About becoming a braver, more confident person - through fashion blogging.

Though I've been writing a person blog for six years, I'm definitely a newbie when it comes to the whole "fashion blogger scene". So naturally, when I saw the "How to be a successful fashion blogger"-feature is the latest Chictopia newletter, I immediately clicked on it. One can never get too much advice, that's for sure!

The feature turned out to mostly focus on those who have not yet started their blogs, but the writer shared a tweet that I really think nails what the blogging experience is all about:

"When you’re a blogger you also need to be a photographer, stylist, graphic designer, coder, writer, model & marketing guru."

Jessie Stoelwinder of The Velvet Bow

In a way I guess you could see this as being unfair - how can a person be expected to master all of these skills?! But at the same time, blogging is an amazing opportunity to practice and get better. Noone will make fun of you for starting at the bottom, you can get feedback and share your progress with your readers.

And to be honest, we all know that not every successful blogger is "a photographer, stylist, graphic designer, coder, writer, model and marketing guru". And that's okay, because just because you're a blogger, you don't have to do everything all by yourself! I know (of) so many people who have friends, parents or partners with amazing photography skills who take all of their photos, there are plenty of tutorials and generous people out there that will help you with the graphic design and coding if you don't want to get into it yourself, and there are also lots of immensely popular blogs who are almost completely based on photography (for those who aren't as keen as myself on writing way too long stories).

I guess what I'm trying to say is though it's absolutely true that being a person of many talents can surely help a blog becoming widely appreciated and recognized, but the awesome thing about blogging is also that there's a spot and a niche for everyone.

Obviously it will take quite some time before I (or anyone else) will start to think of myself as a "successful fashion blogger", but I've had a blog for a long time and thought, why not share some of my own blogging tips anyway?

The most common thing a young girl will hear from her parents when mentioning her desire to start a blog has to be "but honey, isn't that going to take up way too much of your time? Shouldn't you be focusing on school/work/ballet/cleaning your room?". The answer to this is: no, blogging doesn't have to be time consuming at all.

But - if you want a lot of people to quickly find your blog and start to follow it, then, yes. It's really simple: the more time and effort you put into your blog, especially in the beginning, the more people are likely to find it and like it.

Personally, I decided when I started this blog, that I would dedicate a lot of my time to it. The reason is that I know myself way too well - if people don't read and comment, I'd probably get bored and give it up in the matter of weeks. Therefor, I spend hours every day taking photos and editing them, writing the posts and visiting the blogs of the lovely people who comment on mine.

I didn't start this blog to become rich and famous (although that sure would be nice, at least the rich part - I found a pair of amazing shoes online today that I really wish I could buy, haha!), but I did start is to share and showcase my photography and my writing. And the whole point of that is that people see it.

Bottom line: The more time spent, the more readers you'll get! Simple, huh? :)

Yes, I know this isn't for everyone. Some people are not at all comfortable with sharing personal details from their lives. Well, as some of you may have already noticed - I'm not one of those people. I absolutely love writing about my own experiences, my thoughts and feelings and my view on different subjects. And those are also the blogs I most enjoy reading. Blogs where you come to feel like the blogger is one of your friends, you care for her, laugh with her when times are good and cry with her when they're just not. (Or him, of course.) Sure, I'm interested in nice photography and fabulous outfits, but I'm way more interested in the people wearing the clothes. It's always the person behind the blog that keeps me coming back.

I would say that one of the best parts of blogging is that it's not real life. You can wear the most imaginative, ridiculous and daring outfit in a post, just because you always wanted to try it on - who cares if you chicken out and end up going to school in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt? You might have inspired someone else to be a little bit braver, and most of all - when you realize that there are people out there who think you look outstanding, maybe you'll actually start feeling comfortable in that completely original outfit. It's my true belief that sharing our styles online makes us braver, that it boosts our imagination as well as our confidence.

So, there you have the answer. "Yeah, mom - blogging might steal away from the time I could have spent cleaning my room. But it might also make me a braver, more confident person, and let me meet some absolutely amazing new friends. I think it could actually be worth it."