The Answers, Part 3: Blogging.

Turns out answering your questions takes a lot more time than I expected - so I suppose it's a good thing it's a lot of fun!

Part 3
My blog, your blog, everybody's blogs!

Writing this post, I realized that the subject of blogging is a little bit hard to illustrate with photos. In the end, I decided to use the oldest outfit photos I could find, back from when I first started blogging about fashion and my style in 2006 and then the following two years. (Before that, I had a blog that only focused on indie music - no outfit posts there.) Hopefully you'll find that my outfit photography has gone through some slight improvements since then!

Can you give us some good tips for starting a blog?
(Asked by Valiera Meli and Chippie)

This is going to be a loooong answer... bear with me!

I believe the most important part is to decide what kind of blog you want, and what you wish to accomplish with it. Do you want to write about your everyday life, for your friends, family and relatives to read? Do you want a photography/art/writing/design blog to showcase your work to future employers, a personal style blog where you post looks once in a while - or do you hope to get billions of readers and make your blog your full-time job? (If you do get billions of readers, wow, I'll be seriously impressed!)

As boring as it may sound, it's necessary to be realistic: If you're a very busy person who has time to blog once or twice a week, it might be hard to reach a large audience. Basically, you will get results based on the kind of work and effort you're willing to put into it.

It always makes me sad to get e-mail and comments from bloggers who ask how I got "so many readers in so little time" (relatively speaking), telling me how they've been blogging for months or years and still haven't gained the kind of recognition they were hoping for. It's always hard to reply to these letters, because I really don't want to hurt anyone's feelings - but once again, realistic is the key word here. When I click onto these blogs, more often than not I find the same things: a messy layout, very few photos of the blogger herself or photos in poor quality, and posts that are either written in a language I don't understand or, if in English, extremely short: "this is what I wore today, I went out with my friends and had fun".

Note: None of this is wrong! Absolutely not. Every blog is as unique as the person who writes it and I love the fact that there are such an enormous variety of blogs out there. But, when it comes to personal style blogs - because there are so many for potential readers to choose from - I would say that there are four criterias that truly matter if you want a large, devoted group of readers:


* High quality outfit photos.
Let's be frank: the outfit photos are the foundation of a personal style blog. With better photos, you will get more readers. It's that simple. I often see bloggers making excuses for the poor quality: "sorry, I don't have a good camera/I don't have a place to take my photos, and there is noone I can ask to take them for me, so I have to shoot my outfits with my cellphone camera in the mirror". And this is all perfectly fine - gosh, all bloggers can't be expected to own a fancy camera and a tripod or have a photographer friend/parent/partner around all the time! - but unfortunately, that means that not as many people are going to follow their blogs. I will be honest: all the blogs I really like have immensely professional looking photographs.

When I first wanted to start sharing my style on my blog, back in 2006, I lived in a tiny one room apartment and had no idea how to use the Canon EOS 350 D I borrowed from a guy who worked at the university I went to. (It belonged to the school, he was in charge of it, and I told him I was doing a photo project for school. Liar liar pants on fire, I know - it was for a good cause, though! I truly wanted to learn about photography!) Except for inside the apartment or on the balcony, I had two options when it came to outfit photo locations: the shared storage area in the attic and the shared storage area in the basement. As I got bolder, I even started taking self-timer photos in the stairwell and elevator, making my neighbours think there was something seriously wrong with me...

In time, I saved up to buy my own camera, and I might not have been the most talented photography enthusiast - though I sure was persistent. And practice may not have made perfect yet, but five years later, I have far from given up on learning!

Anyway, back to the point: noone is a great photographer when they start out, and still: if you wish to have a successful style blog featuring your own outfits, you have to go for it. Put a decent camera as the only item on your wish list this Christmas (an early model of the Canon EOS series is not too expensive if you buy it used) and practice, practice, practice! Read every tutorial you can find, learn about lighting, framing and editing, try to copy the photos of your favorite bloggers until you find your own individual style.

