I get asked all of the time about starting a blog. I've done a post about how YOU can start your blog(find that post here) but I haven't told you why I started mine and what I do on a daily basis to keep it going.
I first want to start off by saying that I have always been in love with fashion ever since I was in elementary school. My mom would always let me dress myself for school and that was always exciting in the morning to wear what I wanted. I remember dressing up and trying different pieces with different outfits. I even used to pretend I was SHARPAY for a little bit (LOL) (she's still my idol) (let's keep that between us)
When I got to high school, I dressed up every single day. That's so weird saying and looking back on because people don't ever dress up for their college classes lol. This was the time that Instagram was really becoming super popular and I remember signing up with LIKEtoKNOW.it as a CONSUMER of fashion and followed @cmcoving and @emilyanngemma and @shopdandy. These 3 fashion bloggers on Instagram were my true inspirations. I looked forward to reading their posts and shopping their outfits and I honestly really wanted to start my own. Thinking that I was too young, too broke, and not experienced enough, I decided to put off the dream. I mean, how could I start a fashion blog if I couldn't afford to spend $1000 on clothes every single day? At least that's what was running through my mind. I also had doubts of course, that no one would follow me or like my blog and that's an intimidating feeling when you see SO many successful fashion bloggers online.
My freshman year of college over, winter break I had this random spurt of inspiration. I started thinking about doing a blog and wondered where to even start. At 11 p.m. one night, I googled how to start a website and immediately chose WIX and bought my site. Then I came up with a name that I had been brainstorming for a few hours. (Probably not a good idea to come up with a brand name in an hour, but I was just too anxious to start so I stuck with it and love it) That's another thing about me, once I get an idea in my head, I HAVE TO DO IT. There really is no stopping me.
HOW I BLOG TODAY
After I designed the website, I wondered what I would even post about. I was so excited to start this that I hadn't even thought about what content to post. At first, I would come up with a random idea, throw on an outfit and try to post it, not thinking about the quality of the post. I have learned so much this year since then. I"m not perfect and I still obviously make mistakes and have so much room to grow.
This is the breakdown of how I plan my blog posts now:
First I look through my closet and see what I haven't posted about yet and what's in style for the season.
Then its time to SHOP SHOP SHOP. I'm not gonna lie, doing my fashion blog has costed a pretty penny (but I look at it as investing in myself) I try to shop smart and buy when there are huge deals going on at my favorite retailers. I ALWAYS look at Boohoo, Forever21, Romwe, Shein, Tobi, and local boutiques. I also like to buy a lot at one time, so I can my plan my blog posts accordingly.
Once I get an order in, I like to do a huge photoshoot, taking about 5 outfits at a time. I then write the blog posts for each of the outfits and set a date to make them live on my site on different days. This is so helpful to have content on hand when I want to post and to consistently write out posts. Being consistent is my main goal right now, but it's also putting out quality content that people actually want to read about.
Who takes my pictures?
At this point, literally anyone and everyone takes my pictures for me. When I'm not doing a photoshoot with my stepmom or other blogger friends, I usually just take quick pics from my boyfriend or best friend or roommates. It's hard sometimes when I"m so busy with school and work and want to blog. And it's not everyday that I'm dressed up and can drop everything to shoot. I try to make as much time for it as possible though because this is my passion and I hope that my posts just get better and better and people want to visit my site and read about valuable things.
That's all for now. Hope this helped you get to know me a little better and kind of understand my every day process of blogging. If you ever have any questions about fashion/starting a blog, feel free to contact me. I love hearing what you guys have to say.