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

[kimberwyn]

Thank you very much for your comment, I really appreciate it. However, I would say that my blog is all about irony and humor and for that you do need a nice dose of bitterness, don't you?

I disagree w/ FrenchCactus, I absolutely love how honest you are with your emotions in your blog and can relate to some of your posts (like the 13 euro one). Blogging is first and foremost for you to express yourself, right? Having been in very similar situations, I think you show a lot of restraint because I get plenty more ragey than that on my blog.

And oh, the stories I'm waiting to tell a few years down the line...

 

[funnyface]

Hi everyone... read most of the posts on both thread and checked some of the blogs posted here...
I want to have your opinions...

I live in brazil and me and 5 friends around 3 months ago were talking about how blogs here don't inspire rather than dictate.

the blogs are in portuguese, but here's two links so you can understand:
http://www.bettys.com.br/
http://lalarudge.com.br/

these are the two most visited blogs in brazil... first one is more like a collection of pictures from blogs that are famous worldwide with occasionally original material. second is a very personal blog of a girl I know here, and she has became the Olivia Palermo here, just because she was the first high society girl to blog and now 10 years old girls want to be her.

just so you know, the second blog above is said to been sold for R$6 millions... that's U$ 3.5 millions!

I don't like the way brazilian blogs are made. I like checking blogs with original INSPIRING material. why would I want to check BETTYS when I can go directly to jakandjil? (where they take most of their pics from)...

So me and one of my friends decide to put together a blog like those we see from europe/usa/autralia... and we launched it yesterday: www.cityandcolour.com

it's still very new, and for now we are just writing in portuguese, but considering most of it is pictures, we could have international readers...

i think our two challeges now is to show brazilians this kind of blog is cool, actually more refined and inspiring.... and to show the world a piece of brazil's view on fashion, while competing witl hundreds other blogs with the same style.

i'd like to know what you think of the blog, ideas, everything, picture quality, name... everything.

thanks for reading my post.

 

[emailme.]

you know city and colour is a Canadian singer right?

 

[funnyface]

LOL! yes... i like the songs.. thats probably why i mistyped it, wasnt paying attention...

here it is, http://www.colourthecity.com/ sorry...

if you can get me your views.

 

[kikiss]

Hahahah I was looking with the old link for 5 minutes...

I personally prefer the layout, and the logo of your website. I also think images are a better quality, background of your photo shooting looks very nice. (I need vacations)

But maybe you should ask yourself, young girls in Brazil are attracted by this upper class vibe. (princess story telling). They both seems to have comments, Maria Rudge have a lot of comments. You know since how long they have been doing that ?! Take a lot of time...

Your website is more appropriate for beautiful large images ! Be careful to be structured if in the future, you want to put advertising on your website.
Maria Rudge, and Bettys put their content in the middle, not really a lot btw... and got a lot of advertising.

On International crowd... You need to work on your SEO, for each pic and for each post you make.
That's the only way to attract more people Brazilian or anywhere else.

First advice I would give when you start a blog, focus on your content (quality), organize each post & images, try to understand how SEO works, and networking with social media tools.

I met a Brazilian girl during last fashion week in Paris...
http://www.londonlovesme.com.br/ You know her ?

 

[funnyface]

haha sorry for the link mistake... and THANKS A LOT FOR THE REPLY.

bettys have their blog since november 2009 and Rudge since March 2010... maybe i missed the bubble... haha

I am getting okay visits for the first week i think...

wed: 157 visits from 98 people (first day)
thur: 75 visits from 51 people
friday: 103 visits from 70 people...

but i'm considering this all comes from facebook friends... which is not good.

SEO yes... thanks, i'll have to look more into that.

I don't know her and never saw her site but i liked it... is she from Sao Paulo too?

Thank you again, im considering all you said!

 

[franki]

^ i wouldn't worry if it is initially all from Facebook friends. that is how word often spreads. if they like what they see they may show a friend of theirs who you do not know.
it is very hard to initially get people you don't know to read your blog without going through your mutual friends first.

 

[funnyface]

okay... trying to stay positive... I also realised i'm reading the analytics wrong... right would be


11/01/12 All Visitors 157
11/01/12 New Visitors 89
12/01/12 All Visitors 75
12/01/12 New Visitors 26
13/01/12 All Visitors 103
13/01/12 New Visitors 46
14/01/12 All Visitors 72
14/01/12 New Visitors 34
15/01/12 All Visitors 90
15/01/12 New Visitors 28
16/01/12 All Visitors 36 (for now)
16/01/12 New Visitors 12 (for now)

So it's not that bad... if I consider all pages view it would be 1.364.... not actually blog famous but ok for first week i guess...

thanks everyone... i have add SEO things and facebook buttons by the end of each post and a HIT counter on the sidebar... hopefully with nice content it will grow.

