20 of the Best Tools for a Winning Blog Strategy!
I’ve been blogging for several years now, and have really stepped up my social media game in the last 2-3 years. It has been a great way to express my creativity, write about things that matter to me, and of course - make money! If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog, there really is no better time! We all have a lot more time on our hands since Covid-19 cancelled our social lives. Plus, if you are able to use this time to build your audience and grow your blog traffic, you’ll be in a great position to maximize your earnings when things get back to normal.
I’m outlining some of the tools and resources I rely on to run my blog. These have been my go to resources for managing my business, staying on top of my content, and getting support on the areas that are not my expertise.
Tools You Need to Get Started Blogging
It may seem obvious, but the first thing you need to get started is your website! I purchased my domain through GoDaddy and setup my site on Squarespace. Wordpress is another pretty popular option for bloggers, but I find Squarespace much friendlier to work with. They have lots of templates and design features that are easy to use yourself, and their customer service is readily available. Wordpress is great if you are a little more tech savvy or can invest in a developer. If not, I recommend Squarespace. Once your site is up and running, be sure to integrate Google Analytics to get data on your visitors and top performing content.
You may also want to set up Dropbox for storage. Bloggers use a ton of photos and you need a system of keeping it organized. Mine is organized with seasonal fashion content and an assortment of stock imagery that fits topics I frequently post about.
How to Find Free Stock Imagery for Your Blog
Stock imagery is a blogger’s essential. In my first year of blogging I tried to create every image I posted. That meant shooting and editing full body, lifestyle, and styled flat lay imagery all on my own. It was time consuming, exhausting and expensive! I started using stock imagery more in the last year and it has been a savior. You can subscribe to a stock image service like Adobe, which is my personal fave. They are a little pricey, but way less than trying to style, prop, and shoot all your own images. Pexels, Haute Stock and Ivory Mix are also great for getting a variety of stock images for free!
Essential Apps for Editing Blog and Instagram Photos
You will of course have to create some original content, especially for Instagram. I create content using a mix of professional photographers, self-portraits, and just making my husband do it! Professional photographers usually edit photos for you, but you want to make sure your look is cohesive. Presets are the easiest way to edit photos and keep the overall look from clashing. That is a major key to building a beautiful, stylish Instagram feed. I use 123Presets and stick to the same group at least for the season. I started using them about 6 months ago and it has made such a difference in my feed! Presets also save a ton of time when photo editing, since it’s usually one tap instead of a series of multiple edits.
I also regularly use FaceTune for beauty imagery and making a product or detail pop and Snapseed for removing objects and basic adjustments. If you are trying to create more video, I recommend checking out Vimeo pro! They make creating stylish videos a breeze, with lots of different options for templates and a library of music. Use the 30 day free trial to get started.
Free SEO Resources for Bloggers
SEO is a pain but it is essential for any website to succeed. This is still an area that I struggle with, even after several years blogging! I have spent more time working on my SEO skills since I’m spending more time at home due to coronavirus. When I first got started, I had a consultant help me with the basics, and now I rely on a few free tools for SEO maintenance. The Coscheduler Headline Analyzer helps you write blog titles that will rank, and SEO expert Neil Patel has a host of free SEO resources to help you boost your traffic and rankings.
SEO is pretty complicated so don’t stress out if you don’t ace it right away. Spend some time educated yourself on SEO best practices, monitor your traffic sources and best performing content, and update old posts periodically to keep them fresh.
Affordable Freelance Help for Bloggers
Remember, running a blog is the same as running a small business and no business owner can do it all alone! There will be times you need to enlist the help of a pro to keep things running smoothly. My go to for affordable freelance help is Fiverr. I’ve found everything from SEO consultants to Photoshop pros for complex edits. Everyone charges different rates, but there are a ton of people offering similar gigs so you can easily compare prices and reviews. E-lance is another great platform for finding freelancers and consultants.
I’m also a member of a few blogger Facebook groups that are amazing! It’s a great way to connect with other bloggers, share resources and get inspiration. Check out Boss Girl Bloggers and browse similar groups in your niche .
Hope these tips help! I know blogging can be a very time consuming side hustle, but has the potential to turn into an amazing full-time career. If that’s your goal, stay focused and invested in your audience and your content. One day it will pay off!
My E-Course is Live! How to Make Money as a Microinfluencer!
