How to start a fashion blog and make money?

Thoroughly revised: August 2020 

This is a long article discussing various aspects of fashion blogging, with concepts as well as tips and tricks - especially for beginners, who have little knowledge and experience of professional blogging. The information and tips given here are based on my own blogging knowledge and experience, and as shared by successful bloggers in fashion, beauty and lifestyle niches. This post talks about making and running a standard blog, not a blog on YouTube, Instagram or other photo/ video sharing apps.

You might notice that some concepts have been partly repeated in different sections. This has been done so that you do not miss a point if you read just one or two sections.

In this post, the expression 'fashion blog' is sometimes used for blogs on fashion as well as beauty and lifestyle subjects.

If you are interested only in some of the topics covered, you can use the following links to jump to those topics:

    

Fashion blogs: types and ideas


A fashion blog is a regularly updating website in which fashion-related topics are discussed, products are reviewed, advice on traditional and new fashion topics is given, and fashion trends and events are brought to readers' notice. Fashion blogs often have links to affiliate sites and also offer discounts if a purchase is made through the blog.

Similarly, a beauty blog is a blog with topics on beauty and make-up.  Beauty and make-up usually go together. Special occasions demand special beauty treatments and so there are usually sections devoted to such events. Beauty product reviews are often found on these blogs.

Though fashion and beauty blogs primarily deal with women's matters, some blogs are devoted to men's style and grooming.

Beauty and fashion often go together and many blogs have sections for each of them. A wider niche is that of lifestyle blogs that have many lifestyle areas such as parenting, health, family relationship, DIY, decor and travel, and almost always beauty and fashion.

Since a great deal of fashion emanates from celebrities in the show business - films, music, television - celebrities are often followed and talked about on beauty/ fashion/ lifestyle blogs.

Fashion blogs can be standard blogs or can be accounts maintained on Instagram, Pinterest or YouTube. Instagram is now highly popular for picture-heavy beauty/ fashion blogs; YouTube being a video platform, suits expert beauticians who can post tutorials. Sometimes fashion shows and events are also webcast or their videos posted on these video blogs.

Of the many thousand blogs and vlogs (=video blogs) on fashion and beauty, only a handful are maintained professionally and only these bloggers make money out of fashion blogs in the long run (of course, some make money with duplicate content or sub-standard/ copy-pasted tips but they make money only till their fake expertise is able to fool people).

Fashion blog ideas


Fashion and beauty put together is a very broad blogging niche or subject. It can be made even broader with topics on lifestyle activities such as travel, hobbies, decor, parenting and well-being (Then it becomes more of a lifestyle blog.) How broad the subject matter of your blog should be depends on dozens of factors. It is good to decide it at the time of creation of the blog so that adding or removing many topics does not become a pain. It also helps in aligning the blog's niche with its domain name - a very useful SEO action that goes with the blog all through its life. We'll discuss more on SEO in the 'traffic' section below.

Examples of fashion blog subjects


Here I give a list of possible topics on which a fashion blog can be maintained. There can be many more and some can be very specific to your location. For example, in India, marriage is a very elaborate occasion and a lot of topics can arise within this area. You can mix and match the topics and decide how broad or narrow your blogging niche should be. Here are the main blog topics:
  • general discussion about how to look beautiful
  • 'how to' or tips on beauty
  • beauty product reviews
  • knowledge base on fashion (like a Wikipedia page)
  • review of fashion brands
  • celebrities, models
  • fashion trends
  • ethnic/local fashion
  • fashion for children/ men/ over-sized persons
  • one type of garment/ accessory, e.g. shoes, handbags, intimate garments, eyewear, perfumes
  • products by material used, e.g. leather garments, herbal beauty products, gold and platinum accessories
  • fashion trends
  • video tutorials on beauty/ fashion
  • crafts related to fashion, e.g. knitting, stitching,
  • fashion and beauty training on specific topics, e.g. manicure and pedicure, hair styling, bridal make up, pregnancy wear, etiquette
  • information base on textiles
  • fashion photography, portfolio services
  • modeling
  • make up for special occasions, e.g. wedding
  • beauty related issues/ solutions, e.g. plastic surgery, acne
Fashion gels well with travel, culture and photography. Similarly beauty relates well with health. Pregnancy is a special event in the life of women, and so articles on it can talk about health as well as beauty. Interior design has a strong style quotient and so can go well with fashion blogging.


