Everyone has to start somewhere. I remember booting up my laptop every morning after I created my blog to see if I had that elusive first follower, and one morning after almost two months of blogging it happened! Rome was not built in a day and after over two years of blogging I’m now lucky enough to attract a fair few readers and that makes me feel rather proud. Blogging is easily one of my favourite things to do. I’ve been meaning to write a post like this for ages, so here are my top tips and suggestions for starting a beauty blog (or any blog for that matter), take ’em or leave ’em, just a few little titbits I have to share based on my personal experience!
For my day-to-day job I get to read a lot of beauty blogs, which is blooming amazing, and I reckon there are a few factors that contribute to the making of an amazing blog. The name, the direction, the content, the opinions and the photography. There is never going to be a perfect 2+2=4 formula, a bit of luck comes into it as well, but I definitely think that a bit of consideration into these things will help give an added kickstart.
The Name & Direction – As cheesy as it sounds, I think this bit is probably the most important. Your blog name (unless you change it pretty early on) will stick with you, so try to make sure it’s memorable and unique and that you won’t mind it in a years time! Let’s face it ‘Anna18HGZ7857’ is never going to light anyone’s fire 😉 It’s also a good idea to have a think of what you wish to blog about, and what will make your blog a little different from the rest. Are you going to try and take amazing swatches, or focus on reviews, FOTD’s or compile an online beauty journal which is a mixed bag of everything which is what I tend to do. Obviously this may change as you begin to blog, it’s always going to be a case of trial and error but it will definitely help to get you on the right track in the beginning.
The Blog – Now this is the tricky bit, well it is for techno nubes like myself – the actual making of your blog. There are a few platforms to host your blog on and I started off with Blogger, which I would recommend for the non-technically minded. It takes you through the steps of creating a simple layout and is quite self explanatory. For the first two years of me blogging that is what my blog was hosted on until my computer savvy friend created me this site for me which is now hosted on WordPress. From what I’ve gathered WordPress is more for the html-geniuses, if you’re not sure what the hell html even is then I’d stick with Blogger! And remember a bit of simple googling can go a long way!
The Content, Opinion & Photography – There are a plethora of blogs to read these days, so the content is how you can make yours stand out. It’s all very well informing everyone of a new makeup release to hit the market, but adding in your opinion will give it some extra pizazz (and yes I just used the word pizazz). Be honest and detailed and people will soon start to trust your opinion, appreciate your tastes and revisit your blog to see your thoughts on the next big thing in beauty. I think when it comes to photography, people can get a bit ahead of themselves and think that to start blogging you need to have a walloping huge DSLR camera, but it really isn’t the case. The content and photography go hand in hand, but you can get some really decent shots with a simple point and shoot camera. For the first year and a half I had a bargainalicious Fujifilm Finepix and it did me well. It’s definitely best to give this whole blogging marlarky a real try before you slap down a few hundred quid on a fancy cam just to be sure it’s something you really want to invest in.
I think that’s the basics covered, although I probably could whittle on forever about this! Of course the big question is, ‘how am I going to get people to actually read it?’. Well for that you need to have a bit of content in the bank, one post isn’t going to suffice unfortunately so get your head down and type away till your heart is content. I’ve found Twitter a great tool as well for getting involved with the beauty community and commenting on other blogs. A desperado plea is never nice but a gentle ‘hello I’m here’ and just getting involved in conversations with people is the best way, I think, to raise awareness of your blog. Just remember that it won’t happen overnight, but hey we’ve all been there once with 0 pageviews!
Let me know if you’ve enjoyed this post or if you found it helpful, always nice to get your feedback! I’m thinking of doing a few more of these ‘top-tip-esque’ posts so let me know if there are any other topics you’d like me to ramble on about. Lily has already requested one about time management and fitting your blog around a full-time job and I’m thinking of doing one about photography as well, but add any others to the list if you fancy! Happy blogging!
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