So you’ve started a beauty blog: you’ve set up your site, you’ve written a few posts, you’ve taken some awesome pictures of your work… now you can sit back and watch the followers roll in!
Well, not quite. It’s one thing to start a blog—but starting a successful blog is a whole other story. Our tips will help you boost your blogging skills to build your online personality.
Make it look good
Would you keep coming back to a blog with tiny text, no pictures, and a poor layout? No? Neither will your followers. The effort you put into setting up your blog has a major impact on how successful it is, so wait till you have a lot of free time (we’re talking a few hours) to create or overhaul your site.
Do some research into what platforms are available for hosting your blog. As well as checking out what features they offer, look at other blogs hosted on that platform to see if the setup options will work for what you want. Then pick your theme. Don’t worry too much about colors or fonts yet; those can be personalized, so focus on finding a theme with a good layout.
Good to go? Not yet. Spend some time personalizing your site. This doesn’t just mean setting your color scheme and uploading your logo: look into plugins for your host site to add more advanced features to your blog.
Define your audience
Before you start posting, think about who you’re writing for. Is your beauty blog aimed at twenty-something women? A post on tips for mature skincare probably won’t be too popular. Are you writing for other makeup artists? If not, stay away from language specialized to your profession.
Here are a few traits to get you started when you’re thinking up your target audience:
- Age
- Education
- Occupation
- Gender
- Special interests or hobbies
Find your niche… or not
Finding your niche seems to be everyone’s number one tip for a successful blog. Why? The Internet is awash in blogs, so finding your niche helps people to decide to read (and keep reading) yours.
A blog dedicated to runway-inspired looks created with vegan makeup is a niche blog. While people who aren’t interested in high fashion or going vegan probably won’t read your blog, you’ll attract a dedicated following of fashion-savvy vegans who will keep coming back and spreading the word amongst their friends.
Can you be successful without a niche blog? Absolutely. The most important thing is that you’re passionate about what you write, and if that’s one unique niche, well, good for you. If not, don’t try to force it. Instead, create a unique blog by focusing on developing your individual voice and personality. There are lots of successful niche blogs, but there are also lots of successful bloggers whose posts cover everything from recipes to fashion tips. Figure out what works best for you.
Create good content
You can put all the effort you want into getting people to your beauty blog, but if the content sucks, they’re not going to stick around.
Good writing: You don’t have to be a poet to blog, but do work on your writing. A little nervous? Get someone you know with strong writing skills to look over some of your content before you post it and give you some tips for improvement. Practice makes perfect, so the more you write, the more you’ll improve. And don’t underestimate the power of proofreading!
Good photos: Blogs thrive on regular posting, and as a beauty blog you’ll definitely want lots of photos in your posts. Good photos can make or break a blog, so start working on taking and editing your own photos.
Good comments: Your blog isn’t just about your blog, as weird as that may sound. It’s also about how you interact with other blogs. Posting interesting, insightful comments on other bloggers’ posts helps to build your online presence by connecting with other big-name bloggers and getting your own name out there.
A few more tips for creating killer content:
- Mix images and text
- Come up with a creative headline/title
- Write at least 300 words per post
- Keep your paragraphs short
- Break up text with pictures and headers
- Reply to comments on your blog
- Blog about unique topics—or put a unique twist on an old topic
- Post new content regularly
And remember—your readers are interested in you, not just your content. Don’t be afraid to include details about your life, photos of yourself, and other personal stuff.
Connect with social media
Whenever you post new content, promote it by sharing it on your social media accounts. Not only does this let your followers know, but it also increases your chances of getting attention from people on Twitter or Facebook who might not know about your blog yet.
Get into SEO
The greatest content ever won’t do you much good if no one can find your blog. Spend a little time on search engine optimization (SEO) to figure out how to help search engines like Google find your blog.
SEO can be frustrating at first, because it’ll take at least a couple of months before you see any progress. It might be an uphill struggle, but it’s definitely worth it; once you’ve improved your blog’s SEO, the results are there to stay (provided you keep up with your content, that is). There are hundreds of free SEO tutorials online—get started by checking a few out.