    

Fashion blogging tips and tricks, especially for beginners

 
A search on Google for 'beauty blog' gives 160 million results and that for 'fashion blog' 220 million! That means, a lot is being written on blogs and websites about these subjects.

Well, if you have been making searches on Google, you know that searchers seldom go beyond the first result page or at best 2-3 pages. So,  in the eyes of Google, the rest of the blogs or web pages written on the subject are not good enough . The challenge for bloggers is to come on the top results on search engines, to have lots of visits on the blog and other social media entities connected with the blog, and finally to see that visitors click on right links so that you make money out of the blog.

If we check how much money the existing blogs make, we get only a few hundred blogs that make good money from fashion blogging. If we break that down further to a location, only a few or none would be making money from the blog.

That is the hard reality, but that also hides an opportunity for determined bloggers:  most blogs do not have a good standard in terms of content quality, regularity and blogging craft. Many of them also do wrong social media optimization and many do the SEO wrong.

To pull your blog out of the crowd, let me give you top tips for improving your content as well as other compartments of blogging. Some of these are tips that apply to all blogs and some have been taken from the best fashion blogs, verified and then included in this list.

  • Keep the quality of blog posts very high. Your posts should show that you have expertise in the topics that you cover in the blog.
  • While you can publish some posts on background information or concepts, have most posts with either exclusive information or very useful and practical tips. In beauty, fashion and lifestyle niches, people look for tips and solutions to their problems more than just knowledge.
  • Compose detailed posts. Except for some quick updates, all your posts should be well-researched and more than a thousand words.
  • Keep focus. You can sometimes have big posts covering a wide range of topics, but generally write on only one narrow subject in one post.
  • Keep sentences short. Keep paragraphs short. Break post monotony with sub-headings, photos, etc.
  • Keep the language of good level, and simple. There should not be grammar or spelling errors. When writing tips and 'how-to' posts, address the reader as 'you'.
  • Have photos and videos in every post. Beauty and fashion blogs without photos do not look good. But photos must be arranged properly and they should not clutter the blog. 
  • Be extra careful if using videos. It is a good practice to embed player or give link to a video you have posted on YouTube rather than hosting a video on the blog itself.
  • Schedule posts. Keep ahead of time; write more posts for future so that you do not run short of posts when you are busy on some other activities.
  • Maintain a posting calendar and post different types of posts at regular intervals (e.g. a big post in a month; industry updates twice a month; tips on skin care after every four post; a review once a month...). This will also ensure that you do not run out of ideas for posts.
  • Do not claim or assure benefits that you have not experienced yourself. Do not make universal statements. Do not use undeserved adjectives. For example, do not say that 'aloe vera gel with turmeric removes acne in all types of skins, when used every morning' or 'using this cream every day for two months will make your [a 40 year old lady's] skin feel like that of a teen and the result will be permanent.'
  • In reviews, do not praise a product or brand or service too much, and not when it does not deserve that praise. 
  • Disclose your dealings with brands. Disclose when a company has gifted you some items for review. Disclose when you do a sponsored post or a promotion.
  • Do not post any content that is based on hearsay or unscientific belief.
  • Write unbiased and detailed reviews. Give a clear disclosure at the end of each post for which you receive payment.
  • Give the blog an appealing look by using a good, modern theme. Its design should be such that it looks professional and visitors find easily what they look for. Arrange posts in well-identifiable categories and display those categories on the home page (in a menu bar or a category widget in the side bar).
  • Don't forget going out to events and networking with brands and celebrities. Engage offline and with blog commenters. Be at least slightly active on social networking and social sharing sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. Have presence on 1-2 of these platforms - and cross-post between social sites and the blog.
  • If you maintain a YouTube channel or one on Instagram/ Pinterest but have no standard blog, think of opening a blog and making it the fulcrum of all content activities. That will synergize your efforts and result in better popularity, reputation and income.
  • Don't spend all energy, time and money totally on composing good content and networking. Do adequate amount of search engine optimization or SEO.
  • Like in all other blogging niches, don't make blogging as the sole earning stream. On blog, don't depend on CPC (e.g. AdSense) ads; go for affiliation and direct contact with brands. Monetize your content in different ways: classes, speaking assignments, fashion photography, webinars, advisory services, sponsored web events, paid reviews, etc.

