My blogging journey to 5k

So back in February 2016 I launched my very first blog post, it wasn’t great but it was a step into the blogging world, I will never be ashamed of my old work as we all have to start somewhere. At this time I remember being highly influenced by a blogger that is still in my top 3 today, Chelcie Nicole Moore, I had watched Chelcie start from the bottom and be super successful and thought that I may as well give it a shot myself. Back in 2016 I started blogging and It was more of a passionate hobby and I never intended on it being a source of income, it was just a place for me to write about what I loved and to enjoy snapping some fancy pictures of my favorite shoes. Like most bloggers, I had very little knowledge of the industry and only ever dreamed of working with brands.

Once I got more to grips with everything ( and believe me when I say there was a HECK load of googling involved) I began to progress and started putting a bit more effort into my Instagram account and tried my hardest to post every day. I started putting my work ‘out there’, I had always ran a personal account where I just posted anything and everything but in my small bowl of knowledge at this time I knew I needed something that would lead to being my brand identity and my hand in hand partner for my blog. I set up an email, bought my blogs domain name and bought my very first, rather basic template off Pipdig which cost me around £30 and I as was happy as Larry! Eventually, things started to get a little more serious. Luckily as my Dad runs a marketing agency from our home I always had someone to go to and still do when I get stumped by a tough technical question/problem.

I went about this for a few months bearing in mind everything was still very mediocre at this point. I was constantly putting my all in and A LOT of very late nights researching and teaching myself the ins and outs of everything from various bits of editing software to HTML. (the code behind a web page) This was when I started to realize that blogging wasn’t something that happens overnight. However, even after all of the hard work I was not at any point put off in the slightest and really began to grow a passion for the industry. I would also just like to mention at this point I was studying fashion and still am today.

After having my blog and Instagram account for a substantial about of time I remember getting my very first email come through from a brand asking to send me a product in return of a post. Now this was a very exciting prospect and looking back I was probably a little too eager, like every blogger getting their first client email you are willing to work free of charge and you will 100% bend over backwards to make sure the brand is happy and do everything they tell you to do. I remember being nervous to ask questions and suggest ideas as I didn’t want to scare the brands away! Let alone ask for any sort of payment.

As time went on I began to reach 2k, 3k etc and this is when I started to get more engaged with the industry and opened my eyes more to what blogging was actually about and that people did do this for a living. After having some great brand work and collaborations under my belt I remember getting my first ever invite to a bloggers event in London and I just about died inside! It was with NEXT for a shoe event, they asked to send me some shoes and invited me to wear them to the event (I did do a blog post on the event if you are interested) this seemed so surreal and made me more and more eager to make my blog a success.

This was when I really grabbed the bull by the horns and got into blogging, by this point I was more knowledgeable and knew what brands to work with and knew how to say no to opportunities that wouldn't fit my style and morals. At this sort of time, I remember winning River Island's I'm Wearing RI competition which bought a huge new audience to my account, I also won a £100 gift card! 

Little did I know just around the corner from 3.4K I would be accepted by boohoo to be a student brand ambassador / blogger for them. I have to say this has by far been my biggest blogging highlight! Being a SBA  for boohoo really has been the most amazing opportunity for me, let alone recently attending their AW17 press day. The start of this journey was really when I began to make friends within the blogging industry and I felt as though I had been a little more accepted and I wasn't just on my own. I started to get more and more support off of these people and from my followers. 

After this stage I noticed that more and more brands wanted to work with me for example, Dorothy Perkins, Missy Empire, quiz and Miss Pap just to name a few. This still seems like a dream to me and I don’t think the excitement and the ‘pinch me – ness ‘ will ever tire. I don’t want to go too deep into the money side of things but I know that a few of you were curious. I have recently been working with brands on a paid basis and blogging is fastly becoming my source of income. Talking of payments a few weeks ago was when another huge stage of my blogging career commenced. I got accepted on to LikeToKnowIt, this was a HUGE deal to me as even at 5k I had only ever dreamed of being accepted onto such an amazing program. 

I am going to leave this post here as I could go on another ten pages about all of the amazing experiences and opportunities blogging has given me and how much I love the blogging industry. However, I would like to put a little disclaimer out there to say my journey up to this point has in no way been easy and I have worked very hard Monday to Sunday and made many sacrifices to get to this point. I'm going to end with a massive thank you to you all, I know 5k Isn't the biggest benchmark ever but for me it's huge and as always I really appreciate the support and I am honestly so grateful for everything so THANK YOU!