An Excerpt From Fashion 2.0: Blogging Your Way To The Front Row!
Yuli Ziv was one of the first people I met when I moved to New York City in 2008. Part fashion blogger, part entrepreneurial genius, Yuli’s talent for catapulting bloggers to the next level is impressive to say the least.
It’s not a moment too soon, then, for her to launch her brand spanking new book. Fashion 2.0: Blogging Your Way to The Front Row — The Insider’s Guide to Turning Your Fashion Blog into a Profitable Business & Launching a New Career came out last week, & is already making a major splash in the fashion blogosphere.
If you’re ready to make the leap from part-time to full-time fashion blogging, or even if you just want to expand your online presence, this book is absolutely filled to the brim with priceless tips & pieces of advice.
Even better, it features interviews with a bunch of fashion bloggers… Including me! Here are some pieces of my interview.
How did you come up with the name and the focus for your blog? Was it natural or did you have to limit yourself to a certain type, style, niche?
I registered galadarling.com because having your name as your URL was kind of the style at the time! Plus it made sense to have everything under my name, & that’s something I have continued. My Tumblr, Twitter, Flickr (etc.) accounts are all under my name, which keep things simple.
As for the focus, I view my blog as a magazine. I write for a certain type of woman, as opposed to sticking to one or two subjects. This way, I don’t get bored, & am given free reign to write about whatever pleases me!
How did you build your audience? When was the moment you realized you have quite large group of people reading your thoughts on a daily basis?
I’ve been writing online since 1996 & wonderfully, have managed to retain that audience through my various incarnations! But the key for me has always been in writing content that is useful & timeless.
As for being aware of the size of my audience, I forget all the time. After a while, numbers become meaningless. I am always surprised when my readers approach me in the street! Writing is so solitary that it’s easy to feel like you’re just writing for yourself.
What is your most popular blog post up to date? What made it such?
Right now, it’s a list of 33 movies to watch when you’ve got the blues! It’s my most popular ever & I only wrote it a couple of weeks ago! I’m always shocked by what goes viral. Like I said though, it comes down to content that people can actually use.
When was the moment you realized your blog is more than just a hobby? What made you believe it could be a full time career? Did you quit your job or other occupation to make more room for blogging? Describe that process.
I started my blog with the intention of it being a business. I had quit my job in New Zealand & moved to Australia, & really didn’t want to work in a shop or an office ever again. Blogging made the most sense to me, & I really went into it with teeth gritted. Failure was not an option! Thankfully my gamble has paid off!
What are some of the revenue channels for your blog? Without revealing details, which of them do you find most profitable and why?
I sell advertising, I sell podcasts & digital products, I hold online workshops & I collaborate with brands. They are all equally profitable, but only when I put my attention there! They all require a little work — none of them are really “passive streams of income”.
Name some of the brands and campaigns or collaborations you worked on as a blogger? How did these opportunities find you and what made these partnerships successful?
I have worked with Coach, Juicy Couture, Estee Lauder, Betsey Johnson, Google, Microsoft, JCPenney, Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen, Samsung & many, many others. I’m approached by either the company directly or by someone who does P.R. for them, & they ask me if I’m interested in collaborating with them.
What makes a partnership successful is mutual excitement! If you’re not feeling it 100%, the results will be sub-par. You have to work with companies you believe in, & do something you enjoy.
What kind of opportunities opened up for you as a full time blogger that you could not do before?
Pretty much every amazing experience I’ve had can be tracked back to my role as a blogger… It’s incredible! I walked in Betsey Johnson’s show at NYFW this year, which was a total highlight of my life. Betsey is my icon & hero — in fact, it doesn’t seem like so long ago that Yuli & I were sneaking into her shows without invitations! Haha.
There are lots of little things too. Bloggers are entitled to a lot of weird, cool perks. I was tweeting about a hotel in Miami the other day, & two minutes later, the press rep for the hotel was emailing me, asking if I’d like a couple of complimentary nights & a press rate for the rest of my stay. All of those things make life much sweeter! It’s important, though, not to get swept away & feel self-important. You have to remember you’re only being awarded these perks because the company thinks they can get more out of you than you’re getting out of them!
What was the highlight of your experience as a pro blogger so far?
There have been lots of cool experiences — more than I could possibly cover — but at the risk of sounding cheesy, to me, the best thing about being a blogger is that I’m able to do what I absolutely love every day. I love to write & share my ideas & discoveries, I love to communicate with large amounts of people, I love the internet & I love art & design. All of these things combined make for an extremely happy girl!
One piece of advice you can give to aspiring pro bloggers?
I think it’s like anything: in order to really be successful, you have to be insanely passionate. If blogging doesn’t light you up like a pinball machine, then you shouldn’t waste your time. There’s no point in half-assing anything! Just because blogging is the hot thing right now, doesn’t make it right for you.
One warning you can give to aspiring pro bloggers?
The best bloggers realise that the definition of elegance is making something extremely difficult look effortless. In other words: blogging isn’t easy. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme! Expect to work your little booty off, & then some!
Hopefully this excerpt has piqued your interest! My interview is only a teeny-tiny bit of the book. There are hundreds of pages with information on how to build relationships with brands, land large-scale sponsorships & establish yourself as a front row blogger!
You can pick up your copy on Amazon. Good summer readin’!