Tag Archives: Bloggers

Alicia Vikander Covers British Vogue August 2016

July 7, 2016 By in Fashion, Magazine Covers Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 19 Comments

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Vogue is one of those magazines you are programmed to love as a fashion enthusiast. It is commonly known as the ‘Fashion Bible’, and it is one of those monthly magazines you see on the desks of fashion stylists, models, celebrities, bloggers and vloggers. I am one of the few fashion bloggers that is vocal about my dislike for Vogue Magazines. I find them bland and so boring. I can count on 1 hand how many Vogue Magazines I have bought with my money, and on 2 hands how many I have read.

The magazine’s articles hardly interest me, and the covers are usually a hit or a massive miss, but I still love talking about them. However, I do love their online magazine. I love the articles they have on there. I find them interesting and down to earth, and I remember visiting the online site on a daily basis when I had the luxury of time. Wish I could do the same now. Wish they could fill the magazine pages with more relatable and interesting articles, but I guess I am not the target market.

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The cover girl for this month’s vogue is Alicia Vikander. Her name does not ring a bell, but after some digging, I realised she is the Oscar-winning star from the hit movie – The Danish Girl. I am yet to see the movie but I do want to so I will be keeping my eyes open for when I do come across it. Gosh I miss Blockbusters sometimes. I hope it does not take forever to come on Netflix.

I am not a fan of this cover at all. I am not feeling her pose, hair and makeup. It just looks boring. However, some of the articles on the cover look promising. Like Accessory Preview – The bags and shoes to upscale your look, Style Agenda – Get ahead of the new season, and When a holiday becomes a life reset.

I will be looking out for this issue in the waiting rooms.

What are your thoughts?

 

 

How to Negotiate a Higher Rate as a Freelancer

July 3, 2016 By in Freelancing/Self-employed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 44 Comments

My Protein Red Concreate Image

 

Any job you put in time, effort and expertise is valuable. Sadly, some clients tend to under-pay. As a freelancer, you don’t receive a fixed salary. The amount of money you make from a project depends on certain factors such as your experience, the number of hours you put in your job and the scope or extent of the project assigned to you.
From personal experience, negotiating my rates as a freelancer has been tricky. But negotiating a higher rate – even trickier. Negotiating a higher rate is something you take step-by-step. Here’s how I do it:

I take note of my minimum rate
You need to know the lowest amount you can charge for a project without suffering a loss. This is your minimum acceptable rate (MAR). Your MAR = (Annual living cost + annual cost / hours you work a year) + tax. This formula gives you an estimate of your MAR.
Have the figure handy. The MAR gives you the least amount you can charge for a project. Since you want to negotiate a higher rate, you need to make sure your rate doesn’t go anywhere near your MAR. So if your MAR is £50, you want to start negotiating from £150 for example, so you have room for negotiation.

Charge per project
When you charge per project instead of charging per hour you earn more money. There’s some sort of psychological effect behind charging per hour. The natural view a client has of charging per hour is that the project ought to be done within a shorter time and they don’t see any reason why they should pay for more hours. This makes them undervalue your work and look down on the quality of the project no matter how hard you work on it.
If you charge per project, the client feels that even if the project takes a long time to be complete, the project will be of value and they’ll feel more willing to pay. If you complete the project quickly, it’s a gain to you unlike charging per hour where you earn less when you complete the project quickly.

 

Fashion Blogger UK Outfit

Show your client their financial gain
Help your client realize that they’ll make more money from the completed project than they’ll pay to have it done. Sometimes, negotiating for higher pay is all about perception. The client at the time may be so focused on the short-term loss or expense that she misses out on her long-term gain.

Adjust the scope of the project instead of the pay
Sometimes a client may come with a budget of how much she can pay for a project. Instead of turning the client down, explain how much of the project their budget can cover. So instead of cheating yourself by accepting the project as it is, clearly tell your client the scope of the project you can cover based on what they are able to pay. So if a client is only able to pay £30 for example, explain what services you can provide for that price.

Name your price
Some freelancers and blogger are afraid of quoting a high price. They think that doing this will scare off their clients. This is often not true. Naming your price pushes you to find people who are willing to pay your rates for quality work. You find yourself attracting high paying clients and keeping them. Accepting any price offered means you will always be working for peanuts.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comment section below please.

Happy Sunday.

 

 

Tips for Running a Successful Blog

June 26, 2016 By in Blogging Tips Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 56 Comments

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It’s one thing to own a blog, it’s another to make it successful. I must admit that running Fashion & Style Police has not been easy. In fact, far from easy. It has gotten harder and harder to continue to create unique, quality content every day. I put in long hours of work to make it what it is today, and it is still a work in progress.
I still remember what I had to sacrifice to keep my blog up and running. Of course, I made mistakes along the way, but it has all been part of my learning experience, and I won’t trade any of those mistakes for anything. I wrote about a few mistakes I made in the early days in my book – How to Cash In as a Blogger, so download a copy if you haven’t done so already.

Now I want to share tips with you on how you can run an established, successful blog –

1.    Develop a plan
First of all if you want your blog to be successful, you need to take it seriously. Running a successful blog is hard work, so you have to be mentally and physically ready for it. You don’t update your blog daily this month, and barely update once a week next month. You have to consistent and focused.
Clearly state your vision and mission for your blog and outline the steps you need to take to make it happen. Plan out how you want to achieve your goals.

2.    Create great quality content
Great content keeps your readers coming back and keeps them engaged. Everyone loves quality, so quality content will get shared and reshared, which may lead to your post going viral.

There are different types of quality content, and they mean different things to different people. But for me, quality content has pretty pictures. Quality content is relatable. Quality content informs, educates or entertains. Quality content is written in clear regular english. Minimal swear words and slangs, if needed.

The key to great content is value. Give content that is well researched and useful to your readers. Let the aim of any piece of content you put on your blog be to help someone. And remember you can help people in a variety of ways. You can put a smile on a face, make someone laugh out loud or just be a source of inspiration or entertainment on a boring day.

3.    Optimize your blog
If your blog is SEO-friendly, it helps increase your blog’s visibility. Use the right keywords in your blog posts so your blog comes up in search results.
Increasing the loading speed of your blog and optimizing your images also helps increase your search rankings. Google knows that slow pages are annoying, I find them so annoying, so Google ranks sites that give their readers a better user-experience higher on the search results.

 

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4.    Engage with your readers
Your blog is nothing without your readers. So take time to respond to their comments when you can, and interact with your followers on social media.

5.    Consistently develop your knowledge and skill
You need to always be up to date with information on your niche. After all you’re putting yourself out there as an expert so you have to do your part by making sure you are informed. In the long run, this improves your blog content and you’ll be seen as the go-to resource for information in your niche.

6.    Publicize your blog
Do all you can to let people know about your blog. Share your blog posts in relevant groups on social media, use the relevant hashtags, write guest posts and network with other bloggers in your niche.

7.    Be consistent
Consistency is key. Whatever strategy, routine or plan you have for your blog, stick to it. Have a schedule to help you track what you post, when you post and how often you post your blog posts.

Having a successful blog takes time. Do not be discouraged if you don’t start to see results immediately. It took me 4 months of blogging to get a sponsored post offer, and the offers only became regular a year ago, after blogging for 2 years steady. Keep doing what you are doing, and you’ll get there. Good luck, and do share any extra tips you may have in the comment section below.

Happy Sunday.

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