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

[punky]

If you are serious about blogging
Here are some links that help me...

http://www.problogger.net/
http://www.chrisg.com/
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/
http://www.techcrunch.com/

 

[VivaciousCohen]

i would love to start one myself, the most inspiring one for me right now is Eleria's. fashiontoast.com I'm obsessed with that girl's style! B)

 

[kimberwyn]

Bad comments are so, so, so, SO common in the blogging world. Especially if you 1. dont like a designer or celebrity (like the whole Lauren Conrad thing a few posts up) or 2. you're doing well with something. For instance, I know a woman who runs a site trying to help other bloggers get blogging jobs. She's a freelance writer who's incredibly successful but she gets hate mail from people who are basically jealous of her success. How sad is that?

And about comments...one of my blogs gets close to 3000 hits a day and we only have comments sprinkled throughout, but I know people read it. If you want to up the comments you receive make an open ended or controversial post and ask for your readers opinions.


Anyways, anyone up for a link exchange??

 

[morenoj]

my tips would be find your niche or general topic you want to write about, have an aesthetically pleasing template, pick a name that people will remember, build up you page rank by exchanging link or summiting your information to directories (4th media is filled with them).

It's also nice to involve readers - set up a comment system (i dont know why some people turn it off), rating, polls, giveaways, and so on..

For revenue: Join affiliate programs (LinkShare and Commission Junction are the best). Also sign up for Google Adsense and for Glam's affilate program, etc

More importantly have something to say.

hope i helped any of you future or current bloggers

 

[libertygirl]

As an English fashion editor in New York, I write a daily blog on my life and escapades in the city, combined with fashion industry news, reviews & trends. I've been blogging since March last year (07), and have found that my traffic has doubled each month. I haven't been blogging more frequently: I think it's just that I have found my blog's niche. After three months or so, other bloggers found me, and started linking to my page. I got mentioned frequently in entries, and I also started to engage with the blogosphere, by creating my own blogroll, & commenting on great sites.

In answer to some of the other posts on this thread, I've turned down all advertising so far as I don't think my traffic warrants the loss of independence and I use Blogger as I find it incredibly simple to use and it's all free!

Regarding commenting, I am not impressed with the toxic anonymous commentators who spew bile, but rarely have any constructive points to make. Still, I am am a journalist in the real world too, so I'm used to people wanting to engage - even if they make no sense at all! Altho, personally my mantra is, " If you can't say something nice, then bugger off my page."

So far I attract the greatest amount of comments on entries on: dating in New York, cooking delicious food, fashion industry tidbits & celebrity fashion (but I rarely post about this as it's so overdone.)

 

[Eclat]

I'm not sure of how I feel about that. Usually, I'm annoyed by other bloggers that only expect agreement or "nice" comments on their blogs from commenters.

That is, until I began being honest and frank on my blog about living in France...then all of the groupies (those living outside of Paris, a bit obsessed with the illusion of Parisian living, and desperately wanting to be here) began to come out and "yell" at me about how I was changing other people's perceptions of life here. Groupies were REALLY hostile, while Parisian residents thanked me for being honest and for letting them know they weren't alone.

When I get hostile comments like that, I actually don't approve them for post. Which goes against my original idea that people can post as they please...the good and the bad. I guess I'm annoyed when someone is just flat out crazy on my site.

I suppose if someone were willing to actually have a forum for discussion, and not lunacy, and they disagreed with me and wanted to articulate that intelligently and fairly, I'd approve such comments. Unfortunately, I don't get a lot of those. Instead, it's the real crazies that want to disagree and they do it spewing venom (which you can spot almost immediately after the first sentence...which makes it easier for me to delete them).

Those are the people whose comments I don't approve. My blog is not a circus.

 

[verymoni]

Anyways, anyone up for a link exchange??

ok! I'll add you later

 

[breathe0xygen]

^ yay! I'm down! I'll add you later as well

 

[satin chic]

Anyways, anyone up for a link exchange??

