Independent Fashion Bloggers

Independent Fashion Bloggers has moved!

2008-07-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Good news!

The new IFB website has launched! Please visit:

IndependentFashionBloggers.org

From now on, the comments will be closed on this blog. If you go to the new one, you can make comments there! Also, we have forums, resource lists, and lots more!
:)

Membership temporarily closed

2008-07-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

This is just a short announcement.

IFB will be moving to another location in the next few weeks. I realize that we have fallen behind on membership badges and links... and thanks to all of you, we've really just outgrown blogger.

More will be revealed, but for now, I just want to let all of you who have requested IFB membership to hang on, just a little bit longer and there will be better community!

No, I have not sold IFB.. it's still going to be ad free, it's not owned by anybody but all of us.

:)

Elle says: "we've noticed that more and more quality, style-focused blogs are cropping up..."

2008-07-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

Image via Garance Doré

Blog vs. print may be coming to a close, or maybe "independent blogs" vs. "media corporation blogs representing print magazines" may be coming to terms. I think. Scrolling through my rss feeder today, I came across Elle Magazine's New Style Blogs article... It got me excited to see which blogs they picked, and what they had to say about us.

While the slew of Internet startups that emerged around this time [the mid-90's] tanked when the boom went bust, blogs have prospered, evolving into the creative outlet for people to share (and typically over share) information about their lives, for anyone interested�-or bored-�enough to read on. As a result, we've noticed that more and more quality, style-focused blogs are cropping up, offering a visual cornucopia for the fashion savvy in the way of street style images, "Last Night's Party" type scenes of downtown debauchery (that often include inadvertent galleries of choice vintage pieces and designer duds) as well as the occasional eBay link for items you may have missed but, turns out, need to own.

After this description... which, I'm still not clear about why the writer mentions the dot-com era, when blogs didn't gain any real popularity until after the bust, except maybe she might be one of those writers who went through lay-offs and years of struggling to find work, and is now back on the internet to find a different world (don't worry, I'm from San Francisco, I know).

While it's true that blogs have evolved, better pictures, better writing. It may also be attributed to practice. Many bloggers post every day, hitting the streets, scouring the internet for hours on end. And for goodness sakes, some of us may be, even, you know, professionals. Garance Doré was a freelance illustrator for years before starting her blog, Face Hunter was a copywriter and cool hunter prior to starting his blog. Both Grance and Ivan use their blogs as a portfolio and a way to get work. And Bryanboy? He's fab, I should read his blog more. The other bloggers noted, I couldn't really figure out because there were no links and no blog names.

It's also to be noted that bloggers may start out as hobbyists, but then become professionals. Natalie from Coquette was a graphic designer/art director used her blog to change careers to writing, and is now an an editor at Craft Magazine, and also writes for their blog. Mahret from F&Art was an art history student when she started her blog, now is a freelance journalist, writing for major newspapers, as well as print and online magazines. Susie Bubble the 'industry outsider' is now editor at Dazed Digital. And Gala Darling? Well, she's professionally herself, and doing quite well at it. And these are just people off the top of my head, I'm sure the list would be much, much longer if I did any research to find more blogger gone pros.

All of the above listed bloggers have shown inspiration and perseverance. They didn't gain success over night, and they very hard to get where they are on their own. It just amazes me the articles about blogging by the general press seem to overlook that point, thinking that blogs just magically appear out of the blue without any real credentials. It's both condescending and inaccurate, for it takes a lot more work to make your career on your own than to get a 9-5 job at some company. Any entrepreneur and freelancer should know that.

Bloggers In Action

2008-07-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

Some people look very dignified when they are working. Me, I don't know... Photographers look cool as they know how to handle a camera. That’s me, taken at the Lancome Magnifique event by Benjamin Boccas. Mr. Boccas, a fine photographer, has taken a liking to bloggers, by making beautiful portraits of them. If you read Café Mode, you might be familiar with his work if you notice Geraldine’s lovely photo (although, it’s recently been updated with one by Garance Doré). He also blogs himself.

I never thought bloggers would make interesting photographic subject matter… I mean, many of us take loads of pictures of ourselves… but as blogs become more and more established, it makes sense. Gosh, I remember last year, when SF Fashion Week said blogs didn’t count as press.

PS. I know it looks like I’m wearing nothing but a Casio Calculator Watch… but trust me, I’m wearing a strapless tiered mini-dress....

post via The Coveted

You Turn

2008-06-03T05:14:00.000-07:00

Anna Wintour may be one of the few people on the planet who can say to us "buy this, because I say it's good" though opinions of US Vogue may vary widely the fact remains that it is one of the top selling fashion magazines in the world.

If you wield less power than Anna Wintour, then chances are you're not going to intimidate your readers by the sheer perfection of the fashion snippets you provide in your blog. No need to worry, there are loads of ways to go about generating content. One thing that has been registering on my radar frequently is the idea of user-oriented content:

(Ironically, the photo of the dapper gent blogger Imelda, was taken for Paris Men's Vogue)

This isn't about blog vs. magazine, it's although many magazines (and blogs too) come from the standpoint, "buy me because I kick ass." Part of the appeal blogs have is the feeling of giving the reader some inside information, information although freely available to the public, is not widely known and is somehow secret, more personal.

