Last month we traveled together here into 2016, and in the process I came across an article I wrote that year with an eye on blogging in the future.
In 2016, together with colleagues from the blogosphere at the time, I considered how much our job would change in the coming years.
To briefly classify it: when the article went online, Instagram already had a certain relevance, but mostly as a supplement to classic blogs. Instagram Stories, for example, were only launched a few months before the article and played a relatively minor role at that point. The option to set a link didn’t even exist yet. In the years that followed, these areas fundamentally changed the possibility of influencer marketing. Likewise Reels, which only went online in 2020. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago there was still an Internet without these fast-moving videos. YouTube, on the other hand, was very popular in 2016. And in the short term, Snapchat was a huge thing in 2016. The 24 hour visibility that ultimately formed the basis of Instagram Stories.
“I recently followed the opening of the new L’Oreal store in Paris on Snapchat and one sentence in particular stuck in my mind: “Normal models are still being used for the posters in the store, but these will soon all be replaced by influencers.”
… said Sophia Thorer in our article at the time. How commonplace it is now that everything is streamed live and that models are booked based on their social media reach.
It’s not (yet) as drastic as Sue predicted back then, but yes, it definitely went in that direction:
“I think bloggers will unfortunately write less in the future. Instead, they will walk around with glasses or a sticker on their face and livestream their lives. Reading will then be so “2000”. Unfortunately… “
Amandine from Les Berlinettes was exactly to the point with her prediction:
“Videos are in great demand at the moment. I think, above all, live videos are becoming more and more popular. Snapchat has already been very well received by young people and I think this type of live reporting will become more and more popular. People like to consume very quickly and I can imagine that in the future everyone can be a kind of live reporter and report on what interests them or where they are at the moment.”
And yes, I personally was clearly wrong with this one:
“However, I am very sure that the currently incredibly large Instagram bubble will soon burst. The purchase of fake followers is now getting out of hand and at some point there will be tools (some of which already exist) that can 100% prove who has artificially increased their number of followers. The companies are simply putting too much money into Instagram at the moment and I cannot, with the best will in the world, imagine that they will blindly accept this “fraud” in the long term.”
Certainly nothing burst. And it’s fascinating – in a rather negative way – to see how many big influencer careers are built on initial follower purchases. Would I have done anything differently knowing what I know now? No. Because my own values were always more important to me than success at any price. But honest work has definitely had different hurdles over the past ten years. And at times it mentally challenged me a lot to stay true to myself and keep the balance between “not bending myself” and “being open to new things”.
With what I know now, I would probably have put a lot more energy into our Instagram account ten years ago and not just run it on the side. On the other hand, in the years that followed, we benefited enormously from the wide reach we had built up with the blog – and the fact that we clearly stood out and continue to stand out today. I will never forget the sentence that the beauty team of a major agency said to me in 2018: “For everyone else we book Instagram, for you we book blog posts.” There have been many great years of blogging, and they were only able to exist because we put so much time and passion into Josie loves.
I also found this statement from 2016 Sarah interesting: “And even though I firmly believe that I will continue to write this blog for a long time, of course I don’t know how the monetary aspect will develop. Will I still be able to make a living from Josie Loves in six years? To be honest, I have no idea. I can work hard for it, but ultimately it’s not just in my hands. That’s why it’s important to me to maintain my mainstay as a freelance editor in addition to blogging.”
Ten years later, the blog is actually still my passion project and still has a considerable reach, but quite frankly the time when Chris and I lived primarily from the blog is over. Is the blog still an important part of our job and still relevant? Clearly: yes! However, with today’s travel focus. A fashion blog would no longer work in 2026. Fortunately, this has also been our personal development, making us feel so much more at home in the travel sector.
Many customers who previously booked blog articles now rely exclusively on Instagram content with us. A development that we have accepted and which also means that fewer articles are now going online than was the case in 2016, as a lot of time capacity flows into social media. In addition, hotel photography is now our second mainstay. And that in turn also emerged from the travel blog – because that’s how customers got to know our portfolio.
The online world is developing extremely quickly and there is something new every day: new opportunities, new struggles. One clear realization remains: not everything suits everyone, and you don’t have to dance at every virtual party. What matters is which target group you want to address. For us that means blog, Instagram and photography – for others it means TikTok and Instagram.
Honestly? In the post-Corona years, we consciously closed chapters and opened new ones. And after many challenges in previous years, 2025 was one of the most fulfilling years of my entire professional life. All the diligence, the work, the persistence and staying true to yourself have paid off so much. And I am deeply grateful and proud that Chris and I have found our very own place in this fast-moving world and can continue to pursue our professional passion – open to new things and further development, but with a clear view of what really defines us, what we can and cannot do.
Thanks to everyone who continues to take the time to read this and other blogs. This means so much to us.
