A few weeks ago I went down to London to attend a Cosmopolitan ‘Superblogger’ Masterclass at The British Library.
Although I’ve been blogging for over 4 years, I was intrigued by the talk and thought it could help me career-wise. Tickets for the talk were £30.00 which I thought was okay considering the panel.
Not gonna lie, I was quite nervous as I was attending the talk on my own…I’m used to having the other girls with me! So I was glad to bump into the lovely Sherin- a blogger we’ve followed since the start of Wardrobe.
There were quite a lot of people at the event- mainly female which didn’t surprise me to be honest. After a bit of awkward mingling we went into the theatre ready for the talk.
Have to say it was a great panel, lead my Cosmo’s editor Louise Court. Alongside her was Pat McNulty (digital editor of Cosmo), Vicki Fogwill (social-media manager for Next), Dominic Smales (founder of social-media agency Gleam Digital), Kat Williams (blogger for Rocknrollbride.com), Andreas Pouros (COO of Greenlight Digital) and Emily Johnston (founder of Fashionfoiegras.com).
The Panel
Told ya it was a great panel!
I found the talk REALLY interesting. We’ve been blogging for Wardrobe almost 4 years- in fact we celebrate our 4th birthday in a few weeks! So we’ve been through that journey of starting the blog and getting it out there. It’s not been easy but the four of us did it and here we are! So this talk was probably more beneficial for those starting out.
However, throughout the talk all I felt was guilt, for neglecting the blog. We all have worked so hard on Wardrobe but unfortunately it has taken a backseat lately whilst we try and “sort our life out” so to speak. Personally, it’s not just Wardrobe that I’ve neglected but my input for Truffleshuffle and Menswear Style- two fabulous blogs that I am honoured to be a part of. It’s not that I don’t want to, I’ve just struggled with time and sometimes the last thing you want to do after staring at a computer all day is to get back on it at home! Anyway I don’t mean to get the violins out but it’s true 
We/I love blogging and fashion. It’s why we started Wardrobe, yanno a bit of fun. Just so turned out that you fab people took a shine to our fashion ramblings and well…
The talk definitely made me realise that I still have that passion. Maybe I just needed a break from it. I think the key is not to feel pressured about blogging cos that’s when it stops being fun. It might mean that we lose a few followers or brands no longer want to work with us but hey!
So that’s honesty hour over, back to the masterclass!
Getting ready to take notes- geek!
Like I said the panel were full of great tips and advice. In particularly, if you want to work with brands:
- Honesty is important. Probably THE number one rule of blogging. Both brands and readers will appreciate it- although if you have something negative to say make sure you can back it up and be tactful…
- A good blog is one which is full of personality. Some of our favourite blogs have a great mix of fashion as well as content we can connect with
- Be passionate about your blog. It can take a long time to make money from blogging so don’t just do it for the money and freebies. If you’re not passionate it will show. Just be patient, don’t be afraid to make changes if it’s not working
- If you want to work with brands- or if brands want to work with you (more like) then you need to invest time and effort in your blog. So blog regularly (oops). Brands such as Next also look at social media platforms of blogs such as Facebook & Twitter. These platforms are looked at separately. Don’t forget you can follow us on Facebook & Twitter ahem…
I could go on to be honest, so many notes. To sum it all up:
‘You don’t have to have huge followers. You just need good content, personality to come across on your blog, be consistent and post regularly, have a well designed blog with clean images (although be careful of using photos of celebs, whole separate law issues on this one!) and do have a good social media presence.’
Looking back, personally being a part of Wardrobe has been great. I set this blog up with 3 of my best friends- and even though the blog has been a bit neglected our friendship certainly hasn’t. We’ve worked with some fantastic brands and I hope that continues. We’ve had some pretty cool perks such as a Wardrobe trip to Paris (f**k yeah) and I got to be the first guest blogger for my ultimate fave website Truffleshuffle.com! We’ve also met some pretty cool people such as other bloggers which has to be the best thing in the four years of writing for Wardrobe.
So was the Cosmo Superblogger Masterclass worth going to? Yeah. It’s reignited my passion for blogging- I mean I’ve just written my first blog post in weeks. Get in!
Images taken by Wardrobe Mag
Sunny
Tags: Blogging, Cosmo Blogger Masterclass, Cosmo Careers, Cosmopolitan.co.uk, Fashion Bloggers, Next Bloggers Network