    •     

    How to start a fashion blog?


    If you are very new to blogging, then you need some hand-holding. Please visit this article for all the help you need to start a fashion blog when you know nothing about blogging. Once you feel confident that you understand blogging, come back.

    I also suppose that you are reading this article with a goal: to learn fashion blogging tips and tricks so that you can make money from blogging. If yes, you need to know your weaknesses and strengths. I am giving here some questions to make your task easy. Ask these questions and find answers. If you do not have satisfactory answers to any of them, take necessary corrective action. If you do not take care of weak points at the very beginning, they will not allow you to succeed as a blogger.

    Starting a fashion blog? Start with right questions.


  • Are you in beauty/ fashion business or are associated with companies doing such a business? Do you have a beauty parlor or garment boutique? - If answer to either question is yes, great! It will put you in an advantageous position. If not, you will have to work harder to be better than such resourceful bloggers.
  • Have you done a beautician or fashion designing or other relevant professional course? - A course on the subject of blog will help you give right tips and with authority. If not, you must  enrol in a course or training. The least you should do is to read as much as possible about the subject and seek answers to questions from established bloggers, on Quora or on forums.
  • Do you have good knowledge of human biology, especially skin? Or different fabrics and major fashion trends? - Such knowledge can add insightful value to the blog, but these are secondary. If you have not done a course in the main subject, these can substitute to some extent. As said in the earlier point, try to assimilate as much knowledge as possible.
  • Do you have some appreciation about diet, chemistry of beauty products, etc? Or (in the case of fashion:) fabrics, body shapes, tailoring etc? - These might look unimportant, but if you want to impart authority to the blog, your posts must not have any error relating to finer details. If you do not have detailed knowledge about related subject and reading so much looks cumbersome, have some expert in your circle who goes through your posts before you publish them.
  • Do you keep yourself up-to-date on latest developments in these fields? - You must make it a habit to be updated on the topic of blog. Fashion and make-up/ grooming trends do not change overnight; however, you would continue to promote old stuff if you are not alert - and that would ruin your prospects as a fashion blogger. In fact, you should be one of the first to announce a new trend.
  • Are you in a location where men and women go for beauty treatments? - If yes, that would be a big advantage.
  • Do you maintain contact with celebrities, fashion icons, models, etc? - If yes, they can be used as contributors, you can interview them. When they are associated with your blog, they will themselves promote your blog even if indirectly.
  • Do you attend events such as beauty classes, workshops and fashion events in your area? - As a fashion blogger, you should be active in events so as to make connections and talk to potential contributors, visitors, etc.
  • Do you have mastery over the language in which you blog? - If you are not comfortable in English and your local language has the potential to draw visitors, go for that language. Whichever language you choose, make sure that your posts do not have language errors. If required, take help from friends or freelance editors.
  • Do you have such appreciation of different aspects of the subject you choose for the blog so that you can write 50 articles on related topics if somebody challenges you to do it in 25 days?
  • Can you visualize writing long posts with very useful advice that other blogs don't have? - This is not essential; but as told earlier, you should occasionally write big posts with well-researched content.
  • Can you take photos with your camera or mobile phone, which will suit the topics of the posts? - Learn to use your camera well. If you do not know the concepts of digital photography and photo editing,
  • How much time, energy and money can you spare for blogging? - To be a successful blogger, you need to spend a lot of time and energy in setting up the blog including designing it, then hosting it, then keep adding good articles, also doing SEO and promotion, and so on. Are you prepared for it? In addition, for making money from a fashion blog, you also need to invest on it: on purchasing domain name, web hosting and theme. If you do not know technology at all, you might need to hire some techie at least for some time. You may like to hire services of a web designer and SEO expert. If you want to add e-commerce, you will need to pay for setting up payment gateway etc.  The time, energy and money requirements will depend upon your ambition; even at the most basic level, keep some money for web hosting and domain name.
  • Do you understand the craft of blogging/- some style, some placement of widgets, some navigation tweaks? Do you know a bit of HTML, CSS, SEO, social media management? - If yes, that will save you time and money. If not, you should be prepared to hire the services of somebody who can design the blog for you, do SEO on the blog and integrate social media. The minimum you should do is to yourself learn the basics of HTML tweaking, SEO and social media management, and integrating plugins and other useful codes (e.g. Google analytics and search console). 
  • You must also know the easy maintenance work that is required to be done regularly: updating the blog's core software and plugins; backing up blog's resources on your device or cloud; checking security aspects; checking whether any links have gone bad (broken link issue); search performance. Don't get scared if you know nothing out of the above and do not have money to spare beyond web hosting and domain name registration. If you are determined to make money out of the blog and are ready to patiently keep improving the blog, you will learn the tricks of the trade soon.
  • Are you really deeply interested in being beautiful and making others beautiful and fashionable OR you want to do beauty blogging just to make quick money? - If only making money is your goal and you are not passionate about fashion/ beauty and blogging, I advise you to look for some other avenue for making money and forget blogging
  • Which mode of expression is your forte - (i) writing or (ii) photography or creating videos? -  You need to be very good in at least one of them. That should decide whether you will open a self-hosted blog or an image/ video sharing channel on Pinterest, Instagram or YouYube. Of course, you should have a mix of more than one platform, but one of them will have to be you primary blog/ social account.
  • Do you have a buzzing social media circle on Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, WhatsApp, Google Plus, Twitter, etc? - If you already have good social presence, that will help greatly as visitors in each platform can promote the blog and drive traffic to it. For this, you should make one of the entities the hub of all your online activities and let other entities support it. Usually the blog is the hub entity but it can also be an Instagram account or something else.
    
