Thousands of new blogs are launched every day. Three months later, not even hundred of those are still posting, and one year down the line there are only 2 interesting ones that are going to succeed. Why is this the case? Blogging is a relatively new job and since general masses aren’t familiar with it, its perceived as something very easy. Usually often related to as “taking photos of yourself and putting them on internet”. But is that really true?
Many people have unrealistic ideas on what it takes to run a successful blog, looking at blogs you love only one thought comes to your head “I can do the same, it cant be that hard…”. Yet only few months later these same people tend to quit after realising that actually you do not become a millionaire after only 6 months of blogging, and even though you have invested hours into writing that post, making photos and finding links, it still didn’t reach as many people as you have hoped for?
I get a lot of questions from bloggers who are starting. How to grow readership, how to get invited to events, where are the presents coming from? And I know that this industry is very very secretive. You can red books, find hundreds of articles online, yet no one will tell you the real truth. If it took some bloggers 5 years to get to their full time income in blogging why would they give out all of their secrets to a newbie? Well, I think there is space for absolutely everyone in this industry, we are all individuals, different and creative souls which can make each other grow, and improve the blogosphere together, which is why I decided to write this post.
Passion is the key to successful blog, and besides other tips I will write in this article, I advise you not to even read more unless you have the passion for the topic you want to write about. No matter if you are blogging about personal style, fashion news, beauty or lifestyle, you need to truly love that topic. When I opened my blog I did so because I thought that none of my friends from university were interested in seeing latest Balmain collection from PFW, I didn’t have anyone to discuss with the colour of the season, I don’t really enjoy spending time on forums, so I thought starting a blog without any particular topic but “all the girly stuff” would be great outlet to talk about that MAC lipstick, my new boots or even share my wish list. It was more like writing an online diary than anything else. My blog was my biggest secret for almost a year. Just before graduating my friends finally found out about it, and I was so shy telling them what Glam and glitter is. It certainly was not something I immediately shared on Facebook or with my friends because I knew they might not understand it.
What am I trying to tell you? I started this blog thinking none will ever read it or find out about it. I did it simply because I love the topic and wanted to meet people who share the same passion.
This is exactly what brings me to my tip number 2- Do not give up. You need to write regularly and need to accept the fact that there might be days when no one is reading, Its possible that you will spend a lot of time on something that no one visits, but remember, you are writing because you love it, doing it for yourself, and no matter if you have 3 or 300 000 views daily nothing should change in the way you write. Don’t let negative comments or no comments take you back from the goal.
Even if you are blogging for years and the results aren’t really coming as you hoped, consistency is really important. Making blogging a full time job and a career from a hobby requires a lot of hard work, dedication and time. Don’t get distracted by what other people have, do, or post. Remember you cannot compare your chapter one, to someone else’s chapter 14. If someone has 1million followers and you only started, you cannot compare your collaborations and activities to theirs, but that also doesn’t mean you should give yourself excuses to work less. If you only started or if you need to grow your blog, you should be working a lot more than people who are doing it just for a hobby.
Another thing that I notice first is the design of the blog. It simply needs to be clean. No you do not need to hire professionals or to get the most expensive online designers, courses or who knows what. Just invest some time, learn a thing or two about html code, play with it on a Sunday afternoon and you will realise its not that hard. People don’t like reading crazy letters on a black background, so stick to clean and simple, no glittery flashing fonts on bright pink theme while the automatic music is blasting. That still scares me to death when home alone. Captcha is good to save you from spammers, but no one likes living comments if its too complicated. I removed every possible difficulty on my blog. You don’t have to type in username, email or anything like that, just a name which could even state something like – Anonymous if you wish to stay that.
Now that I told you almost everything, don’t forget to be friendly, try and get involved in the community, but not via spamming other blogs. There is nothing worse than comments that we receive and SEE which have nothing to do with a long post we wrote but a “Follow my blog http://.….”. I have nothing against other people promoting their blogs, but since you are already doing that, be respectful and acknowledge that you are on my blog, say what you think about the post and then advertise your blog. I am not the only one with this opinion which is why I am saying it. Being friendly and respectful will open all the doors for you in the community. Blogger will eventually notice your comments, start reading your blog, and you can become friends. I know that I don’t really pay attention to spam comments, but to meaningful and realistic ones-every single time, which is how I made most of my blogger friends.
