Advice about Starting & Promoting a Fashion Blog - See Post #1 for Thread Rules

[kimberwyn]

I havent been here in a while! But just to follow up on some people who were questioning me earlier in the thread when I mentioned getting 1000+ hits from Stumbleupon with just 5 or 6 stumbles.....this morning I stumbled a story I wrote, and tonight the owner of the blog sent me an email congratulating me for getting 1800 stumbleupon hits! So it can happen and it's worth a try

 

[thefrancofille]

Thanks for the responses to my questions everyone

 

[thefrancofille]

No problem verymoni! Submitting your site there will get you indexed in google quickly. And if you get other people to digg your content, you'll get even mmore traffic.

The.Rock.Inc., here are the best ways to start....

-Submit to directories. You can do a search on google for blog directories, and you'll probably find a site that has a list of them. One of my favorites is www.BlogCatalog.com.

-Be sure to focus on search engines like Google, etc. The more backlinks (an relevant backlinks) you have, the higher you'll rank. Directories count. And be sure to use good keywords on your page, in your page title and on your story titles.

-Use social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon.com. Submit your site there, get five or six people to stumble it and you can get 1000 hits right off the bat. Then you can start stumbling and digging your individual articles. There's also Delicious, etc.

-Be sure to do link exchanges and story exchanges with other blogs.

-Doing a write up or an article for some sort of article site or another blog is a great way to bring in traffic too.

-If you want to spend a little bit of money you can run an ad on a blog via www.BlogAds.com.

-Anything viral is good too, like using myspace or youtube.

I hope those ideas help! If any of you guys have any other questions just let me know and I'll try and help.

Can the OP or anyone else explain the things I bolded? I'm new at this. Thanks!

 

[thefrancofille]

This might be a dumb question, but how do you tag other bloggers to answer questionnaires ie "10 things no one knows about me" or "my favorite whatever."
Sometimes, I see bloggers tagged by other bloggers.

 

[StellaMare]

^^ Usually, a blogger posts his/her answers and then at the end of the post he/she lists the ones they would like to see answering them. Then perhaps leave a comment on the tagged people's blogs..

 

[ShoeLady]

http://unluckymag.blogspot.com/

I have finally started blogging. I will be working this week & attending some fashion shows & parties. I will try to blog as much as possible. Hopefully after this week, I will be able to get up some more longer entries.
Please link to my blog and leave feedback. I would really appreciate it.

 

[kimberwyn]

Can the OP or anyone else explain the things I bolded? I'm new at this. Thanks!

-Be sure to focus on search engines like Google, etc. The more backlinks (an relevant backlinks) you have, the higher you'll rank. Directories count. And be sure to use good keywords on your page, in your page title and on your story titles.

It's about making your site condusive to google's algorithm. They will rank you higher if you have lots other sites linking to you, especially links from "authority sites"; sites within your category that are important and ranked higher themselves. But most indexed links are good to have so don't just focus on getting authority sites.

And also....one way links are good to have to (meaning they link to you, but you don't link to them). So you want to try and build some of those as well.

-Use social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon.com. Submit your site there, get five or six people to stumble it and you can get 1000 hits right off the bat. Then you can start stumbling and digging your individual articles. There's also Delicious, etc.

Stumbling = using stumbleupon.com

Digging = using digg.com

-Be sure to do link exchanges and story exchanges with other blogs.

Link exchanges are basically you make an agreement with a similar blog to link their page and they do the same thing in return for you.

A story exchange is basically a post where you link to various posts on other blogs that you like. Even if the other sites don't reciprocate, its good to do this to get your site noticed.


Let me know if you have other questions!

 

[diorable]

Does anyone know how to contact prominent people in the fashion industry for interviews -- the best way to approach this?

My blog for teenagers (http://misscouturable.blogspot.com) who are serious about the fashion industry has reached a decent 500 unique visitors a day (and growing), and what I'd really like to do is to conduct exclusive interviews with young people (preferably 18 and under) who are prominent in the fashion industry and learn about them, etc and what gives them such a drive at such a young age.

