6 months Blogging – Lessons Learnt

Hey! Happy Bank Holiday!

Now it’s been six months (or a little over) since I’ve started blogging! And it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. In this post I just wanted to share my initial thoughts, and what I’ve learnt and some of my future plans with the blog.

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Why did I start a blog?

So I started my blog for a number of reasons, but I’ll start from the beginning. So a few years ago I was having some sort of a life crisis. I was studying biomedical science at uni, wasn’t interested, wasn’t doing well and subsequently dropped out. The uni I was studying at didn’t allow me to join the business and management course there, so I ended up working full time at my part time job in Miss Selfridge on Oxford Street London.

As much as I loved working, met some amazing people (whom I’m still good friends with now), the fashion and occasionally meeting celebs, I knew it wasn’t for me. And because I wanted more, and hated the hours I was so unsatisfied. Anyway to cut a long story short, I managed to get an internship at their head office, during SS Fashion Week, and it was amazing. I had the best time, and this is where I first came across ‘blogging’, and some of the other applicants had blogs.

I then went and bought the domain name ‘fashioniloveit.com’ (I wonder if anyone is using this now lol), but didn’t know how to get started, and ended up getting seriously side-tracked. I started a clothing line called Chenai with my friend Paida, which was doing really well, with some amazing coverage. Unfortunately, this became so time consuming and costly, I struggled to keep up as I was back studying and working part time, so Chenai got left behind 🙁

Some time after (a year or so maybe), I got inspired to start a blog once again with my friend Lucky. We called it ‘Style and the Beat’, as I was planning to cover fashion, and she music as this is one of her passions. We got a logo made, and was in the process of selecting a template then my Dad passed away unexpectedly from cancer. At this point my whole life turned upside down, and for obvious reasons, ‘Style and the Beat’ didn’t exist to me anymore.

Last year while sitting at my desk at work, I was reflecting and thinking about where I could have potentially been if I started this blog when I first intended to. As a grad in my job I was regularly outreaching to bloggers, some of which in the past 2 years or so are now huge, and it’s been amazing to watch their evolution now as a manager. I then started to think “it’s a bit late Tash”, the blogging world is so saturated, it’s hard to stand out, will people read my content? I then thought just start the damn thing, and whatever happens, it’s one less regret. So Style and the Sass was born, with my first blog post ‘The Prelude’. Style and the Sass was inspired by the blog that never started, ‘Style and the Beat’, and Sass…well something my work friends would call me, and I’m probably the more ‘out there’ dresser among my friends haha!

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Blogging Lessons & Tips

• Just do the damn thing! – Although I wish I started my blog earlier, I’m super happy I finally did. No matter what it is, blogging, starting a business or even a career change. JUST DO IT. Time waits for no man!

• Build a bank of Content – I really should know better, and this is something I forgot to do out of sheer excitement haha. But this is essential! This is the only way to keep up with a regular and consistent blogging schedule.

• Start a blog for the right reasons – If you are starting a blog simply to make money, then you will not last the race. Blogging is time consuming, you have to truly enjoy writing, taking pictures, editing, spend hours engaging socially to promote your blog and grow your readership. Most bloggers don’t get paid a penny when they start out, and effort x return will make some want to quit – if they started blogging for the wrong reasons. This brings me onto my next point…

• Relevant collaborations –  It’s so obvious when a blogger is collaborating with a brand for collaboration sake. I know my blog is still a baby, and I have been fortunate to be approached, but if I do not like the brand, and if it’s not relevant to me then I’m not interested. So yes I have turned down a couple of opportunities.

• Discover your own personal style – This includes your tone-of-voice, your images and you as a person. Trying to replicate the style of others won’t work for you. Yes there are probably a few ‘formulas’ that make a blog likeable, but no matter what stay true to you!

• Be consistent – This is something I have struggled with. Some weeks I have become to busy I forget to post, or I’m waiting to take pictures or simply distracted. But being consistent is the key for steady genuine readership, who will keep coming back because they know you post every Monday at 8am for example. You feed their desire to consume content, and they know when to come and get it.

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So that’s it! Long post haha! But moving forward I will be posting more consistently, and hopefully more than once a week 🙂

Until the next post!

Tash xx