    How to start a fashion blog

    The above questions prepare you for the work that you will be doing to make your blog a success. However, the reader or visitor is as important. So, you must prepare yourself to meet the expectations of the visitor. For that, ask yourself this: Who is my visitor? How will I help the visitor through my blog?

    You must make a rough sketch of your visitor either on paper or in your mind: He can be a young lady or an old one; a socialite or a budding celebrity; one who wants to learn make up or one in search of beauty products; a boutique owner in an Indonesian town  or a self-made style diva; one who is frustrated with her skin, hair or waistline... What are his/ her needs and problems? Why should he/ she visit your blog? How is your blog solving their problems?

    Let me give the example of IndianTopBlogs. We have this blog on 'blogging'. Our visitors can be all types of newbie bloggers and those who want to start a blog. We focus on new bloggers rather than established bloggers because the established ones know blogging well and some of them have much more resources than ITB. This blog is in English.

    So, most of our readers/ visitors will be new bloggers, would-be bloggers and bloggers who are not yet big and successful. Many of them will be interested in making money from blogging, and knowing why their blog is not making enough money. They know English, and can be from any part of the world. Our effort, naturally, is to help such bloggers in creating a blog and making it successful, also to help bloggers who are struggling with the blog because it is not succeeding the way they had planned.

    We know blogging well and we are confident we write well in English. However, none of us here is a fashionista. But we must write posts specifically for people wanting to open blogs in different niches. So, this post is for bloggers wanting to start a fashion blog, or a blog in related niches such as beauty products and lifestyle. We did a lot of research on the web and analyzed how the best fashion blogs are maintained. We sent a questionnaire to some established bloggers in these niches. We also talked to some ladies and one gentleman who have become really big fashion bloggers.

    The short point is: Meet the needs of your existing and prospective visitors.


    Making money from fashion blog needs investing money too!


