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

[homeboy]

Yeah and the celebrities jumped on it too, and then the music

Do a lot of you who own fashion blogs get a lot of comments?
I find I get visitors but hardly any comments haha...
Maybe we can give eachother some opinions on blogs...

I guess layout and design is important to attract readers... and to keep them interested

I don't get comments very often but it's not an issue. Looking at the number of visitors and the length of their visits, using Google Analytics, tells me that people enjoy reading what I have to say. That' basically what keeps me going. 2007 was a good year and I loved the feedback I received, especially those from people working for big publications and companies. Have received from free stuff, as well as offers and inquiries from several companies.

In general I use a lot of picture since I know that people can't be bothered to entries which lack any images.

 

[vintageamour]

susie bubble, you're a fashion blogging queen! great to hear your insight about the blogging world.

 

[Eclat]

I have to politely disagree. I don't see how reading is a 'lost skill,' since everyone on tFS and the rest of the Internet (which covers a large group of people) has the ability to do so. Of course there are always some people who scan articles for only the key points, but that's nothing new.

I have a fashion blog, which I haven't updated for months, and the entries which received the most comments were ones with three, four paragraphs instead of the usual one or two.

That being said, pictures do play a key role in whether or not a person decides to read, say, a newspaper article. If the image representing the article is interesting, chances are the article will be too.

Seanut, I am a designer and I just finished a usability technology course and one of the first items covered is that site users don't read word for word. In fact, they scan, as the initial commentor mentioned. I don't know if it's becoming a lost art or what have you, but it is true that on average, most site users scan a site first and do not read word for word.

Certain key words and images may jump out at them which MAY prompt the user to stop and read.

 

[gius]

^It's exactly why I've been writing things in BOLD and changing the colour to RED sometimes

-- eye-catchers ...

 

[seanutbutter]

Seanut, I am a designer and I just finished a usability technology course and one of the first items covered is that site users don't read word for word. In fact, they scan, as the initial commentor mentioned. I don't know if it's becoming a lost art or what have you, but it is true that on average, most site users scan a site first and do not read word for word.

Well, that's not the case for myself (and my blog readers, apparently), so I guess I'm in the minority. For me, a catchy title is key, and finding a balance between clever and informative is what you should look for.

I write for a newspaper (a school newspaper, but it's a paper nonetheless), where we constantly debate over what catches the reader's attention, and last year went to the WJEA conference, where newspaper editors also discussed this, and the point is, an eye-grabbing headline is what generally causes a person to either read or not read something. A picture doesn't hurt, either.

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

 

[Luxx]

I agree with seanut, I think people do read. A picture might pull them in more but ultimately I feel a blog is judged by the quality of its content and usually that amounts to words.

It is great to see everyone's insights into this subject though. I feel like comments are a gift and a curse - its good to have feedback from people but sometimes it can be harsh or downright mean feedback. There are times when I get comments and I'm like "Goodness. Gracious. Me. "

I feel the hardest thing about a blog (at least for me) is keeping things up to date. I'm a natural born procrastinator and since so much of working on a blog is based on self motivation I find its sometimes hard to update as much as I would like to - either my natural inclinations get in the way or there is some other work that gets in the way.

Madhuri, I am also so curious about Who What Wear Daily. I ADORE their site and I wish I knew how they keep their content looking so great all the time - especially the video content. Same goes for We Love Beauty.com , another site with beautiful design and smart video content. I just want to see how they budget and plan for all that since their hard work has payed off so much. Both sites look so professional!

 

[Lina5]

so which blogging provider do you recommend?

 

[seanutbutter]

I feel like comments are a gift and a curse - its good to have feedback from people but sometimes it can be harsh or downright mean feedback. There are times when I get comments and I'm like "Goodness. Gracious. Me. "

I definitely see where you're coming from! Whenever I receive an email saying I've got a new comment, I immediately brace myself for the worst.

 

[verymoni]

I just started to write the posts in english too (I only wrote in spanish, my mother language), and I leave the english paragraphs and then, below them, the same paragraphs translated to spanish (well, first I write it in spanish and then I translate it to english).
How do you think it is better? making a whole new blog or just writing the same paragraph in the other language?
I bet you have good ideas, so feel free to help me

 

[gius]

...What sort of bad comments ??

verymoni I've seen several blogs in two languages

 

[satin chic]

...What sort of bad comments ??