That's where we come in, can offer daily information, and one way to encourage readers to come back is to offer them something, "reading this blog will help you kick ass." There are blogs like iCiNG that are 'you' oriented, which goes to say Gala Darling writes her blog to help her readers feel good about their style, about themselves. Another Aussie blog, Imelda, provides the scoop on shoes from an insider's hilarious perspective, Imelda talks with us like with a good friend leaving us feeling like we're in the know when it comes to shoes.

The shift is somehow subtle, and yet it's huge, in terms of fashion it shifts the dynamic from that where an elite dictate what is stylish, inevitably alienating the general audience, to a more democratic approach, inclusive to anyone who participates. Having user-focused content not only helps your readers it helps you build a stronger blog. Useful posts give people a reason to link to you, they give people a reason to come back.

Where is the love?

2008-05-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

Negative comments seem to be a fact of life on the internet. They are everywhere, forums, on big corporate websites like the BBC and the Times and on people’s personal blogs. Where there’s an opinion, there normally seems be someone hanging around waiting to discredit it. Criticism is fine, but when someone starts harassing you, what do you do?

Thankfully, so far on my own blog, we haven’t had any outright abuse. I try to foster debate, but as the debate is normally as inane as what colour suit looks best, I wouldn’t expect this debate to turn nasty. And yet I’ve seen that, time and time again, on other people’s blogs it does. I’m not talking the ‘oh this is a silly idea’ comments either, I’m talking the full-blown ‘you are fat and ugly and I think your face is stupid’ ones. Here are my suggestions of few ways of dealing with it.

Have a commenting policy in place:

This could be a three page document about karma, or it could be a simple line above the commenting form. While this is obviously not foolproof, it might give you peace of mind when/if you delete comments or even ban specific commmenters later on.

Moderate comments:

Just stop them ever getting made public. This means you get to stop what shows up on your site, but it doesn’t stop you reading what some loon has to say. I’ve seen that a lot of people seem to do this, but it seems to me to be a lot of hassle for smaller blogs where you don’t really have a problem (yet).

Zero tolerance:

Any abuse gets deleted and if necessary the IP gets blocked. Seems extreme, but frankly I doubt you’d accept those sorts of comments from people ‘in real life’ so why should you have to on the net? Most 'haters' seem to be one offs, but it doesn't really hurt to send the 'get out and don't come back' message to people like that.

Allow no comments at all:

Now this one IS extreme, but possibly worth considering, especially if you’re the sensitive type or if the situation gets out of hand (a la gofugyourself). However, I know that for a lot of people, the feedback that commenting allows is a major factor in them blogging in the first place.

Your Toolbox : Getting to Know Polyvore

2008-04-30T05:56:00.000-07:00

By now many of you already know about Polyvore.com. Some of you may even use this website for your posts... and some of you may be using Photoshop (ahem, me) to create collages of items in the post. Sarah over at Polyvore.com and I had a chat where she let me know that's it's really a lot more than a collage making tool...

IFB: What is Polyvore? What can it do?
Sarah: Polyvore is a free, easy-to-use web-based application for mixing and matching items - shoes, shirts, skirts, bags, lipstick, nail polish, backgrounds, etc. - from anywhere on the web. It is also a vibrant community of creative and stylish people! With Polyvore, you can put together coordinated outfits, a visual wishlist, an interior design, a moodboard, a birthday card for a friend - pretty much anything you want.

You can see a demo of our editor tool here:
http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/polyvore/?action=view&current=editormovie.flv

Once an outfit is created, users publish them to the Polyvore community. Each outfit has a dedicated page on Polyvore, featuring a list of the items within the outfit, with a link to the store where it can be purchased, as well as the creator's name, number of times viewed, the ability to embed the set within any website or online forum, Polyvore Groups that its in, commenting and favoriting, and color swatches that show the color theme of the outfit.

Fashion bloggers especially like Polyvore because they can easily use it as a tool to add professional, magazine-like spreads to their blog posts. For example, a post about celebrity style could include a picture of the celebrity, with a recreation of their outfit made on Polyvore.com. Or, a post about a particular color or style trend could include outfits that show many examples of that trend arranged in a set, or show a recommendation for how that trend could be worn within a look. All of the outfits created on Polyvore can be embedded into any post as long as they link back to Polyvore.com. And what's even cooler is that all the product information is available on each outfit page - just a click away.

IFB: Who are the bulk of users at Polyvore?

Sarah: We have all kinds of different members on Polyvore. Some are fashion and design students, some are professional stylists, some are retailers or small boutiques who have their own products featured on Polyvore, and some of them are just regular girls (and boys) who enjoy being creative and expressive.

IFB: Where do the products on your site come from?

Sarah: Polyvore has an ever-expanding collection of products that currently contains over one million items. Products find their way into Polyvore primarily through our members. Using a bookmarklet installed on the browser window, users can quickly pull products into Polyvore as they discover them on the web. Alternatively, products can be included on Polyvore by retailers themselves, such as American Eagle, Charlotte Russe, and Net-a-Porter, who supply us with a link to their latest catalog, which we then import into Polyvore.

