How to Start A Fashion Blog

The internet is by far the easiest way to reach as many people as possible from all across the world. With effective and targeted marketing, your blog can reach unimaginable heights.

Choose the Best Blogging Platform for your Fashion Blog 

A blogging platform, in technical terms, can be referred to as a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is an application that manages your web content and presents it in a manner that is easy for you and the readers to access. With a CMS, you don’t have to learn programming or web design to run a blog.

What Does a CMS Offer?

Benefits of A Content Management System

CMS Examples Include

WordPress

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system written in PHP and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database. Features include a plugin architecture and a template system, referred to within WordPress as Themes.

Drupal

Drupal is a free and open-source web content management framework written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Drupal provides a back-end framework for at least 2.3% of all websites worldwide – ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites.

Joomla

Joomla is a free and open-source content management system for publishing web content, developed by Open Source Matters, Inc. It is built on a model–view–controller web application framework that can be used independently of the CMS.

Wix

oftware company, providing cloud-based web development services. It allows users to create HTML5 websites and mobile sites through the use of online drag and drop tools. 

Magento

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP. It is one of the most popular open e-commerce systems in the network. This software is created using the Zend Framework.

ModX

MODX is a free, open source content management system and web application framework for publishing content on the world wide web and intranets. MODX is licensed under the GPL, is written in the PHP programming language, and supports MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server as the database.

Squarespace

 Squarespace provides software as a service for website building and hosting. Its customers use pre-built website templates and drag and drop elements to create webpages.

Weebly

Weebly is a web hosting service, headquartered in San Francisco. Its parent company is Square, Inc.. On acquisition in April 2018, Weebly had more than 625,000 paid subscribers.

What To Look For In A CMS

Before you choose a CMS, you have to clearly define what your blogging goals are. After establishing what your specific needs are, you will then be able to choose the CMS platform that addresses those needs.

Different CMSs offer different sets of features and benefits. Some of the factors you need to consider in CMS evaluation include.

Your Budget: Most of the top CMS platforms are free. However, Some CMS platforms charge different amounts for different packages. The good thing is that even the low-cost packages are quite impressive.

Ease of use: It is advisable to work with a CMS that supports easy creation and editing of content.

SEO-friendliness:Choosing a CMS that supports SEO tasks is vital because SEO will help you grow your blog when starting and even later.

Access to online help: Some CMSs provide access to developer communities that offer free online advice to beginners on how to customize and create content. Free CMS like WordPress has countless amount of videos and articles available online.

Select Your Domain Name for you Fashion Blog

The significance of selecting a good domain name is quite underrated. People refer to websites by their domain names, such as Twitter and Pinterest. 

Keep it short: a short domain name is easier to remember than a long one. If you can make it amusing, that would be even better. People need to remember your domain name so that they can search your blog online. A short and comical domain is catchy and therefore memorable.

Keep it specific: if you don’t have a short and witty domain and you are not a household name in fashion circles yet, indicating the topic of your blog in the domain name is recommended. This increases the chances of visibility in internet search results.

Make it more you: if you have already created a name for yourself as a fashion guru, you can use your name as the domain. If you haven’t established yourself in the game yet, or you haven’t previously connected your name to your fashion advisory, do not use it as the domain.

Sign Up for A Hosting Account

Once you have an impressive domain name, the next step is to choose a web host for your fashion blog. A web host provides you with storage space for your website.

A shared server is probably suitable when starting because it is affordable while still providing all the necessary blogging tools. When your web traffic grows, you can then switch to a dedicated server.

You can host your CMS with any web hosting provider. Web hosting prices vary from one provider to the other. Ensure that you select a service that is within your budget. Some of the popular hosting providers include Bluehost, WPEngine, and SiteGround. 

Bluehost

Bluehost is a web hosting company owned by Endurance International Group. It is one of the 20 largest web hosts, collectively hosting well over 2 million domains. The company operates its servers in-house in a 50,000 square feet facility in Provo, Utah. Bluehost employs over 750 people in its Utah facility. 

WPEngine

WP Engine provides managed WordPress hosting for mission critical sites around the world. Amazing support, enterprise class, & optimized for WordPress.

SiteGround

SiteGround is a web hosting company founded in 2004 in Sofia, Bulgaria. In most recent data, it reports servicing more than 2,000,000 domains worldwide. It provides shared hosting, cloud hosting and dedicated servers as well as email hosting and domain registration. In 2019, the company employed over 500 people.

