As a fashion & lifestyle blogger I get several questions about my journey to blogging full-time and any tips I picked up along the way, and I haven’t been the best at sharing those tips, so I apologize. BUT, I’ve been thinking of ways to bring quality content to you guys and to focus on basically answering a bunch of questions by way of blog posts. If you’ve been following along for a bit, then you might remember that I launched a series in 2017 addressing these questions, but I’ve since changed my mind about how I want to go about providing that content. The more I tried to write everything out, the more I realized that simply writing blog posts was NOT going to be the BEST way to truly HELP and teach what I’ve learned over all these years.

I’m currently playing around with the idea of teaching a full-fledged blogging course, but am currently weighing all my options. I’m trying to figure out the scope of what I can teach (that will actually make a difference), who my target audience would be, and how in-depth the content would be. This process is taking MUCH longer than I anticipated. But in the meantime, while I’m working on figuring out all those kinks, I wanted to still provide some information on how to START a blog. In this post, I’ll be talking about some of the things you should think about/through before launching a blog. Or if you already have a blog, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to think through these things as well!

Quality, authentic content is something that can not be faked, so I think it’s a good place to start. It’s basically the spine to your blog. Let’s go!

How to Start a Fashion Blog – Finding Your Niche

What’s going to make you different than EVERYONE else? Because we all know by now that there are surely enough fashion bloggers (and bloggers in general) out there. So what’s going to set you apart from the rest? What will your niche be?

First, I want to say this: don’t get down on yourself or ideas if you see other people doing similar things! The blog world is obviously saturated, but it’s also full of successful blogs. And success is different to each of us, so don’t give up on your brilliant ideas before even getting started!

What Will You Offer?

OK, so if you’re thinking about starting a blog, you likely have an idea of why and what you’ll be bringing to the world. Maybe you want to showcase your beauty skills via tutorials, share styling tricks, or even write long-handed posts about life. Whatever it is, it’s smart to have a general outline of your future content. It’s smart to have a NICHE. You also want to know this before designing and creating a site so that you’re not wasting your—or a hired designer’s—time or money.

List out potential blog post headlines to make sure your vision aligns with what you’re eventually designing. You’ll obviously think about new posts and ideas as you go, but having a general idea of your content plan (like how often you’ll post, topics, who your demographic is) is key before launching. You want people to come to your future site and have a good sense of what they’ll get from your blog – and enough content to keep them there. Really think about what you want to bring to this world before launching – I promise it’ll save headaches down the road.

What Content Areas Will You Cover?

And also in the same vein, you’ll want to outline your content areas to make sure that you’ll be publishing consistently within each of your major categories. You want your content to be evenly distributed among all your categories so that you’re offering quality value-add (as I like to call it) for each sub-topic you’re claiming to cover on your blog. Think about how these categories will be organized and what kinds of posts you’d want to create within each.

I’ll talk more about actual content management in Post 3, but these are some things to think about first!

What Will Your Content “Look” Like?

OK so this is where visuals and stuff come into play.

Like, after you decide what it is that you’re niche is, the next question is to ask yourself HOW you’re going to GIVE people that information. Honestly, the answer to this question REALLY depends on how defined your mission is. For instance, you don’t necessarily have to have fancy smancy-looking pictures or videos to provide a need to people that isn’t being met at the moment. Further, if you can give the people what they want in an amateur-sort-of-way, it WILL work if they’re not able to get it somewhere else or they just like how you present it better. Stick with me here.

Consider the following example to illustrate my point. Say you wanted to start a blog that was really more of a weekly newsletter. And each week, you went shopping at 17 different stores and tried on all the newest arrivals. Your “newsletter” or blog posts could literally just be iPhone mirror selfie photos of you trying on all the clothes and talking about why you loved or hated each of them. Obviously, this “content” wouldn’t look fancy, but it would STILL be fulfilling the purpose and meeting the need of your audience regardless of the fact that you’re simply using your iPhone. Does this make sense? I think what’s key here is that you have your mission/purpose/goals clearly defined because you want THAT to drive what you create, not the other way around. 

