I get a whole of questions about blogging… How do I start a great blog? How do I become popular?

I find it challenging to give really direct answers because you can really tell someone how to innovate, you can really just explain the importance.

The real pioneers of Fashion Blogging sprung to life around 10 years ago - at the time the concept was totally new and very much home grown. Over time things have evolved, with the rise of social media. The business is ever changing - what was true for success even two years ago, isn’t the same today.

So how do you keep up? What do I need to know to be successful in today’s digital landscape?

 

The answer lies in the analysing changes, being well researched, keeping your ear to the ground and knowing what is working and what isn’t - then once you have some answers, start to apply and try some new ideas. Right now, snapchat is the hottest thing around, everyone is talking about it, clients are requesting it… so what about twitter and instagram? Those things are still important - but placing all your eggs in that basket maybe isn’t the wisest choice anymore. Remember when instagram wasn’t even a thing? Fashion blogging didn’t really have this whole other element attached to it, it all worked differently. It’s more than likely that instagram won’t be essential anymore and something will replace it. Which brings me to my next point.

Adapt to become the thing that will succeed you.

Forward thinking - what is it that might replace you in the future? In the time I’ve been in this business, I’ve already seen blogs come and go. Those who are left behind are likely stuck in the attitude, “this is how I work and I won’t change”, but in this ever evolving industry, you have to adapt. I can’t really tell you the ‘what’ of this evolution, because it’s essential you find out what works for you - and that’s not just for Fashion Blogging, but all industries. I’m sure we’ve all seen the examples of retail businesses who refuse to adapt to online and end up bowing out all together, or trying to get in too late.

So if something isn’t working? Drop it immediately. Or at the very least, evolve it further. If you were a scientist working on a theory, would you practise the exact same experiment over and over even it wasn’t proving your hypothesis?

If you’re a blogger, you’re lucky there’s pretty immediate ways to test if something isn’t really going well. That’s what analytics are for - and I won’t get into understanding analytics right now… because all of that is coming in a Fashion Blogging Course in the very near future. Oops! Cat’s out of the bag! 😉

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a great quote from Elaine Musk - the ex-wife of Elon Musk (founder of PayPal and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX) about what it takes to become a billionaire. Obviously it’s pretty unrealistic to aim to be a billionaire from Fashion Blogging… but maybe to have millions of pageviews? That could be a valid goal… but maybe it’s the wrong way to think about it.

“Shift your focus away from what you want (a billion dollars) and get deeply, intensely curious about what the world wants and needs. Ask yourself what you have the potential to offer that is so unique and compelling and helpful that no computer could replace you, no one could outsource you, no one could steal your product and make it better and then club you into oblivion (not literally). Then develop that potential. Choose one thing and become a master of it. Choose a second thing and become a master of that. When you become a master of two worlds (say, engineering and business), you can bring them together in a way that will a) introduce hot ideas to each other, so they can have idea sex and make idea babies that no one has seen before and b) create a competitive advantage because you can move between worlds, speak both languages, connect the tribes, mash the elements to spark fresh creative insight until you wake up with the epiphany that changes your life.”

I took quite a bit from this quote, really finding knowledge and thinking of things in new light, evolving and adapting. Finding out the things that people want and need and using that information to become innovation. Food for thought either way!

Hope you all like this post and gained a little something about the importance of innovation, it’s really important for any business and industry. The world belongs to those who innovate!

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