“How did you start blogging?” , “How did you grow your following so fast?” , “How do I stand out from everyone else?” — these are my top asked questions. I’ve addressed them a little bit but I wanted to create an in-depth post all about this to give you girls some helpful tips! I am hoping this will cover all the questions you may have!

1. How I started blogging — I didn’t think about it for to long! I started discovering pages on instagram of girls who shared their daily fashion and inspiration and I quickly thought to myself “hey I want to do that!” Then for about 2 days I was obsessed with googling all things about fashion blogging and how to do it. Yes only 2 days before I decided to start up my blog. I think this is huge, if you think about it for too long, you’re going to talk yourself out of it. Thinking that you don’t know the first thing about blogging or that you are nervous to share because you’re afraid people won’t relate… if you want to start a blog, my first piece of advice is to DO IT. Don’t question it, don’t be afraid of the response you will get. If it’s something you feel passionate about – go for it. If I can do it, you can too! My favorite quote to hopefully give you a little kickstart if you’re wanting to start something new —

   “It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such time as ready. There is only now. Any you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

2. That brings me to tip #2. Passion. If you go into starting a fashion blog / instagram with the mindset that ALL you want is to gain your following… that’s the wrong approach. Don’t do it for the followers. Yes – the bigger following you have, the more opportunities come your way, brands will want to work with you, the more money you may make BUT you can still do all of these things with a small ENGAGED following. In order to gain an engaged following means you have to be passionate about what you’re posting. Share your own unique style, your own thoughts & opinions. If you like something and are passionate about it – surely the ones who follow along with you will too! I started my fashion instagram out with 0 followers. I posted my first post then went to my personal instagram account and begged for my friends that followed me there to go support my fashion instagram. Of course so many of them did because I have the best friends but I can truly say that I didn’t care that I had no followers. I was excited to start something that I felt I could be good at!

My very first Instagram post — almost exactly a year ago

3. Stay true to you and don’t promote products that you wouldn’t spend your own money on. Let me tell you, that first email you get from a company wanting to send you free product in exchange for an instagram post is exciting! But don’t jump the gun and say yes without doing your research. Check out their site, make sure it’s not a scam or a terrible product. I’ll tell you from experience that so many companies under the sun will be sending you dm’s or emails asking to collaborate with you. I turn down probably 90% of them. I don’t say this to brag about how many email’s I get — I say this to let you know that there are more companies and brands out there than you even realize and they will do just about anything to get their name out there. If you have never even heard of the brand before or if you check out their instagram or website and it doesn’t seem legit to you, it probably isn’t. Don’t promote something just to get free stuff. Again from experience, there will be brands that you have heard of and seen others promoting that will reach out to you. This happened with a boutique that is pretty well known. Many of the girls I follow along with rave about it so of course when they emailed me to do a collaboration I was jumping with joy! When my items arrived, I was completely dissapointed. They were cheap quality and not ever something that I would be happy with if I spent my own money on them. Now I could’ve went ahead and posted about them anyway in hopes of getting re-posted on their page and growing my followers. I could’ve made money. But instead I kindly emailed them letting them know that I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the items received & didn’t wish to promote them on my page. If you try to sell anything to make a buck, those following along with you will purchase it and when they start receiving products that you reccomend and they are poor quality — they will stop supporting you! You have to be a reliable source for those that follow along with you!

4. Consistency is key. I posted my very first instagram post one year ago but it wasn’t until about 6 months ago that I really started to see growth. It was also 6 months ago that I started being consistent. Posting photos every single day and sharing sales and deals on my stories. The amount of effort you put into your blogging and instagram is 100% the amount you’ll get out of it. Be consistent with you content & when you are sharing it. If one day you share a $10 top from amazon and then next day you share a $2,000 Louis Vuitton Bag or a $100 sweater you aren’t going to build an engaged following. You have to find your niche and stick to a certain style/budget. I strive to share sales, deals and affordable items and I know that is what those following along with me love the most. There are times when I splurge and share more expensive items but I also know that when I do share those higher priced pieces I don’t make hardly as many sales as I do when I share affordable clothing. This is because I’ve been consistent in posting everyday affordable clothing and this is why the majority of my followers follow me in the first place! There are certain bloggers that I absolutely love and look up to but know that the items they share are all way out of my budget so I never even click on the item to shop because they are consistent with sharing higher end stuff. They have their own set of followers who can afford those items! See where I’m going with this? If you aren’t consistent with your content you aren’t going to gain loyal followers as easily!

5. Engagement. This is a big one! Engaging with your audience is so important. This is also where passion comes in to play again. You need to be passionate about what you post and passionate about connecting and engaging with the followers that you do have instead of constantly focusing on how you can gain more. I try my hardest to respond to every single comment and every single dm that I get. It’s time consuming for sure but it’s also my favorite part of all of this. It is so amazing to me that I have made so many connections and I feel like I know so many of you that I’ve never even met. Responding to comments and messages is showing your audience that you appreciate and notice them. You need them to know that they are appreciated because they are the reason you will be successful in this! I love this aspect of it all, when I get messages about something as small as what size I got in a top and it turning into a full blown conversation & connecting with you girls is the most amazing part! So comment back, message back, like others photos, comment on others photos & you will see it in return!

6. Be a positive source for others. Standing out as a blogger is hard. The amount of girls who are starting blogs or are already successful is HUGE. In order to make yourself known you’ve got to be unique, be different and be positive. This is just in my opinion. I think that so many more of us need to spread love and positivity. To put yourself out there and share all aspects of your life can be intimidating. You have to remember one thing — you don’t know who is following along with you. There are most likely young girls following you that watch your stories and look up to you. Do you really want them seeing you drinking and partying, complaining about petty things, addressing negative comments and being hateful back? I know I don’t! I want to stick to why I am doing this in the first place, to share my love for fashion, beauty & clothes and to add in a little positivity and encouragement along the way. Yes I am here mainly to share fashion with you but I also want to be someone that you can count on to lift you up. In the end it isn’t the things we have or the money we make, the pictures we take, the popularity that we gain that defines us… its the mark we make on others, the grace we extend. It’s leaving people a little bit better off that truly matters.

I hope that this gives you some insight on blogging and you find at least one helpful tip by reading this. If I can make one thing clear it would be to just ignore what everyone else is doing & do it for YOU. You aren’t in competition with anyone else. We are all at different phases in our lives and you can’t compare your chapter 1 to someone elses chapter 20. Stay true to you, be passionate, be consistent, be engaging, be kind, be positive. Not just in blogging, but in life in general.