A book about blogging sounds ridiculously stupid BUT I came across one recently and I learnt so much. Yuli Ziv is an extremely successful fashion blogger in New York who started the Style Coalition – an agency that represents 200 of the best up and coming fashion bloggers in the US.
Ziv wrote a book called Fashion 2.0: Blogging your Way to the Front Row – the Insider’s Guide to Turning your Fashion Blog into a Profitable Business and Launching a New Career, Vol.1. She probably needs to work on that title a little bit but, for the most part, this is an incredible book to read if you’re interested in making your blog a success. I don’t run a fashion blog but I really found the publication extremely enlightening and interesting.
Very little of the book focused on tricks and tips to up readership or be paid. Rather Ziv covers the blogging basics such as design and how to best produce your content for your audience. She interviews other fashion bloggers for their opinions on topics raging from media kits to how to handle difficult PRs. For more experienced bloggers you may find some of the chapters focus on things you know already but re-reading them just reminds you how the focus of your blog needs to adapt with your audience.
I don’t want to recap the entire book. However, to highlight how helpful I found it there was one thing that I actively started doing and I’ve seen a great response.
Ziv points out that our social networks need to be used for what they were intended. For example, Instagram is a place to share beautiful photos. Snapchat is a place to have fun. Twitter is a place to have quick conversations. You need to adapt your content accordingly. There is nothing wrong with sharing your latest blog post across those platforms but you need to adapt the content for each network.
I used to use my tweets as Facebook posts sharing my blog. I used to put whatever photos I had on Instagram. In the last month I’ve actively changed my approach. I share photos I’ve taken that I deem really good pieces of work on Instagram. I write longer explanations on Facebook posts linking to blog posts and I’ve kept Twitter the same. Surprise surprise, I’ve seen an increase in Instagram followers (as someone who isn’t a strong photographer this is something I struggle with so I really was proud to see that following increase) and more engagement with my Facebook posts. Granted it is slow progress but the improvement on my social platforms has translated to my blog where I’m now seeing more daily visitors.
I’ve read a few bad e-books on blogging. Mostly written by bloggers with no real proof that they’ve turned their blog into a business. Ziv has turned her blog into a business and she interviews other fashion bloggers who’ve done the same. It’s worth the buy and worth the read. You can find it on Amazon here.