IFB: How does can this site help fashion bloggers?

Sarah: Polyvore can help fashion bloggers by giving them an easy way to express their posts visually, with real products. This adds a lot of value to their posts - which their readers will certainly appreciate! Bloggers also use Polyvore for contests - getting their readers involved by challenging them to create outfits within a certain theme, or using a specific item. This makes their blogs an interactive, two-way conversation that can contribute to their site's growth.

IFB: Any success stories?
Sarah: Fashiontribes co-sponsored a contest with Intermix Online that was extremely successful and generated over 1500 outfits. The winners will be announced today, and five lucky stylists will each be receiving a $500 gift certificate to Intermix Online. Style Observer is a quickly growing fashion blog that uses Polyvore sets regularly to illustrate styles and trends in their blog posts. Finally, Gala Darling of iCiNG recently teamed up with ModCloth to sponsor a fashion challenge that her readers are really enjoying.

IFB: What are some upcoming or new features that are useful tools for blogging?
Sarah: Today, Polyvore will be launching a "Sites We Like" section on our Explore page. The Explore page is the heart of our community and gets over half a million pageviews per month. Blogs that regularly use Polyvore on their sites will have the opportunity to be featured here and gain extra traffic to their site, increasing their visibility to our community and growing their audience. For more information on this, interested bloggers can contact

We are also testing a feature that allows bloggers to embed the Polyvore editor on their site, so that their readers can put together looks using all of the products recommended by that blogger. You can see an example of this on a test blog we made called "Shop this Look" http://www.shopthislook.com We think this might be a really great tool to add interactivity to fashion blogs, and turn each and every one of us into seasoned stylists! If you'd like to be involved in the beta test of this program, please contact "info@polyvore.com"

Why Cosmopolitan is Good For You

2008-04-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Cosmopolitan is a magazine chocked full of goodies that can make a sailor blush. In fact, it's probably the only women's magazine men are interested in. Well, it's certainly one that they have an opinion about.

I was quite surprised when an insightful blogger clued into the value of Cosmo. No, not for the sex tips, but for the copy writing. Copyblogger, states writing the headline first is the best way to start a compelling post, by first generating an idea to write about. Getting ideas for headlines... now that's how Cosmo can be good for you, well, more accurately, Cosmo's covers (or any other magazine)

...written by pros who make good money getting people to pick up periodicals and drop them in the grocery basket... Coppyblogger

How does this work? Well... let's see...

Cosmo Headline: The 22 Best Relationship Tips Ever
Fashion blogger headline: The 22 Best Thrifting Tips Ever (daunting, but I bet Bits and Bobbins could do it)

Cosmo Headline: Guy's Sex Confessions : Surprising stuff they don't want in the sack
Fashion blogger headline: Your Best Friend's Wardrobe Confessions : Surprising stuff she doesn't doesn't want you to know (this might be good for a team blog like, Pudri)

Cosmo Headline: How to Stay Safe: 5 Places Sexual Predators Look for Women (uh oh)
Fashion blogger headline: : How to Save: 5 Places Bargain Hunters Look for Designer Shoes (much more fun... I'd like to know where WendyB gets all her fabulous shoes)

Cosmo Headline: 6 Instant Confidence Boosters
Fashion blogger headline: : Heck, 10 Instant Confidence Boosters (sounds like a job for Kingdom of Style)

Cosmo Headline: 16 Sexy New Hairstyles
Fashion blogger headline: : 16 Easy Fashion Hacks (Susie Bubble can do that blindfolded)

Well, that was fun... what other titles can you come up with?

All images via Cosmopolitan.com

How stressful is blogging? Really?

2008-04-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Image by Yves Lorson on permanent vacation's photostream

When I first started blogging, I thought it a mere obsession. I tried to blog every day, developing a ritual by chronicling my personal style. Once it became a habit, and the more involved I became with my blog, the more time it took, and the more I demanded of myself. I love the growth, and it's opened the door to many other opportunities, but at what cost?

Once I asked a fellow blogger how much time she spends blogging, she replied, "oh, about 2 hours a day" She has a pretty successful blog, so I thought I was doing something wrong because I was spending nearly every night researching, getting linked into various social networks, looking for new blogs....etc. Juggling everything in my life started to get pretty intense. Then I realized, it was stress.

This Sunday, the New York Times wrote a compelling article about the role of stress in a bloggers life. The 24/7, round-the-clock nature of the web has bloggers latched onto the ether struggling to be the first, the best, whatever, and it's having grave consequences. One blogger gained 30lbs since he started his blog. (I've gained 10). Two leading bloggers have actually died of heart attacks in the past few months.

Blogging can be loads of fun. Heck, I wouldn't do it, if it weren't. It can be stressful, hard, intense.

It's also very important to take care, be healthy.

What kinds of things to do you do to stay happy, healthy and well rested as a blogger?

More apologies...

2008-04-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Hello...