What do you need to become a successful full time fashion blogger? Passion, dedication, hard work and patience. This is the secret recipe, and without only one of these ingredients it will simply not happen. There is space for all of us, so be supportive, don’t compete and be unique. If you are starting your blog, for any other reason than because there is nothing else you want to do more, quit now, presents, events and money don’t come so easily. As for anything else in life that is worth it, it takes a lot of work and time. There is still long way for me to go, I plan to stay around for a while, but I have motivation and willingness to pursue it, to work hard no matter what the hurdle in front of me is. Personally, I think that when you achieve something you worked hard for, you appreciate and love it much more. Enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Happy Monday lovelies :)
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Svaki dan nastane nekoliko hiljada blogova, od tih nekoliko hiljada, nakon tri meseca ostane samo stotinjak da ne pricam o tome kako ih samo nekoliko postane uspesno par godina kasnije.
Zasto je ovo slucaj kod blogovanja? Blogger kao profesija je nepoznanica sirokim narodnim masama, zbog cega se na to gleda kao na nesto jednostavno, a cesto mozete procitati I opis posla kao “slika se I kaci slike na internet”
Mnogo ljudi ima nerealne ideje o tome sta je potrebno da biste vodili uspesan blog. Citajuci svetski poznate blogove ti isti ljudi imaju jednu misao “Ja bih to isto mogla, sta tu ima tesko!?…” Samo par meseci posle toga ovi ljudi napustaju svet bloginga, shvatajuci da ne samo da nisu postali milioneri za pola godine, vec da iako su ulozili sate i sate u pisanje postova, slikanje, trazenje linkova i ucenje o poslu i dalje nisu postigli ni mali deo onoga o cemu su sanjali. Koliko blogova znate koji su trajali par meseci i potom nestali? Sigurna sam da ih im dosta…
Dobijam mnogo pitanja od blogera koji tek pocinju. Kako razviti blog, kako dobiti veliki broj citatelja, kako dobiti pozivnice na dogadjaje i poklone? Jasno mi je da je ova industrija prepuna tajni, malo se toga prica, a blogeri sakrivaju vredne informacije kao zmija noge. Procitali ste toliko toga, ali I dalje ne mozete naci odgovor na sva pitanja koja imate? Nekim blogerima je trebalo 5-6 godina da ostvare ono sto imaju danas, jasno je da nece odati sve tajne svog uspeha onima koji tek pocinju, ali ja mislim da ima mesta za sve koji zele da rade u ovoj industriji, mislim da treba da podrzavamo jedni druge, da zajedno razvijamo svet digitalne uticajnosti zbog cega sam odlucila da napisem ovaj post.
Strast je tajna uspeha svakog bloga, a ostale savete u ovom postu ne morate ni citati ako nemate strast i ljubav prema temi o kojoj planirate da pisete. Nije bitno da li pisete o licnom stilu, izvestavate o modnim trendovima , kozmetici ili stilu zivljenja, ono o cemu cete pisati mora biti vasa najveca ljubav. Ja sam zapocela ovaj blog misleci da nijedna od mojih drugarica nije zainteresovana za diskusiju o poslednjoj Balmain kolekciji sa PFW-a, nisam imala nikoga ko je hteo da prica o modi u ovoj kolicini koliko ja mogu, forumi me ne privlace , tako da sam odlucila da otvorim svoj blog , mesto za sve zenske stvari, gde mogu da pisem o novom MAC karminu, cizmama koje mi se dopadaju ili wish listi. Blog je bio moja najveca tajna skoro godinu dana. Pre nego sto sam diplomirala moji prijatelji su saznali za Glam and Glitter a ja sam se bukvalno zacrvenela kada sam im ispricala sve detalje, sada ga i oni svakodnevno posecuju. Svakako ga nisam reklamirala na svom Facebook-u ili ih pitala da me prate na drustvenim mrezama. Mislila sam da one to nece razumeti…Zasto vam ovo pricam? Zato sto sam otvorila blog misleci da ga niko nikada nece otkriti ili procitati, uradila sam to kako bih jednostavno pisala o onome sto volim I mozda usput upoznala jednu ili dve osobe sa identicnim interesovanjima.
