Fashion Blogging Advice & Tips-Part 1

All Photos by: Jim Trice Photography

Lovers + Friends Cropped Pink Sweater // Distressed Jeans  // Bauble Drop Earrings  // Steve Madden Emotions Over the Knee Boots  Also available here

Happy Monday loves! I hope everyone had the best weekend. I had the most amazing one with my friend Holly. It was so great finally meeting her in person and showing her around my city. My friend Ashley also came to Charlotte to hang out with us on Saturday and that made it even extra special. I didn’t get too much sleep this weekend so today was a lazy Monday for sure. I am ready to get this week in full swing tomorrow! This little cropped sweater from Revolve was too cute not to share with y’all. It also comes in red which is so perfect for the upcoming holidays. Since it was cropped I decided to pair it with my favorite taupe over the knee boots. I have told y’all about these boots before but I am going to say it again, you NEED these! They are the best dupes of the Stuart Weitzsman boots that I have found. They also come in 3 colors; taupe (pictured here), camel, and black. 

So as I mentioned in one of my blog post’s from last week, I am going to write you all a post giving you my tips and advice for the fashion blogging world. I get a ton of emails and DM’s a day from you guys asking me about this topic. Since I don’t have the time to get to every single person I figured it would be a great idea to just go ahead and write a blog post. I remember when I was just starting out and wanted to have some questions answered. Caitlin Covington, my favorite blogger, was nice enough to give me her advice so I wanted to do the same for y’all. I had so much information to cover that I had to break this topic up into 2 separate posts. The rest of this post will go live this Wednesday  morning! 

Below are my first 6 biggest tips for blogging: 

1) Make sure to have quality pictures. I found a couple of reasonably priced photographers in the Charlotte area and take pictures with them a lot. However, I know not everyone can afford to do that. So I highly recommend getting a nice camera. This was one of the best purchases that I made when I started my blog and Instagram page. I have a Sony Alpha A6000 and bought a 50 mm lens with an F stop of 1.8 to use with it. It really doesn’t matter what camera you have as long as you have a 50 mm lens. The lens is crucial. It is what makes the background blurry in most of the blogging pictures you see which allows the camera to focus on you and your outfit or whatever else it may be that you are trying to capture. Luckily, cell phone cameras have actually gotten to be really good cameras as well. I see a lot of bloggers use iPhone pictures and their content seems to do really well with that. If you do decide to use your phone for pictures then I recommend using one that has great reviews. For example, the iPhone 7Plus and the iPhone 8 and 8Plus both have phenomenal cameras. They even have a “portrait” mode that will help give you that blurred out affect that the 50 mm lens gives you. 

2) If you do want to start a blog then I would recommend having someone design your site for you. If you are anything like me and not very tech savvy then I think this is the best route to go. I can always give you the name of the lady who designed mine but there are a ton of them out there that you could find with just a simple google search or even by reaching out and asking other bloggers. These designers know exactly what they are doing and they can make your actual blog site look so nice and so professional which can go a long way. 

3) Make sure that you are posting consistently. Your followers will want to know when to expect a post from you which is why this is so important. I post at least 1-2 times a day. My posting times are anytime between 8:00-8:30 am and 8:00-9:00 pm EST. I feel like these are great times to post because most people are on their way to work in the morning and are more likely to be looking at social media in the car or on their walk into work. At night this is a good time to post because most people are done with dinner and are sitting around on social media or watching TV. That’s why I post around those times and they seem to work very well for me so I highly recommend them. 

If you really want your Instagram to grow you must make sure that you post every single day. This is key to growing your account. I understand that some people like to take social media breaks on the weekend and that is totally understandable and sometimes necessary. However, make sure the break isn’t too long. If at all possible I would still post on Friday morning, take a break on Saturday, and then post on Sunday night. Sunday nights are a great posting day so I highly recommend always posting on Sundays. 

5) Make sure that you stay active with other bloggers/people on Instagram who have similar interests as you such as fashion and clothes. Make sure in your spare time that you are trying to follow new people, like their pictures, and comment as much as you can. This engagement really tends to do well and people will most likely notice you, follow you back, and also engage on your pictures. 

6) Make sure to utilize your actual blog site as much as possible. As social media outlets are constantly changing and new things are emerging, this is really important to remember. It is so easy to focus on Instagram and to think that this is the main channel for most bloggers. To a certain extent it is. However, this could change at any moment. Think about how MySpace used to be the biggest social media platform, then it was FaceBook, and now it is Instagram. What happens if Instagram was gone and shut down tomorrow or replaced with something bigger and better? You don’t want to put all of your blogging eggs into one basket which is why it is so important to utilize your blogging site. Your blogging site will always be there and you never have to worry about that going away. I recommend posting consistent blog posts as well. Now that I blog full time I make sure to write 3-4 blog posts a week. I do not write blog posts on the weekends or I could even possibly write more. I know that a lot of people work full time and writing 3-4 blog posts a week is not realistic but if you are serious about blogging then I would definitely try to write at least 1-2 blog posts a week. Let your followers know when you have written a new blog post and try to write them on the same days every week. I usually let my followers know that I have a new blog post up by mentioning it in my Instagram picture caption and by doing a quick little video on my Instagram stories. Just like on Instagram, your followers will start to recognize a trend in your blog posts and if you have a blog post written for example every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, then they will most likely go and read your posts on those days. In the blogging world, consistency is key. You also want to make your blog as “shop-able” as possible for your readers. Whether you are affiliated with RewardStyle or ShopStyle, make sure to have “Shop” tabs on your Instagram so that people can go click on your favorite outfits and it will easily take them to where they can shop the looks. If you look under my “Shop” tab on my blog you can see where I have multiple drop down options such as “Currently Obsessed”, “Under $100”, and “Fitness Gear” to give my readers a variety of options. I also include ways for my readers to shop my outfits on every single blog post. This is also very important. 

My other 3 biggest fashion blogging tips are a bit longer and a little more in depth so I will post those on Wednesday! Let me know if you have any questions about any of the stuff I mentioned today and I will make sure to answer your questions as soon as possible. 

XOXO