Fashion, beauty, lifestyle blogs have been growing and growing past the few years. There are countless fashion blogs alone on the web. The fashion blog community is with no doubt, HUGE. However, having a successful and all in all, pleasing blog is not easy. It takes quality, dedication, time, and lots of work to growing the fan base. But it definitely pays off once you get the blog growing, you will soon see your followers and readers expanding, business partnerships and collaborations might start filling up your inbox, and most of all, you will feel super accomplished.
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So in today's blog post, I will give you a few tips and tricks to get your blog, Instagram and channel to stand out from the crowd. First thing first is creating your brand, such as a logo, blog/social media name, theme, and style and content. You want to keep it as consistent as you can. Then you get a domain name and your own host. I first bought my domain back in 2012 on Go Daddy. It only costed a few dollars, no more than $10. It costs around $20 to renew it afterwards - once a year. If you want to fully develop and grow a brand this is the best way to start. Once you have your blog name finalize, head over to Facebook and Instagram to create a page, preferably using the exact same name as your blog. This will help you cross promote the different social media platforms.
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Network and sharing is a major key to growing. Just like in the business world, networking gets your opportunities and it will help you explore new paths. You might start off small, promoting your blog to family, friends, co-workers, personal Facebook profile. This is a good way to get feedback too. Once you develop a more stable platform along with a few posts, start exploring the fashion blog community. Connect with other fashion bloggers by leaving comments, sending emails, following their social media platforms. Often times there are so many other bloggers just getting started too, a click of the follow button may easily lead them to checking out your platforms too! A few email or comment exchange will help you develop a bond with other bloggers. I have made so many friends, some I still keep in touch with, from three-four years ago (when I just started blogging). Once you make friends, cross promoting each other’s blog is a very quick way to grow. You will definitely see the changes quickly.
Once your platform begins to grow, try reaching out to brands, PR, marketing agencies that represents brands that best fit the aesthetic of your blog. By reaching out to brands your engagements will boom, plus sometimes you will get complimentary access to their new line. There are so many brand agencies looking for bloggers to engage readers with their products. Some of these brands are very popular to begin with, and if they feature one of your blog posts or photo, it will gain a lot of readership! It is a win-win game for the brand and you.
Take your time to plan the best outfit for the post. No one expects you to dress glamorous seven days a week. If you are in school like me… heck I am sweatpants like six times a week. So for that one outfit plan it well, plan it so you can snap the shots in day sunlight. I find that between 2PM to 5PM EST is the best time to do a photoshoot. The angle of the sun is in you favor – but of course, only on sunny days.
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Be sure to work on all your platforms and not just one. A few tricks I have learned to grow my Instagram platform is by being social. Similarly, with commenting on other's blog post, regularly commenting on other's pictures will help you gain more comments and overall engagements. The more engagement your photo has, the more likely it will pop up on your mutual explore page. Another tip of Instagram is to use hashtags. Believe it or not, hashtags play a significant role in exposing your pictures to millions of users. The classic hastags such as, "#instagood, #picoftheday, #instamood, #instalove, #weheartit" have millions of views per day! If your picture is attractive to the eye and sharp, it will easily attract prospective followers!
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