Happy Monday, friends! If you’ve been following along for a while you know I have recently started writing blog posts about blogging tips and tricks and things that I am continually learning along the way. Blogging is such a new and different industry that I feel like no one ever really knows if they’re doing it right, rather something you continually learn along the way. And this can be so hard at first when you feel like there is no right answer!
So today I will be sharing 3 of the go-to resources that I use as a fashion and lifestyle blogger to help grow my brand that are all resources I highly recommend you use if you’re serious about your blog and view it as a business. These exact resources apply primarily to fashion and lifestyle blogs, however, could be useful tips or ideas of resources to use for other blog topics as well such as health & wellness, food blogs, etc. in order to make the most out of your blogging business and your brand.
1. Affiliate Programs
Being a part of an affiliate program is such a great way to make an additional income from your business, especially for fashion and lifestyle bloggers. The more you advertise your fashion and sense of style (or even home decor and interior design) through the clothes you shop for and places you shop at, or even brands you are working with, affiliate programs are a great way to get paid for your advertising and recommendations. You have a dedicated follower base that is intrigued by you and trusts your opinions of style, leading them to want to wear the items you wear and recommend.
There are two well-known affiliate programs in the fashion blogging industry, ShopStyle (ShopStyle Collective) and LikeToKnowIt/RewardStyle. I personally do not use LikeToKnowIt/RewardStyle as it is very hard to be accepted in the beginning with their selection process and you’re only allowed a small number of times that you can apply.
I use ShopStyle as my primary affiliate and absolutely love it, and it is SO easy to join. There is no hard selection process or applying, you just sign up! This is a great program for new and beginning fashion bloggers and even bloggers that have been blogging for a long time too! While LikeToKnowIt kind of dominates the fashion influencer affiliate world, I honestly see ShopStyle as almost the exact same because you are still advertising your sense of style to your followers and can still make a commission off your sales. After I signed up for the program, I waited about 2-3 weeks as ShopStyle sets up your account before you can start utilizing it. After the 2-3 weeks, I began linking my outfit images from Instagram and blog in order to start making my commission off sales from my followers and continue to do so now. This blogger wrote a full detailed post about ShopStyle here that is also very helpful if you’re interested in pursuing it.
In some cases, some brands also set up their own affiliate programs through their website wherein if you are a brand ambassador with that company for a certain period of time, all sales you make through a personalized discount code are recognized as your commission and earnings in which you make additional money for as well.
2. Fohr
Fohr is another great resource you should be using, for any type of blogger, not just fashion and lifestyle bloggers. Fohr is an influencer marketing program that is so helpful for so many reasons.
Once you create a Fohr profile, you are now in a place where brands that are associated with Fohr can find you if they’re looking to collaborate with you to advertise their products/services. After you link all of your social accounts associated with your blog, you’ll have your stats record for each account that will also give you an estimate of how much you should be charging brands for collaborations and partnerships based on your social and blog following.
Your Fohr profile is essentially a resume for your blog; a place where your stats are viewable for brands to see in order to determine if they want to work with you, and also a place to link collaborations you have done in the past by linking to that media (either a photo on Instagram you posted for a brand collaboration, or a link to a blog post you did for a brand collaboration, etc.)
3. InfluenceHer Collective (Her Campus)
I joined the InfluenceHer Collective (IHC) community at the beginning of Summer and I have loved being a part of it! The IHC is a great resource to be considered for fun brand collaborations and events (you do have to apply to be accepted). Once accepted into the program, you link all of your social accounts and blog/vlog in the same way as Fohr to create your profile.
But what’s different about the IHC compared to Fohr, is that about once every 2-3 weeks, the IHC emails out brand collaboration opportunities to the IHC community for you to apply if interested. I have actually just recently completed my first brand collaboration with the IHC in partnership with Clarisonic & Kiehl’s to try out and advertise a new facial cleansing device and have another upcoming collaboration with the IHC coming soon.
While there are so many opportunities set up through the IHC, you definitely don’t have to apply to all that are sent your way, especially if it’s something that you are just not interested in or in some cases may not be eligible for. Just an overall fun, friendly, and supportive community to be a part of that I definitely recommend becoming a part of as a fashion and lifestyle blogger.
Thank you so much for reading all this way (I know this post was kind of long lol) but I hope these tips were helpful and something you consider using for your blogging business!
Have a great Monday!
XX
Kelsie
Definitely going to look into Shop Style!
Yay! That’s awesome! So glad this post helped
Reblogged this on LIFE STORIES FROM LINCOLN.
These sound so useful, and I love the Influenceher Collective as well! Great post 🙂
Thank you! So glad it was helpful!