How To Start A Fashion Blog That Makes Money In 2021

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Do you want to start a fashion blog and make money from it?

Then this post is for you!

This is your ultimate guide to becoming a fashion blogger in 2021.

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This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.

How to start a fashion blog in 2021 (and make money from it)

Find your niche

The first step in starting a fashion blog is choosing a niche.

What is a niche? …you might be wondering.

A niche is a small part (a segment) of the market. It’s a specific group of people within a niche.

Okay, now I know what a niche is but isn’t “fashion” a niche? Isn’t that specific enough?

No, it’s not.

Fashion is a HUGE market and there are lots of different niches within that market.

You have women’s fashion, men’s fashion, plus size, petite, luxury, minimal, and so much more!

Of course, you can start a fashion blog and write about all of those topics. You don’t have to choose one niche if you don’t want to. BUT if you do, you will see better and faster results

Fashion blogging is very popular and there are so many blogs out there that it would be hard to get noticed and stand out.

That’s why it best to choose a niche to write about.

That way you’ll be able to grow faster and make more money.

Pick a name for your fashion blog

Now that you have a niche for your fashion blog, it’s time to come up with a name.

Take a pen and a piece of paper and start writing down some words that come to your mind.

Write down anything that reminds you of fashion and the niche you’ve chosen, anything that would describe you, and any other words that come to your mind.

Try to think and write down any word that you like.

No word is boring or too simple. All those words will help you come up with a name for your fashion blog.

Once you have all those words in front of you, try to put together some names from those words.

From those names pick the one that you like best and think would suit your blog the most

Don’t forget to check whether that name is available to purchase and on social media.

You can check if the name is available here

Set up your fashion blog

Now it’s time to actually start your blog.

The best way to start a blog is on a self-hosted platform, WordPress.org.

Let me explain why!

There are lots of different platforms and tools for blogging, some of them are even free.

But what makes a self-hosted one the best option is the fact that you OWN your blog. You own everything. And you are in control of everything, you decide how your blog will look like, what it will have.

Literally everything

With free blogging platforms, you are very limited and have little control over how your blog will look.

Another problem with free platforms like wordpress.com or Blogger is that they own your blog, not you. And they can do pretty much whatever they want with it…

One day you have your blog, the next it could be gone!

But with a self-hosted blog, you don’t have to worry about that!

Don’t let the word “self-hosted” scare you. Setting up your blog simple and affordable.

You can start your own blog for only $3.95 a month with Bluehost.

When you sign up for hosting with Bluehost you also get:

free domain name
free email address with your domain name
free SSL Certificate (that little key next to a URL that says your website is secure)

>> Click here to sign up for Bluehost! <<

How to set up WordPress

1. Choose your hosting plan

To set up your WordPress blog go to Bluehost.com and click on “Get started” (as shown in the image below).

Next, choose your hosting plan. If you are just starting out I think that the “basic” plan is more than enough for you.

But you can always upgrade later if you need to.

2. Set up your domain name

Once you’ve chosen your plan it’s time to set up your domain name.

A domain name is the address of your blog. It’s usually the same as your blog name.

Some things to keep in mind when choosing your domain name:

make it as short as possible
make it easy to remember
avoid full stops, dashes, and other symbols
don’t make up your own spelling of words (people will probably “remember” the actual spelling, not yours)
choose a .com domain as that’s the most common one so it’s easier to remember

3. Fill in your information

When you’ve picked your domain name, click “next”.

You’ll be taken to a new page where you need to enter all your account and payment information. Just follow the steps and fill in all the boxes.

You will get to choose your package information. Be sure to uncheck any extras you don’t need to save money as those things add up.

4. Create a password and log in to WordPress

Once you’re all done with paying, it’s time to create your password. Make sure to choose a strong password and include numbers and symbols.

Then click on “Create account” and log into your account with your domain name and the password you just created.

There just follow the steps and pick a theme you like (don’t stress about it as you can easily your theme anytime).

Once you’re in your Bluehost dashboard click on the blue “Log in to WordPress” button to go to your blog.