Or - don't. Don't do any of this. But please don't be disappointed if not too many people start following your style blog.

* A clean, user-friendly layout.
If you think graphic design is the most boring thing ever and you can't seem to figure out how to use even the simplest template design program (like the one here on blogger) - just choose a basic, ready-made template and stick with it. Having a blog with an individual look is much less important than having a blog that's easy to navigate, where everything is where it should be, with a basic font on a light background. I have come across an insane amount of blogs where a purple or yellow comic sans is used on a pretty, blue flower print background and... well, put nicely: it makes the blog posts a bit hard to read (and triggers my migraines). Flowers and hearts and bunnies are cute but if you want people to come back to your blog, make sure the post background is as clean as possible.


* Continuity.
The best way to make people take the time to check your blog is if you take the time to update it. Often. How often? As often as you can without starting to feel like it's an obligation and not something you do because it's a fun, rewarding hobby. Many of my favorite blogs update once a day - that means they've quickly become a part of my daily internet routine, succeeding to turn me into a much more loyal follower than if they would have updated, say, once a week. Because of this, I try to post something every day - but not if I'm busy with other things. As long as I don't get money out of this blog, I have to treat it as a hobby, and post only when I have free time. When I don't blog every day, I obviously can't be surprised when I have a lot fewer visitors the days when I'm not active - as well as noone else should be if they don't blog daily.

* Engaging writing with a personal voice.
This doesn't mean that you can't be an amazing blogger if you're not a writer. But your readers want to get to know you. Your blog is unique because you are unique, and you need to show your readers who you are if you want a chance to stand out from every other blogger out there.

Of course you don't have to take a leaf out of my book and tell your readers about everything from bullying to depression - but how about sharing details from your everyday life? To me, when I read through a new blog, it's all about the specifics. Those bits of information that makes you you.

Example 1: "Today I woke up, had breakfast, went to school and then out with some friends. School was a disaster but my friends and I had a great time!"

Sorry, love, but this could have been written by anyone. Where are you in all of this?

Let's try it again - Example 2: "My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I snoozed six times and nearly missed the bus to school. Honestly, I almost wish I had - turned out we had a pop quiz in my French class first period, and I was still so tired I could hardly even spell my own name! Hopefully I did okay anyway (I'm praying all those times I've watched Amélie have paid off!), but gosh, I should start going to bed earlier. It just seems like all the best tv shows come on when most people have been asleep for hours..."

So, we're only on the first part of your day, and I still feel like I know you sooo much better.

And, while we're on writing, a few words about languages: If you're okay at writing in English, that's obviously a great way to reach way more readers than if you write in a language not very many people speak. But if you feel like what you could express in English is a lot closer to Example 1 than Example 2 above, and you don't have a strong desire to improve your skills, I suggest you stick to your mother tounge and just let people from other countries use google translate. The important thing is that you feel free and confident to write about whatever you wish!

To summarize: If you have a blog with a clean layout that is updated consistently, with outfit photos you put some effort into and writing that shows who you are and what makes you special, people will love it. Be realistic in your expectations: if you're not willing to put a lot of time or effort into your blog, don't be sad when you don't get that many readers. Blog because you enjoy it and there's no doubt that it will pay off!

Two more things: when you start your blog, of course you want people to discover it as soon as possible. If your blog is about your style, being an active user on Chictopia and Lookbook is a splendid way of letting people know you exist, as well as commenting on other people's blogs.
But: 1) A good idea is to make sure your blog already has some content when you start telling others about it, or chances are they might not come back.
2) Everyone knows commenting on blogs could be a way to get more readers, but your comments should be personal and not feel like spam if this is going to work at all. Show that you're interested in what the blogger has written in his or her post, or if you only comment an outfit, at least put some thought into it. I can tell you that a "Cool! Visit me on http://www.myblog.blogspot.com, follow me and I'll follow you back!" is not the best way way to make your blog successful. Really. It's not. Instead, follow the blogs you really like, tell the blogger why you like it, show genuine interest and then, yes, by all means - tell the blogger that you'd love it if she or he would like to check out your blog. I check out the blogs of everyone who comments here, but I want to do it because I'm interested, not because I'm told to. At least to me, the blogger community is about expressing yourself, making friends, being inspired by others and create meaningful relationships, not collecting followers just for the sake of it.

