So you want to start a fashion blog? That’s awesome! Building your own blog is a great way to share your creativity with the world. But figuring out the technical parts of how to make a fashion blog can feel a little overwhelming, right?
There’s a lot of information coming at you and, if you’ve never made a blog before, it can be tough to know where to start. To help make your life a whole lot easier and let you focus on the fun stuff (sharing fashion inspiration!), we created this guide.
In it, we’ll take you through every step with experienced-backed advice so that you can make the decisions that will set your blog up for success.
Here’s everything that we’ll cover in this post:
Why You Should Start a Fashion Blog
Beyond just being a fun way to share your creativity, a fashion blog is a great way to get noticed and build a brand in your space.
Lots of people have started off as bloggers only to later launch their own collabs or clothing lines.
If you’re looking to make this more than a fun side project, there are also lots of other ways that you can turn your blog into a business. For example, you can create indirect or direct partnerships with brands and earn money that way.
You’ll also probably get plenty of free clothes as part of the deal!
Examples of Successful Fashion Blogs
To get your creative juices flowing, let’s start with some fashion blog examples so that you know what you’ll be able to build once you finish this tutorial:
- Fashion Jackson – by Amy Jackson
- We Wore What – by Danielle Bernstein
- Brooklyn Blonde – by Helena Glazer
- The Chriselle Factor – by Chriselle Lim
- Grasie Mercedes – by Grasie Mercedes
- Atlantic-Pacific – by Blair Eadie
Of course, you probably already have some fashion bloggers that you look to for inspiration.
Beyond writing about fashion, all of these examples have another thing in common:
They all use WordPress to run their blogs.
Why is that important? Well, you’ll learn that in the next section! Let’s dig in…
What You Need to Start a Fashion Blog
To create a fashion blog, you can use WordPress.
WordPress is by far the most popular way to make a website/blog. Over 35% of all the websites on the Internet use WordPress, including all of the fashion blog examples from the previous section.
A quick note here – we’re not talking about WordPress.com, which is one specific example of the WordPress software. Instead, we’re talking about the free software at WordPress.org. More on the differences.
By choosing WordPress over paid tools like Wix and Squarespace, you’ll have a lot more control over how your fashion blog looks and functions. You’ll also have full ownership of your blog.
The WordPress software is 100% free to download and use and makes it easy to set up a blog. To further enhance your site, you can use:
- Plugins to add new features, like displaying your Instagram photo feed.
- Themes to control how your blog looks.
Later in the post, we’ll share some of the best tools for fashion blogs.
To get started with WordPress, you’ll need a minimum of two things:
- Web hosting – think of this like the engine that powers your fashion blog.
- Domain name – this is your blog’s permanent address on the Internet. For example, ours is wpmayor.com.
Choosing Web Hosting For Your Fashion Blog
There are a ton of WordPress hosting options out there, ranging from the price of a cup of coffee per month to $25+ per month.
When you’re just starting, you’ll be fine with hosting on the cheaper end of the spectrum.
Two of our recommended solutions here are:
- SiteGround – starts at $3.95 per month (you have to pay a year upfront).
- Bluehost – starts at $5.95 per month if you pay for a year (or $3.95 per month if you pay for three years).
In the step-by-step tutorial below, we’ll use SiteGround because we find it to offer the best balance of:
- Affordability
- Quality
- Support
As your blog grows, you might want to upgrade to more premium hosting such as:
However, when you’re just getting started, these premium hosts are a little overkill, unless you expect to have lots of visitors right away.
Choosing a Domain Name
Beyond being your blog’s permanent address on the Internet, your domain name also plays an important role in branding.
For example, Danielle Bernstein’s popular We Wore What blog is weworewhat.com. In this way, your domain name is clearly linked to your blog’s “name”.
Only one person can own a domain name at a time, so if you choose a popular name, it might already be taken. You can use Instant Domain Search to see if a name is available.
As for pricing, you should expect to pay $10-15 for an entire year. You can purchase your domain name when you buy web hosting.
How Much Does It Cost to Start a Fashion Blog?
Before we get into the tutorial, let’s go through a quick rundown of what you should expect to pay for your fashion blog.
The absolute minimum price for your fashion blog is ~$60 for an entire year, or about $5 per month. This comes from:
- ~$45 for an entire year of SiteGround hosting
- ~$15 for one year of your domain name
Those are the only required costs to run a fashion blog. But, depending on the features, design, and marketing tools you want, you might need to pay a little more.
These extra costs are optional, though, and if you’re willing to be a little flexible, you can avoid them until your blog starts growing.
How to Start a Fashion Blog With WordPress
Now, let’s go through the step-by-step guide on how to start a fashion blog.
Here’s a high-level look at the process:
1. Purchase Web Hosting and Domain Name
For this tutorial, we recommend SiteGround for hosting. Again, that’s because it:
- Is affordable
- Offers good support
- Makes it easy to install WordPress to start your blog
To get started, go to SiteGround.