Once your blog is created you can customize it however you want and change anything you want. You can add different widgets and plugins (here is a list of essential plugins you need on your blog).

Another thing you should do right away is, install Google analytics to your website so you can track your visitors.

Set up important pages

Now, let’s talk about the essential pages you need on your blog

About page

An about page is a page on your blog where you tell your readers who you are and what your blog is about.

Write a few sentences about yourself, who you are, what you like, anything that you want to share. And then tell your readers what your blog is about and what they can expect from you.

You can make your about page short and simple or play around with it. Whatever you prefer.

Contact page

It’s important to have a contact page on your blog so people can get in touch with you.

You can easily create a contact form for free with WPForms

Legal pages

And the most important pages of them all, legal pages.

Every single blogger is required by law to have legal pages!

It doesn’t matter if you started your blog 10mins ago or are making six-figure blogging, you need to have legal pages.

In my legal guide for bloggers, I talk about all the required legal pages and why they are important. And if you want to learn more about the legal side of blogging, you can enroll in this FREE legal course for bloggers.

In my opinion, the best (and cheapest! ) way to protect your blog legally is by buying legal templates that were written by a professional lawyer. These are the ones I use and highly recommend.

Create content

Now comes the fun part.

And that’s creating content for your fashion blog.

What I would recommend is to write 5-10 blog posts BEFORE you launch your blog.

That way you have something to show and promote right away.

I have a full post on how to write blog posts you can check out where I teach you how to structure your posts and what to include.

Drive traffic to your fashion blog

Now that your fashion blog is live and has some content, it’s time to promote it and get people to visit it.

Because if you want to make money with your blog you need to, first, get people on your blog.

The more people visit your blog, the more chances you have of turning those people into followers and costumers.

I have a blog post where I shared exactly what I did to reach 20,000 monthly blog views in only 6 months you can check out.

Pinterest is one of the best ways to get free traffic to your blog. What I love the most about using Pinterest for blog traffic is the fact that you can start seeing results fast.

To use Pinterest for traffic, you need to set up a business account and optimize your profile with keywords.

Keywords are very important on Pinterest as they tell Pinterest what your profile and your pins are about. The keywords you use help Pinterest can show your pins to the right people.

I have a FREE Pinterest course where I show you how to set up your account and use keywords. You can enroll below.

SEO

Another way to drive traffic to your blog is through search engines like Google.

And that’s where SEO comes.

Don’t know what SEO is?

Here’s a quick explanation.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s a process to optimize your blog for search engines.

The first step of optimizing your blog for SEO is submitting your blog to search engines.

You can do that easily with the Yoast SEO plugin.

To download the plugin, in your WordPress dashboard, go to plugins > add new > enter “Yoast SEO” in the search bar and click on “install now”

Once you install Yoast SEO, it will appear in the left menu as “SEO”. Just click on that button and then click on “Webmaster Tools”. There just follow the instructions for each search engine.

Optimize your posts for SEO

There is a lot that goes into optimizing your blog for SEO, from keywords to user intent to internal linking to backlinks, to your website speed and so much.

I will just go over a few things quickly to help you understand and implement SEO.

Keywords

Keywords are words and phrases that people search for.

Whenever you are googling something you write some words in the search bar. Those words are keywords.

As a blogger, using keywords is very important (like I already mentioned when I talked about Pinterest) as it helps Google understand what your post is about.

When you find a keyword you want to target and write a blog post around, you need to use that keyword everywhere in your post

in your blog post title
in your URL
at the beginning of the post
mention it multiple times in the post
heading and subheading (especially H2s and H3s )
image names and alt tags

One thing to remember, you are writing your post for readers not for search engines! So don’t keyword stuff and add keywords somewhere where it doesn’t make sense just for the sake of it.

Internal linking

Internal linking is when you link to different pages and posts from your blog.

In every post, include a few relevant links from other posts from your blog.

When I say relevant, I mean, to posts that are related to the post you’re writing.

External linking

On the other hand, external linking is when you link to other websites in your post.

When you are linking to other websites, make sure that they are good quality websites.

Website speed

Your website speed is another important part of SEO. The faster your website loads the better for SEO and for user experience.

