February 25, 2016
Persistence, clarity, resourcefulness and vision are just a few amongst the many qualities required to differentiate yourself in the world of blogging. The online space is growing increasingly crowded by the day so it’s more important than ever before to be strategic when it comes to carving out an effective and unique space for yourself, your friends and your constituents.
Though there’s nothing wrong with blogging for personal expression or as a hobby, the path towards transforming it into a self-sustaining business or career requires far more than jotting down a post every time you’re hit with inspiration. In fact, it requires adetailed action plan.
After interviewing and asking around some of our lifestyle and fashion bloggers to find out how they got to where they are, we discovered some underlying similarities amongst the responses that were scoured. And we’ve narrowed them into a list of Top 10 essential tips — from having a desire to learn and the ability to be flexible to looking into the future and understanding what it truly takes to produce high quality content.
DO IT OUT OF LOVE
“This is not an easy business to be in. Start your blog for the right reason, because you need to have the passion and drive from within.” — Malin Richardson
“Make sure it is something you love, and enjoy what you do.” — Philippe Girard
“Have fun!” — Caroline Roxy
DO IT WELL
“Keep at it. Success does not come overnight, in anything, especially in an overly saturated field like blogging.” — Rima Vaidila
QUALITY PHOTOS ARE OF THE ESSENCE
“Choose or be a good photographer.” — Philippe Girard
“Invest in a good camera. The pictures make 80% of the blog experience, they need to have the best quality possible.” — Malin Richardson
“The days of point-and-shoot selfies are over. Invest in a DSLR camera – I love the Sony mirrorless A7. Even if you work with photographers, you should learn the basics of photography, composition, posing and more.” — La Carmina
HAVE YOUR OWN STYLE
“Do your own thing. Authenticity is key. People want to see the real you. They follow because they like what you’re doing.” — Rima Vaidila
“Find your niche, this will make you stand out.” — Malin Richardson
HUSTLE
“Do not expect handouts from anyone. Show people why you deserve their attention.” — Rima Vaidila
STAY INFORMED ON DESIGN, SEO AND CSS
“Put your full energy into the building blocks of blogging. Even if you hire someone to make your blog, you should stay informed about all the other elements that make a site enjoyable to navigate and read. I urge bloggers to buy their own domain name and use Wordpress or Squarespace.” — La Carmina “The design of your blog is extremely important.” — Malin Richardson
PUT EFFORT INTO YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
“Set up social media accounts under the same “brand” name, on all the major networks — Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Facebook. Social networks are great for interacting with readers, and adding value (whether it’s useful news, or a funny personal anecdote). However, I urge bloggers not to get too obsessed with social media or hung up on numbers.” —La Carmina
“Comment on other blogs, engage on different social media channels! This will make the blog grow. When I started my blog back in 2007, I read so many blogs and always left comments which created many new readers.” — Malin Richardson
WORK WITH WHAT YOU HAVE
“It doesn’t take a lot of money to start a blog. Utilize your resources. Family and friends make for excellent photographers, proofreaders or web designers.” — Rima Vaidila
POST UNIQUE AND INSPIRING CONTENT
“Content, for me, is what matters the most. Compelling, well-written blog posts can make a difference and lead to unexpected paths. For example, I did in-depth posts about the “kawaii” food-decorating trend and theme restaurants in Japan, and these led to book deals. Quite a few of my articles were picked up by media sites, and resulted in numerous TV appearances and interviews on this subject.” — La Carmina
“If the content you post isn’t going to inspire, help or advise a reader, it isn’t necessary. Don’t post just for the sake of posting. Distinguish yourself in a sea of Valencia-filtered macaroon images.” — Rima Vaidila
LOOK INTO THE FUTURE
“Don’t depend on a single source – such as one ad network, or traffic from Pinterest – to sustain you in the long term (just look at MySpace!). Fashion blogging can veer to the superficial side, so I encourage bloggers to push aside distractions (online fame and numbers), and keep their eye on a long-term career with a meaningful mission.” — La Carmina
