How to Start a Fashion Blog and Make Money

Starting a fashion blog might start as a hobby but can quickly become a big business!

The best blogs are those that start as a passion project. The blogger just loves talking about a particular topic and wants to share that with the world…and there’s one type of blog I see this happen more often than any other, the fashion blog.

But fashion blogs aren’t the hobby blogs they used to be in the 90s. These are big businesses and one millennial has already turned her online stardom into billions (OK, so she was already kinda-sorta famous anyway).

Starting a fashion blog can be one of the most fun and exciting types of blogs to start…but to make it a full-time money-maker, you need to know where to begin.

What is a Fashion Blog?

Like all types of blogs, you can’t just start a blog about everything fashion and expect to be successful. There’s just too much competition online and even a business that tried doing everything fashion probably would have a tough time making it.

You need to narrow your focus so people see you as an expert in one particular area of fashion and come back to your blog for advice. This is called picking a niche and it’s one of the first things you do, even before setting up your blog.

Niching is just narrowing your topic or audience so you become a trusted resource. Some ways to do this include:

Focusing on fashion for either men or women. This is the obvious starting point but you should go further with some of the other niche ideas as well.
Handbags and Accessories Fashion
Budget Fashion
Business Fashion
Casual Fashion
Generational focus like fashion for millennials or Gen X

You can mix some of the ideas like starting a blog for millennial women’s fashion or create your own twist like a millennial’s fashion blog for men that want a stress-free approach to looking good.

Focusing on a smaller market like this is going to attract a very specific audience and make them feel like you’re talking just to them. They’ll become members of your community faster and will come back frequently to read new posts. It’s also going to help you rank your blog on Google because the search engine will see that you’re becoming an expert in that niche, writing about it consistently and providing quality advice.

But let’s back up because I see a lot of you out there saying, “Yeah, I know what fashion is…but what’s a blog?”

A blog is just a website that isn’t built around a specific company or product. It’s more of a content site sharing views and information rather than selling one product…though that doesn’t mean you won’t make money.

Click to reserve your spot at the FREE YouTube Quick-start Webinar! I’m sharing three strategies that helped me grow my YouTube channel and double my business income. I guarantee they WILL work for you. Seats are limited for the webinar, so make sure you reserve yours.

How to Become a Fashion Blogger

Setting up a fashion blog is easy and will take a few minutes. I’ll list out the steps here but keep reading for the planning you need to do to get started right.

Sign up for web hosting and register your blog name. This is all done through one step on Blue Host which offers a free domain name and other extras for less than $3 a month [special negotiated offer only through this blog].
Pick a theme from the free themes available or buy a premium theme. Themes are the layout of your blog and the free ones are fine to start.
Download some basic plugins. Plugins are software that lets you do things like remove spam comments and protect your blog from hackers.
Set up an account with an email service provider to start growing your list. I use ConvertKit because it makes sending out regular newsletters and emails automatic. Get a 14-day FREE trial and start building your list with this offer.

Once you’re set up and online, it’s really just a matter of sharing your stories and ideas with people on the web. Google will pick up on your blog articles and will show them when people search for a topic related to your post. This is how the majority of people find your blog, through Google search, though we’ll talk about a few other ways later.

For a more detailed article on setting up a blog, including the free plugins you should use, click through to this five-video series.

How Much Do Fashion Bloggers Make?

We’ll talk about the ways you can make money as a fashion blogger but in short…you CAN make A LOT of money with this type of blog. Besides the cash income, one of the biggest perks for a fashion blog is all the free products you’ll get for review…and depending on your type of fashion blog, those products can be super-expensive!

Bloggers do make money (though it might take a while to convince your mom it’s a real job). In a survey of 130 bloggers from different topics, more than one-in-three (36%), said they make over $3,000 a month from their blog. Check out the different ways to make money below, really grow your site and you can easily break into the one-in-five (23%) of bloggers that make over $5,000 a month.

This doesn’t mean you’re going to start making thousands a month. Your first compensation for the blog will probably be the free stuff you get to review. Keep at it though and you can easily be making over $2,000 a month in cash and products within the first year.

How to Start a Fashion Blog

We covered the technical part of starting a blog, getting webhosting to get your blog online and using a free WordPress theme. Now let’s talk about the strategy to start a fashion blog and start making money.

After you pick a niche or topic for your blog, put together a list of other blogs that are similar to yours. You’ll want some blogs in the same topic as well as other fashion blogs that are for different audiences or types of fashion. You should also look for a few legitimate Facebook groups around fashion and blogging.

Use the similar blogs list to research what’s working for them in terms of article ideas and what products they’re promoting.
Use the list of blogs in other types of fashion as a contact list for guest posting and collaborations. These bloggers are less likely to see you as competition since you write for a different audience.
User your blogger list and the Facebook groups as a resource for support and motivation; helping you with questions and ideas.

