Tag Archives: Blogging Rules

3 Blogging Rules Meant To Be Broken

February 14, 2016 By in Beauty, Blogging Tips, Fashion Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 77 Comments
3 Blogging Rules Meant To Be Broken

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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.

 

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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.

Blogging Rules I Live By

January 20, 2016 By in Blogging Tips Tags: , , , , , , , , , 84 Comments

Fashion and Style Police Fashion Blog UK

 

As you all should know, I have been running Fashion and Style Police for over 3 years now, and it has been a bit of a bumpy ride.  I had to lay down some ground rules earlier on in my blogging journey, for my sanity sake and I still blog by those rules.

Here they are:

Remember Why I Started Blogging

I started blogging in 2012 to get busy. I wa spending a ridiculous amount of time online and on social media in particularly, so I decided to get productive and so I did. I set up Fashion and Style Police in October 2012, and I have not looked back ever since. Whenever I had a bad day, I remember why I started blogging and where I was at when I started, and that gets me through even the most difficult days.

More on why I started blogging in my soon to be released book, so look out for updates on Twitter for that.

 

Ignore the Trolls and the Negativity

If you a blogger and you are yet to have anyone disagree with your thoughts, opinion, outfits, posts, body, or your face, then you are not yet a BLOGGER, if you get my drift. Trolls and the internet come together, anyone can be a troll, it could even be someone you know, hiding behind a screen.

The good news about the trolls is that most of them give up and leave you alone, and go off to the next ‘new’ blogger,  when they realise you are not going to feed them. They tend to attack the new bloggers the most, I guess to put them off blogging, or they see them as the weak ones. My trolls really came for me in my first year of blogging, and they said everything possible to put me off my blog, but I didn’t let them. I still do not let them.

The whole blogging/social media ‘thingy’ is still fairly new. Many have no clue how we make money or how much we make, so they hate on us or disregard us. It is human nature to ignore what you do not understand, so I get that, but what I don’t get is the hate and the negativity many non-bloggers/hobby bloggers have towards pro-bloggers, or bloggers that earn some kind of income from their blog.

I just ignore the negative people, who have no idea of how the digital industry works, and I hope they one day understand, but for now, their ignorance is my bliss.

 

Say NO

I have learnt to say no to any collaboration that does not benefit me. So I won’t just hop on a train for a press day in London because a PR said so, I won’t review every product I am asked to review, and I won’t accept every sponsored post request. There is no way I could say yes to all the offers I get anyways, so I take my time and weed out the non-beneficial ones from the beneficial ones, so I don’t waste anyone’s time.

In the early days, I was happy to accept almost anything, but not anymore. The tables have turned, kind of.

 

Enjoy Blogging

I enjoy blogging so much that I see myself doing this for a very long time. I find it relaxing and entertaining, and the fact that it has become a job now makes it even better. However, once I no longer enjoy what I do, I will stop. I won’t like it to be like my previous jobs, lol, but for now, I don’t see myself not loving what I do.

 

Ask for What I Deserve

Gone are the days when I happily took any offer I was offered. I know what I deserve and I go higher than that, to leave room for negotiation, just incase. I won’t write a sponsored post with a million links for $20, just like I won’t write a favourable review just because you want me too. Any review you read on this blog is 100% real, whether I buy the product myself, gifted the products or received a review fee. If the product is soooo bad, and I have nothing good to say about it, I won’t feature it as I won’t want to completely slack the brand. However in my 3 years of blogging, I am yet to come across such a product.

 

What blogging rules do you live by? What do you think of bloggers earning money from their blog?

 

 

 

 

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