How to Start a Successful Fashion Blog | Outbrain Help

If you have a passion for fashion, you may be considering launching a fashion blog. First, you must learn the key elements for how to write a successful fashion blog. Below is a step-by-step plan of action to help you get heading in the right direction.

Begin By Selecting Your Area of Expertise

“Fashion” is a broad term used to describe many genres of clothing and accessories. Before you get started it is essential to select your area of expertise. This needs to be more detailed than writing a blog that appeals to men, women, teens, or children—but instead, you must focus on a specific niche within the industry. The area of expertise you select will be used to help create your marketing strategy, website URL, and website design. For example, you could select:

• Moms who need to be stylish yet comfortable.
• Women over 40 who want to wear the latest fashions, while still looking age appropriate.
• Shopping for fashion on a budget.
• The latest in couture and designer trends.
• DIY fashion.
• Mixing vintage with modern.
• Local boutiques and shopping tips.
• Unique accessories—you could focus on one accessory such as jewelry, shoes, or handbags, or focus on multiple accessories.
• Men who need to dress professionally by day, but want to dress down or trendier at night.
• Themed clothing and accessories such as superhero or sports center.

These are just a few ideas to get you heading in the right direction. Just make sure that the area of expertise you select is one you are excited about and will want to write about for years to come.
An excellent example of how selecting an area of expertise for your fashion blog makes it easily identifiable is such as this blog geared toward fashion-forward retirees.

Pick A Unique Yet Memorable Name

Now that you know your area of expertise, it is time to select a unique yet memorable website URL. While some blogs opt to infuse their URL with relevant keywords, this is less of a concern for your fashion blog. It is not that keywords are not relevant, just that keywords in fashion come and go faster than in most industries—and you don’t want your blogs name to appear dated.
Instead focus on a name that is fun, unique, and memorable. Opt for a series of 2-4 words that are easy to remember, and not too tricky to spell. You could include your name, or a series of words that sound good together. Consider sneaking words such as fashion or style into the name—but don’t force it. One of our favorite examples of a quirky and memorable blog name is Cupcakes and Cashmere, a blog dedicated to all things food and fashion.

Make It Look Amazing

There is much to consider before you begin writing your fashion blog, and next on the list is making it look amazing. Fashion is all about appearance, so it is essential that you make your blog look amazing. Whether you select a template from WordPress, or have you website custom designed—it must have a clean, crisp, modern, and stylish appearance. Also ensure that your website is responsive (aka mobile friendly), since fashionistas want to be able to browse their favorite fashions while on the go.
Aside from the graphic design, ensure that you have a method of accessing images worthy of your fashion blog. To do this you may need to reach out to local designers and boutiques, as well as nationwide and global brands, to secure copyright free images. Just make sure you have the copyright permission of any photo you post on your blog. If you enjoy photography, you may opt to take your own photographs. In fact, many fashion bloggers use themselves as the main model sporting the fashions they blog about.

Create Your Marketing Strategy

As with any business it is essential to create a marketing strategy. There are many methods in which you can market your fashion blog, so you will need to first determine what methods you will manage yourself—and which ones you will outsource. While your primary goal may be to learn how to write compelling content for your fashion blog, also consider distributing content elsewhere on the web to drive traffic back to your website. When creating your marketing strategy consider online marketing strategies such as:

• Social Media Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Monthly Fashion Newsletters
• Pay Per Click Campaigns
• Guest Blogging On Relevant, Yet Not Competitive Blogs
• Paid Advertising In Online Publications
• Banner Ads
• Website Optimization
• Networking Both Online And Offline

These are only a few marketing strategies to take into consideration. Ensure that you place a high value on social marketing because the imagery of a fashion blog works well on social media platforms. On top of that, social media and blogs account for 23% of internet users time spent online—and over 80% of all American’s frequent social media and blogs.
Ensure that you have a measurable marketing strategy, with a solid timeline in place before launching your blog—this way you will be able to accurately assess your ROI. While you may outsource some of your marketing, you will be responsible for a portion of it—unless you have a large marketing budget.

How To Make Your Fashion Blog Successful

Making your fashion blog successful will require you to find a way to make it financially lucrative. The general rule of thumb is that the more traffic you generate to your website, the more profitable it will be—but how you make your blog profitable is also key. Consider monetizing your website in the following methods:

• Allow designers and boutiques to place paid advertisements on your blog.
• Charge designers and boutiques for blogging about their clothing and accessories.
• Partner with designers and boutiques to sell the items you blog about on your website.
• Add Google AdSense or something of the sort.

A successful fashion blog is one that generates a steady stream of revenue. Just make sure that your blog does not feel to sales centered, but instead fun, informative—and of course fashion savvy.

Great Blog Examples

One of the best ways to try and make your blog succeed is by looking at already successful fashion blogs and trying to emulate the qualities that you believe are good. Two of our favorites are Refinery29 and the Elle Fashion Blog.

Refinery29 and the Elle Fashion Blog both race ahead of the pack because of their clean-cut, minimalistic appearances and diverse range of content. On any given day they will post an article pertaining to fashion, as well as to any number of other topics which interest their readers, and for that, we salute them.