One of my most popular posts last year was all about how I make money as a microinfluencer. I gave you guys an overview of all my tips for working with brands and getting paid, and I got a ton of follow up questions after that post. I decided to really dive into some of the questions that were asked the most, along with some of the things I thought were super important to know. I’m so happy to announce I finally launched my first ecourse – The Ultimate Guide to Monetizing Your Blog!
This guide is designed for microinfluencers to help you maximize your earning potential and start working with your dream brands. I started working on paid brand collaborations when I had less than 5k followers so I’m spilling the tea on how you can too! I am also writing this not just from my perspective as a blogger, but also from my extensive background as a marketing manager. I have worked with huge brands and small and managed influencer and celebrity campaigns at pretty much any level you can imagine. So I know what I’m talking about when it comes to this stuff, and I’m here to help you with your road map to blogging success!
Here is a chapter by chapter breakdown of what’s you will see in the course!
1. Branding Yourself as an Influencer
This chapter is all about how to position yourself as an influencer, define your niche and the type of content you want to create.
2. How to Grow Your Audience
Here we go into several different approaches to growing your audience across platforms and how to diversify your platforms for maximum impact.
3. Partnering with Agencies vs Brands Directly
In these 2 chapters I explore the differences between working with agencies/influencer networks and brands directly. I also share feedback from decision makers at several of the leading agencies and brands I’ve worked with on how you can succeed as an influencer and nail your campaigns.
4. How to Negotiation an Influencer Contract
The more business you bring in, the more versed you need to be in negotiating the best deal. In this chapter I go over how to interpret an influencer agreement, common terms and what they mean, and tactics to make sure you are getting the best rate.
5. Other Ways to Generate Income
And finally, I go over some ideas and strategies to maximize your earnings through other streams of income, not just sponsored posts with brands.
I’m releasing this just in time for the holiday season, which is when most brands activate influencers for campaigns so it’s the perfect time for you to get started earning those coins! My course is live on Teachable and you can access the Basic Edition for only $20! If you want more personalized support the VIP Edition is yours for $75 which includes the course and a follow up strategy call. In the call I’ll give you the opportunity to address any pending questions or areas you need more support with to get started.
Check it out on Teachable if you are ready to get started!
When Did Influencers Become Public Enemy Number One?
Being a digital influencer is one of the most talked about new career paths of the past few years. As social media exploded and brands began directing significant portions of their budgets towards influencer marketing, more and more people began entering the industry with hopes of becoming Insta-famous. The market is so saturated and there is so much competition, not unlike other highly in-demand fields. However it seems that no other legitimate profession is met with such vitriol.
It seems like every day there is another negative news story about influencers. In the past week you may have seen headlines about “influencers” taking inappropriate photos at Chernobyl, but when you read the articles and click on the photos in question, it’s obvious the photos were taken by normal tourists, not influencers. When Payless had a marketing stint pretending to be a high-end boutique “Palessi,” so many headlines focused on how influencers were duped into wasting money on cheap shoes. There was almost no mention of the fact that influencers in attendance were invited and in some cases paid by the brand for their participation! They were just independent contractors doing a job they had been hired for, yet the mass media ran with the negative coverage. Instead of focusing on the brilliant event that Payless threw, it became all about how silly and shallow influencers are. And not to mention Marissa Fuchs’s “surprise” proposal, which went viral for all the wrong reasons. In my opinion, she came up with a brilliant way to create some fresh content that hadn’t already been done to death, and professionally pitched the business opportunity to brands. I find it hard to imagine a world in which marketing professionals would publicly share and make fun of a pitch deck that had been sent to them confidentially by a media agency or other brand. Why should an influencer (especially one with legitimate reach and a highly professional pitch and marketing strategy) be treated differently?
One of the biggest examples of influencer hate came out around the Fyre Festival scandal, and resurfaced with the Netflix and Hulu documentaries this year. So much focus was on how influencers promoted the event and convinced their followers to attend, but none of the drama was their fault! They were presented with a paid opportunity that many of their colleagues were also involved in. All of the influencers that posted were managed by big, experienced teams that would vet any potential partnership. The only mistake made in many cases was that some of the influencers failed to disclose that they were paid for the promotion.
However, the Fyre Festival case really only proves that influencer marketing works! The goal of tapping talent in a coordinated effort was to sell tickets, and that is exactly what they did. A consultant or independent contractor wouldn’t necessarily have access to the logistics and details of the event, and their obligation ended with them posting when asked.