 

[kikiss]

You should also try to have a Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account. (And they should be short link on the first page of your blog)

You have a very nice original content, with nice pics of SPFW. But you should re-size your images !
1066 X 1599 pixels is way to big and too heavy to easily read your blog.... I would say try maximum vertical picture 600 X 900; and horizontal picture 1000 X 600 pixels.

It's very annoying and take a lot of time. But you should re-size, retouch light & colors, and tag carefully your pictures. Trust me in 3 years when you wanna find this particularly picture "SPFW autumn winter 2012"...it will be more easier if you're organize now.

Name of the picture should be for example. Dior-SS-2012-PFW-Marc jacobs.jpg
And you MUST "Tag" with smart keywords, each photo and each post !


Good luck !

Even I think that you should focus on organization and create original content....

Very good article on SEO strategy
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/21-tactics-to-increase-blog-traffic-2012

 

[funnyface]

KIKISS, sorry for take so long. I tried everyday to come here, but I don't know why some days TFS wont load on my pc...
Is the pictures taking long to load? For me its fast... weird... I'll reconsider the size... I need to talk to my partner...

about organizing pictures, i was always a fan of photography and I organize them by year and than by title name on files, so it's easier. nothing more annoying then not finding what you need, i get ya!!!

Thanks for the SEO article... i'll do what else is possible. I'm getting lot of visits from abroad, so i guess it's working.

The SPFW pics were sure the most fun to take. unfortunately because of work i couldn't go to more than one day (formal work - i am for now considering bloggin a hobbie)... but I already made it priority for next season.

the blog is on for 21 days today, and we got 959 (individual) visitors with 5.068 hits... thats around 45 visitors a day, but last week average was 100+, so it's growing FAST... hahahahah i am kidding, i am just trying not to worry about this so much and focus on creating something to be proud of! MANY MANY MANY THANKS.

 

[Sophie66]

My (limited!) advice on blogging in exchange for your feedback!

Hello everyone I am looking for opinions and suggestions on my blog and to also share my experiences and advice on blogging.

My blog is: http://www.trendspiration.com and I have been writing it for about three years.

First of all I HATE the name of my blog (everything else I could think of was taken) but I have managed to move past it! and hopefully the content speaks for its self.

Originally I started on blogspot which I loved but a couple of months ago I decided to move to Tumblr, which I would really recommend for anyone with a predominantly visual rather than word based blog as the ability for your readers to quickly re-blog your posts helps you share your content and gain followers quickly.

First of all what do people think about my blog? I am considering adding a 'comment' section which would offer critique on celebrity outfits and streetstyle, who wore it better? posts and also composites/collages of mini trends (eg. silver shoes/colourblocking/creepers/or whatever i have noticed everyone are wearing) as I want to show off more or my personality/writing style.

However I am a bit wary that people couldn't care less about my opinion/comments! Do people think this would be a good addition or should I just stick with what I've got? Currently it concentrates on the art and design/fashion worlds.

Since moving to tumblr I have drastically simplified the layout which at first I thought might hinder it's appeal but after doing a poll on my blog's facebook page the responses were very positive. A simple layout is something I would also recomend, I have also found that since adding 'endless scroll' the amount of time people spend on my blog has dramatically increased.

My top tips for anyone looking to be successfully in blogging would be to first of all decide what you want your blog to be and the purpose it should serve.

When I first started I was very concerned with being the first person to blog a new magazine cover or a new artist (I was a slave to the 'trend' in trendspiration). But because I also have a full time job as a marketing and graphic design assistant sometimes I wouldn't be able to blog for a week or so during busy periods. This meant my posts were really erratic as at the beginning of the month I would be posting loads of new editorials and then my posts would dwindle to nothing for a while.

Once I realised that there were a lot of blogs out there that had the PR contacts time to do this better than me, I shifted my focus to posting regularly by using tumblrs queueing tool which meant although I wasn't always the first to post a story, I wasn't clogging up peoples dashboards/newsfeeds/rss feeds with about 10 posts at once.

Another tip I have found is to share one of your favourite images from a post (rather than just syndicate hefty/wordy posts) via Facebook which I do as 'Daily Inspiration' (see here http://www.facebook.com/trendspiration)

I have had my Facebook fans increase massively since I started doing this as every time someone likes the image it shows up in their news feed and effectively advertises my blog.

