Cashing
in:
Banking on Style Blogs
What Are Style Blogs? – Making it Work –
– Meet Ms. McGraw: One Blogger’s Success Story –
– Blog Roll – About the Author–
All
Rights Reserved, © 2012, Laura Isaacs
An Introduction: What Are Style Bloggers?
The world of fashion seems web obsessed and it’s easy to see why: the Internet provides immediate gratification and dissemination of information. However, it’s the bloggers – not the Anna Wintours – who seem to be making the biggest splash on the web.
Personal style bloggers are currently enjoying their time in the spotlight. These ladies put themselves out there, taking outfit photos and sharing their love of fashion, trends, DIYs and ideas on a daily basis. Retailers and readers alike have embraced style bloggers as internet celebrities. ModCloth, for example, makes collaboration with style bloggers a top priority because the company “truly values personal style.” Other well-known brands and retailers, including Coach, Loft, Timex , J.C. Penney and Urban Outfitters, have collaborated with personal style bloggers to both help design and promote items.
Many style bloggers are resonating success right now because they’re simply so relatable. These are real women, with real bodies and in many cases, real budgets, showing others how they’ve been able to incorporate their stylish wardrobes into their real lives. These women aren’t the airbrushed models we see in fashion magazines; many style bloggers are everyday gals who can show how they've realistically tied an outfit together and give you tips on making it work for you, too.
Making it Work
Not only are today’s style bloggers working it in their daily outfit shots, they’ve also been able to make their blogs work as businesses, too. Many of these girls have cashed in on their blogs through affiliate links, brand/vendor relationships, website monetization, sponsorships and more.
Monetization: Basically, this lets bloggers cash in on people visiting their site. Website monetization is simply the process of turning existing traffic into revenue for the site’s owner. A lot of bloggers rely on pay-per-click ads and cost-per-impression ads to make money.
Affiliate linking: According to the Webopedia, an affiliate link is “a special URL used by the advertiser to track all traffic the affiliate sends to the advertiser’s site as a part of the affiliate program.” Simply put, that means a blogger might get a small commission on sales from some of the links in a post.
Vender relationships and courtesy of: Style bloggers who have relationships with certain retailers, brands or stores will sometimes get items gifted to them in return for wearing it on their blog. Most bloggers mark these freebies by noting “c/o” or “courtesy of” in their post.
Sponsorships: Advertisers who directly invest in a particular website are sometimes called sponsors. If a blog is sponsored by a particular company/store, that means it paid money directly to the blogger instead of going through another company (like Google AdWords, for example.
Meet Ms. McGraw: One Blogger’s Success Story
Sally McGraw of Minneapolis, Minn., is the brains, beauty and intellectual brawn behind Already Pretty, a style blog dedicated to exploring how fashion impacts body image and how dressing well is about self-respect and self-understanding.
She’s nailed it. In her daily outfit photos, Sally is a picture of self-confidence: She rocks an awesome pixie cut, maintains a funky-cool-yet-professional vibe with her wardrobe and obviously practices the self-love mantra she preaches.
According to her blog’s mission statement, Already Pretty was born when Sally realized she “used to utilize so much energy hating my body that I exhausted myself into depression.”
“When I began exploring fashion and style – dressing in fun, flattering, and form-fitting clothes – an unexplored universe opened up to me. For the first time, I respected my body. I realized that there was nothing wrong with my body,” she wrote.
Since then Sally has not only learned to love her body, she’s also learned what it takes to make it in the competitive blogging world. In the nearly half decade which has passed since the blog was born, Sally has:
Successfully monetized Already Pretty.
Established relationships with retailers and designers including Adorn boutique, Karen Kane, Eileen Fisher and Karina Dresses.
Worked with media outlets including Fox Interactive, The Frisky, The Minneapolis Star Tribune and Glamour.
AND MORE.
Additionally, as of November 2011, Sally has been able to quit her day job and shift her career focus to full-time blogging.
How did she do it? With a lot of hard work and a little faith.
Sally said in a recent interview that it took her about two years to turn her blog into a monetized website that produced steady income. After about four years, she said, she felt she was able to quit her day job and focus on blogging, freelance work and consulting full time.
