HOW TO START A BEAUTY BLOG
It’s coming up to my 4th blogiversary, so I thought it was time to write my most requested blog post. I love receiving emails from people who read my site and I’d say 9 out of 10 are asking me for tips on blogging. So here are my tips, take them with a pinch of salt, we all have very different opinions and that’s the whole beauty of blogging! Here are just some basic tips that will help you get started if you’re thinking of starting a beauty blog…
SET ME UP
The two main sites that are available to easily set up a blog are Blogger and WordPress. Blogger is the simpler of the two and WordPress allows a lot more personlisation if you were to turn it into a more ‘professional’ website in the future. It is easier for a web developer to ‘code’ a WordPress blog, but I have always been with blogger (and still am) and have been able to personalise mine as much as I want. These websites will say either ‘blogspot’ or ‘wordpress’ in the URL, so if you want your own personalised URL you can easily buy a domain name from a host, I used GoDaddy.
LOOKING GOOD
I am a very visual person so for me the design is quite important, but this doesn’t mean it needs to be fancy or professionally designed. I think the priorities should be to make it easy to read, have visible social media links and make it easy to navigate from one post to another. You can change the overall look and feel of your blog as often as you like, but from personal experience you will change your mind on what you like. My blog started with a black background, it quickly changed to a white background and I’ve also had a photo of me on the header. My attitude in the past 6 months has been the simpler the better and the less likely I’ll get bored of it too. When I had a photo in the header, it very quickly became outdated so I’d recommend having a photo in the sidebar where it’s easy to change. It helps to have a way for your readers to find relevant posts, whether it’s using a search bar or categories. Try and think of how you like to read blogs and adjust yours to make the overall visit more enjoyable.
THE TOOL KIT
When you first start blogging, I think it’s more important to invest time in the design of your blog and figuring out what sort of posts you enjoy writing. Once you’ve got into a routine and know it’s something you want to continue with, you might want to invest in some ‘tools’. Any computer will do, you don’t need a Mac it’s just my personal preference to use a Mac (and because I use iMovie for video editing). It’s worth investing in a decent camera, you don’t need one but it will make a difference to the quality of your photos. If a DSLR is out of your budget there are some great compact SLRs like the Canon EOS M. If you take photos of yourself it’s worth buying a remote control for your camera and a tripod, both of which can be bought on Amazon. You don’t need a soft box light, I have one for when I film in my room (because it’s not that bright) but the best light to use is natural daylight. The window is your best friend.
ALL ABOUT THE CONTENT
Content is by far the most important part of blogging (in my opinion). Even if you have the most beautiful blog design, if the content isn’t great you won’t get a lot of returning visitors. So what is ‘great’ content? Well again, each to their own but here are some main topics to get you thinking. Try and be original. Your own opinion, the way you’d use a product and your own writing style is what will make your audience want to come back to read more. We all love a good hype and trying products others have raved about but one of my favourite things to do is to browse the aisles of Boots and find a hidden gem that hasn’t yet been raved about and share it on my site for others to discover. Try and be consistent, whether you update your site daily, every 3 days or weekly. It’s nice for your readers to know when to expect new posts because a lot of people don’t follow via Bloglovin, Twitter or other social media sites and just go direct to the blog instead. Don’t worry too much about the style of your writing or the length of your posts, it’s completely up to you and you’ll find your own style. Something I would suggest is splitting up your text into paragraphs to make it easier to read rather than one long post.
Here’s a very old post I did on blog photography so I won’t go into detail, but something I personally always look for are quite large photos (that fit the width of the post) that are clear, in focus and show the subject well.
SOCIAL & GROWING YOU AUDIENCE
When starting a blog it’s important to remember that it takes a while to grow your audience. I hardly had any readers for the first year a half of blogging but once I really got into it, found my niche and started being more active on social media things started to organically grow. It’s definitely helpful to be active and engaging on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The beauty blogging community is quite tight and it’s nice to see people get involved in conversations on Twitter and comment on blogs. The more you tweet and comment, the more your name will be seen but obviously keep it authentic (spam won’t get you anywhere). If you’ve found inspiration from another blogger, link to them in your post because collaboration and building relationships is a nice way to grow your audience.
LISTS, LISTS, LISTS
My final tip would be to get organised. Keep a little notepad on you to jot down post ideas on the go, I get some of my best ideas when I’m staring into space on the tube journey home. I’m a big fan of making tick lists, so write down what you need to do and tick the boxes off, it’s a very satisfying feeling!
So I hope this post will help you get started. Everything is trial and error, so eventually you’ll figure out what works best for you. The key is to just go for it and have confidence in yourself. Try and create something you’re proud of and when you are, tell everyone about it!
