Tag Archives: Pro Blogging

Media Kit For Bloggers

July 7, 2015 By in Beauty, Blogging Tips, Fashion Tags: , , , , , , , , , 35 Comments

A Media Kit is a Blogger’s CV and it is an important document to have if you plan on ever making money from your blog. A good media kit shows off every vital information about your blog and it’s achievements, and having one will give you an edge in a very saturated market. It is also a lot easier to send it along with a cover note to brands and PRs when pitching for blog collaborations instead of wasting your time, sending long and lengthy emails that end up in the trash.

A professional media kit will open your blog to various opportunities and it is worth every penny you spend on it. You can splash out and get a professional to make a custom one for you, or you could just a template online for as little as $5 and edit it yourself with Photoshop if you know how to work it, or you could make it from the scratch yourself if you know how to play around with photo editing softwares like Gimp and the likes. It is all up to you.

For the very new bloggers, that is bloggers less than 6 months in the game, I won’t bother with a media kit if I were you. You need to focus on building your blog in the early days so you can have something worth putting on the media kit. Once you have been blogging for over 6 months consistently, then you can start thinking of getting a media kit sorted to show off your blog.

Below is an example of how a media kit should look and what it should include:

media kit for fashion and style police

You can decide on how you want the design to look if you are going for a custom made media kit but try as much as possible to make it look like your blog. So use the same fonts, header, logo and picture on the blog for the media kit.

Here are some tips worth remembering:

  •  Have a picture of yourself, logo and header on your media kit. You are selling your brand and that will help you stand out from the pack.

 

  • Celebrate your blog achievements by putting what you are proud of on it and exclude what you are not so proud of, if possible. So let’s say you have 2k followers on Twitter, but just 200 likes on your Facebook page, then exclude the Facebook info. It may go unnoticed.

 

  • Put all the contact information on it, so email, Twitter, Facebook and anywhere you like to be contacted.

 

  • Remember to put in your blog address so brands can check your blog out.

 

  • Include a short cover note when sending the media kit to brands and PRS, introducing yourself and your blog.

 

  • Have a short ‘About Me’ section on the media kit.

 

  • Name the brands you have worked with in the past.

 

  • Put in your monthly views and visitors. That is your selling point. If you are not so proud of it, state other things you are proud of like blog engagement, number of years you have been blogging and so on.

 

  • It is better to put in all the info on one page, so make sure all the relevant information is on that one page.

 

  • Update your media kit at least once a month to make sure all the information is correct.

Do you have a media kit? Sound off in the comment section. If you don’t, tell me what you think of my media kit?

 

 

 

 

A Niche Blog or A Non Niche/Variety Blog?

June 30, 2015 By in Beauty, Blogging Tips, Fashion Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 32 Comments

When I started Fashion and Style Police in 2012, I had only one niche in mind – Fashion. I wanted this blog to focus more on my personal style. So I took pictures every morning before going to work, showing off what I had on, and I wrote my posts in the evenings after work. After many months of blogging on purely fashion related posts, it started becoming a little bit boring, it became a routine. So I gradually introduced beauty, lifestyle and blogging posts and I have not looked back ever since.

I like a bit of  variety. It keeps me alert. I like scrolling through a blog and reading posts on fashion, beauty, personal style, lifestyle, blogging and even parenting. I enjoy reading variety or non niche blogs than niche blogs because I can type in the url and I can’t say for sure what the latest post will be on. I can narrow it down, but I can’t be certain, and I kind of like the uncertainty. Call me crazy bu I get a kick out of it. It is like flipping the pages of your favourite magazine knowing the regular features but not the exact topics in the new month.

Fashion Blogging

Many bloggers set up various blogs for various niches. I wonder how they cope with their many blogs because I could not cope with a second blog I set up last year purely for reviews. I just could not focus on running two blogs, Fashion and Style Police won in the end and the other blog I have not visited nor published a post since last year August.

I know some people prefer writing and reading niche blogs. (Just check out the comments in this post). I wanted a blog that will enable me WRITE and I wanted to be able to write on fashion, beauty, blogging and lifestyle on the same blog without any restrictions.  You won’t see me writing about food, technology or pets for example because I have no interest in those topics.