    In this section, I discuss standard blogging, not channels on photo/ video sharing sites. In addition, though you can use any content management system or website builder for designing the blog,  let us discuss Wordpress.org for reference because this is the most popular and easy blogging platform.

    If your goal is to make money from the fashion blog (but you are also passionate about the subject), you should be prepared to invest at least some money into the blog as mentioned in the above section.
    Let us look at these simple arithmetic formulas: 
  • Total cost of blogging = cost of creating the blog + expenses involved in maintaining the blog + costs involved in promotion, SEO etc + peripheral expenses
  • Profit = returns from the blog ( details of earning streams in the 'making money' section below) - total cost
    So, as a fashion blogger, you should take blogging as your business and maximize profit. Like a savvy businessman, you should not be miserly in spending if that will result in higher returns. At the same time, you should not splurge for the sake of your ego or a compulsive thought that 'my blog must match the best in style'.

    The following are the main items of expenses on a fashion blog:

    The first set of costs are basic costs that are to be incurred for online publishing and being updated with fashion and beauty trends.
  • Basic device cost: cost of computer/ laptop/ smart phone; internet connection
  • Creation of image and videos: cost of smart phone/ camera/ video camera, other equipment; cost of photographs if you think of buying them from others
  • Visits to beauty events, fashion events, beauticians, experts, markets
  • Purchase of beauty products for use or review
  • Cost of subscribing to beauty/ fashion magazines and websites if you like
    Then come expenses in creating and setting up the blog. You can create a blog very easily and with just a few clicks on Blogger and Wordpress free platforms. But that is not the best way to approach beauty/ fashion/ lifestyle blogging. At most, you can have an experimental blog on one of these free blogging platforms but the actual blog MUST be self-hosted, i.e. you pay for web hosting of the blog.

    Let me not discuss here the advantages or disadvantages of having a self-hosted blog, because this post is becoming too long. I have a section on this post on blogging, which will guide you on self-hosted vs free blogs.

    While just starting the blog, you need to take the following actions that will involve expenditure:
  • Buying a domain name for the blog: You cannot avoid this. You will have to buy a domain name. Buy a name that relates to your blog's subject. Buy a domain ending with .com. While you can get domain names for as little as $2 for a year, popular domains can be very costly. Multi-year plans are often cheaper.
  • Designing the blog: Designing a blog on Wordpress is not too difficult, and it is made much easy by ready-made themes. If you are OK with one of the many free themes suitable for fashion blogs, fine; if not, you will have to spend on theme: they can cost a few dollars or many hundred depending on the features you want to have on the blog.
  • Web hosting of the blog: The blog must be hosted in a server maintained by a web hosting company, so that it is available online all the time. I have talked about choosing the best web host suiting your requirement. Web hosting involves expenditure and the cost depends upon the hosting company and the plan you choose. Go for a shared hosting plan. The costs can start from $10 a year, but be sure that the web host gives you enough storage space and bandwidth, security, back-up options and trouble-shooting. Setting up of the blog needs a bit of effort but if you follow the instructions of the web host, there should be no issue. Big web hosts have online chat/ phone helplines to trouble-shoot if you are stuck. However, some bloggers are too much technology-shy and will not do even that much. If you are one of them, you will have to hire someone to set up your blog on the web host.
    If earning from the blog is not your goal (you want to have a blog for showcasing your style, socializing and sharing your experience), you can choose to still have a self-hosted blog or have your blog on a free blogging platform. In fact, Instagram and Pinterest, more than a standard blog or a YouTube channel, suit such bloggers.

    The next set of expenses are for bringing the blog and its posts in front of prospective readers/ visitors/ clients. There are different ways of doing that, and these can be divided into two groups: (i) promoting the blog on the web and in other ways; (ii) making the blog appear high in Google search pages. These are discussed in detail in the 'traffic' section below. You may need to spend money on these actions if you are not prepared to spend your own time and energy.

