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

[emailme.]

The first thing I noticed is that you don't allow comments. This might be an oversight but if not, I would suggest you consider turning them on. People like to input, not only peek and leave

thanks. it is an oversight. ive been trying to engage with questions and no one has responded.

i wonder why.

 

[F0F0]

hey guys ive just started a blog 2 months ago, Jerr Life. its a blog about my personal obsessions. its pretty straight forward but im worried its too wide of an angle and doesnt target a particular demographic.

anyway here are more of my questions and worries:

how do i increase traffic?
do you like the layout?
what gadgets should i add?
how do i promote it more(i comment on social sites such as this)?
do you think my niche is too wide

Niche by definition is something small. There's a marketing saying that goes (more or less) "I don't know what is the key to success but a short cut to failure is trying to please everyone". The name of the game in customer-centered marketing is FOCUS. So from that perspective, yes, your blog COULD be consider too wide (specially for a potential advertiser).

But from a non-money making machine perspective I don't see a problem. You can write about anything you like ( except alcohols and drugs , right? But do you blog as a hobby or are you planning to make a decent living out of blogging?

 

[emailme.]

what i meant by niche is to have a target audience.

i think as much as it is a online diary i think there should be a direction. that is why it is specifically focused on personal obsessions.

do i want to make money? im not sure yet but what i want is to be the best at what i do. this is why i want to know if its too vague because i want to keep people interested and that is done by being relateable and not alienate viewers with posts theyre not interested in.

 

[j'adore_couture]

^I think the difference between interest in the diary aspect and content aspect needs to be addressed. If you wish your focus to be more on what interests you rather than a portrait of you as a person, I think you should categorize the posts in a more topic-oriented fashion (no pun intended ).

 

[F0F0]

what i meant by niche is to have a target audience.

i think as much as it is a online diary i think there should be a direction. that is why it is specifically focused on personal obsessions.

do i want to make money? im not sure yet but what i want is to be the best at what i do. this is why i want to know if its too vague because i want to keep people interested and that is done by being relateable and not alienate viewers with posts theyre not interested in.

How are you relating with your readers?

 

[emailme.]

good question. i think that a person who likes fashion aren't the same people who'd be interested in say calvin and hobbes comic strips.

a person interested in airplane parts isn't the same person who's interested in pop culture but i could very much be interested in those two things but people who read my blog may not be.

 

[emailme.]

what i mean is that i have interest uniquely mine that others will not find interesting and maybe even be weirded out by. should i have filter to answering the question, what am i obsessed about or not?

 

[F0F0]

what i mean is that i have interest uniquely mine that others will not find interesting and maybe even be weirded out by. should i have filter to answering the question, what am i obsessed about or not?

I mean "how do you relate (connect) with your readers (NOW)?" And I'm not only refering to allowing comments in your blog.

If a fashion icon blogs about any topic of his/her interest (i.e. airplane parts, Calvin and Hobbes, Pop culture), perhaps readers will start paying attention to topics they once weren't interested? How many times I have found myself googling for something that my favourite wrote about? The Sartorialist told me once that he believed future of fashion blogging is in sports talk radio. Now if some asked me what sports talk radio and fashion have to do with each other?! I'd definitely answer A LOT!!!

 

[emailme.]

so are you saying that people would be interested in those things? i guess i should have more confidence that people and my audience would be more open minded.

 

[FrenchCactus]

I'd definitely advise bloggers to have an account on Twitter quite early on. I hesitated for a few months to get one because I hardly knew anyone on there but now I realize how much it has brought me personally and for my blog.
- It allows you to network with other bloggers and form a community that becomes loyal to your blog. Follow Friday (#FF) is a good way to see who you should be following. The interaction with readers and bloggers is really the best part IMO. You can express things through Twitter that you wouldn't on your blog and if you don't post everyday it's a way to keep in touch with everybody.
- You can advertize your blog through it.
- You are informed immediately of new posts on the blogs you follow and information you're interested about in fashion if you follow media accounts.
- It's a good way to be contacted by brands. For example I recommended a beauty brand to a fellow blogger without any other idea in mind, and it turns out the brand noticed it, liked my blog and advertized it on Twitter and I now have an exciting project with them.