It's me Jennine... I'm just checking in with you all to let you know I haven't forgotten about IFB. This month I moved from San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany. It was a big move, and there were many things to take care of as well as keeping up my regular blog.

As if this is a kind of excuse, it's not. But I do plan to start posting regularly this week. And as far as IFB requests.. yes... I will get to those too this week.

Kind regards,

Jennine

Interview with Susie Bubble

2008-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

Susie Bubble is fashion blogging royalty. She started writing Style Bubble way back in March 2006 and since then she's won numerous awards, her readership has exploded and she's on pretty much everyone's blogroll. Susie very kindly agreed to give us some of her time for an interview about fashion blogging...

How did you get started blogging and what do you wish you’d known back then?

It’s a bit of a boring story and it really started with me being a complete fashion geek and obsessively posting on forums like The Fashion Spot and reading blogs avidly (though back then, there weren’t that many to read!). I started Style Bubble in March 2006 purely because it was a natural progression from my fashion geek antics to starting a blog and wanting to keep it quite personal. By personal, I don’t mean that in a ‘Dear Diary’ kind of way but I mean Style Bubble is about blogging my own observations, thoughts and experiences in fashion, making use of my daily fashion life, in the shops that I encounter, the trends that I try, the ups and downs of my style, the designers that I come across.

I didn’t know a lot about blogging going into it and I’m still not really an expert so I guess it’s all still a learning curve for me. I probably wish I’d known how much it would consume my life, not the actual blogging itself but all the stuff attached to it...

What tips would you give to someone just starting out?

Blog about what you love and know. I’m very wary of new bloggers emailing me and asking how to get their blog ‘popular’, as in how they get to the stage of getting invited to events, being treated as press etc. The main motivation of any blog should just be the pure love of blogging. There’s no need to build a strategy to a blog before you start. It’s such a flexible medium that you should just go with the flow and blog about whatever you want to blog about. I find that people warm to fashion blogs that have a bit more ‘oomph’ than merely posting pictures of a bag and saying ‘This is a cute bag’ beneath it so I’m guessing injecting as much of your personality into it helps immensely.

What are you highest and lowest points of blogging so far?

It’s all very superficial but I guess getting mentioned in i-D was pretty special and then getting invited by Gucci and Chanel to their special blog-related events is also highly encouraging as it says to me that blogs have been picked up as a fashion media in their own right. The low points tend to be the negative comments which frequently occur on the blog, to which I either have to ignore or respond intelligently. I have let my initial anger got the better of me in the past but hey, I am a sensitive crybaby and people calling you fat/ugly on a daily basis does hurt a little.

Your output is incredible and so varied- how on earth do you avoid writer’s block and stay inspired?

Fashion is probably the one subject that I could think of a million things to write about and my problem is having too many post ideas and not enough time to write about them. In essence, if I could maintain Style Bubble as a full time blog and write about 20 posts a day, that would be great. However, I’m not keen to rely completely on blog advertising as an income to do that so that’s not gonna happen!

There is so much post to about when fashion changes and when it is so globalised as well. I can’t keep up with all the fashion weeks, all the new designers that are emerging and I don’t even have the time to fully explore trends etc within in my own wardrobe. I guess my interest and obsession with the subject keeps the blog ticking with posts. That’s not to say all my posts are 100% top quality. Some are quickie posts but sometimes they illicit more reactions/comments than the posts I slave over so these things can be hard to gauge.

You get some seriously harsh (and very often completely ungrounded) criticism- how do you deal with that?

As I said before, I’m learning to develop a thicker skin. There really is nothing to do but to ignore the sort of comments that have no concrete point to them. I’m not really into deleting comments if they’re not obvious spam. An opinion is an opinion whether it is ungrounded or not. I won’t lie and say it hasn’t gotten me down and I have contemplated ceasing the blog altogether because in recent months, it has gotten a bit too much but with my temperament, I may be boo-hoo-ing about it one minute but the next minute, I’m fine so it’s all good.... most of the time!

You’ve managed to generate such a large following, with over 5000 readers a day (or whatever that actual figure is?)- what advice would you give to us humbler folk to build traffic?

It’s actually nearer 10,000 but hey I’m not counting or anything! On the technical side, posting often does get you up in the Google rankings. I’m lucky in that Typepad, my blog provider, does all the Technorati stuff (which I don’t completely understand) automatically for me. In the beginning, I did email blogs that I loved to ask if they would like to exchange links. Fashionologie in particular sent a lot of traffic my way in the beginning. It’s really all about mutual lovin’ – you link to them, they link to you, you comment on their blog, they comment on yours – that’s the general pattern of how traffic gets directed. If you are an active member of a fashion forum, then there’s no reason why you can’t shamelessly plug your blog in your posting footer. Beyond that, I never did any active promotion of the blog and traffic came as a natural thing, helped along by press coverage and of course things like mentions/linkbacks on biggie sites like Style.com is a huge bonus.

What are your favourite resources?

