Skylar

Monetizing My Personal Blog

If I could choose any way to monetize my personal blog, Collegiate Veggie, I would choose corporate sponsorships and partnerships. Because I have a food blog, this would be the easiest way to make money off of my blog because different companies could sponsor each post. I wouldn’t have to worry about downloads or clicks or selling a product. I could just keep on cooking like I normally do, but get paid to use certain ingredients, or possibly certain utensils. I’ve seen a lot of food bloggers do this already and I like how they still have the creativity and freedom to make whatever food I want, while still getting paid to do it.

Also, we these partnerships, chances are that the companies are much larger, more well-known brands and products. This would be very beneficial to my readers as they wouldn’t have to search far and wide for these products, but could actually find them just about anywhere. One of my favorite bloggers, Minimalist Baker, recently posted a recipe for Creamy Vegan Garlic Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes that was actually sponsored by Blue Diamond Almond Milk. I have already made this recipe multiple times and absolutely love it. And the best part is that I always have almond or coconut milk in my fridge and the rest of the ingredients are so simple that I can throw this recipe together last minute.

Anonymous Bloggers

I actually kind of love anonymous bloggers. Let’s take the author of White Girl Problems, Babe Walker, as an example. Now that her second book is about to hit the shelves, her readers are full aware that her life is actually entirely made up, but it kind of makes it all the more better. It was announced a little over a year ago that Babe Walker is actually three different people, two females and one male, who banded together to create this persona. Everyone jokes about white girl problems, just like first world problems, but Babe Walker takes it to such extremes that it becomes absolutely hilarious, though somehow readers can still relate in someway. I read the first book and pretty much fell in love. I literally laughed out loud on multiple occasions while reading the book and can’t wait to get my hands on the second one. Following White Girl Problems on social media provides me with daily hilarity, while also making me feel like someone can relate to the most outrageous and ridiculous “problems” that I, and white girls everywhere, have. Even though I know that three different people write the blog and that it is all made up, there is still some level of truth to it. When I read the posts I can imagine this gorgeous girl named Babe sitting behind her computer writing it all while she screams ridiculous things at her intern.

Impact of Live Blogging

For me, I view live blogging primarily through Twitter, and actually use Twitter to answer questions about events before turning to Google. Twitter is so frequently updated and there are so many users that chances are someone else has the same opinion or question about that crazy moment at the MTV Movie Awards. Since that award show happened last night, I will continue to use that as an example for the pros and cons of live blogging and the impact it has on me and my love for all award shows. I had a lot of homework to do last night, as did my roommates, and we decided that we would be too distracted if the show was on even just in the background, so I “watched” the show through Twitter and Instagram. As it is, I follow MTV and plenty of other celebrity news outlets on both Twitter and Instagram, so I actually didn’t have to put in much effort to know what was happening at each moment. Those publications, such as People Magazine and The E! News Channel, were live blogging the awards, constantly tweeting, posting pictures, and even posting and updating full articles on their websites. All I had to do to know what was going on at the show was to open the Twitter and Instagram Apps on my phone and I had the answer to who won what awards, who was being voted best dressed and why everyone was freaking out about Zac Efron. Thanks to Twitter, someone posted a video of Zac Efron’s shirt being ripped off by Rita Ora almost instantly after it happened so in reality I was only a few seconds behind on seeing that major moment. In this case, and as is the case with almost all award shows, I wasn’t worried about seeing spoilers about the show, because I was never actually going to sit down and watch the whole show afterward, nor do I like to not be in the know about these kinds of things. In addition, I prefer to follow live blogs of award shows. You get the best of the show — there’s the winners, the reactions, the clothing and the best moments — without the commercial breaks and annoying moments you don’t care to see. I also love being able to be a part of the community watching and talking about these awards shows, even if I’m nowhere near a TV.

How to Make Money Blogging

Blalock, Meghan. “How to Make Money Blogging.”StyleCaster. (2014): n. page. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://www.stylecaster.com/how-to-make-money-blogging/&gt;.

 

This article is extremely helpful, not only because it was posted only a couple months ago, but because it gets down to the nitty gritty of what I want to explore in my paper, while also interviewing and gathering advice and tips from some of my very favorite fashion bloggers. This article also explains the worth of a few fashion blogs, which is actually based on the amount of unique page visitors, which I never knew before. The article also explains some of the other sides of fashion blogging, like how bloggers get all of those clothes, and what’s realistic or not regarding Fashion Week.

How To Make It As a Fashion Blogger

Lewis, Casey. “How to make it as a fashion blogger.” Teen Vogue. n.d. n. page. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.

<http://www.teenvogue.com/careers/fashion-careers/2012-10/fashion-blogger-tips&gt;.

 

This article will be very helpful in writing my paper because it curates a lot of advice from all different types of fashion bloggers. Though it doesn’t go into detail exactly about how to make money as a blogger, it does point out the different in ways in which to better the chances of a blog becoming popular. THose interviewed said that it’s all about the brand, and ultimately the content. In addition, they pointed out that passion is key — just trying to get rich quick, or just make money so you have money to spend on clothes or whatever else won’t end well. It really is a full-time job, but one that requires passion and dedication.

How Personal Style Bloggers Are Raking in Millions

Phelan, Hayley. “How personal style bloggers are raking in millions.” Fashionista. Disqus, 20 Apr 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <http://fashionista.com/2013/08/how-personal-style-bloggers-are-raking-in-millions/&gt;.