 

[kikiss]

I don't really understand How to communicate with Twitter

Thx for the tips...

Did you ever think of adding a multi-language plug-in ? I'm using WPML (http://wpml.org/), who just turned commercial this week. (sad...)
Old version is still free I think...

 

[FrenchCactus]

I don't really understand How to communicate with Twitter

What do you mean by that? I'm not the best at Twitter but I found it pretty easy and it really did help a lot to gain new blog followers and interact with other bloggers.

Did you ever think of adding a multi-language plug-in ? I'm using WPML (http://wpml.org/), who just turned commercial this week. (sad...)
Old version is still free I think...

I actually asked Wordpress support about plugins but they told me they can't be installed on a wordpress.com type of blog. So I still have a multi-language blog, but without you sophistication!

 

[kikiss]

Well on Twitter...you follow things that you like which is good !

But most of the time, when you like too many things, they're is too many tweets. So you have a big amount of information to read....

If you use your Twitter account to advertize your blog and in the same time writing to other bloggers, don't you think it's annoying for someone to read personnal things inside "Feeds" ?

I understand "@" is to speak with somebody, but the use of "#" is still weird for me....
Did somebody a list of all Fashion friendly #PFW #LFW #NYFW ?

 

[kikiss]

So I still have a multi-language blog, but without you sophistication!

Hhahahha ! "Sophistication" sweet word for NERD...

I'm gonna read wonderful Pdf files on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), very important for Wordpress users and I will try give tips later....

 

[FrenchCactus]

Well on Twitter...you follow things that you like which is good !

But most of the time, when you like too many things, they're is too many tweets. So you have a big amount of information to read....

If you use your Twitter account to advertize your blog and in the same time writing to other bloggers, don't you think it's annoying for someone to read personnal things inside "Feeds" ?

I understand "@" is to speak with somebody, but the use of "#" is still weird for me....
Did somebody a list of all Fashion friendly #PFW #LFW #NYFW ?

It's true the number of tweets can be overwhelming when you follow a lot of people. In that case it's good to make lists so that you can view tweets by theme. For example, you can have a list for the bloggers you like the most, a list for media news, a list for the stores you like, etc.

When you write a tweet that begins with @(name of a person), only that person and the people who follow both you and him/her will see it in their feed.

As for the #, it's useful if you tweet about a theme people are going to search, like #beauty, #fashion, #LFW.

Hope that helps!

 

[ched]

The @ and # are holdovers from Internet Relay Chat. On IRC # means channel, so if you say #fashion on Twitter it's like you're pretending to talk in the fashion channel. People can search for #fashion and follow that conversation. Same thing with #NYFW, if you want to know what's going on with New York Fashion Week in the middle of it, that's how people are identifying their messages as related to that subject.

 

[dahse]

hi, great info on here.... does anyone know what the requirements are to use designer clothing on shoots for a fashion blog? i.e. if we just reference the designer is that sufficient, or is there more legwork behind it (written consent from the designer, etc). thanks!!

 

[Susanna-Cole]

hi, great info on here.... does anyone know what the requirements are to use designer clothing on shoots for a fashion blog? i.e. if we just reference the designer is that sufficient, or is there more legwork behind it (written consent from the designer, etc). thanks!!

Under current laws, clothing itself cannot be copyrighted, only original graphics or prints on clothes, and even then, I don't think written permission is ever required, especially for a shoot for a fashion blog.

That being said, it's nice to see where the clothes are from or who they're by, so it's good to make mention of it, your readers will appreciate it, and on the off chance that any of these designers should drop by, they'll probably appreciate it too.

 

[dahse]

Thanks for that! I def will let people know who the designers are, they deserve credit for their work, and as you said, readers I'm sure would appreciate the info...

 

[emailme.]

does anyone else have tips on twitter? i dont even know how to get people to follow you, retweet your posts, and pretty much make conversation.

all i do is tweet my posts but it doesnt really help since no one is following me and i dont know how to hash tag and whatever. the only chance of someone finding it is if they search something and my tweet happen to have the keywords.