I’m not a full-time influencer and don’t aspire to be, but I can’t help but notice the amount of hate and criticism directed at people that are essentially entrepreneurs building their own personal brand. Yes, there are a lot of influencers with loose ethics that are dishonest with their audience and brand partners, but is there any industry that is completely free from corruption?
If you are someone that loves to hate on influencers, I would LOVE to know why that is! And if you are an influencer and feel like you get a lot of unfair criticism and hatred, let me know why you think that is and how you handle it!
Why I Stopped Working with Photographers
What’s the main tool every blogger needs - photos obviously! In order to create content and maintain your schedule you need a reliable way to get photos for your blog and social media posts. I’ve been blogging for about 3 years now and over the past year I have seriously reduced my reliance on professional photographers to generate content. In this post I outline all the reasons why my content strategy shifted, the pros and cons of working with a professional photographer, and how I maintain my content. Keep scrolling, and check out the photos chosen for this post. They are some of my favorites that I created and edited on my own!
I decided to reduce how much I work with professional photographers for several reasons, but it really all boiled down to one thing - wanting to have more control over my content. I looked at the influencers I admire most, like Asiyami Gold, Mossonyi, Tezza, and Tina from Of Leather and Lace. One thing they all have in common is they are all content creators. Even when they are not taking the photo, they have full creative control over every element of the photo and the final editing process. If you can’t create content without having a pro photographer at your disposal, your creative will always be limited.
Plus the only way to truly maintain a consistent aesthetic is to be in control of all of your visuals. For example, below is a side by side of my feed now, vs in a month when I created and edited all my own images, without using any professional photographers.
The left is all original work, shot mostly with friends or other blogger girls and edited by me for consistency. And on the right is my most recent look. As you can see, things got a little disjointed! I worked with a few different street style photographers for pictures in between shows, then peppered in some original work for a sponsored project, and then pics from my trip to LA. I’m hoping to get my look back on track in the next few weeks, so will be going back to more of my own work.
The only way to really keep a consistent look and work with a pro is if you always use the same one. Plenty of influencers have a photographer on retainer, which can get expensive! If it’s not in the budget and an Insta-Hubby isn’t an option, take it into your own hands by working with friends or other bloggers in the same situation.
Creating your own content becomes especially important when you begin doing more brand work. Negotiating sponsored posts with brands can mean they also want rights to use the photos, which technically the photographer would have the copyright to. If you want to truly own your photos and be able to license them to brand partners, you need to either have your photographer sign off on that, or you need to own that content!
I anticipate this year I will create about 65% of my content on my own - enlisting a pro really only on travel when my friends pics may not cut it, or when the wardrobe/location calls for one. And even then I plan on being super vigilant about color, lighting, editing, etc to make sure the my visuals stay consistent no matter who is taking the final shot.
If you are a blogger let me know how you handle getting pictures, and if you plan on taking more content creation into your own hands. And for those who want to take the DIY approach, check out my post on mastering the self-portrait!
How to Beat the Instagram Algorithm Like an Expert!
Ever since Instagram implemented the algorithm, there have been countless posts about how to beat it. From quick and easy hacks to complicated, time consuming strategies, everyone is trying to find a way to beat Instagram at its own game. As an influencer, part of your success depends on your reach and the engagement you get on your posts so performance is critical. I’m far from an Instagram expert, but I have learned a few things on my journey as a microinfluencer, so I’m sharing some of my tips for how I’ve managed to maintain my account, get decent engagement, and keep the algorithm from making me crazy!
Focus on Instagram Engagement
Engagement is everything! You can’t control who sees your posts anymore, and you definitely can’t control who likes or comments on them. Since this post focuses only on things you can control, when I speak of engagement I mean how you are active and engaging on the platform. You can’t just post once a day, disappear, then expect your account to get traction. I spend about an hour a day on Instagram, engaging with new accounts and people that follow me. Yes, I go through my followers list and like, comment, watch and Insta-story or something to let my followers know I pay attention to them! If you are engaging with their accounts they are also more likely to see your posts in their feed and engage on yours!
Create Compelling, High Quality Content
There are so many influencers and brands posting on Instagram these days it’s impossible to stand out if your content isn’t up to par. Focus on creating content that is in line with your aesthetic, is eye-catching enough to make someone pause on your pic not just scroll past, and has an interesting caption. I admit I am not the best at captioning! I typically schedule my images so the visual flow makes sense, but I don’t caption in advance so I usually end up posting on the fly. I’m challenging myself to work on better captions because I firmly believe they help with boosting engagement and beating the Instagram algorithm.