I consume just about every fashion magazine and I spend a hideous amount of money on it. It’s not really so much about getting inspiration for posts but just to absorb fashion in general. Online resources are also quite varied and my favourites are a A Shaded View on Fashion, Hintmag, WWD (sometimes...). Surprisingly street style blogs aren’t really referenced much on my blog. To be honest, I tend not to cite one particular online source and like to gather a mix of origins. It may not even come from one particular source but from something quite random that I personally came across. In other words, I have no sound advice but to play it by ear?

Are text links a good deal?

2008-02-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

One of the first offers I've received for advertising was a text link from a jewelry company who wanted to buy a post. I was excited, but it seemed very strange because I didn't have very much traffic at the time. So I engaged in conversation...

It turned out to be more trouble than it's worth, and the content was too far from what I would normally post, so I passed. I get offers all the time to purchase links in posts, or even whole posts, I have never used them, because I thought it may interfere with the integrity of the blog.

There is a great post on ProBlogger.net in regards to text link selling. Google penalizes websites that sell text links. I'm not exactly sure what that means, if they will decrease your page rank or worse. (oh my...) It seems like my initial inclinations were right, to hold off and see what other forms of monetization are out there.

What is your experience with these kinds of offers? Are they a good deal?

IFB Welcomes EJ

2008-02-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

Asking for help is really difficult... but when I was stressing out Sunday mornings, and when IFB began to overwhelm me, I knew it had to be either quit or ask. So I asked.

To all of you who offered your help with IFB, you are a special lot. Thank you. It really makes me happy to know that there are people out there who believe in this community. And we may still need more help.

It was never my intention to run IFB by myself, and when EJ of Style Salvage offered her help, I was not only happy that she did a great job, but then she's even gone further to pitch really great posts.

So it's with great pleasure to introduce EJ as part of the IFB team... she's very talented and dedicated, and well, cool. Style Salvage is a great blog, and if you have time, check it out.

It's my hope that this will continue to grow, and more IFB contributors to develop a free resource for fashion savvy bloggers.

~Jennine

Just because it's free, doesn't make it garbage...

2008-02-06T15:44:00.001-08:00

Originally uploaded by icanteachyouhowtodoit

Let's face it... there's not a whole lot of money in fashion blogging. At first anyway. You have to work hard, work smart and be in the know.

You also have to have nice looking content, good writing, and be persistent.

Unfortunately... the nice content can be a challenge if you want to make your blog original. There are lots of free resources out there if you take the time to learn about internet culture, programming and professional blogging. One concept I've only recently come across is open source. If you are running your blog on Wordpress.org, you are probably aware of the amazing capabilities of this concept.

Open source is a set of principle around developing software, more specifically to us, it's code that's openly available. I find this topic really interesting, but for now... we can stick to the fact it's free software... it's free, but you can donate to the programmers if you like. I use WordPress and an open source template... the good part is it's free, and I can customize it. The bad part is, I'm the one who has to do all the work.

Finding good programs to use is another issue so here are some places to look:

Images: Blogs like Just JR and Miss Dior Couture make wonderful collages with found images. I don't know what software comes standard on you computer, but chances are, you may not have Photoshop. It's an essential tool for blogging. I used it for nearly every post. If you can't shell out the $1000 for a licence for CS2... try GIMP, it still has a bit of devlopment to do... but you can give it a try. I've seen the features, and it looks pretty extensive particularly for what we do as bloggers, so if you have a super old copy of Photoshop... you might want to give this a try.

Email: I don't know what kind of blogger doesn't need a good email program. I use gmail for all my accounts. I recently bought a domain name, and didn't want to have to pay for the extra hosting for the emails, so I used google apps. With that, you can have like 100 email addresses and it uses the gmail interface, so I didn't have to learn anything new. I've also heard that Mozilla Thunderbird is a great email application.

Hosting: If you are just starting out, and are intimidated by paying up front for hosting (many companies give a discount if you pay up front) going to NearlyFreeSpeech allows you to pay for what you use. A beginning blogger may not use too much space... so it's worth a dabble. As you learn what you need, you'll feel more comfortable about investing in your website. Again... I know I should have said this earlier, but it helps to have your own domain name. They aren't expensive... but after I had to move from Blogger to Wordpress, it was a hastle to inform everyone... change all my feeds, etc... I lost traffic, and my new site doesn't have the same pagerank as my old one. But now I have way more traffic than before... pagerank... well.. that' will change too.

Templates: When I moved, it was because I couldn't find the right templates to with my old platform. Wordpress has tons of open source templates it was just a matter of finding one I liked with a support forum that I gelled with. Once I got my site up and running the author of the code complimented on the work I did! It was really nice.

Tracking your blog: I used to use Technorati, but lately I've lost interest in them because I knew that there were links that weren't showing up. Google now has a blog search that you can Google your blog address and it will search the entire internet for every link that pops up. It also has an RSS feed option so it can also email you when someone links to you!
:)

Resources:
Freelance Switch

IFB needs your help

2008-02-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

Hi there...

I'm sorry for not being able to update all the new members with badges and links. Things have been rather crazy between the launch of my new site, and also planning a transcontinental move.

I need someone to help out with the links and emailing the IFB joining letter (with badge) IFB gets up to 20 new members per week, and it usually takes about 45 minutes/week or so to do all the admin work.

