Holy shit. If I see another girl on Instagram claim she’s a model or lifestyle fashion blogger, I’m going to gouge my eyes out. Weight loss shakes. Detox teas. Sugar bear hair vitamins. CHA CHING.
Bitches.
Jealous much? Maybe. I’m honestly one more “how was your weekend?” elevator conversation away from selling my soul and and promoting ANYTHING on social media for money.
So in between fetching shitty office coffee and yessing my boss to death, I did a little research. There are a few different avenues you can take as a fashion blogger to earn money and gain a social presence.
Sponsored posts
A company pays you to write about their product. Pretty simple. Reach out to the company and just ask. You have to start small to make it big, so contact local boutiques and smaller shops first. Then, once you establish an online presence, brands will start reaching out to you.
The potential to make money is there, you just have to be consistent. One example is fashion blogger Rach Parcel (pinkpeonies.com). She earns $5k-10k PER single blog post. Industry estimates say brands spend more than a $1 billion per year on sponsored Instagram posts. Perhaps consider quitting your day job to write about shoes.
Affiliate links/affiliate programs
Two popular ones that help fashion bloggers monetize their content are ShopStyle and rewardStyle. On ShopStyle, you get paid PER CLICK (about 10 cents). It doesn’t matter if the user buys something – you get compensated if they just click. On rewardStyle, you are paid PER PURCHASE, usually around 20% of the item.
Let’s say you link a dress from Nordstrom and the user goes there. They don’t buy the dress, but they buy a shirt off the site. You still get paid around 20% of that shirt.
rewardStyle uses cookies that stay for 30 days, so if the user goes back to the site within 30 days you will still get credit for their purchase. You get nothing unless they make a purchase. rewardStyle also has a good Instagram presence with liketoknow.it.
Gifting and product reviews
This is how smaller blogs start. You develop a relationship with a brand and they let you choose a few things from their website. In return, you write a blog post and usually 1-2 Instagram posts promoting the items. You’ll see “c/o” which means it was received “courtesy of the brand.” If you’re a fashion blogger in the U.S., you’re legally obligated to disclose your partnerships, compensation, and sponsored content. FTC says so.