    Maintenance of the blog needs money. Setting up the blog is one-time affair; but the blog has to be hosted and its domain kept in your possession year after year - these are unavoidable recurring  expenses. Some themes need annual payment and they ask for money when they upgrade to keep pace with up-gradation of the core Wordpress software. Some paid plugins will not work if you don't upgrade them regularly, on a payment. If the web host does not provide you a security certificate or provides a certificate free for one year only, you will need to buy a new security certification. (You can avoid this expense as long as you do not have an ecommerce activity on the blog, by installing LetsEncrypt, a free security certificate.)

    There are some expenses that arise when the blog grows beyond the present web hosting plan. You may require additional space if you post many images and videos on the blog. You may need additional bandwidth if the blog receives many visitors. You may think of introducing a new e-commerce feature: that will need a new plugin, gateway charges, a superior security certificate and perhaps some hand-holding support.

    How to start a fashion blog from scratch?


    We have discussed concepts of success in fashion blogging above (and some more to come later). In this section, let's go straight to the steps involved in creating a fashion blog - starting it from the clean slate:
  • Make a list of topics on which you will be able to write regularly. Think of categories in which these posts fit.
  • Based on the list of topics, decide on the overall subject of the blog. Be sure that it is not too narrow or too broad, and you are confident to keep producing good stuff in the subject.
  • Open a free blog on Blogger or Wordpress if you have never opened a blog before. If you think of opening a self-hosted fashion blog, open a free blog on Wordpress.com for experimentation. Familiarize yourself with the tools. Write a few posts, put images, format posts. Do further experiments and see the results on the free blog. [This will be a continuous exercise while you take other steps.]
  • Keep all your photos in one folder. Improve upon individual photos so that they look fine on the blog and are not too big-sized. [This should be a continuous process, and the earlier you start the more organized you will remain.]
  • Make a decision about web hosting: the best host in your area, the best plan that will suit you. In most cases, a shared web hosting plan (better if cloud-based) suits new bloggers. Also check whether there is a plan for Wordpress sites. If you decide to open the blog using Wordpress software (recommended by us), go for that plan. Check if they provide a domain name free and if not, whether they help you registering a domain name. Buy the web hosting plan and domain name registration (before domain registration, see the lower step).
  • Think of a proper domain name or web address for the blog. A name that is relevant, memorable. Buy it.
  • Implement Wordpress on the blog. (Start publishing posts if a decision on theme/ design is going to take time. Otherwise, go to the next step.)
  • Think also of the right web design for the blog. On the dashboard of the blog (in left column), there is a tool for plugins or appearance. That will allow you to select one of the thousands of free themes available. If you are OK with one of them, apply that.
  • Don't forget to associate right categories and labels with each post. On a menu bar (its shape, size and location will depend on the theme), display the categories.
  • For SEO, apply one the free plugins available. I will suggest Rank Math or Yoast
  • Start publishing new posts, sharing them on social media.

    • Your blog is ready. There is no limit to which you can improve it.

    If you already have a fashion blog on a free blogging platform, you can export it to the new self-hosted website/ blog. The web hosts usually have a way to do that easily, but it can sometimes be painful too if you have a very large number of posts with local HTML tweaking. If you need to export an existing blog, do that patiently and carefully - after taking a back-up of the existing blog.


        

    How to increase blog traffic?


    A blog needs traffic, unless it is purposely kept private. The blogger who blogs for making money must take additional actions so that the blog is discovered and shared by people. Take these actions:

    Be active on social media, and cross-post content. Comment on others' blogs and social media accounts - but only when you find something worth commenting upon: do not make comments such as this as they do not add to the discussion and look spammy: 'You have written a fantastic post.' or 'Thank you for giving such information. It is so good.'

    Create a beautiful page/ profile on one or two social networking sites, not many. Maintain it well. Carry posts from the blog to these places. Participate in communities/ groups. Use hashtags where relevant. If one network does not seem working, choose another one, compare the two for some time and chose the better one. For beauty and fashion, Instagram is presently the top choice of most bloggers. Regularly engage on these platforms.  If you have a YouTube channel, cross-post between the blog and YouTube.

