Blogging 101 // Tips for Building Your Audience & Working with Brands

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of questions about blogging and social media — since I’ve been in this game for a few years now I’m always happy to share tips along the way. Let me start by saying, I’m a big believer that we rise together! Never against each other — you will make it farther in this profession by uplifting and supporting one another. Remember Beyonce’s words …

♩always stay gracious — best revenge is your paper

➀ Network within your field and meet fellow bloggers, influencers, photographers, etc.

Start getting creative with the professionals you meet — collaborate in some way to expand both of your reach. This applies to social media posts too!

Yes, oftentimes you will find haters, but don’t let that discourage you — If you believe in yourself and have haters, it usually means you’re doing something right.

A sweet blogger friend of mine, Lizza Maryann from FabuLizza said it perfectly when she shared this image and impactful words:

So get yourself out there and meet bloggers, like-minded people with passion. There are plenty of blogging events held by blogger networks and PR agencies — attend them!

TIP: Go alone — it will force you to talk to others.

When I first started, I would go to a lot of these events with my fiancé who’s also a photographer — he would push me to talk to others and take pictures. He was right. When I didn’t have anything to say — I would approach people whose styles I really admired and ask if I could take a photo with them to post on my site. It’s a great way to do style pics and spark conversation with fellow stylists, influencers, bloggers, and more.

For my LA and NYC creatives, I’m part of Blogger Babes — a network of bloggers and influencers started by Heidi Nazarudin who has years of experience along with a major network of brands for sponsored campaigns and great opportunities she wants to share with you ♥

➁ Collaborate with brands, creatives, local shops, and more! 

Start building relationships with brands you believe in — and ‘brands’ are the people within the companies.  Align yourself with companies you actually believe in and hopefully they stand for a good cause too. Meet the people in the marketing and PR departments and ask them what their objective is.

TIP: Reach out to brands. If you’re not sure which ones, learn about them by your personal experience, ask your friends who they like, check out some bloggers you love and click on their collaborations page — skim through their content and see which brands they seem to mention a lot. If you can align yourself with the brand and what it stands for, reach out to them — they seem to work with bloggers/influencers and know the deal. You can also ask the blogger directly — it would give you more credibility being referred by them.

Depending on your reach and experience, collaborate with them via product, compensations, or both. DON’T EVER UNDER-ESTIMATE YOURSELF. A lot of work and talent goes into a quality post. Pick a number you think is fair and be flexible enough to negotiate.

Get in touch with local brands/venues. Support each other 😉 heck, the other day I came across this local blogger who wrote this incredible article  I Make My Living Off a Blog No One’s Heard Of — her niche is in weddings geared for her local brides. She makes 3x more annually than she did as a magazine editor. She has two employees and over 90 advertisers. She saw an opportunity — the town didn’t have any info on the town itself for brides.

AppleBrides.com, my bread and butter, is a local blog. Although we have content for readers from anywhere, the vast majority of our features are for brides in the Inland Northwest, exclusively. When my readers visit Apple Brides they recognize the venues in our wedding features, they see engagement shoots from their neighborhood and vendor spotlights about professionals they could actually book (instead of someone from five states away). Everything on the site is just for them.

Let someone else do the dirty work and join a bunch of blog networks. Some great ones to be a part of:

Clever Girls // Blogger Babes // Fohr Card // Socialix // NYCSC // TechStyle NYC // AMCONYC

➂ Publicists are your friends!

PR agencies come reppin’ brands and people — meet the people in the industry and get to know them as much as you can. Trust is very important for pr people so be upfront if you’re going to ask to get paid or if you’re just asking for product. Feel free to get creative with what you ask for, but be clear with what you intend to produce for them. Be unique about your approach. If the product isn’t up to the standards that you feel fit for your audience, do not feel forced to post – there are many ways to back out gracefully. At the end of the day, the trust of your audience is the most valuable thing you have.

Hope this helped ♥ as always comment or email us with any thoughts.