 

This article is pretty much a direct answer to my thesis. This article discusses “Affiliate link programs” which are responsible for the high number of revenue bloggers, particularly fashion bloggers, are making off of their websites. Basically, affiliate link programs allow bloggers to make money off of the clothing they feature by making a commission off of any purchase from the same website, regardless of whether it is what the blogger wore or not. Specific affiliate link companies like RewardStyle estimate that their top bloggers rake in about $50,000 a month with their program. This article is great because it exposes the behind the scenes aspect of blogs, but also completely answers my question.

Admissions Blog Critique

Cons/Problems We Had

* Well it seems as though the site can only handle so much traffic at once. Regardless of the browser, our class can not all get on the site at once.

* Posting content is not very user-friendly. When uploading a picture, it takes up the entire screen and makes it hard to lay out a post and format what you want it to look like. Also, the post ends up not looking anything like what it did when you were formatting it.

* Certain users have had trouble posting comments, regardless of browser as well. It’s hard enough to get people to comment, so the function not working isn’t a good thing.

* There is a lack of categories on the site. Rather, there is an enormous tag cloud that makes it hard to find what you are looking for. Posts are not organized into appropriate categories.

* The site is very text heavy. You can only see the headline of a blog post before clicking on it and this does not entice readers to keep on reading.

* Would be nice to have a button to ask bloggers quick questions, or just any question at all. Otherwise, prospective and even current students are left with Facebook to answer their questions. This could be really helpful for students and a great way to make the blog more interactive.

* Blog posts have a long load time and often you can’t read the text because the background takes the longest to load and you are left trying to read gold content on a red background which is next to impossible.

Pros/Things We Like

* The theme of the blog is very appropriate for the content and matches nicely.

* Great range of content. You can pretty much find a blog post on anything you are looking for.

 

— By Roxy and Skylar

Taylor Sterling of Glitter Guide and Sterling Style

Kaczmarski, Alaina. “Taylor Sterling of Glitter Guide and Sterling Style.” The Everygirl. N.p., n. d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. <http://theeverygirl.com/feature/taylor-sterling-of-glitter-guide-and-sterling-style&gt;.

This article is really helpful for my research because it is a career profile on the founder of one of the blogs that I am focusing on with my paper. Taylor Sterling founded The Glitter Guide, a lifestyle blog that’s extremely girly and very creative. I was always very curious about how this site makes money and although this article doesn’t flat out say how it does so, it pinpoints some of the struggles and hardships that Taylor had to endure when starting the company on her own. Taylor admits that she had to borrow money from her family to get things. Taylor also gives tips on how to manage being your own boss, starting a company from the ground up and advice for girls who want to follow in her footsteps. This article is helpful because it shows an additional side to making a career out of blogging.

News/Magazine Blog Concept

Everyone loves photos, and that’s the number one reason people click on posts, so why not create a blog entirely focused on photos? Our idea for a blog is that the homepage would simply be a collection of images, that are ultimately connected to full stories or blog posts. We based our idea off of tumblr and the fact that everything is photo-centric on that site. Below is a rough example of what we would want the homepage to look like.

 

On the left, we would have a navigation bar to guide readers to specific sections, as well as an about us page, a search bar and a contact page. The navigation bar would be a static function of the blog that would remain in place while scrolling through photos. Advertising space could also be sold as the same blocks that contain photos, which would require advertisements to be extremely visually appealing. When you hover over a photo a headline would appear towards the bottom of the photo in a transparent box so that readers know what they are going to click on. This would require that all posts have a photo, but we think that that is a great thing to strive for with a blog or news site. This blog would be the best of social media. It would be a beautiful collaboration of the best of tumblr, pinterest and instagram, with a hint of Twitter and Facebook.

 

By Skylar Frederick and Jill Holzheimer

Response to Lauren DiCioccio Paintings

Well I think it is both obvious, and not, how we can relate Lauren DiCioccio’s Paintings to blogging. What she has done with the dots teaches us a lesson. Whether it is words, cats, oranges or airplanes, the format and layout of the page remains the same. It is so much the same that we can recognize what she is trying to portray although there is not a single word on any of these pages. In terms of blogging, we can use this lesson to our advantage when it comes to laying out our page. I think the number one thing to take away, is that there is somewhat of a set format when you are laying out posts and pages on your blog. For instance, you can’t have a blog that doesn’t have a single word on it anywhere. That would mean there is no title, no contact information, no about section, nothing. Would that blog ever get any traction? Would anyone ever want to visit that blog? Same thing would happen if the blog was nothing but words. Think about how boring that blog would be? With that being said, we obviously don’t want every blog on the internet to look exactly the same, but like DiCioccio used dots instead of words, maybe we use graphics instead of photos, videos instead of paragraphs. There are endless possibilities when it comes to blogging but it is always important to keep in mind what your audience wants. Of course, this depends on what kind of blog you are running. But in my opinion, regardless of the type of blog, there should never be a blog that doesn’t include any pictures. If you have a food blog, include so many pictures so that your audience isn’t hungry for more (no pun intended). With my food posts, I like to show a picture of the ingredients, a picture of the batter or mixture, a picture before the oven or freezer or fridge, a picture after the oven or freezer or fridge, a pictured of the dish artfully laid out on a plate, and a picture of the dish with a bite taken out of it. When I’m baking, and following a recipe that didn’t show step by step picture like that, I’m always questioning whether or not my version looks like it should, whether I did it right, or if things are going to go horribly wrong. When it comes to format, DiCioccio’s paintings also advise that we should follow somewhat of a set of guidelines, like coloring within the lines for the most part, but it can’t hurt to change things up a bit and go outside the norm. There are an endless array of possibilities when it comes to blogging, just keep in mind that visually appealing is the number one thing your blog should strive to be.