    Put email subscription in place to create a loyal following. There are many email marketing websites (e.g. Aweber, MailChimp). They help you gather an email list and have features to send your posts or communications to blog subscribers. You can issue newsletter out of your posts (e.g. a monthly newsletter with all posts published during the month) and post them in social communities and mail them to email subscribers.

    Take at least some SEO action. Do not ignore this aspect. The competition in the beauty and fashion niches is so much that your blog will not come on the first page of search engines - however good your posts may be - unless you do some search optimization. IndianTopBlogs has many posts on search engine optimization that is simple yet effective. If you are wary of taking even these simple SEO actions, take help from an SEO expert. However, be careful not to fall into the trap of people promising lots of traffic quickly through shady actions. Such actions, even if they get you traffic quickly, are not liked by search engines and hurt the blog in the long run.

    Fashion blogging to make money

    Go for paid promotion if you do not get enough traffic even after free promotion and SEO. You can consider putting advertisements on Google, Facebook or Twitter. You can give free gifts in return for subscription or as an award for suggesting something.

    Don't ignore offline promotion. You must visit events where you can meet celebrities and other bloggers. Take interviews, get tips, share your experiences, grab any chance to speak to an audience, exchange blog address...


        

    How to make money from a fashion blog?


    Let me make two statements regarding earning from a fashion blog: One: Fashion blogging pays handsomely. Two: This niche is too cramped and it is difficult to make money from fashion blogging. Ironically, both statements are true.

    Sky is the limit for fashion bloggers because of women's unending urge to look better and chase good product and services. Now they are joined by the new generation of men. Unlike many other niches, visitors like to look at ads relating to beauty and fashion and thus help in fast monetization.

    Despite crowding of these niches, there is good scope for hard-working, talented and determined bloggers. This is true for bloggers sitting in New York and also for those in developing countries (very poor, conflict-ridden countries can be obvious exceptions). We have many examples of people who had beauty-talk as their hobby and then became hobby bloggers and are now big beauty bloggers. We also have examples of bloggers who later branched out to beauty business and now have their own product lines.

    Once you have at least a few dozen posts, a few standalone pages, and the blog has run for 8-9 months, think of monetizing (= making money from) it. By this time, you should have some following or friendship on social networks too, and if you have been gathering emails and have done some promotion and SEO, you would have a few thousand people visiting your blog in a month.

    Beauty and fashion blogs can be easily monetized, but due to so much competition, you must have a strategy in place. Keep visiting the strategy every few months and revising it - because everything may not go according to your wishes even if you have worked hard. Also because  fashion trends and demands keep changing. A typical case is that of fashion blogging during COVID-19 pandemic. The blogs that changed their focus have not only survived but done well while that remained in their old groove have fallen flat.

    Also remember, blogging alone does not always pay handsomely. Many successful bloggers add other activities to blogging (e.g. running a beauty course, participating in online/ offline competitions on beauty) and make the blog the meeting point for all such activities.

    Product review is one important stream for earning dollars from beauty and fashion blogs. If you regularly do good product reviews on the blog, beauty product makers and sellers will themselves approach you for reviews. They will also send you samples and background information on products. Of course, you will have to make the blog known to them so that they approach you. One way is to send emails to their PR/ marketing departments. The other is to look at others' blogs to find out which companies offer their products for review.

    You can review services of beauticians, spas, boutiques, massage parlors etc on your own, but such reviews are best done with their permission so that they do not object to use of their photographs etc.

    In all cases, you should be unbiased in your reviews; if a product or service is too bad, avoid reviewing it.

    Why just reviews, carry comparisons among similar products. Comparisons get many visits and you'd also see more relevant PPC ads (see below) on the blog.

    If you are interested in opening a product review blog devoted to fashion niche, I advise you to visit the linked post for a detailed discussion focused on that.  

    Affiliate marketing is another paying stream. In this system, you put advertisements of affiliates (=partners) on the blog, and when someone buys their product through your blog, you get paid. The payment is much more as compared to pay per click (PPC) ads described below.

    For affiliation, you have to register yourself on affiliate sites/ networks, and then they guide you how to select ads, etc.