Then, choose the $3.95 per month StartUp plan. As your site grows, you’ll need to upgrade from this plan. But when you’re just getting started, it offers plenty of power:
Once you choose the plan, you’ll have an option to enter your domain name, which will cost you $15.95 for a year:
You could save a few dollars if you purchased your domain separately, but it would complicate the process a bit.
To finish things out, you’ll need to enter your account information and billing info. All in, you should pay $63.35 for an entire year of hosting and your domain name, or a little over $5 per month:
2. Install WordPress
Once you finish signing up for SiteGround, you’ll need to wait for 10-30 minutes while SiteGround sets up your account. You should receive an email confirmation when it’s ready.
Once you sign in to SiteGround for the first time, you should see a website setup wizard from which you can have SiteGround automatically install the WordPress software for you.
Make sure you remember the username and password that you enter in the install tool, as you’ll need to use these credentials to log into your WordPress dashboard.
Once you install WordPress, you can access your WordPress dashboard by appending /wp-admin to your domain name.
For example:
yourfashionblog.com/wp-admin
Once you log in, you should see your dashboard. This is where you’ll add content and otherwise control how your blog functions:
3. Set Up Your Fashion Blog’s Design
Because fashion is all about creativity and aesthetics, you’ll probably want the design of your blog to match the fashion that you share.
So in this section, let’s talk about how you can create a beautiful-looking blog.
To control your site’s looks, you can use a WordPress theme. You’ll find thousands of free and premium options, including tons of themes that are specifically built for fashion blogs.
The best spot for free fashion themes is WordPress.org.
If you want more of a premium feel, here are some spots for great premium fashion themes:
Once you choose a theme, you can install it by going to Appearance → Themes → Add New in your dashboard:
If you want a little more flexibility, you can also use something called a page builder plugin. These let you design your site using a visual, drag-and-drop interface – no code required!
Two of the best page builders are:
To install a plugin, you can go to Plugins → Add New.
4. Add Content
Once you’ve chosen your theme, you’re ready to start adding content!
WordPress comes with two types of content by default:
- Posts – these are blog posts.
- Pages – use these for static pages, like your “About” or “Contact” pages.
To add either type of content, you can go to Posts/Pages → Add New. That will launch the WordPress block editor, which lets you format your content. If you want to add images, buttons, columns, etc., you just need to insert a block for those elements:
Some core pages that you’ll almost certainly want to create include:
- About
- Contact
- Privacy policy
In some cases, you’ll want to use plugins to enhance your content. For example, you can use:
- Ninja Forms to add a contact form.
- MailPoet to add an email subscribe widget.
- Spotlight is a new Instagram feed plugin that lets you embed your Instagram feed anywhere on your WordPress site. Sign up now and get a 20% discount off the Pro version!
Leverage your Instagram content
Instagram is a great way for site visitors to interact with you on a more personal level. Add your feed on your website to get started.
Free DownloadYou can also find plugins to make it easier to manage your content. For example, PublishPress helps you manage and schedule your blog posts.
How to Optimize Your Fashion Blog and Get More Visitors
Once you’ve set up your blog, you’ll want to put in place some strategies/plans to grow your blog and maintain it as your traffic increases.
Beyond social media, which is essential for any fashion blog, another popular way to get traffic to your blog is with search engine optimization (SEO), AKA making your site rank at the top of Google’s search results.
To optimize your WordPress site for SEO, you can use a plugin like Rank Math. To help discover what your audience is searching for, you can use a tool like SEMrush.
To learn more about SEO, check out this post.
As your blog grows, you might find it a little more difficult to keep on top of managing everything. If that’s the case, you can sign up for a service such as the WP Mayor Care Plan to have someone manage your blog for you.
How to Make Money Fashion Blogging
Now it’s time for the fun part – learning how fashion bloggers make money.
There are several different ways in which you can make money. Ideally, you’ll want to use different methods so that you’re never too dependent on one source of revenue.
Some of the most popular ways to make money from a fashion blog include:
- Affiliate marketing – you earn a commission when people purchase something after clicking through from your site. For example, if you promote a dress at Urban Outfitters, you could earn a small percentage of all those sales.
- Sponsored posts/promotions – you can work directly with brands and agencies on different types of promotions. Just make sure to disclose when you’re getting paid for something.
- Build an Instagram following – if you figure out how to become a fashion blogger on Instagram and your WordPress site, you’ll have another way to earn sponsorships from your fashion blog Instagram account.
- Display ads – you can display banner ads on your site. Common programs are AdSense, Media.Net, and Mediavine.
For more ideas, check out our post on how to make money from a blog.
Start a Fashion Blog Today
At this point, you should have a working fashion blog!
Unfortunately, building an audience takes time – there’s no shortcut.
But if you keep at it and stay dedicated, you will be successful. The two keywords are “patience” and “consistency”…along with posting some awesome fashion ideas, of course.
Do you still have any questions about starting a fashion blog and making money? Ask us in the comments!
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