29th September 2015

How To Be A Blogger – Our LFWend Talk

Fashion - By Alexandra Stedman
Shirt: £80, Gant. Skirt: £250, LK Bennett. Shoes: £495, Jimmy Choo. Clutch: Gap (old)

You may remember that last Fashion
Week, I was asked to do a talk at London Fashion Weekend. Well, this year I was
thrilled to be asked back (amongst other hosts Anya Hindmarch, Bella Freud and Mary Katrantzou – no biggie) and this time, I was to host a panel about blogging – so
I asked fellow bloggers/web entrepreneurs and friends Erica Davies (The-Edited.com) and
Naomi Mdudu (from The Lifestyle Edit) to come along for a discussion.
With Erica from The-Edited (who is wearing the fabulous ‘Galaxy’ dress from Atterley )
I wore my LK Bennett skirt with a classic Gant shirt and borrowed my favourite shoes from Jimmy Choo – ‘the ‘Glisten’ flats – for the afternoon (my Topshop ones are pretty similar but sometimes you just want to ‘feel’ a bit more special).
Shirt: £80, Gant. Shoes: £495, Jimmy Choo. 

Firstly, it was PACKED. The space has now moved to the Saatchi Gallery which has far larger rooms for presentations than Somerset House and it was exciting to see so many people had signed up to the Talk. We were quite nervous before it started but once we got going, we all know what we’re talking about and the conversation just flowed. 

So what did we actually talk about? Anything and everything…should bloggers be more open about collaborations? Who takes our pictures? How obsessed are we with instagram? (the answer is VERY)! How did we start our blog and when did we realise it could be successful? We crammed A LOT in the 30 minutes but thought I would round-up a few bullet points from our discussion.
  • ·  If you’re wondering how to make money from a blog, you’re probably in it for the wrong reasons.  A good blog takes a while to build up and you have to work A LOT for free, my website has finally started to work for itself but I have worked on it unpaid for almost 4 years now, pretty much full-time. I started because I really, really wanted to tell people about those fab shoes in New Look, or share my secret lunch spots in Barcelona. And from good content, only then did more paid projects come.
  • I  spend way too much time on Instagram – it’s becoming obsessive – the layout of the grid, the pace…and I use Snapseed to edit all my photos. There are also different people on instagram to my blog, so I make sure I load different content to all my platforms.
  • It’s important to always keep your integrity when blogging, I have turned down many projects because they’re not right. Don’t be afraid to do this – by turning down the wrong ones, better ones will come. I never work on any project with a brand I don’t love and work with already.
  • Twitter is hugely important to drive traffic to your site, especially when starting out. You need to push your content out there, don’t be scared – no one else will do it for you!
  • I take on projects to keep my blog going, I pay everyone who works with me – photographers, admin assistants, Eurostar for my photographer etc. To produce good content costs money, and projects help me towards getting the best out of my blogposts.
  • I don’t believe in too many hashtags. I may be on my own here, but I believe if you create interesting pictures, people will follow you. You can then create your own hashtags.

Thank you to everyone who came down to see us speak – it was wonderful to see so many people there and chat to some really inspiring ladies afterwards.

By Alexandra Stedman

Fashion Editor, Blogger, Realist

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Comments

  3. You and Erica both look fabulous and I would have loved to have come for the talk – these things fascinate me. But it's very true – there is lots of hard work behind everything and people do sometimes take it for granted that it just happens. Glad to hear that you have a photographer – your photos are looking fantastic – I was starting to feel a little jealous that you had such an obliging hubby to take your pics ;o)

    By the way, your hard work is paying off – it shows in how popular your blog is.

  6. Firstly congrats on the talk, I agree with you on the hashtag, Some pictures also have the oddest words attached to them!! Blogging has changed over the past couple of years, I follow lots via Bloglovin and the most liked are always *How to gain followers *How to make money from your blog. I have noticed more and more bloggers writing these posts.

  7. That skirt is so beautiful. Did you guys know what the other was going to wear? I thought your silhouettes and styles etc really complimented each other and worked well!

  10. Thank you!! There was an article on BoF recently on the invisible hours of blogging…it does take a lot of work, but so lovely to be able to give me the freedom to work for myself. And yes, I have a photographer – but also my husband does do a lot – but I pay him as well! He is freelance too, so works with me on a few days – then I don't feel guilty if I ask him to 'shoot a few more frames!) x

  12. Oh yes, completely agree. I didn't want this to be a 'how to be successful' post, as that is up to the individual…and if you expect to be big from day 1, then I think your content is never going to be 'honest'….people always ask me how I gain followers, and I always just say 'create good contnet'! x

  16. Firstly…I just spent about 20 minutes on your blog – it's fab 😉 secondly – huge kudos to doing it whilst raising a toddler. I can't imagine….but doing a blog is enjoyable – I probably forgot to add that part – and if you enjoy doing your blog, it always shows. Thanks for your lovely comment xx