With an ever expanding pantheon of social media platforms, it might seem like everyone and their dog has a personal style blog. But hey, you’re following their accounts, aren’t ya? Wondering how you can get in on the action by potentially starting your own street style blog? It might be easier than you think.
With the possibility of gaining thousands of admiring followers, endorsement deals, and free clothes, there’s really no reason not to try launching your own blog. Let’s take a look at the easy steps you can take to make it happen!
Getting Started: Planning out Your First Few Ensembles
While you might regularly receive compliments on your wardrobe choices, style bloggers tend to have a unique style and personal brand that goes above and beyond the average person who we might consider conventionally well dressed.
These sartorial experts need to have a certain edge to them that suggests they know what they’re doing and they aren’t afraid to be a little adventurous when it comes to choosing their daily ensembles.
For the fledgling blogger, that means you need to be thinking about how you want to present a well curated image that followers can easily identify and get behind. You want to think carefully about how you can distinguish yourself from the masses of other internet wannabes, and that might take more time than you expect.
Take a look at your existing wardrobe and put together a few outfits that you think fully demonstrate your unique personal style, and show why you’re a style leader worth following. When you have a few looks you’re happy with, create your account on Tumblr, Instagram, or whatever your platform of choice might be to get started. Try to choose a handle that is relatively distinctive, modern, succinct and easy to remember. Nobody wants to follow an account that reminds them of their AOL screenname.
Step 2: Obtaining Followers
Once you’ve created your account and started putting together some looks for your blog, you should think about the kind of audience you’re targeting. Are you looking to inspire people like yourself? Are you looking to get the attention of the high fashion world, urban street style, casual looks, or a specific style subculture?
Check out some related hashtags to get an idea of what’s trending on the interwebs. If you spot a
trending hashtag that’s relevant to your look, you can end up snagging a ton of followers by including it in your post. Looking through these photos can help you get some inspiration for your future looks as you see what’s trending and what other bloggers and industry insiders are interested in seeing.
In general, searching for some relevant hashtags can help you find others with similar interests to yours that will be potential followers. Reciprocation is the best policy when it comes to starting out and obtaining new followers, so if you want to gain them, you’ll need to start following as many people as possible. But only follow those with relevant interests, because someone with an account geared toward cooking for example, probably isn’t looking to follow a street style blogger.
Expanding Your Wardrobe
While you might think you have an enviable wardrobe, you’re eventually going to run out of looks unless you are actively working on expanding your wardrobe. And as the average successful style blogger posts a photo almost every day, you’re going to need those fresh looks consistent. The best way to do this without bankrupting yourself? Try cheating a little with digital discounts and cash back offers. A lot of bloggers are more concerned with the actual clothing looks than the brand names you’re wearing, so
shopping at a stylish but discounted pricing store like Kohl’s is a good way to incorporate a high-low look with more variety. Use
Kohl’s coupons from a site like Ebates to keep your wardrobe consistently updated and prevent it from growing stale.
Picking out some Unique Accents
Of course, you’ll need to put your own personal spin on all of your looks to keep it distinctive from other bloggers. This means keeping an eye out for unique accents you can use to make your looks more interesting. Checking out local thrift shops, estate sales, and specialty boutiques are all good spots to find your accents.
Self-Promoting and Partnerships
Once you’ve gotten the ball rolling and obtained some followers for your blog, you can start looking for new ways to promote it. By running giveaway competitions and connecting with other popular bloggers for partnership guest posts, you can vastly increase your digital footprint and gain a huge amount of visibility. Offer to link to similar bloggers and repost their photos in exchange for a similar post on their profile down the line. You’ll both gain visibility and you’ll be fostering your connections in the style community.
Start following these few simple steps and you should be running your own popular street style blog before you know it!