So far I've contacted through a formal fax letter the US PR agency that works with Kira Plastinina, Karlie Kloss's agency, and Chanel Iman's agency. I know it's definitely going to be hard to get a response, but it's worth a try :-D. How have other people successfully requested interviews? And do you have an ideas for other prominent young fashionistas that I could try contacting for interviews (there's always Cory Kennedy but eh I'm not a big fan of her to tell you the truth). Thanks so much B)!

 

[fashionistasista]

^ that sounds amazing!! well done you *hops over to have a look*

unfortunatly alot of people who start fashion ventures which provide insider info such as blogs/ comapanies etc are already in the industry and have contacts, or just have alot of well placed friends.

It looks like you have the right idea though, just contact anyone YOU are interested in and chances are others that read your blog will think its pretty fab as well. Its quite hard to contact these people to begin with - as i found with interviewing people for publications that i was writing for on a freelance basis - and then they will generally begin to recognize you, realise you are serious and it will become alot easier

 

[diorable]

fashionistasista: Ah okay, thank you so much! I s'pose I shall keep faxing formal letters and hope someone will give me a call back =x. One call back could lead to more!

 

[lilmissbee]

There's a lot of great insight on this thread! I would add only that I think having a good solid plan of what you want to get out of it in the end (use it to get an editor gig, land a tv gig, sell it for millions, etc.) is good to have - it won't change what you do strategywise, just where you do it a bit and that's good to have sort of worked out in advance.

Definitely look for a gray area nobody is filling. Right now, I think fashion business blogs could do well because there aren't any, really, and then also stylist blogs or photographers because it's a sexy life and people would probably follow it, but anything can work, really. You just have to keep working at it. Get to know the market and what other kind of blogs are out there in the category you want to launch yours in, so you can see what's out there, etc. You can get a snap shot of all the other blogs and media in entertainment and fashion via aggregator sites - like alltop, which has both and wesmirch, which is just entertainment:

http://fashion.alltop.com/

http://celebrities.alltop.com/

www.wesmirch.com

 

[Nemova]

^Thanks for the great tips.

 

[Fontenrose]

I can't believe how low tech most fashion blogs are. Go look at some tech blogs. Use RSS, put links to DIGG.com, etc. at the end of each article, do your Google analytics to see what search terms your audience is finding you with and where they are coming from.

And post regularly on some kind of schedule. Ideally, set up some content management so your posts appear at 9 am EST each weekday.

Fashion/creative people are famously unreliable so these things will help you really stand out.

 

[thefrancofille]

I've been blogging for a week or two and my readership peaked at 30 and is going back down now. Any suggestions?

 

[Dustcakeboy]

^ Persistence.

Just keep posting and if you're unique and talented, it'll come good soon.

 

[seanutbutter]

I've been blogging for a week or two and my readership peaked at 30 and is going back down now. Any suggestions?

Update on a regular basis, and use phrases like "stay tuned for the next post" to catch your reader's attention. Also, incorporate your readers into what you're saying. For example, if you're talking about a fashion trend, ask the people reading how they feel about it. By doing this, you're making readers feel like they're cared about, and you'll find that they will likely return to see if you've made more posts.

 

[punky]

Maybe we could post our blogs and have each other give advice on what could be better?
My boyfriend and all his designer friends do that with projects they work on.
It could help.

 

[Drusilla_]

I've had a fashion blog for the last year, but I have no idea how to make Digg, Stumble etc work. My traffic isn't very high, and I'm cool with that, but- how does one subscribe to things like these? I mean, I haven't even set up a feed box on my page, that's how bad I am.

 

[glamandtonic]

kimberwyn: thanks for the telling me about digg.com. Submitted my blog

I actually started with livejournal and all the great fashion communities they have there. Then I switched to blogger.com which is working very well for me. I think the key to a successful blog is updating frequently and show interest in other fashion blogs out there.

 

[Fontenrose]

Your blog looks good. I went there to Digg you, but you made it too hard. You should put the Digg/stumble/delicious link at the end of each post, like this example from a tech blog:

www.tombuntu.com

You will really see the traffic soar if you get enough Diggs.

See he also tracks his most popular posts from the past, so they aren't hard to find.

Put your past entries list at the top of the sidebar. I am more likely to see them there.