sometimes I find myself wishing I was British, but I love blogging and this is something I will keep doing even though I am aware a lot of other bloggers have a lot easier life! I don't like to get discouraged because of being international, I love my blog and what I do and what matters is that I'm proud of my contents and I always find blogging a way to grow a lot of my skills. And if you're an international blogger and are having a tough time to spread out your voice, you shouldn't ever get discouraged because your blog and work is worth like any other! You shouldn't feel constricted to write only in your own native language but you can really spread your voice internationally and learn a lot from doing it!