As long as the topics have a strong, common theme, it is OK to have a variety blog. I see beauty, fashion, blogging and lifestyle topics as having a common theme for a loosely defined audience. I do not see beauty, fashion, technology, parenting and food as having a common theme, or maybe it s just me.

Creating a multiple niche blog opens more doors to various opportunities as I write on various topics, various brands in different sectors will be interested in sponsoring posts, giveaways and reviews on Fashion and Style Police, which is a plus. I know many successful multiple niche blogs like Cupcakes and Cashmere, Coco’s Tea Party, Forever Amber and many others, so it is very possible to be successful as a multiple niche blogger as long as you have a common theme.

Also, I write for myself first before my readers. I know some say the reverse should be the case but I find that posts I write from my heart and for myself have more views and more engagement so it is a win-win. Just check out my evergreen content.

Now over to you. Do you prefer reading/writing Niche or non niche blogs? Sound off in the comment section.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to reading your comments.

How To Attract The ‘Right’ Traffic To Your Blog

June 24, 2015 By in Beauty, Blogging Tips, Fashion Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 30 Comments

If you want to attract just anyone to your blog, am sure you will find various posts/articles online everywhere telling you how to. This post is different. When I think of attracting the ‘right’ traffic, I am thinking of attracting people who will like and comment on my posts, follow me on my social media channels and most importantly, visit my blog again.

Most blog visitors make up their mind about a blog within seconds of reading it, so that first impression will determine if they visit the blog again or not. A good first impression will mean a good blog layout, fewer ads, and many other factors, but that will be a topic for another day. Let’s focus on attracting the ‘right’ visitors to your blog.

attract-blog

Here are some tried and tested strategies that have worked for my blog:

Facebook Groups

Join the relevant Facebook groups in your niche. There are so many of them on Facebook. For most of them,  you will have to request to join but you are usually accepted within hours of requesting. I am a member of UK Bloggers Group, Beauty, Fashion & Lifestyle Bloggers Group, Fashion Bloggers and UK Blogger Opportunities and they are all amazing groups. I like UK Bloggers Group in particular because there is a lot of engagement within the group. I have learnt a lot from the group members and my traffic and blog engagement has increased since I joined. That is what I mean by the ‘right’traffic. I have also discovered some amazing blogs and  bloggers.

Facebook Ads

Still on Facebook, I am assuming you have a Facebook page for your blog, if not, stop reading and create one now. If you do have one, set up a Facebook ad to promote your page. You can set it for as long as you like and spend whatever amount you are comfortable spending every day for as long as you want. You can select the specific countries you want your audience from, and the age, gender and their interests. I have found this very useful in attracting the right traffic to Fashion and Style Police because people who are interested in what I have to say, like my page, and engage with my blog.

Twitter Chats

I take part in various weekly Twitter chats. The hashtags of some of the chats I take part in are #fblchat, #bdib #fbloggers. I attract the right traffic when I take part in these chats. I also discover new blogs to follow and make new friends so they are quite good. Check out relevant Twitter chats in you niche and get involved. Your blog will thank you for it.

Twitter Harshtags

I use relevant Twitter hashtags in my niche to promote my blog content. I use #fbloggers #bbloggers #bloggers and so on, depending on what the post is about. I attract like-minded people to my blog and I find that they comment, like and/or follow my blog. That is the right traffic.

Comment on other blogs

I usually find the time every week to comment and follow other blogs I like. I find that 99% of the time, the blogger visits, comments and follows me right back without me asking for a follow back. Let me also add that I take the time to actually read the post and leave a ‘real’ comment. I tend not to visit and comment on very big blogs. I go for smaller blogs or blogs with similar following and engagement as my blog, I find that I attract the ‘right’ traffic when I do this as most of the readers are genuinely interested in those smaller blogs than the very big blogs, and they visit my blog and subscribe in one way or the other.

So there. You have the secrets to my blog engagement.  Share some of yours in the comment section if you have a blog. If you don’t, tell me why you enjoy reading my blog.

 

 

 

error: Content is protected !!