Please leave a comment or email me if you are interested in doing this kind of work. Volunteering is good for your health!
:)

Cheers, Jennine

SALE ALERT: Integrity up to 90% off.

2008-01-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

I know I shouldn't write in anger... and I'm ticked off right now. As many of you know, I write a fashion blog, called The Coveted, it's a monetized blog. I don't make much money, but still, There is adsense, and affiliates from eBay and Amazon, which are the only ones I seem to have the most control over, how and where I place them.

Today, I got an email from a PR person that stated:

Hi Jennine!
We’d love to see this up on the site. Let me know what you think!

There was a 360px by 360px advert image attached noting a sale for a boutique I had covered in the past. I had mentioned them often because I really like what they carry, and I really believe in helping small business people. But this was a blatant request for advertising.

I said to the PR person, "That's a great little invite... would you like to put it on my site? I would love to have up, but of course we'd have to work out some form of payment for the advert. "

She then replied that they don't 'pay for advertising' that this was a notice for 'editorial content.'

I see sale alerts all the time on fashion blogs. In a lot of ways it's a great little service to the readers, informing them which boutiques are having sales, giving them a feeling that they are in the know, because of course, you are...

For some reason posting a sale alert in the body of my blog's content is a little dicey. On one hand, The Coveted's integrity is very important to me. Developing my ideas of what constitutes as viable editorial content is something that I have worked very hard at. On the other hand, it would be nice to have some kind of sale notification service for my readers... Daily Candy does it...

And finally, if I had three hands... the last bit, is, I'd like to get paid for what I do. Advertising is a fair way to get paid, and this kind of notification is definately falls in the 'advertising' category.

In the end, I told the PR Person, that I don't think I can post the image she sent me as 'editorial.' Told her I loved the boutique, and that I post about them as often as I can... and when they get their new inventory, let me know, to see if there is anything good there.

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

It's A Big World Out There

2008-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

via Kingdom of Style

There seems to have been a recent spate of supposed fashion insiders/editors verbally attacking bloggers for our lack of journalistic skill, elegance or our materialism. It once again poses the question as to whether fashion bloggers and fashion editors can happily co-exist.

Firstly I must confess to being slightly dubious that these commentors do actually work in the industry and merely say that to give their opinions weight, however, lets work on the assumption that the "toxic commentors", as Liberty London Girl calls them, do work in the industry - what's really their issue?

The most obvious answer would be they feel threatened; that their hard work is being undervalued by amateurs coming in and getting access to the things they have worked for a great many years to achieve. And I can actually understand this.

I have worked all my life to be a designer. I come from a poor/working class family and in order for me to achieve my goal of becoming a graphic designer I had to work twice as hard as the wealthier kids at college, since I couldn't go on field trips nor could I buy a computer for home or the books needed to make the learning process easier for me. So I struggled. Hard. Over many, many years I have had to learn lots of programmes and techniques, be adaptable and constantly on-the-ball. I have had to endure the crippling self doubt whenever my work is rejected by a client.

In any creative field you have to learn to be arrogant since essentially you are taking on the role of educator - you have to tell people that their ideas suck and teach them why yours is better. You are essentially saying you have better taste and have to be able to back it up. This has worked for many years - the client didn't have the tools nor the skill to do a designers job so happily handed over their money for us to make them look better.

In the field of graphic design things have changed. Everyone now has a computer and easy access to Photoshop, which is more user friendly than ever before. The result of this is that everyone now thinks that because they have mastered the drawing and text tool, knocking up a logo/website/brochure is easy. Everyone is a now a designer. What we then have are our clients going to one of their mates, who happens to have Photoshop, to get their logo designed and it now only costs them £50 and a pint as opposed to the £5000 we charge. This in turn means we can't get the chance to educate people on good design which therefore lowers the benchmark - now no-one sees why they should pay £5k when they can pay someone £50 for what they see as being the same thing, since they are now not as exposed to good design as before, or educated on the differences. This has a knock-on effect of changing the economics of the industry. As with all businesses, designers and their agencies must bring in a specific amount of money to keep operating. If we don't make enough money we can't pay printers and other third party businesses we deal with, who then in turn start to feel the pinch and so it goes on. Essentially the guys doing dreadful logos for £50 are de-valueing an artform.

So I can understand why some fashion editors may take umbrage (edited especially for a-b) at us bloggers getting invites to shows or events, which formerly was only open to them. It must feel on some level like we are waltzing in and taking what they have worked very hard for. The difference is us graphic designers are being replaced (or at least being forced to charge nominal fees), whereas editors really can't be since you can't buy a computer programme which generates fashion editor chat. You can't go and buy Fashion Editing For Dummies! The truth is we bloggers would probably crumble under the pressure of their jobs..and we know it. It's all very well flitting to this show and that, but there's more to the industry than just going to shows. Bloggers get to do the nice the bits without any of the hard work.