I have just realised I have rambled on for ages, but I would love to share more experiences and also get opinions from others so please hit reply!

Thank yooo!
Sophie

 

[sidewalks]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on an online fashion magazine that promotes new talent in the fashion industry. Right now I just have a regular old Tumblr url, but I plan to buy my own. Anyway, I would love some feedback on content, layout, and the whole look of the site.

Please, any help would be great. I want to make this site as great as possible. Check it out Altermix.

 

[Sophie66]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on an online fashion magazine that promotes new talent in the fashion industry. Right now I just have a regular old Tumblr url, but I plan to buy my own. Anyway, I would love some feedback on content, layout, and the whole look of the site.

Please, any help would be great. I want to make this site as great as possible. Check it out Altermix.

It's good! Really clear and easy to use. You can find exactly what you are looking for straight away. It isn't gimmicky and the black and white design will look good with pretty much any post.

Although when I click on your social media icons, they just take me straight to the homepage and not your specific content so you might want to change that.

 

[kimberwyn]

Are there any teenagers here who are running fashion blogs? I'm looking to interview one for an article I'm writing.

 

[ffashionist]

Does anybody know a good website from which you can sell ad/banner space directly to companies/advertisers? Or something similar? I tried Google Adsense but you can't earn much with it. I would like to find a way to get in touch with companies directly. Any ideas?

 

[myown]

Hello everyone I am looking for opinions and suggestions on my blog and to also share my experiences and advice on blogging.

My blog is: http://www.trendspiration.com and I have been writing it for about three years.

First of all I HATE the name of my blog (everything else I could think of was taken) but I have managed to move past it! and hopefully the content speaks for its self.

Originally I started on blogspot which I loved but a couple of months ago I decided to move to Tumblr, which I would really recommend for anyone with a predominantly visual rather than word based blog as the ability for your readers to quickly re-blog your posts helps you share your content and gain followers quickly.

First of all what do people think about my blog? I am considering adding a 'comment' section which would offer critique on celebrity outfits and streetstyle, who wore it better? posts and also composites/collages of mini trends (eg. silver shoes/colourblocking/creepers/or whatever i have noticed everyone are wearing) as I want to show off more or my personality/writing style.

However I am a bit wary that people couldn't care less about my opinion/comments! Do people think this would be a good addition or should I just stick with what I've got? Currently it concentrates on the art and design/fashion worlds.

Since moving to tumblr I have drastically simplified the layout which at first I thought might hinder it's appeal but after doing a poll on my blog's facebook page the responses were very positive. A simple layout is something I would also recomend, I have also found that since adding 'endless scroll' the amount of time people spend on my blog has dramatically increased.

My top tips for anyone looking to be successfully in blogging would be to first of all decide what you want your blog to be and the purpose it should serve.

When I first started I was very concerned with being the first person to blog a new magazine cover or a new artist (I was a slave to the 'trend' in trendspiration). But because I also have a full time job as a marketing and graphic design assistant sometimes I wouldn't be able to blog for a week or so during busy periods. This meant my posts were really erratic as at the beginning of the month I would be posting loads of new editorials and then my posts would dwindle to nothing for a while.

Once I realised that there were a lot of blogs out there that had the PR contacts time to do this better than me, I shifted my focus to posting regularly by using tumblrs queueing tool which meant although I wasn't always the first to post a story, I wasn't clogging up peoples dashboards/newsfeeds/rss feeds with about 10 posts at once.

Another tip I have found is to share one of your favourite images from a post (rather than just syndicate hefty/wordy posts) via Facebook which I do as 'Daily Inspiration' (see here http://www.facebook.com/trendspiration)

I have had my Facebook fans increase massively since I started doing this as every time someone likes the image it shows up in their news feed and effectively advertises my blog.

I have just realised I have rambled on for ages, but I would love to share more experiences and also get opinions from others so please hit reply!

Thank yooo!
Sophie

did you just stopped posting on blogspot and started on tumblr or is it possible to move the posts from blogspot to tumblr?

 

[myown]

^figured out myself. but i am not sure if i will use tumblr

 

[myown]

what do you like better and why: tumblr or blogspot? (in general)

 

[_Andrea_]

Blogger works better for me, but I think that's a personal choice

 

[TLDP]

Blogger if you want people to comment, etc. I use Tumblr mainly for photo inspirations.