You’ll want to start your blog with at least three or four pages and 5-10 blog posts. The pages will be general ideas like an About Me page to share your story, a blog page for people to scroll through articles and maybe a resources page where you talk about your favorite fashion products.

It’s frustrating starting out because you’re writing those first five or ten blog posts and very few people are reading them. You need this first set of posts though so when someone does visit your blog, it doesn’t look like a library with no books. You need stuff for people to read and to keep their attention.

Once you’ve got your blog set up, start contacting other blogs on your list to write guest posts with a link back to your blog. This will start helping your blog rank on Google and will bring those first fans to your blog.

Starting a Fashion Channel on YouTube

I know it sounds like a lot of work to say start a fashion blog AND a YouTube channel…and it is, but used together, these two will grow like crazy!

Fashion is such a visual passion and there are some things you just can’t show with pictures alone. Ever try tying a tie with just pictures? A YouTube channel and video not only allows you to give people a complete step-by-step but it let’s you become a personality in someone’s life.

And there’s proof in the numbers. I’ve run my blogs for over five years and reach a couple hundred thousand people a month. Not bad…but in just two years I’ve grown my YouTube channel to reach over 600,000 people each month and it’s doubled my income!

Now everything you need to do to start a YouTube channel is too long for this post but I have some tips that will get you started and avoid the biggest mistakes.

Just start! Check out the most popular videos on other fashion channels for ideas, shoot a couple of videos and get them online! Don’t expect them to be perfect…in fact, expect they’ll be horrible but it’s a start.
While you’re checking other channels for ideas, start watching their videos regularly for ideas on how to make your videos look better.
Transform your best blog posts into a video, mention the post and provide a link in the video description to start driving people to your blogs.

Create your account on TubeBuddy for free to see the features that will help grow your channel!

Growing a Fashion Blog to Make Money

Growing a fashion blog is actually easier than a lot of other types of blogs because it’s such a visual topic. You’ll get thousands of visitors quickly from social media; especially platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.

Don’t feel like you need to be on every social media platform though. As a fashion blogger, you’ll definitely want to be on Instagram and Pinterest, posting and engaging daily. You might spend some time creating your own group on Facebook but not at the expense of really interacting on the other two platforms.

Your social media strategy for growing the blog should revolve around the following,

Rule #1 for real social media growth is…be social! You have to genuinely interact with people through comments, answering questions and sharing other people’s posts.
Share some of your posts that click over to your blog but also ask questions and create posts that keep people on the social platform. Social platforms hate to send people off the site so you’ll get a better reach on posts that keep people there.
Share posts and messages from other fashion bloggers. This will put you on their radar for sharing and it makes you look like a trusted resource for your community.

With a little guest posting and building your social media following, the traffic to your blog will grow fast! Now it’s time to start making some money!

Ways to Make Money as a Fashion Blogger

I make money through seven different income sources from sponsorships to affiliates, my own products and books. As a fashion blogger, your income will only be limited by the number of ways you can develop these ideas into an income stream.

Most bloggers make far more money through their own products and services so let’s start with that.

Consulting is a big money-maker for fashion bloggers and you’ll get paid immediately. It’s a great way to start making money while you grow your blog and some of the other income sources start taking off. You can offer one-on-one calls for fashion consulting and even set up a personal concierge service where you pick the clothes and send through mail.

Printables are another easy income source for fashion bloggers. I usually recommend self-publishing full ebooks but I think printables are better here. You can create a quick one-page visual checklist for a topic and sell them for $5 to $10 each right through the blog.

Membership Sites are another good product idea for fashion bloggers but these take a little more work. You have to continuously be providing premium content to your members, content and advice they don’t get from the free blog. Add-ons you might consider for premium members include monthly consulting or mastermind groups and discounts to products.

Affiliates are another big share of a fashion blogger’s income, links promoting other businesses’ products and where you get a commission if a reader makes a purchase. In fact, this is probably the biggest income source for most fashion bloggers. Anytime you see a blogger mention an item then link to the company’s website, that’s probably an affiliate link.

Sponsor partnerships are a lot like affiliates but the blogger gets paid a flat fee instead of just commission to promote a product. You might also get a commission in a sponsor/affiliate mix approach but that upfront fee is always nice. These are usually reserved for fashion bloggers with bigger audiences but it won’t take long if you focus on growing your community and social media following.

Starting a fashion blog might start as a passion project or hobby but it can quickly become a full-time business. Ask Kylie Jenner, who just sold a piece of her makeup company for $600 million and became the first millennial billionaire, being a fashion blogger is definitely a thing. Get started, treat it like a business…but have fun, and make all the money you want!

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