I once wrote something not so positive about Lauren Conrad's line for Linea Pelle and got comments from her fans saying Linea Pelle was sooo high quality and Lauren's designs were amazing and how I should just go to Walmart if I couldn't afford her bags.
Just today I received a comment from somebody called "lame" that wasn't very friendly either.
It's actually quite funny how much time people spend making rude things up to say to somebody on the internet.

verymoni, I'm glad you decided to write in English as well! I've found myself browsing and admiring your blog quite a lot of times and regretting my bad Spanish.

 

[TeeKay]

hi guys, i'm not really trying to start a fashion blog, not anytime in the next 6 months anyway, but i am putting a new layout for my current blog.
Here is what it looks like, please tell me what u think

 

[indian_rose]

I've just started blogging....i tried setting one up on blogger but my computer doesn't seem to like it as i keep having login problems, unable to upload pics etc

So now i've moved over to wordpress and it does seem much more user friendly. Does anyone else here use it?

As for my blog, im not sure how long it will last but at the moment im keeping it quite simple in presentation

 

[sillysara495]

TeeKay, I think it looks amazing

 

[breathe0xygen]

I just started one... it turned out to be more like a inpiration/wardrobe scrapbook than a "update on whats going on in fashion" - but i hope people enjoy it nonetheless...

 

[TeeKay]

TeeKay, I think it looks amazing

Thanks very much sillysara, do you have a blog yourself?

 

[Luxx]

...What sort of bad comments ??

It can be anything from a simple sort of "I don't like what you're saying" and in all honesty I don't mind those anymore or it can be something really harsh like a personal attack. I've gotten some doozies in my day. But now I just sort of brush them off or laugh if anyone takes things to that level. Sometimes there are even little arguments that break out between the commenters themselves on blogs. Things can get unexpectedly sticky but these aren't things that happen with intense frequency - just sort of things to watch for if one does get into blogging. I think it sort of goes with the territory. I found that using Open-ID to make people have to be registered in order to comment cuts down on alot of the stuff like that. Another thing to watch for with comments are spammers. Ugh. They do target blogs.

Another thing I would suggest is making sure that the email address your comments go to is not your personal address but a separate one just for your blog. It may seem like a no brainer thing but its a good thing for safety reasons.

For those who are using Wordpress how do you like it? I always think about switching over due to all the customization options I've heard they offer.

 

[verymoni]

^^ that sounds bad, but you are doing the right thing not listening to them... they have just too much free time.

I usually read a blog, http://fashionreality.blogspot.com, in case you want to have a look, and the author always has horrible comments on his entries. I remember in one post he made, saying the best things and the worst things of 2007, someone replied:
"the worst: you".
who can be like that?, personally, I wouldn't never leave a comment like that. I can think, "she has no style" or "she has no sense of fashion", but I wouldn't leave a comment saying that! I would just leave her blog and that's all, don't you think?
why people do that?

 

[morenoj]

Fashion blogging has gotten really popular lately, in my opinion. And there have been a lot of aspiring blogs with tons of potential. However, bloggers get so discourage by the lack of comments that they stop. Don't do that!

When I first started blogging I felt as though it was pointless and no one read it, tip is to get yourself out there. Comment other people's blogs, try to form affiliations, or just stand out overall. Everyone has their own voice, so don't be afraid to blog because someone else blogs about the same subject.

I agree 100% When I first started BagBliss.com like 3 years ago, blogging was new. Not many visitors, comments or profit for the longgggest time. But I continued.. Now, according to Google Analytics I'm up to 4,000 to 6,000 readers a day (if featured in the news the # can double or triple).

It takes time to build a site and get pages indexed (discovered) when people do a search, don't stop blogging.

ps. I recently started TheFashionRow

 

[malina s]

I've finally got my blog running after telling everyone on my myspace that a few months ago. oh the wait...lol. it took forever for me to understand everything and i made about a gagillion mistakes at first. hopefully ill get the hang of it!http://www.therackfiles.blogspot.com/
and heres my myspace if you guys want to check that out too, it has more than my blogspot right now.
http://www.myspace.com/therackfiles