I'd love to! I've put your link up on my blog.

 

[Aloha!Voxy]

I have a fashion blog too, but it's more like a blog about someone who's studying fashion design to be famous someday

 

[satin chic]

I was wondering, what are your experiences with StumbleUpon? Do you use it? If you do, do you get a lot of traffic from there?
I've been a member for some time now and have been stumbling and rating quite some sites, but I haven't got any traffic from there so far.

I once read something like (might even have been on this thread) "Have 5 people stumble your site and you'll get 1000 new visitors", so I was thinking maybe we could stumble each others blogs?

 

[Hebden]

I was wondering, what are your experiences with StumbleUpon? Do you use it? If you do, do you get a lot of traffic from there?
I've been a member for some time now and have been stumbling and rating quite some sites, but I haven't got any traffic from there so far.

I once read something like (might even have been on this thread) "Have 5 people stumble your site and you'll get 1000 new visitors", so I was thinking maybe we could stumble each others blogs?

From what I've seen you only get a trickle of people...at least that's been my experience...definitely not 1,000.

 

[verymoni]

I wanted to join stumbleupon but I had to install a toolbar and I decided it wasn't worth it.

 

[kimberwyn]

Well I for one have gotten 1000 hits on more than one occasion from SU. The first time was randomly (which is how I discovered it) and the other times I exchanged stumbles with others, lol. Im not sure EXACLTY how many people stumbled me but the general rule of thumb Ive heard from others is 5-6.

It helps you get indexed in google, and people discover and bookmark your site plus subscribe to your feed if they like it. I would def stick to just doing SEO, link exchanging and directory submissions first.

Ive added your blos, Verymoni, Breathe0xygen and Eclat!! Thanks.

 

[The.Rock.Inc.]

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

If you ask questions like 'would you do this?' in your blogpost, the comments will flood in.
I think that the design is not important, the content matters the most. My celeb Vs runway blog only has pictures and nothing else. I am thinking that maybe adding some opinion would be good.

 

[libertyjaen]

copyright question:

fashion blogs are pretty close to online fashion zines

can you get in trouble from using fashion photos, like runway shots? do you have to credit the photographer, or is just like 'luella s/s 08' enough? do you have to credit the site you got them from, like style.com?

if so, how do print magazines get away with just saying the designers name and no other credits?


thanks!

 

[Dustcakeboy]

copyright question:

fashion blogs are pretty close to online fashion zines

can you get in trouble from using fashion photos, like runway shots? do you have to credit the photographer, or is just like 'luella s/s 08' enough? do you have to credit the site you got them from, like style.com?

if so, how do print magazines get away with just saying the designers name and no other credits?


thanks!

I'm really not sure but I think the majority of print obtain their photos from a source and then pay a fee to the source, that's a guess.

Re: crediting photos on your blog. I always do since I think it's only fair but I'm not positive about the legalities of it all.

 

[writergal28]

my tips would be find your niche or general topic you want to write about, have an aesthetically pleasing template, pick a name that people will remember, build up you page rank by exchanging link or summiting your information to directories (4th media is filled with them).

It's also nice to involve readers - set up a comment system (i dont know why some people turn it off), rating, polls, giveaways, and so on..

For revenue: Join affiliate programs (LinkShare and Commission Junction are the best). Also sign up for Google Adsense and for Glam's affilate program, etc

More importantly have something to say.

hope i helped any of you future or current bloggers

Google Adsense doesn't pay much. You don't see any of your money unless you make $100 in any given month. :-(

 

[knightley]

RE: credit.

I think as long as you cite the show and have a credits page, you ought to be fine. That's how magazines run it. In the back of the issue they typically cite where the photographer is from, either the agency or the photographer.

 

[VivaciousCohen]

I started one up, this Thread got me excited! And I wanted the "outlet" to create outfits worth posting onto it. For now a lot of it is older stuff, but some more recent photos are up at the top.

http://fashionchalet.blogspot.com/