There have been so many of you that have reached out to me and asked me about how I started my blog, how to grow an audience, and any recommendations I can give regarding the process. That being said, I’ll try and cover everything that I can think of that has helped me over these 3.5 years. Obviously, I don’t have all of the answers haha, but I’m just stating what I’ve implemented and what has helped me over these past years. Keep in mind that I also don’t do my blog full time 🙂
- GET RID OF THOSE FEARS GIRL AND JUST GO FOR IT! Honestly, initially I was nervous about what other people would think of me once I put myself out there on the internet for the world to see. Don’t let the fear of starting or caring what other people think of you stop you from going after your dreams. I always think of the quote, “Those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”
- JOIN A COMMUNITY OF LIKE MINDED INDIVIDUALS. If you’re not a part of Style Collective already, I would highly recommend. I actually met 2 of my best friends here in Austin through Style Collective. Style Collective has such an amazing community of women, valuable resources, along with inspirational podcasts.
- DECIDE WHAT PLATFORM YOU WANT TO USE. I started out on blogger. I didn’t have any problems until my web designer said she didn’t have the capability of making it mobile friendly. I switched to WordPress and had sky & stars redesign my website and I love it so far.
- DECIDE WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLET/OUTLETS YOU WANT TO USE. For me personally, I focus more on building my following on my IG & pinterest. Instagram can sometimes be frustrating because the algorithm is constantly changing, but it is what it is. For pinterest, I highly suggest Tailwind. I just started using Tailwind in July this year, and started at 252 monthly views, and now am up to over 100,000! Use this link here for a free month. (If you use my link, you get a free month and I get a $15 credit, whoopp woop!). There are bloggers who use Youtube, twitter, and facebook as well. I don’t think there is one right social media platform to focus on, I think you should just find one or a few that work well for you and go from there.
- MAKE YOUR FEED VISUALLY APPEALING. I know that some people might disagree with this, but I have found that the more visually appealing my photos and feed are, the more people will engage. Honestly, this is a work in progress for me. I’m by no means a photographer, and I don’t have a degree in graphic design, but I love the challenge of trying to keep my feed consistent and pretty. I utilize my stories to give a glimpse of my everyday life via IG stories. Even though my feed primarily consists of edited photos, I want my feed to represent things that I truly love- color, creativity, happiness! I try and stick to colorful, creative spots to shoot my photos as I want my readers to feel like my profile is inviting and for people to experience joy and happiness when they click my IG. (I’ve definitely been slacking at my photo game lately because I’ve been SO busy, but when I do have the time, I spend a lot of time on photo editing). I sometimes use my phone for pictures and also my Nikon D3300.
- BE YOURSELF AND TRY YOUR HARDEST NOT TO PLAY THE COMPARISON GAME. My dear friend told me this a few months ago and it’s stuck with me ever since “comparison is the thief of joy.” I definitely struggle with playing the comparison game at times, but I try my best to reframe my mindset and focus on compassion vs comparison. Focus your blog on the things you love, be original, and always be your authentic self. Originally, I started my blog focusing on fashion & therapy posts only, but slowly started to incorporate lifestyle posts into my feed. I love trying out new things, and love sharing with y’all the things I love & recommend.
- DECIDE IF YOU WANT TO SET UP YOUR BLOG AS A BUSINESS. For me, I registered my blog as an LLC. I just went online and did it- super quick and easy!
- DECIDE HOW YOU WANT TO ADVERTISE YOURSELF. There are SO many ways to do this. I’ve been blogging for over 3 years and I’m STILL trying to figure out what the best strategy is for this. I’ve tried FB and IG promotions a few times, but didn’t really see a difference (maybe the key is consistency ??). I might give this another try in the near future. I typically stick with loop giveaways and have some suggestions on good ones I’ve done through telegram so send me a DM if you’re interested and I can add you to the group. Also, I utilize pinterest to promote traffic to my website and IG.
- UTILIZE YOUR IG STORIES TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. Find out what your audience wants to see more of. Ask questions, do polls. I love my IG community- I consider everyone who follows me my community of IG friends. LOVE YOU FRIENDS!
- PLAY AROUND WITH DIFFERENT APPS AND PROGRAMS. I use the following apps: A color story, snug, followers, fotor, snapseed. I personally use an app called “a color story” and “snapseed” to edit by photos. I’ve also heard lightroom is good to! I use an app called Snug to preview my posts before I post them onto my IG feed. I use followers to track my unfollows, follows, etc. Fotor is good for making photo collages.
Let me know what y’all thought of this post. Let me know any suggestions or feedback you might have 🙂 LOVE YALL and thanks again for following along-it truly means the WORLD to me 🙂