You can test your website speed with tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTmetricks.

Some tips for speeding up your website

plugins affect website speed so only download the ones you really need
remove unnecessary widgets from your blog
save your images as jpg not png
resize your images before uploading
get Shortpixel for image optimization (you get 100 free image optimizations a month but honestly 100 is not enough. I’d recommend getting a one time plan of 10k images for only $9.99)
install a cashing plugin (I recommend WP Rocket)

Instagram

Let’s talk about Instagram now.

Instagram is a big and important part of being a fashion blogger.

It can help you build your community and get recognized in the fashion industry.

It’s also important for brand collaborations. Having an Instagram account will help you get more brand deals and make more money.

Instagram tips for fashion bloggers

create an Instagram account for your blog (if you can, make your username the same as your blog name)
switch to a business or a creator account to get access to Instagram insights
theme your Instagram

How do fashion bloggers get paid?

We’ve come to the final part of this super long and detailed guide on starting a fashion blog.

Let’s talk about money!

How can you make money with your fashion blog?

There are lots of different ways you can make money blogging, but I’ll focus on the most popular ones. They are

affiliate marketing
ads
sponsored posts

Affiliate marketing for fashion bloggers

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to start making money with your blog. What I love the most about it is that you can start earning money with affiliate marketing right away. And you don’t need a lot of traffic or followers to be successful in affiliate marketing.

How do you make money with affiliate marketing?

When you sign up for affiliate programs you get your own unique tracking links to products. You then share those links on your blog and social media.

Whenever someone clicks on your link and buys something you receive a commission.

Usually, the commission is a percentage of the price. But every affiliate program has different terms.

How to promote affiliate products as a fashion blogger

There are lots of different ways you can promote affiliate links and earn money as a fashion blogger. Here are some of them:

create a “shop” page on your blog
promote links in blog posts (the best types of posts to promote affiliate products are: tutorials, how-to posts, reviews, and comparisons)
promote affiliate products on social media
make your Instagram photos shoppable

Best affiliate programs for fashion bloggers

Make money with ads

Another way you can make money with your blog is through ads.

The great thing about making money with ads is that it’s completely passive meaning you don’t need to do anything to earn that money.

You make money whenever someone visits your blog.

When it comes to ads, be careful which ad network you sign up for. Because ads can look spammy and slow down your blog.

That’s why if you decide to put ads on your blog I would recommend going with one of the premium ad networks: Monumetric, Mediavine or AdThrive.

These networks have monthly traffic requirements you need to meet in order to apply (Monumetric requires 10k pageviews, Mediavine 50k sessions, and AdThrive 100k pageviews).

Other ad networks like Google Adsense, honestly, aren’t worth it.

They pay very little and aren’t good for the user experience.

Work with brands on sponsored posts

And lastly, you can work with brands on sponsored content to make money.

When it comes to working with brands, every brand collaboration is different and unique.

Some brands will only want you to mention them in a blog post, others will want a full sponsored post with social media posts, another company might only want an Instagram post, etc.

How to find brands to work with

There are a few different ways to land brand collaborations

through blogger networks
pitch brands
brands contact you

Blogger networks

Blogger networks are the easiest way to find brand collaborations.

These networks serve as the middle man between you and brands.

Pitch brands

Another way you can land sponsorships is by simply reaching out to brands.

If there is a brand you really like and want to work with, you can send them an email.

What to include in your email:

introduce yourself and your blog
say what you love about the brand and why you want to work with them
tell them why you are a good fit for them. if you have a campaign in mind, tell them about it

Brands contact you

Brands can also contact you for a collaboration.

That’s why it’s so important to have a contact page on your blog so they can easily get in touch with you.

Final thoughts on starting a fashion blog

And we have (finally) come to the end of this post.

This was my complete guide on starting a fashion blog.

I really wanted to make this post as detailed as possible and include everything you need to know about starting your fashion blog.

And not just how to start your blog. I wanted to tell you how you can also grow it and make money with it.

Because I know that starting a blog can seem confusing and overwhelming at first but trust me it isn’t.

If you have any questions or need help with starting your blog, I’m here for you 🙂