Are you wondering how to start a fashion blog of your very own? Who better to answer that question than a fashion blogger, right? I couldn’t agree more. Today I am sharing a step-by-step guide to starting a blog from scratch!

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Whether you are an aspiring influencer or business owner, having an established blog is crucial for anyone with an online presence. By creating high quality content to serve your audience, a blog can enhance your credibility and authority.

A Step by Step Guide on How to Start a Fashion Blog

Since 2021 I have been creating content here and growing this fashion blog. Prior to this blog, I had a personal lifestyle blog that I created from scratch several years ago. That blog fizzled out after a year as I was tied to a very demanding (& successful) corporate career that CONSUMED most of my time. In what little free time I had, I studied blogging and how to create a blog from nothing. I spent days creating the blog.

Penny Pincher Fashion uses the same platform and tools that my original blog had. This helped with a seamless transition when I took over here.

Today I am here to share the exact steps to take to set up your blog. These are the steps I followed and some tricks I learned along the way.

Before writing your first blog post, you have a lot of decisions to make and sort out some technical aspects. It can be overwhelming!

But don’t worry, this guide contains just EIGHT STEPS. Before you know it, you’ll have your very own functional blog!

Choose Your Fashion Niche/Topic

If you want to start a blog, it is important to choose a subject that you can write about a lot. This will be the primary topic of your blog articles. Luckily, with fashion there are several routes to take. Don’t be afraid to niche down and choose a very specific top. Don’t worry if the niche is popular, there will be all kinds of people searching for content of your niche.

To help decide on a niche, you can ask yourself a few questions. What am I passionate about? What is unique about my personal style/fashion experience? Where do you like to shop?

Then get more specific to define your niche even further. Are you super tall? Or are you a petite mid 30s mama on a budget? See what I mean? Narrowing down your niche will reduce your competition and set a good foundation for your new blog. After a few detailed posts are up, you’ll be able to broaden your post topics into a wider niche audience.

In order to attract and retain readers, your primary content should be focused on your niche and ways to serve your audience within that niche.

Pick Your Domain Name

Now that you know what you will write about, next is the fun part. It is time to choose your blog name.

Your domain name should be a reflection of your niche, but also be something that can grow with your blog over time. For this reason, many fashion bloggers will incorporate their first name into their blog name in a creative way! The goal is to choose a name that will tell readers a little bit about the type of content you share.

I encourage you to spend some time on your name before registering your domain. The good news is that there is no right or wrong name. Just focus on relating it to your content and choosing a name you love.

After you have a name you must check and see if the domain is available as a URL. You can do this on GoDaddy. It might also be wise to check the username availability on social media platforms if you choose to publish content on SM.

Choose a Blog Platform

There are a lot of platform options to consider when considering how to start a fashion blog of your very own. From my personal research and experience, WordPress is by far one of the most popular options. This blog and my old personal blog both used WordPress.

WordPress is self hosted and very user friendly and you have the freedom to make the site your own. The personalization options are great, there are tons of plugin options, and it is SEO friendly, and it makes monetization super easy.

Other platforms to consider are WIX, Squarespace, and web.com. Each platforms has pros and cons to consider. I personally prefer a self-hosted, wordpress.org site.

Pick Your Host

With a self-hosted platform, such as WordPress, you must also pick a host for your site.

There are several hosting options to choose from. This blog utilizes Siteground. I have had nothing but good experiences with them. The customer service is responsive and knowledgeable, which is essential when you aren’t much of a tech or coding wizard.

Design Your Blog Website

Now the fun part! When it comes to the appearance of your blog, two important decisions you will make are the color palette and theme.

I personally use Canva to set my “brand colors” for content templates I post throughout the blog and on social media. The Pro Version of Canva offers a lot of great features to assist users with their branding. I personally love that I can save the brand colors and easily reference quickly. Canva Pro also offers access to additional fonts and graphics!

WordPress offers a lot of themes, both paid and free. If you want to branch out and find something unique, Etsy is a great resource for WordPress themes!

TIP: Be sure to opt for a customizable theme and one that is mobile friendly. Also ask for a live demo or preview of the theme so that you can get a feel for how it looks and operates.

Create Your Content Strategy

Knowing what you will be writing about and when takes a lot of stress out of blogging. Many bloggers create a content calendar for planning out posts for the coming weeks/months. Before implementing my own content calendar, I honestly was so lost and wasted a lot of time figuring out what to do next.

To create your content strategy follow these steps:

– identify 2-3 pillar topics you want to cover on the blog. If your starting a fashion blog pillars could be outfit ideas, capsule wardrobes, product reviews, style tips, etc.

– write down 1-2 article ideas for each pillar and set a date for each post to go live. After you have a few articles published, you’ll want to be consistent with post publications. “They” say Google likes sites that post multiple times per week. I currently post twice per week.

– Set a schedule for when your posts will go live. The nice thing about WordPress is that posts can be written in advance and scheduled to post at a later date/time! Be consistent with timing so that your followers know when to expect content from you.

I personally track all of my posts and content calendar in excel. Its a super quick and easy way to plan ahead and keep track of everything.

How to Start a Fashion Blog Legally

One of the most important things you can do for your blog is protect it! Generally, having these three separate documents on your blog can greatly help in protecting your content and business:

• Website Disclaimer
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions

I am not a legal professional and encourage you to consult a legal professional for any questions you have regarding these documents and/or any other legal requirements for your business.

Get Noticed When You Start a Blog

Now that your blog is set up and you have a few active articles, it’s time to drive traffic to your blog.

• Create a Pinterest account and start Pinning images for your blog posts
• Set up 1-2 social media accounts to promote your blog

Driving traffic to your blog is critical and is ultimately the goal of blogging. After all, why write posts if nobody ever sees them?

If you want to grow quickly, Pinterest is the way to go! Do not think of Pinterest as social media. It is more of a search engine and is one of the best ways to direct traffic to your site. You can create Pin images in Canva and then link it back to your blog!

Useful Blogging Resources

Setting up a blog takes time and is overwhelming at times. There are a bunch of little details you will come across in addition to the steps listed in this post! This is something you needs several days or maybe even weeks to accomplish. This post has even more blogging tips and resources!

From personal experience, taking a blog course is the way to go to streamline (and expedite) the entire setup process. A quality course can even provide essential tips for creating successful & profitable blog! THIS COURSE is one that I took for when I was new to the blogging world and wanted to grow my site.

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