But before we get all misty eyed as to why bloggers are being courted by fashion houses and such like in the first place, lets get down to the nitty gritty. It's a simple case of mutual back scratching: bloggers get the chance to see fashion on a level they wouldn't otherwise get to experience and the fashion houses get cheap advertising/PR. It's that simple. Obviously when we do get invited to things we can feel out of place but lets be honest, if we really didn't feel we should be there we would just say no, so on some level we believe we have as much right to see/do these things as any fashion editor. And we do. You see the puppet masters of the fashion business realise that exclusivity can no longer sustain the industry, and so they must reach out to everyone, as opposed to the honoured few. So bloggers are a god send. Suddenly they have access to a worldwide audience daily without having to lift a finger or send a single email. Are we being used? Yes of course we are, but with it comes the chance to dabble and get more involved with the thing we love, so everyone's a winner.

Out of the blogging phenomenon we now have another medium which makes fashion a little more accessible - the online magazine which utilizes user generated content, ie: bloggers. Vogue and so on are wonderful as they are aspirational and offer escapism, but blogs are great for another reason - they are real. They aren't as intimidating and act as inspiration, since they offer ideas that we can actually use; things we can actually afford.

It's unlikely we will replace bona fide editors because you can't replace good old experience and honed skill, so rather than sending toxic comments to us little people, they should be content with the fact that blogs will never replace the much loved glossy magazine, especially since bloggers get most of their content from magazines anyway. Sometimes keeping your gob shut says much more than a bunch of verbal abuse.

So lets all play nice and revel in the fact fashion can unite and be enjoyed by people from all walks of life - rich, poor, old, young, white or coloured...we are all free to enjoy it and how many things in life can we say that about?

Queen Michelle

Dear IFB:

2008-01-20T12:51:00.000-08:00

A question from one of our members:

I am one of three members of a group blog, and we're on the verge of taking our blog to the next level and monetizing by signing up for at least one ad network. All three of us now live in different states (with one in another timezone), which makes coordinating outside of email difficult, and, with increasingly busy schedules and more involved emails, bigger questions can sometimes go unanswered.

Because we're planning on monetizing, the suggestion of creating an LLC to establish rules of how revenue is shared and who can officially make decisions/sign contracts has been brought up. With an LLC, we wouldn't have to worry about playing email (and, eventually, fax) tag just to get decisions made, or making big decisions with the risk of one or two of us saying, "Too long, didn't read, do whatever" and then being upset later. Is forming an LLC a good idea, or are there some potential drawbacks we should be aware of before we make these big jumps into an LLC and ad networks?

If anyone has experience with LLCs, revenue sharing among a group of bloggers, or just has any advice on making group blogging work in general, I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you so much!

The 2008 Fashion Blogger Awards

2008-01-16T15:43:00.001-08:00

Oscars: red carpet walkway
Originally uploaded by perfidia

Via Jen @ Mahalofashion

The 2008 Fashion Blogger Awards are here, and hopefully it will be a growing annual tradition. I decided to start the F.B.A. awards because I had read quite a few articles that had shed a bad light on fashion bloggers which upset me because I know how much we contribute to the fashion industry.

So many of the things have done and purchased have been largely influenced by the blogs I read. I basically wanted to recognize and celebrate everyone for their contributions as well as spreading motivation to keep doing what we are doing.

~Jen @ Mahalofashion

To submit your nominations click here

What compels you?

2008-01-13T19:41:00.000-08:00

Post written by Princess Poochie of Hello, Lover

Coming from the advertising/marketing industry, I continually evaluate how a brand speaks to their consumers through the messaging choices they make. And now as a blogger, I have been directing my eye more and more to the fashion arena. What’s more, as a female consumer, I am looking at these messages, not just to see the product attributes, but also to see if I agree with the more political message that the brand chooses to convey.

A big part of how a brand communicates with their consumers is through print media. Of course, nowadays more and more of that influence is coming from what the stars are wearing (or rather what the stylists have been paid to put them in). However, print (mainly magazine ads) is still one of the biggest media spends for luxury brands and their new campaigns are eagerly anticipated and dissected when they arrive (just see all the discussion over Miu Miu’s and Lanvin’s latest campaigns).

So, when I look at ads, I’m debating if I like the style of the item/collection, find the item covet-able and if I’m inspired by the fantasy that is being constructed. Do I aspire to live in the world that is in that ad and do I want to align myself with what that designer is all about.

I know that these huge companies are filled with marketing experts, so I’m often confused by the ads that I see. Do they really feel that women will be compelled by the message given in the ad and aspire to owning their products because of them?

For example, which of these three ads (ignoring the product and focusing just on the sub-text) do you find compelling?

Marc Jacobs
His ads are typically straightforward and product-centric. In his stark photography, he goes counter-culture and quirky by NOT putting a whole scene together. He’s saying he’s so hip and cool he doesn’t need to elaborate. And if you don’t get it, well, you’re not hip either. He knows you’re going to talk about him and allows you to create your own story. Even if you don’t “get it” you at least can evaluate the product on its own merits.

Guess
This is a Guess ad but could be any number of brands that use their models as mere props for a product. These bother me the most because they are not even trying to disguise the fact that their goal is to manipulate women into thinking they will be sexy if they buy the product. It isn’t empowering. I actually find it degrading and insulting. Do they think we are so easily led? Is an ad like this compelling to women or does it come off completely lacking in insight?

