Some rules are meant to be broken they say, and when it comes to blogging, this saying is so true. When I started blogging three years ago, I read so many blogging tips, and I thought I needed to follow every tip, to make it as a blogger. Well, 3 years after, I am glad to say I stopped following these tips (that were not working for me anyways), and I am still here, and doing quite well.

Here are 5 blogging tips you should ignore:

Be a Niche Blogger

I wrote about niche blogs some months ago, and how the jury is still out on whether to blog within a niche or to have multiple niches. When I started blogging in 2013, I had only one niche in mind – fashion (just look at my blog name), and then I wanted to blog about beauty and general lifestyle topics, and I found that I couldn’t because all these other sites said not to.

Then  one day I just decided to blog about whatever I felt like blogging about and I have done so ever since. I enjoy writing about fashion, beauty and lifestyle, and I also enjoy reading non niche blogs, I find the content quite interesting.

Being a non-niche blogger has done more good than harm. I have more followers, some are following for my outfit posts, some for my product reviews, others for my fashion posts or lifestyle posts. Being a non-niche blogger has also opened doors for more sponsored post opportunities as well, because I can work with various brands, and not limited to only fashion brands.

So I will advise you to blog about whatever you like, as long as the niches are related like fashion/beauty, parenting/lifestyle, food/lifestyle, you will be fine.

Fake It Until You Make It

I wrote about fashion and finances some years ago, and it is shocking that I still see bloggers, especially fashion bloggers living a lie, just to belong. They are wearing clothes, shoes and bags that cannot afford, to impress people they don’t know, just to feel among the ‘it’ bloggers. The rule – ‘Faking it until you make it’, will leave you broke. Trust me, I have been there and done that.

You don’t need to have a completely new outfit for every outfit post, you don’t need to publish a new outfit post every other day to succeed as a fashion blogger, please do not feel like you have to feature a shopping haul post just because every other fashion/beauty blogger is doing that, I have never featured a shopping haul post because I don’t see why I have to, I also do not enjoy reading such topics and I am still here.

Be yourself, and own it.

Go Self-Hosted

When I started blogging, I went straight for my own domain because I knew from the start, that I was going to take it seriously. Along the way, I learnt about self-hosted and how important it was to be self-hosted to succeed as a professional blogger. Well, I am not self-hosted, and I have no plans to go self-hosted. I have ads on my blog (WordAds), and I make a decent income from sponsored posts and product reviews so there is another rule I have broken.

For those who still believe sponsored posts are not allowed on WordPress.com, and you can only make money off a self-hosted blog, here is a quote from the policies page:

When a company or individual encourages you to publish content for the purpose of promoting a specific product, service, or idea, we consider this a sponsored post. Whether you are paid to publish this material or not, we allow sponsored posts on WordPress.com as long as they consist of original content created by you.

So there you have it in black and white, another blogging broken rule I have broken.

You don’t have to go self-hosted to succeed as a blogger, as long as you have your own domain, you should be fine.

So there are three blogging rules. You can read more about how to make a success of your blog from my recently launched eBook – How to Cash In as a Blogger, now available on Amazon.

Thanks for reading and downloading, and have a great week.