Fashion Blogging for Beginners: The Mistakes I Made Starting My Fashion Blog

Shop This Wood Watch | Bracelet  | Similar Purse in Mint | Similar Floppy Hat | Similar Plum Hat | Shop My Bauble Bar Earrings

Fashion Blogging for Beginners

  It’s another Beautiful Day here in Korea. Very Hot!! I have my finals this week with UIW and I will be taking a break from school for 8 weeks. Get 20% off my bracelet or anything you buy at http://www.ilymix.com   with code ‘cutebrandik20’

Let me first tell you about my success

  In my first year of Fashion Blogging, I’ve succeeded by becoming affiliated with 6 to 7 different businesses. This is where I am at right now. I aspire to push further in success! When I started blogging a little over a year ago, I really did not know what I was doing. There were resources out there to help me succeed but I didn’t know how to find them. This entire year was a learning process and I have come a long way in my goal to becoming a successful Fashion Blogger. You can research the Internet all day and you will find various tips to help you along the way. In this blog entry, I am going to talk about the mistakes that I made along the way so that you don’t make the same mistakes with your blog. First, I will tell the story about why I decided to become a Fashion Blogger and the journey in my first year of Fashion Blogging.

How I Became a Fashion Blogger!

  The first time I noticed the trend of Fashion Blogging was back in 2012, while on my first deployment, through watching beauty gurus on YouTube. I was inspired and had wanted to find a creative outlet for myself. Unfortunately, at that time there was nothing I could really do in the environment that I was in. However, I posted my creativity on my Facebook for family and friends. I practiced photography with my first DSLR camera that my boyfriend- (now husband), surprised me with for my birthday. Even after my deployment, I never revisited the idea of blogging until 2015.

  In 2014 I was going through the hardest year in my military career. I decided to get out of the Army when my time was up in 2016. The year 2015 came fast and I still did not know what I wanted to do after the Army. During that year, my new husband was stationed out of Alabama. I worked long hours as a Drill Sergeant, which was a constant with 7 days a week, and hardly any time off. Instagram was my escape from my job and my lonely life living in Lawton, Oklahoma. I became inspired again when I came across a fashion boutique on Instagram with the cutest clothes – The Red Dress Boutique! I was working towards my business degree but I discovered that fashion is my passion! I wanted to create and go into the business of fashion for myself. My little sister was on board to help me out. We wanted to do a partnership and run a small fashion boutique. I noticed that social media was the new way to market a business, but where do I start? How do I get noticed? Gaining followers the “right way” is harder than I thought. I studied successful small fashion boutiques and tried to mimic what they were doing. My sister and I started small with an eBay account. We bought a couple of things from wholesale and tried selling them online. We needed content so I modeled some of our clothes. We had a couple of sales but we were still stuck with at least 14 of the 16 dresses we bought. We did not know what we were doing and I didn’t have the time to learn more about business and sales. My sister did more of the research. I came across some boutiques that had a blog attached to their websites. So one day I decided I created my own!

This is where it all began!

      I decided that having a fashion blog would help the business get noticed. In May of 2015, I started my fashion blog on WordPress.org. I was not about to pay for my own website until I get feedback. There was a community of other fashion bloggers there who were supportive and I become inspired. My sister and I stopped buying from wholesales until I can gain some recognition for our business but we never went back to it. Our business is on hiatus, possibly permanently or at least until I feel I am successful enough to visit the idea again. After we came to the agreement that the business idea was just a flop. I decided to pursue Fashion Blogging because I became obsessed with blogging.

Here are the honest mistakes that I made when I first started my Fashion Blog:

1. At the beginning of my blogging, I gained followers and likes on my social media platforms the wrong way.
2. I did not believe in myself, I was entirely too humble.
3. I was not confident and I constantly compared myself to other Fashion Bloggers in a discouraging way.
4. I did not do enough research before I started
5. I believed that the public would just automatically find my blog or find me on social media if I simply post enough content.
6. I did not network with other fashion bloggers
7. From the beginning I did not use very many social media outlets.
8. I did not blog about my items correctly.
9. I did not decide on a Blogging Platform (creating my own website), from the very beginning
10. I did not stay active and post enough content
11. I did not seek out to find businesses to collaborate with me
12. I did not use SEO nor I did know what SEO was
13. I did not make the hard decision of weather I wanted this to be a hobby or try to pursue to become a professional Fashion Blogger

  Unfortunately, some of these mistakes I have just barely figured out. I am currently correcting them. I am on the verge to better my blog every day. I am still a fairly new Fashion Blogger and I am learning new things all the time. As stated before, in my first year I have succeeded in becoming affiliated with 6 to 7 different businesses. A few of them have reached out to me but I have contacted some of them because I really love their products. The worst you are going to hear is ‘No,’ right? Even then, I remain persistent.
Look for more blog posts on “Fashion Blogging for Beginners,” as I go into more detail about the dos and don’ts. Also, I am currently keeping continuity of every step that is made and put together a ‘How to Guide.’
Stay Optimistic New Bloggers!
Feel free to share your experience and advice that worked for you.
-Brandi Kimberly