Find the Perfect Theme

Your blog should have a great appearance and also function effectively. There are multiple themes for you to choose. However, some themes might not be suitable for fashion blogging. Your needs should be your guide when selecting a theme.

Free or premium? You can choose from free and premium themes for your blog. The prices vary a lot. We recommend that you check out the free themes first and see whether they offer adequate features for the smooth running of your fashion blog. If the free themes are inadequate, you can then opt for the premium choices.

Know what you want: The wide variety of themes can have you feeling confused about which one to use. Avoid such confusion by listing down the main functionalities you need your blog to have (e.g., slideshows, size of previews and number of columns). You then proceed by checking which themes offer the main features you have listed. From the selected shortlist, you can then choose based on the additional features provided.

Responsiveness: You want your blog to have a theme that loads quickly and appears professional when opened on a variety of devices such as Mobile phones and PCs.

What are your goals? What you want to achieve should be a guide in the theme selection process. The chosen theme should help create a blog similar to what you envisioned.

Who are your readers? Understanding your readership demographic will help you tailor your theme to the targeted group. This will help you in choosing the most suitable theme for your readers.

Choose the Most Suitable Plugins

Plugins provide you with custom functionalities and features, such that you can customize your site to meet your unique needs. You can add plugins that enhance photo viewing, quality and loading times of photos and videos.

Publish the Most Incredible Content You Can

Coming up with incredible content is far from easy. Content creation involves a lot of hard work, and the process is time-consuming. You have to research a lot, and you also need to perfect your writing.

Find out what you are great at: You cannot publish incredible content if you are simply not good at the subject matter. Ask yourself what sub-set of the fashion arena you are really great at. This will make for a good starting point.

Dare to be different: If you create content that is similar to what everyone is doing, you will probably sink into oblivion within no time. Try to develop and present your ideas in a radically different way. If you are excellent on the subject matter and you work hard at it, you will always find a way.

Put a face to the content: Own your content! Let people know where the greatness is coming from.

Put your story on it: Let your readers know why you are writing the blog and why they should listen. You might be surprised by the extent to which people are interested in personal stories.

Create a differentiated brand: Don’t just aim at differentiated content, aim at creating a personal and differentiated brand. Everything you do, including domain name, design, logo, and style, should culminate in a successful blog.

Take risks: Don’t be too conservative with your content. You can only be different by trying new things. Understand your motivations before creating content Perhaps the most crucial factor in blogging is creating good content. Content is your stock it is what you sell (and it is also what sells your blog).

What are the makings of good content? The best content is one that is beneficial to people’s lives. This could be because it is informative or it makes them feel better about themselves. This is the kind of content readers remember.

The best content helps in solving problems. Helpful content tends to be shared far and wide.
It leaves a great impression on the readers, and you get to feel good about helping others.

How to Create Incredible Content

Plan effectively: study your readership demographic so that you can create a blog strategy that incorporates current and future plans.

Learn from the market leaders: copy the best practices from the best in your niche and tailor-make the blogging models to fit your blog. Make it better if you can.

Stay professional: ensure that everything you present is done professionally, including photos and videos. This creates a good perception with your readers.

keep writing: writing is a performance endeavor, and the more you keep writing, the better you will get. Focus on finding your voice and disseminating value through your blogs.

​​​​​​​​​​Create evergreen content: Focus on content that is useful now, tomorrow, next year and a long time from now. Material that remains relevant for a long time is key to successful fashion blogging.

Learn SEO: Search Engine Optimization is vital in making your content visible. Various tools can help with SEO.

Network Widely

Networking will help disseminate the content you create. Get to know who the best fashion bloggers are and find out what they do and how they do it. You can use Google or Twitter to find them.

Try to contact them regarding fashion blogging. You can share their best content on your blog and give them a mention. Let them know you did it.

Try to start discussions with them on social media and other forums. This is a great way to develop a relationship with the best in the industry.

If you can get them on Skype, then that would be great. Once you have established a relationship to a certain extent, you can invite them to one of your videos. This gives you credibility to your readers.

Final Thoughts

Fashion blogging can be done for fun, as a business venture, or both. If you are well- versed in fashion matters, you can share your knowledge with the world through a fashion blog. 

Starting a fashion blog is by no mean an easy task, but your chances of success will significantly improve if you follow the guide we have provided here.

Like every other venture, you have to put in the work to succeed in fashion blogging. Having a great website, creating incredible content and effective networking will most certainly help in ensuring the success of your fashion blog.