Via Spiga
This ad is my personal favorite. The woman in the ad is strong, classy and confident. I want to be like her, striding purposefully across the street. She’s sexy, not simpering. I can see the product in action and it looks amazing.

Fashion is becoming more and more political with the discussions around child-labor production, lack of quality control, and anorexia-inducing models. As consumers, I think it is important for us to consider all of these issues before purchasing because one of the strongest methods of communicating with these companies is through our wallets. You are what you wear is more true today than ever before.

Trip to the Museum

2008-01-03T22:42:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, the Met's Costume Institute, opened blog.mode: addressing fashion, the exhibition described as:

As a living art form, fashion is open to multiple readings. A vibrant reflection of contemporary culture, fashion especially in its most avant-garde expressions”affects us through its intense visual impact. blog.mode: addressing fashion is the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present”all recent Metropolitan Museum acquisitions”and invites visitors to share their reactions online or from a "blogbar" of computer terminals in the exhibition galleries.

While it's great that museums are looking to change the way they curate exhibitions, I wonder if blogging is going to help encourage discourse. At present museums operate in a very one-way conversation. They relay the information and we receive the information for our own interpretation. It's true that museums like a great documentary can change the way a subject is considered. But blogging is but a medium, a tool we use for discourse, not a subject on it's own (and perhaps a very boring subject, if it were to be one).

Well, I'm one who's interested in seeing how this is going evolve. Honestly, I'm happy to see exhibitions hungry for change.

blog.mode: addressing fashion
December 18, 2007–April 13, 2008
The Costume Institute, ground floor

How blog networks pay...

2008-01-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

Personally, my first experience with a blog network left a lot to be desired. I was confused, didn't really know where to look to find out whether I was being paid fairly.They dictated the placement of their ads 'above the fold' even if they were mainly deodorant ads and dating survey ads. To top it off they gave poor customer service when inquired about why or how blog networks or advertising works.

That was just my experience. Honestly, I haven't tried another network, although I am considering finding one to work with in the near future.

ProBlogger put together a comprehensive list of different ways blog networks pay their bloggers:

Revenue Share - where the blogger earns an agreed upon percentage of their blog’s revenue (I’ve heard anything from 20% to 80% splits)
Revenue Share of Certain Income Streams - where the blogger takes a % of one or two income streams and the network takes other income streams (for example a blogger might take 80% of AdSense revenue and the network takes the other 20% plus any other income from the blog). Another variation on this is where the blogger is allowed to use affiliate programs and the network takes advertising revenue.
Traffic Payments - some networks pay purely on traffic levels - a CPM model (ie blogger is paid $X per 1000 page views)
Flat Monthly Fees - the blogger is paid a certain amount per month if they reach certain posting goals.
Payments Per Post - a flat fee per post (I’ve heard of anything from a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars per post - depending upon the blog, topic, blogger profile and post length)

So hopefully this helps in your search for the right network to link up with.

ProBlogger is not an IFB member... but its valuable blog to read if you are interested in monetizing your blog.

Lapse in Membership

2008-01-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

I'm running a little behind in updating the links and sending out badges.

Many apologies for the lapse, the holidays were hectic, but they are now over, so I'll be up to speed this weekend.

Thanks for your patience,

Jennine

On "per click" ads... are they really "per click"?

2007-12-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

I'm still on administrative leave, but Patrica from Bobble Bee sent a great thought provoking article about advertising. Admittedly I myself often wonder these questions, and is the most compelling reason to start IFB:

via Bobble Bee:

When shopzilla contacted me months ago to place an ad in my blog it was a very happy day for me; I needed money at the time for milkshake chocolate's expenses and it also gave me the chance I was craving for, getting paid for my time and ideas.They were very honest with me from the beginning and we discussed different wages until we got the deal.Months later they offered me to place ads "per click"; I would get paid regarding the "clicks" those ad-links would get from my readers.I thought it a good idea and placed those ads for a couple of months... until I realized I was advertising those companies (others than shopzilla) without getting paid. Then I decided to remove them.Since then I am still trying to figure out why these "per click" ads are so popular (google is a favourite) among bloggers who want or need to earn some money. Many of these bloggers are quite followed thus their traffic permits these ads to do "their job".Those ads have the name of the company big and bold and so it gets stuck in our heads somehow. Therefore, companies are advertising in the blog without paying a penny. Aren't those companies playing with the bloggers' "hope" that someone will click?.I wonder how many people click those ads.They (the ads) are rather dull and uninteresting, we are reading a blog and don't want to be bothered. The months I have them up not even one person did a single click.This is my opinion and the reason why I removed those "per click" ads. They're not for me, thanks.>>> More on blog-sploitation* by the great Liberty London Girl.

Happy Holidays!!!!

2007-12-23T10:57:00.001-08:00

Sometimes Christmas was like this then... (1958)
Originally uploaded by musicmuse_ca

I'm taking administrative leave from IFB for the week... I'm down in SoCal... just hanging out with the family! I wish you all the very best and it's wonderful to have such a great fashion community!

Cheers!

~Jennine