You are a fashion diva. When you friends need to decide what to wear on a date, they come to you for advice. You go through their closets, take them shopping, pick out the styles that flatter them the most, and manage to do it all on a budget.
“You should make money at this,” they tell you. Maybe you should, but how? One simple way is to start and monetize a fashion blog of your own. How do you do that, you ask? Here are five keys to get you on your way.
Choose Your Niche
Look around the web. You will find that there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of fashion blogs out there. How do you make yours stand apart? The first step is to find your unique voice or niche.
For instance, if you are the queen of finding fashion bargains or designer labels at consignment stores, thrift stores, and discount outlets, that is a niche. If that is something you are also passionate about, it will be easy for you to write about.
Fashion is also very visual. Are you a great photographer? Will your friends that you help consent to photos or videos of their transformation? You can set yourself apart by not only having great ideas but having a way to show visitors to your blog exactly what these transformations look like.
You might have another niche or specialty. Or you might not know yet what your angle would be if you started a fashion blog. That is okay. Take your time and discover what drives you, where your passion lies, and concentrate your efforts there.
Set Up a Website and a Host
You’re going to need a website, and you will need somewhere to host it. First start by choosing a website name. Your domain name should be one that says something about who you are and what you do. In other words, it needs to be relevant. It also needs to be easy to say, spell, and enter in to a web browser.
Your first choice for your domain name might not be available. You might have to Look at more than one, and you can do that using free domain name search tools on the internet. Think of variations and abbreviations that might work for you and find the name that best fits what you want to do.
Once you have found the right domain name, you also need a host. Often you can get the domain name and hosting in the same place. There are two types of hosting you should know about:
- Shared hosting: This is the most common type of hosting. You share a server with other websites, so the cost is much lower. However, shared hosting cannot handle as much traffic and as many transactions as the other type of hosting.
- Dedicated hosting: Dedicated hosting means that your site lives on a server all its own. The advantage to this is that you are not sharing space or computing power with any other website. As mentioned above, the cost is higher though, and you may not have enough traffic to justify a dedicated server, at least at first.
The ideal situation is to find a company that offers both shared and dedicated hosting, so that if you need to move from one to the other, it is a simple internal process.
Know Your Audience
One of the best ways to get more blog traffic is to answer the questions your audience is asking. Sometimes you can determine what these questions are before parts of the audience are even aware of what they are. You can do this through a number of research methods:
- Use Tools Like SEM Rush: There are internet tools that let you enter keywords, and they will show you the most common queries in those areas. In other words, they show you where the traffic is because of what people are searching for.
- Social Listening: Look at and analyze your social media following. Who are they? How much do they make? Do they own or rent their homes? How much do they spend on clothing? Do they shop online or in person? You can find all of this out using Facebook or Twitter analytics or tools like Tweepsmap.
- Competitor Analysis: Even if that other blog is not exactly the same as yours, if it has a great following find out why. Look at that sites social media followers, look at comments, and try to determine where they are reaching their customers.
- Ask: Do surveys on your social media page, your blog, and even through your email contacts. Gather and analyze the responses you get and alter your blog approach accordingly.
Knowing your audience helps you solidify your niche and shape the style and topic of your blog and website.
Market Yourself
You will need to market your blog in order to gain readers. this means you need to focus on a few things:
- Social Media Presence: have a social media presence, especially on sites like Instagram and Pinterest. While these sites are more visual, don’t neglect Facebook, Twitter, and even your LinkedIn profile.
- Paid Ads: Boost posts on Facebook, use Instagram ads, and consider Google Ads as well.
- SEO and Keywords: Be sure the SEO of your site is well done, and that you are ranking for the right keywords and the answers to the right questions.
- Link Building: Actively look for back link opportunities on other sites and keep creating great content to earn organic links.
Marketing is all about getting the word out there.
Show Me the Money
There are several ways to monetize a fashion blog. Here are just a few ideas:
- Sell Clothing: You can create your own shop where you sell the clothing you talk about on your blog. This involves more physical work, keeping inventory, and shipping, but it can be quite profitable.
- Affiliate Links: Many companies will pay you if you advertise their clothing. Affiliate links pay you when someone make a purchase through a link containing your unique code.
- Native Ads: Google, Amazon, and other companies offer native ads that are catered to your user based on their browsing history. You get paid whenever a user clicks on these ads.
- Site Sponsors: You can get a sponsor for your site, a company that wants you to showcase their products in your blog posts.
Once you have enough traffic, one or more of these methods can make you a great deal of money.
You can turn your passion for fashion into a money-making blog. It may seem daunting at first, but keep at it, and you will get paid for doing something you already love.