Take away the constraints of time and money for a minute and just brainstorm what would REALLY be the best way to deliver the content that you’re wanting to put out there. Because maybe, videos are the BEST answer? Or if you’re wanting to start a cooking blog, then you’ll need to think about how you’ll be sharing your recipes? Will all your blog posts show the step-by-step process with cohesive imagery of each stage of the recipe? Or will you simply show the finished product? Consider how you’re going to tell your “story” or what different techniques you could use to best communicate your message. I encourage you think outside the box here!

How will you create your content? (e.g., photoshop, DSLR, video camera, etc.)

Now that you have a general idea of what you want your content to look like, you’ll need to figure out how to best make that come to life.

I gave you the example of the dressing room diaries idea (above) because I wanted to show you that fancy pictures isn’t always the answer. Don’t get too caught up in the pictures or the equipment behind it all. Honestly, it’s more about the VALUE you’re providing first and foremost than it is about how PERFECT your pictures or video-editing skills are. I hope this gets the point across.

Or if you’re just wanting to talk about trends and what’s hot right now, then you could use software like Photoshop to create your content or use images from other blogs (with credit of course) to create your content. For instance, you could talk about your favorite trend and use examples of outfits from various runway shows (or fashion bloggers) to support your viewpoint. This is just one example, but you get what I mean, right?

In the case that you ARE wanting to start a “fashion blog” and are hoping to compete with the many fashion bloggers out there, then odds are you’re wanting to produce editorial-type content. In other words, you want the magazine-ish-looking photos that look professional. And to be honest, if you’re wanting to work with bigger (ish) brands, then you’ll need to ramp up your photo game. It’s really all a matter of what you want to do and what your personal and professional goals are for the blog – because the answer will vary depending on such. I actually have a lot to say about this, but think it would be best to save for a future blog post.

What will your blog’s name be?

Obviously an exciting step, but there’s a lot of pressure as well. After you have an idea of your niche, it’s fun to start playing around with names.

Here are some important tips to remember—and that I thought of before deciding on Brighton the Day:

• Pick something easy to remember. You want people to be able to remember your site, tell their friends, and search for it without having to Google your name.
• Go with something that’ll last. If you’re in your 20s and single but for sure want to have a family and might want to blog about kids, don’t name your blog “Single forever.” Sure, that’d be a hilarious name if you’re writing funny content about single life and only want it relevant for a certain time period, but if you want your blog to grow with you, pick something fluid.
• Make it easy to spell and pronounce.
• Be sure it represents your content and message. I clearly write about a lot of upbeat, fun stuff, and I think my blog title is indicative of that. It’s also very general and lets me write about all sorts of lifestyle – on top of fashion – which I love. If you want something more specific because you’ll only write about fashion and you’re only interested in people who want fashion content, show that in the title.
• Make sure it’s original (a.k.a make sure that name or domain isn’t already taken. You can buy/check a domain here or through hosts like Square Space – more on this in the next post). Also, you might want to make sure your potential blog name isn’t being used on any social accounts like Instagram too.
• Don’t rush this step. Ask friends for their input!

General thoughts on finding your niche

Probably the most important message I have for y’all when starting a blog is to make sure you are dedicated. Starting a blog alone is SO much work – especially on top of another job, responsibilities, family, etc. – but showcasing your best work is crucial. Remember that EVERYTHING you put out into the world is a reflection of your personal brand. I know it may seem silly to think of yourself as an actual “brand,” but if you really want to take this seriously you’re going to have to start thinking this way.

I suggest scheduling in time each week – as much as you can – to work on your blog, especially on finding your niche and getting and idea for your content. Ask friends and family for feedback on what they’d want to hear about from you.

Go through other sites that you respect and find out WHY. What about their site makes you keep coming back? What topics do you spend the most time reading? What speaks to you? Bring that to your site and readers.

OK, that’s it for this post! Hopefully those steps are helpful with brainstorming and deciding on your niche. Next up, we’ll talk alllll about the technical side of things (I promise I’ll try to make it fun AND simple).

Outfit Details: Dee Keller Austin Heel // Soprano Lace-Up Shift Dress // Prada Tote // Shashi Mini Tassel Fan Earrings

Are y’all into this? What should I be sure to cover in future blogging tip articles? Anything I missed here? Please let me know so I make sure to answer all your questions!