Watching Fashion Week From Afar or: How to Deal With Blogger Envy

Hi guys,
For the second season in a row, I made the decision not to attend London Fashion Week. Reminders to request tickets and show invites trickled in, but I decided that this year it wasn't going to be for me. I justified this to myself in several different ways. Firstly, my life has changed so much since my last fashion week and so have my priorities. This Saturday I took Wilbur to the Dinosaur Park to see the animatronic T Rex with his little friend and then out for burgers. That's the place of my life I'm at right now, and I really do love it.

Secondly, the way fashion week works has changed so much since I first started attending all of those years ago. Live Streaming has been both hugely popular and wildly successful. I still managed to catch both the Topshop Unique and the Burberry shows, but from the comfort of my sofa without having to make a huge impact on my everyday life. I've also been trawling my favourite fashion sites checking out the backstage gossip, the details, the trends, the hair. Of course it's different from actually being there. The atmosphere, the electricity that ripples across the room, the details, the chance to see everything up close and with your naked eye. You really can't beat it, and I really don't think fashion week will ever become extinct with models walking in empty rooms whilst every watches from their desks at home or in their offices. I know (or at least I hope) that my time for returning to fashion week will come. But right now I'm happy with my place right here. Does that mean I don't feel a twinge of jealousy when I see all my blogging friends and colleagues strutting their stuff on the cobbles of Somerset House? Of course I do!!

Photo taken from the Ashley Isham show back in Feb 2012

Blogger envy is a very real thing: I've experienced it myself, and also experienced it from the other side. Fashion week brings it out more than any other time of the year. Who has a ticket to the hottest show? Who's been invited to that party, worked with that new brand, been 'gifted' something fabulous to wear? It is a short but intense period that is a hotbed of competitiveness and the most ambitious of bloggers definitely use it as an opportunity to promote themselves as hard as they can. Good for them: I used to do exactly the same thing! I actually think a little healthy competition is a good thing. It's what makes you strive to be better and to work harder. Each blog is different and each blogger is different. That's what makes the bloggosphere such a unique and valuable place, so you can never compare your blog to others like for like, nor would it be healthy to. But you can see what others are achieving and wish to emulate their success in your own way and with your own distinct brand.

I am certainly envious of those bloggers at fashion week right now. I am jealous of their fabulous coverage and the unique perspective on the shows they have attended that is purely their own, informed by their experiences of being right there. I don't think there's any shame in admitting it. So as I sit here in my pajamas having just put my baby to bed on this, the final day of London Fashion Week, I am thinking of all the bloggers currently having the time of their lives. I wouldn't change the decision I made. But I will be back there again soon....

Love Tor x

So, how do you monetise your blog?

Hi guys,
It's one of the first questions most people ask me when I tell them that I make my living from writing online, and from writing my own blog: how exactly do you monetise your blog? Is it even possible to make a living from your own blog? In my case no: I also run my own copywriting company, the Little Copywriting House (a shameless plug, I know!) But I do make money from my blog on a monthly basis, and I have also had experiences I wouldn't have ever thought possible thanks to writing this little corner of the internet. Here's how I do it:

Sponsored Posts 

You have probably noticed that I write occasional sponsored posts and share sponsored videos on the blog, and I also work with media agencies in London, such as Total Media, to share links and other content with you guys. Some bloggers don't like sponsored posts, but my attitude is that as long as they're written with integrity and of relevance to your audience they're adding value to your site. I wouldn't say that a product I didn't like was wonderful, for example. But if someone's offering to give me money to write about how much I love Topshop or eBay (and I really do!) then why would I say no?

Onsite Advertising

There are thousands of bloggers that have their onsite advertising situation worked out so much better than I do: I definitely have a way to go! The key to getting your onsite advertising right is to be proactive. Sign up to advertising networks (I currently use Unruly Media) who will pay you per click on the videos or ads you display on your site. Also, ensure you are prepared for advertisers than will approach you directly. Create your own media kit outlining what your site has to offer to an advertiser: mine details the demographics of my readers (you guys!), how much traffic I get each month and of course my advertising rates! It only took an hour to put together, but it makes it easy to reply to advertising enquiries quickly and without any hassle!

Brand Collaborations

Brand collaborations are one of my favourite ways of monetising the blog. You get to work long term with a brand, so you really get to know them and know that you are endorsing a company you love. Many brands run these kinds of collaboration programmes: I am currently working with Spartoo on one to regularly bring you updates about my favourite shoes and I love it: reviewing shoes and calling it work? It's a hard job but someone has to do it!

I am definitely not an expert in this stuff! But for everything who's ever asked the question, this is my (fairly lengthy) answer. Are you currently monetising your blog? Do you have any hints and tips you'd like to share?

Love Tor x

We tweet!

It seems like almost overnight the world has gone twitter crazy. The New York Times calls Twitter "one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet." TIME Magazine says, "Twitter is on its way to becoming the next killer app," and Newsweek noted that "Suddenly, it seems as though all the world's a-twitter." I even read an article about a chap who told the world he was in a plane crash whilst it was actually happening through this new social networking phenomena.

So I figured, it was time for fabfrocks to get involved.

So if you just can't get enough of the blog and wish there was more (there has to be more people than just me who wish there was more!) you can read my tiny little tweets which will be updated more regularly than this here blog by going here: http://twitter.com/fabfrocks where I believe you can follow me, in a bloggy stylee.

I have also added what I believe is called a widget to the side bar of the blog over here somewhere, so that if you don;t want to follow me, you can still read what's going on in my exciting life. ------->

I just hope I get the hang of this!

Love Tor xx

Influential? Moi?

OK, I admit it. Sometimes I google myself. I like to see the articles i've written and feel in some small way that i've contributed something to the world.

Today, however, I decided to take this self obsession a step further. I googled the blog. And my was i suprised to find so much stuff! First I found the blog (phew!) the lots of other lovely people who link to the blog. I found the fabfrocks facebook group I set up many moons ago, and then I found something suprising! I found this. This, for those of you who don't want to click through (and who can blame you!) is a list of the 100 most influential blogspot blogs in the world. And there, smiling back from the grand old #72 spot, are fabfrocks!

Of course this is good news. But the phrasiology troubles me. Influential: describes someone or something that has the power to affect the making of decisions and the course of events. There's only one thing to say about that really: Ha! I dont even have to power to influence my hair through a brush without wincing in the mornings. Do I have any fashion influence? None, I work for an engineering charity and I would say that around 10% of the posts on this blog depict me in a changing room wearing something that doesnt fit or shouldnt be worn out even if it did. I have no insider knowledge. Half the time I don't even know who the minor celebrities gracing the pages of Hello! are....I just write about what I like and my random thoughts and hope that between my brain and the page coherency somehow happens.

So i'm not really sure how this blog is influential really. But the whole idea leaves me worried.

I really hope there isnt a collection of girls across the country walking around with their skirts riding up their thighs and their zippers gaping open. I assure you all, this was never supposed to be a fashion statement. It's just that sometimes these stores make their clothes too damn small......


Lots of love, Tor