I hope this response wasn't too negative! Blogging should be fun, write about what you love, be yourself and don't worry if it takes a little bit of time for people to find you - they will!

If you have a large Swedish audience, do you think it would be wise to write in two languages or are you relying on the readers' English skills?
(Asked by Piia)

Actually, Swedish people are generally very good at both reading and speaking English - probably a combination of learning the language in school from an early age and the fact that we don't dub movies or tv-shows. Because of that, I don't think it's a problem. Writing each post in two languages would take me forever, so that is definitely not an option. I know some people would prefer it if I wrote in Swedish, but I love the fact that I am now able to communicate with people from all over the world!

How do you have the guts to spill your guts with us? I adore that you're so honest! 
(Asked by Emmakisstina) 

Thank you! Honestly, I don't even think about it. I've written online journals ever since the birth of internet communities (they all had a "diary" function), so for the past... 14 years, or so. I've always been kind of a lonely person, and writing about myself and my life on the internet has been my way of expressing myself, a sort of therapy, one might even say; as well as a way of making friends. And eventually, writing about my feelings, thoughts, opinions and experiences turned into my profession, so it definitely hasn't been for nothing! (As a columnist, not as a blogger, I might add.)

And the "honesty" part... I just don't see any point in not sharing my thoughts with other people. I can't see that I would feel better in any way by keeping it all inside, probably the opposite. I don't write anything that I wouldn't want my family, neighbours, employers or anyone else to read - the way I think and feel about things are no secrets.

Are you never afraid of revealing to much about yourself online? 
(Asked by Shirins)

Not at all. After all this time, it comes extremely naturally to me what to share and what not to. I don't mind one bit that complete strangers know intimate details about my life - if we all shared more about ourselves with others, I think the empathy in the world would be a lot more extensive! I could never have a blog where I pretended like everything was peachy all the time, then the blog would mean nothing to me and I wouldn't have any chance at all of reaching out to people who might be or have been in similar situations.

Do you have a "policy" about how much you include friends and family in your posts? 
(Asked by Sara)

Sure, a very simple one: I would never, ever, ever write sensitive things on the blog about anyone else. (Unless they want me to or approve it, of course.) If I want to write something about myself that involves another person, I'll either check if it's okay or just try to work around it. This is my blog and noone should have to feel like they're being exploited in any way.

Do you ever feel that your boyfriend isn't supportive or understanding enough with the whole blogging thing. I don't know why, but I sometimes have had that feeling... 
(Asked by Nina)

My boyfriend is absolutely supportive in the sense that he thinks it's great that I have a hobby I'm passionate about. When we were in New York, he did help out with the outfit photos from time to time (since I wasn't able to take my own like I'm used to), but I do think I believes it's a bit silly. He sometimes says that he can't understand why people would want to look at photos of the same person over and over again, and he's got zero interest in fashion, so I wouldn't say that he's my most devoted follower! No, but actually, I think he's a little bit too supportive - sometimes I think "oh, if only you knew how much time and energy I spend on this blog, maybe you wouldn't think it's such a good idea after all", haha!

...


You know what? This was just the first part of the blogging questions - but I felt the post would be ridiculously long if I didn't cut it in half. I mean, it already is. Imagine it being twice as massive!

(I also wrote about blogging in the post "About becoming a braver, more confident person - through fashion blogging.")

Now I'm off to have dinner with friends - my bus leaves in twenty minutes and I haven't even showered yet. Why do I always do this? Told you this blog takes up too much of my time! Luckily, you're all completely worth it.