    The common affiliate networks and aggregators include CJ, Amazon, Clickbank and Chitika. Some of these might not be working in your location, some might have products not suitable for your blog and some might not suit you for other reasons. Some big merchants will not put ads on your website/ blog unless you have a minimum number of page-views and when your content is relevant to their product. So, be patient.

    Your country might have some other retailer chains or networks that offer affiliation. Major fashion and beauty product brands are on the lookout for good fashion/ beauty blogs and are keen to offer affiliation to them. Take some time checking them to find the best suited affiliate for your blog; it is not desirable to have more than one affiliate's links on the same blog.

    Pay per click (PPC) advertising is the most common way to make money from a beauty or fashion blog. You have to put advertisements provided by the PPC ad provider, and whenever somebody clicks on these ads, you are paid a small sum. If many people visit your blog and click on these ads, the total sum that you earn can be big. AdSense, offered by Google, is the best and biggest PPC advertisement service.

    We'll make a mention of direct advertisements but brands do not place direct ads on blogs till the blog is well established.

    Look at successful blogs around and see what ads they run and what else they do to earn from the blog.

    Once you have run your beauty blog systematically for some months, you would get offers to cover promotional campaigns of beauty products and invitations to beauty events. With a buzzing fashion blog, you might get invites to fashion events, opening of new cloth-lines, etc. Mind it, these are not free; you have to write about them on your blog. Depending upon how well you write (that does not mean praising/ recommending the undeserving product or event), you'd keep getting more such offers and will also get offers to write sponsored posts. A few established bloggers have also got offers to write a book based on their posts.


Examples of best fashion bloggers


If you look for 'best fashion bloggers' or 'successful fashion blogs' on Google, you are likely to find many bloggers on YouTube or Instagram and many celebrities who are influencers in fashion arena, and they do not necessarily maintain a blog. I have not listed big fashion and beauty influencers who are only on Instagram and YouTube and those whose websites/ blogs have become purely business outlets and they do not even talk about themselves as humans.

The following are some examples of excellent fashion blogs/ bloggers in different areas within the fashion - beauty niche. The aim here is not to list the best ones but give examples of top blogs so that new bloggers can learn from the blog's layout and design, content, categorisation of content and blog navigation, writing style, style of engagement, SEO, social media integration, ways of monetization and so on.  
  • High heel confidential: a celebrity style blog by Payal and Priyanka. Is very update on South Asian fasion trends drawn from celbrities.
  • The Blonde Salad: This is an example of blog leading to a big business. Chiara Ferragni, the lady behind the blog/ business is one of the biggest names in fashion blogging and is followed by millions on Instagram. The blog is highly monetized, but you should not do that now if you want to grow to her level one day.
  • British Beauty Blogger: Jane Cunningham has wide experience writing about beauty and beauty products on mainstream media. She is candid about the products that she reviews as she feels it is her duty to tell when a product is not good.
  • Caro Daur: Caro's blog exudes grace in abundance. You will fall for the clean looks of the blog. The blog is not highly monetized. 
  • Caroline Hirons: She specializes in skin care (and therefore has a narrower niche than what many other beauty blogs have) and writes regular reviews. Is honest about her commercial considerations. Look at the differently designed homepage of her blog.
  • Purushu Arie: a male fashion blogger. He writes as much on fashion history and culture as on fashion. Not much monetization; focus on thought, style, experimentation.
  • Sincerely Jules: Julie Sariñana maintains the blog well, with affable styles and fashion trends. Her design mixes discussions around fashion with advertisements without the latter becoming obtrusive. Has huge Instagram following too.
  • The Girl at First Avenue: A blog by Chandana and Kalyan, it has something of many things that go with a fashion blog turning into lifestyle blog: travel, daily use fashion, ethnic fashion, festival wear ideas, travel, wellness and decor. An example of a blog that outgrows its domain name. 
So, dear blogger, work seriously and take your beauty and/ or fashion blog as a business; enjoy it as a hobby and have fun; make friends; contribute your knowledge and expertise in making the world a bit more beautiful. On the link, you can visit all fashion and lifestyle-related posts on Top Blogs. 

All the best!

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