Here’s how she did it, in her own words:
“My first steps towards monetization were graphic and text link ads. It never occurred to me to pursue ads or other revenue streams on my own, but once the opportunities cropped up, I felt like I could embrace them,” she said. “And once the individual ads began flowing, I joined the BlogHer ad network. I've tried several other ad networks, but always come back. Since my content is body-image related and I talk about shoes and clothes but also cellulite and self-love, content-driven ads like Google's just end up serving diet pill and girdle ads up onto my site. Not OK!
After
about a year of blogging, I began to offer in-person and online style
consults. I don't promote these services heavily because both types
of consults are incredibly time-consuming and labor-intensive. Fun,
but exhausting. I do have language about these services on the blog
in my bio, but don't actively seek new clients. Yet the clients come!
Word of mouth is powerful, and many of my clients are now referrals
from past clients.
In November of 2011, I dove into the world
of affiliate marketing. I was hesitant to implement affiliate links
for a long time because I felt it was dishonest to make money off of
the actions that readers were taking based on my recommendations. But
a fellow blogger nudged me into it, showing me the importance of
transparency and disclaimers. My disclosure policy is posted
prominently,
and all posts that contain affiliate links include a disclaimer
stating that actions taken through posted links may generate revenue
for me. My readership has been incredibly supportive of this move.
Around
that time, I also began selling a PDF titled "The
Already Pretty Self-guided Mini Makeover"
directly to
my readers through the blog The content of the PDF is an expanded
version of the process I use to work with my online consult clients,
and it has sold well over the past year.
In early 2012 I
launched Strong,
Sexy & Stylish
with two colleagues. Through discussions, writing, and classes,
we hope to illustrate how exploring health, sexuality, and fashion
can contribute to an overall sense of well-being. We've already
launched a highly successful
podcast
and held our first
event,
both of which have generated a bit of revenue through sponsorships
and ticket sales.”
Stong,
Sexy & Stylish leaders (from left to right) are
Sex Educator
Laura Rad, Sally and Wellness Coach Karen Kraus.
Sally’s success didn’t come without challenges and hard decisions.
When she choice to ditch her day job in favor of full-time blogging, she had a lot of monetary considerations to make.
“The main factors I considered before taking the leap were all financial: I calculated my monthly expenses, met with my accountant to estimate quarterly taxes, and spent several months creating a large savings cushion,” she said.
Other things challenges Sally has dealt with since going pro include getting used to the ups and downs the blogging world can bring and setting work boundaries.
“For me, the biggest challenge was acclimating to the instability,” she said. “I was a faithful member of the office workforce for over 12 years and quite used to benefits, PTO, and a nice, steady paycheck. Preparing myself mentally for the transition to variable pay and potential work droughts was quite a challenge.”
Despite the challenges that come with full-time blogging, Sally thinks it’s worth it.
“Once I felt like I was in a position to make enough money to cover my needs and pay Uncle Sam, I left my job. Since I had several established streams of income already, I was in a good position to make my blog my sole business,” she said.
And has she looked back? Definitely not.
When asked what she’s learned about herself through Already Pretty, Sally’s response came from the heart: “I've learned to trust and have faith,” she said.
“I've always been a planner, and although I launched my blog with absolutely no plan in place, I soon began plotting and scheming. I constructed plan after plan for expanding my site and opening new avenues of opportunity,” Sally said. “But after many rounds of frustration, I realized that this business was going to grow and morph in ways that I could never anticipate. As long as I continued to pour my heart and soul into it, write with passion, and offer content that appealed to a large and varied audience, opportunities would come my way. So I've learned to be patient, trust, and go with the flow.”
Sally’s lessons can be solid advice for bloggers considering going pro. Instead of worrying about numbers and gaining readership, just go with the flow. If you write what you know and enjoy it, others will likely enjoy your blog, too. That likely means you’ll have a solid product to show off when you’re ready to cash in on your blog.
Blog Roll
The following links can be considered recommending reading for anyone interested in style blogs:
About the Author
Laura L. Isaacs is a freelance writer and media professional. She has tackled editorial roles for both daily and weekly newspapers, and currently contributes to a wide range of online media sources including Fox Interactive via Canvas and EndPlay Reports, QuinStreet and NicerNews.com.
Laura’s favorite color is pink, she loves rosé Champagne and she aspires to someday have a pet basset hound named Little Andrew Jackson.
Follow Laura on Twitter: @LauraIsaacs
