Fashion & lifestyle

Tuesday 20 June 2017

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! 





SHARE:

15 comments

  1. BIG WELL DONE!!! I'm so happy for you great blog post!! I am currently working so hard in getting my blog and YouTube where I want it to be!!

    Sophie | Sophiekate.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much Sophie! I'm glad you enjoyed the blog post, I can't wait to see you grow! I love your content :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations! Out of all the up-and-coming bloggers I see you're one of my favourites and you deserve all the success coming your way! Can't wait to see more great posts! x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! it's lovely to hear that you are enjoying my content! I can't wait to see what the future holds :) xx

      Delete
  4. What a nice post to read, just shows what he'd work can lead to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Sian!

      I'm so glad you enjoyed the post! Thank you for your comment! :)

      Delete
  5. Well done! I love love love your blog content, carry on going as you deserve all the success coming your way!xxxxx

    Lou xxx
    lovefromlouu.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Louise!

      I'm so glad you enjoy my content, it really means the world to me! Thank you for your lovely comment! xxxx

      Delete
  6. Congratulations! You have achieved some amazing things in only a year and a bit. I wish you all the success ❤

    Chelle| chellebelle2016.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Chelle!

      Thank you so so much for your lovely comment it means the world to me! Xx

      Delete
  7. Congratulations Holly! This post reminded me of writing my first post and it actually feels so great to have come this long. Many more to come girl!

    Priyanka xx
    WWW.petalsofbeauty.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Priyanka!

      Thank you so so much for your lovely comment the times has flew and I've enjoyed every second of it! xx

      Delete
  8. This was a lovely read! I'm trying to focus more on blogging now after coming from an Instagram background, so this was very inspiring. ☺️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your lovely comment! for you to be inspired by my work is amazing! Best of luck with the blogging :)

      Delete
  9. Finding this post has definitely inspired me to keep trying even when I want to give up!! Congrats gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete

Blogger Template Created by pipdig