Ovo me dovodi do saveta broj 2- Ne odustaj! Jako je bitno pisati redovno i morate prihvatiti cinjenicu da moze biti nekoliko dana, pa i nedelja kada bas niko ne ulazi na vas blog. Da, mozda ste proveli 3 sata pripremajuci taj post, ali zapamtite, blog se pise iz ljubavi, bez obzira da li ga posecuju 3 ili 303 citatelja dnevno, to ne treba da utice na nacin i azurnost pisanja. Ne dopustite negativnim komentarima, ili manjku bilo kakvih komentara da vas udalje od cilja.
Blogujete godinama, ali rezultati se ne desavaju? Jako je bitno biti uporan i redovan. Postoji ogromna razlika izmedju bloga koji je samo hobi i koji je posao I to je bitno shvatiti. Da bi napravili posao od bloga potrebna je posvecenost, mnogo rada i truda, a ono najbitnije je upravo vreme. Ne dozvolite da vas drugi blogovi ometaju, ko je sta obukao, kupio ili kakvu je saradnju sklopio nije bitno za vas blog. Bitno je ne porediti svoje prvo poglavlje sa necijim poglavljem broj 14. Ako neko ima 1 milion pratilaca a vi tek pocinjete, nerealno je porediti svoje saradnje sa njihovim, ali isto tako to ne znaci da sebi mtreba dati oduska i raditi manje. Naporan rad je jos bitniji na pocetku blogovanja, jer kasnije je sve lakse, kasnije naucite sta i kako, dok u pocetku morate raditi vise nego neko ko je uhodan.
Jos jedna stvar koju prvu primetim na blogovima jeste dizajn. On mora biti jednostavan I uredan. Ne, ne treba bacati novce na razne dizajnere, kurseve ili ko zna sta. Jednostavno ulozite malo vremena, naucite par stvari o html kodu, igrajte se sa izgledom svog bloga jedno nedeljno popodne i za pocetak ce to biti dovoljno. Citatelji ne vole lude animacije, jarko crvena slova na crnoj pozadini, zato se drzite jednostavne teme. Bez sljokicastih pisanih slova sa muzikom koja automatski krece kada neko udje na vas sajt. To me i dan danas preplasi, pogotovo ako sam sama kod kuce. Captcha je super da vas spasi od spamera, ali niko ne voli da ostavlja komentare ako treba previse posla. Kod mene na blogu mozete ostaviti samo ime, pa makar to bilo I- Anonimus, bez bilo kojih drugih detalja i komentar je vazeci.
Sada kada sam vam otkrila skoro sve, ne zaboravite da budete prijateljski nastrojeni i da se na lep nacin ubacite u ovu zajednicu. Niko ne voli spamere, jer nema nista gore od pisanja posta 3 sata nakon cega vam neko ostavi isti komentar kao i na prethodnih 20 postova a to je “Pratite moj blog http://…”. Nemam nista protiv samopromocije, ali i to treba raditi sa malo postovanja i diskrecije. Nisam jedina koja deli ovo misljenje, zato i kazem da blogeri primete i brzo zapamte one druge koji ostavljaju dosadne iste komentare, ali isto tako zapamte i one koji ostave znacajne, drugacije i zanimljive sugestije. Vecinu svojih blogo-poznanstava sam ostvarila upravo na ovaj nacin.
Sta vam treba da postanete uspesan modni bloger? Strast, posvecenost, mnogo rada I strpljenje. Ovo je tajni recept i ukoliko vam samo jedan sastojak nedostaje uspeha nece biti. Ima dovoljno mesta za svakog od nas, zato pruzite podrsku drugima, nomojte se takmiciti i budite jedinstveni. Ukoliko pocinjete blog zbog bilo kog razloga osim ljubavi prema toj temi, slobodno ga odmah ugasite, jer pokloni, novac i pozivnice ne dolaze tek tako lako, bas kao ni sve ostalo sto je vredno truda. Ja imam jos mnogo toga da ostvarim, ali sam motivisana i znam da cu dati sve od sebe bez obzira na kakve prepreke nailazila. Upravo zbog toga uspeh ne moze biti sladji kada ga konacno ostvarim. Ne zaboravite, bitno je uzivati u putovanju ne samo u destinaciji! Zelim vam svima divan pocetak nedelje :)