Collaborate with Other Bloggers in Your Niche
Collaborating with other influencers isn’t just for fun! It can help organically expose you to a new audience and help you create new types of content that engage and excite your followers! I had a blast shooting with some of the Exclusively Social babes around NYFW and I hope to do more partnerships with other bloggers to have fun and help each other grow!
Have Fun and Remember Why You Started
I started my influencer journey to have a creative outlet when my corporate job felt stifling. It became my personal passion project, a place for me to challenge my creativity, make new connections, and post about things that excited and inspired me. So whether I’m posting from far-flung destination or frolicking in a tulle dress in a Brooklyn studio that rivals a Victorian mansion, this is my place to create what I want. Think about what you want, and how you can find other people that want to see what you create!
Instagram can always change their algorithm, and probably has by the time you read this post! By remembering the things that motivate you, inspire you, and challenge you as an influencer will make the journey all worthwhile.
Let me know how you are surviving Instagram and your life as an influencer!
Is Rent the Runway Unlimited Worth It?
Ever wonder how bloggers seem to have an endless assortment of designer clothes and accessories for the perfect #ootd or glam night out? Well the secret isn’t necessarily an unlimited budget! Rent the Runway has been one of my go to sources for formal events or weddings for years, but I recently decided to give an unlimited membership a try. I was gifted a code for a free month after attending one of their events at WeWork, so decided to give it a test run in December. My schedule was pretty full between holiday parties, photo shoots, and traveling to Art Basel. I definitely needed a collection of Instagram worthy looks at my disposal but was absolutely not going run up my credit card bill for the gram. Here are some of the looks I rented and my thoughts on whether or not Rent the Runway Unlimited is worth it, and getting the most out of your membership!
Rent the Runway Unlimited isn’t technically unlimited! You can have 4 items out at a time, and you are encouraged to return multiple items in one shipment to reduce the environmental impact. However you can swap out items as often as you want! The processing time is super fast - usually my items were received the next day and I could order my next round. And if you order before 2pm and ship to store they usually arrive the same day. For the looks below, I ordered them a few days before I had my holiday shoot scheduled and shipped them back when I was done.
The membership also came in super handy before my trips to Savannah and Miami. All my summer clothes were packed away for the season, so renting was a perfect option. Here are some of the fun looks I rented for travel to warm weather destinations.
Plus they have more than just formalwear and fancy dresses! I rented this statement coat because I was bored with my winter rotation, and this casual sweatshirt for weekend brunch.
So is Rent the Runway Unlimited worth it? I say yes if you are someone who goes to a lot of events on a regular basis, or if you are a blogger and always need fun items to shoot! It’s also great to activate your membership during busy times, like for wedding season or during the holidays when you have a lot of parties. Then you can freeze or cancel for the months when your schedule is lighter and you don’t need to rent as much.
Let me know if you try it, and here are links to the items I had in rotation!
Squad Goals! 3 Perks of Forming Your Blogger Squad
I’ve been blogging for a few years now and one of the best things about it, is well, other bloggers! Nothing beats building a sense of collaboration and community with beautiful, talented, creative women that share your goals and mission. I’ve been so fortunate to connect with an amazing blogger girl squad here in the city. Here are some of the things I love the most about them!
You have instant common ground
There are things that every blogger can relate to. We all have spent nights spent working on our sites and content calendars and weekends filled with styling sessions and photo shoots. Your friends may only see the glamourous parts, like you posting cute pictures and going to fun branded events. But the rest of us really get it! Even if you are in a different niche, you understand having a crazy schedule, feeling the pressure to always look amazing online, and trying to find ways to make your content stand out!
You get to build a unique network
Whether you are looking for anything from photo shoot locations to tax advice, if you have a strong network of other bloggers you can definitely find the answers! I love being able to rely on my network to brainstorm ideas, troubleshoot issues only they would understand, and get inspired for projects I’m trying to tackle!
You get to have fun and be productive
Imagine having all the fun with your friends, while simultaneously networking, strategizing, and sharing resources to support each other’s goals. That’s what having a blogger squad is like! For the perennial multitasker like me, being able to have fun with people who’s company I genuinely enjoy while keeping on top of growing my business is major!
Pin me for later!
If you are looking for connect with other bloggers in the city, try Meetup to find groups, or sliding into someone’s dm’s if you want to connect!