BEST BLOGGING TOOLS FOR FASHION BLOGGERS
Hi BFF, I’m sharing with you the best blogging tools and resources that helped me start a profitable fashion blog that now makes me 5-figures every month without selling my soul.
How do I get things done? How can I better manage my fashion blog and invest in myself? I’ve created this resource page so readers can explore the best blogging tools and resources I use to get things done, manage money, educate myself, and run my style blog.
They are organized by category and updated as my needs change or new discoveries present themselves! For the freshest information, bookmark this page for continual reference.
Web Hosting For Fashion Bloggers
I moved from a free Blogger hosting (after 3.5 years!) to a self-hosted WordPress: wished I had done it sooner! This move was definitely been the best thing I’ve ever done for my style blog. Ready? Here’s how to start a fashion blog that makes money.
Bluehost is a GREAT starting point for new bloggers because they offer the most affordable hosting option for anyone on a tight budget. For less than $4/month you can get started plus you get your domain name for free.
Once your blog starts getting consistent traffic over 100,000 monthly pageviews, I recommend switching to Bigscoots. As your blog grows, it’s important to grow with your blog. YES, Bigscoots costs more but you get more out of it. Plus their customer service is out of this world. My fashion blog is currently hosted on Bigscoots.
Best Writing Tools
I cringe when I look back at old posts infested with typos and grammatical errors. One of the best blogging tools available to fashion bloggers (or anyone at all) is Grammarly.
Grammarly is seriously one of the best inventions! It checks your spelling, grammar, and structure as you write. Get the FREE version or supercharge your content with the paid option, like I did. You won’t regret it!
Frase is different from Grammarly in that I use it to map out my content for on-site SEO. You pop in your keyword and it guides you throughout your content workflow to help you create content that ranks and converts. Read this Frase Review.
Pinterest Promotion Tools
Want to drive traffic to your blog? Search engine (aka Google) and Pinterest should be music to your ears. Combined, Google and Pinterest drive the most amount of traffic to bloggers’ content including mine.
Please, please stick to an online tool that is an approved Pinterest partner. IF you’ve been in the game long enough, you’d remember what led to the demise of BoardBooster.
Tailwind App is the only promotional tool I use to share my content to Pinterest. Rather than manual pinning, the death of me, I schedule new, seasonal, and evergreen content to be published to my relevant Pinterest board. I also use Tailwind to plan and schedule my Instagram posts for my fashion blog.
Although Tailwind Create, Canva, and PicMonkey are great tools for creating Pinterest pins, I use the FREE Keynote app on my Macbook. With iCloud, all my templates are available across all my devices. More tacos since Pinterest templates are also unique to me
Best Photography Tools For Fashion Bloggers
Just starting out or need an upgrade but not sure where to start? These are my favorite photography tools for fashion bloggers. And if you’re stretching your budget, you might be able to get away using your smartphone or buy used photography gadgets in mint condition. These are the 3 best cameras for fashion blogging.
There are so many options but Canon seems to be the flower child among fashion bloggers. My current favorite is the Canon EOS RP. It’s significantly cheaper than pro-level Canon 5D Mark III & IV and easy to use. With the right lens, you can do wonders with this camera!
Speaking of lens, I use this Canon 35mm f1.8 lens. Seen all those nice blurry background and in-focus subject? You can achieve that with this lens. And it’s less expensive than the $$$$ Canon 35mm f1.4 lens.
No photographer? No problem! I’ve had this top-rated tripod since 2015! The 360º ball head makes it super easy to rotate your camera to any position you want (super helpful when you’re shooting by yourself).
Email Marketing Tools
Have you heard the saying that your self-hosted website and your email list are truly the only platforms you own? Yup! This inspired me to get my act together and start building my list. The best blogging tools for email marketing are Flodesk and ConvertKit. Read this Flodesk review for more. Forget RSS fed!
I started on MailChimp, then moved to ConvertKit, and finally settled on Flodesk. Flodesk is truly the best option for creatives, influencers, and fashion bloggers. And it costs only $38/month for unlimited subscribers. I was about to start paying ConvertKit $79 for 3,000 subscribers. I now have over 7,500 subscribers on my list and only pay $19/month!
The truth is, I still love ConvertKit. But I believe ConvertKit with all its bells and whistles is better suited for content creators that sell products: courses, ebooks, Lightroom presets, and all that jazz! If all you’re doing is growing your list while you nurture your audience to know, like, and trust you, Flodesk is a more cost-effective alternative for that purpose.
Once your fashion blog starts to gain momentum, you’re going to want to look into investing $6/month in a professional yourname@youblogname.com email address. And if you plan to start growing & cultivating your email list, a absolutely NEED a pro email address. The day of sending newsletters from yourname@gmail.com is a thing of the past!
Make Money Resources
Far and above the most popular question I get revolves around making money from my fashion blog. My three main sources of income, and the blogging tips we share on Bloggerazzi are ad income, affiliate income, and paid sponsorships.
There are a plethora of affiliate networks (e.g. ShareAShale, Skimlinks, CJ, Partnerize…) and sponsored post platforms (Activate, Quotient Social, Aspire IQ, Social Fabric…) and a hand few of ad networks (Adsense, Ezoic, SheMedia, Monumetric, Mediavine & AdThrive) that you can use to make money from your fashion blog.
My fav affiliate network is LTK (formerly rewardStyle). The platform helps influencers monetize their content across their social channels. With rewardStyle’s LIKEtoKNOW.it mobile publishing app, creators can maximize their monetization strategies by creating shoppable Instagram photos. And they now offer paid sponsorships (mostly fashion & beauty) to top converting/engaging influencers.
Skimlinks is a content monetization platform for publishers with a focus on in-text advertising. With Skimlinks you get rewarded for all sales and some clicks you drive. In addition, Skimlinks allows you to automatically turn product links into trackable links with the click of a button. They also host some brands that are not on rewardStyle.
Mediavine is my platform of choice for hands-free passive income. Once you get to their required 50,000 monthly pageviews, you can apply to join their network. If accepted, you’d appreciate getting the few hundred – thousands of dollars each month. It’s not 100% passive since your income depends on your traffic + other factors. But you get the gist!
My 100% favorite way of making money from brands is when they reach out to me directly via email. Why? It cuts out the middleman (saves the brand money & more money in your pocket, if you know what you’re doing). Brands find your fashion blog from Google and Instagram (there are tools that brands use to find us).
Keyword Research Tools
If you’ve heard these three letters S.E.O (Search Engine Optimization) and keyword research, you probably already know that optimizing your blog post is more than just installing the Yoast plugin. You want to provide the solution to readers’ pain point.
But how do you know what their pain point is? You use the best blogging tools like SEMRush and KeySearch! I’m not even going to deny it, I was oblivious to keyword research for 4+ years. No wonder my blog hardly got any traffic 🙁
I use SEMRush diligently for most of my keyword research. It’s pricy but massive blog traffic makes the tool worth every penny. Plus they offer a free trial. I’ve been using this tool since 2017! You could also split the cost with a few friends.
If SEMRush is way out of your budget, you’d appreciate KeySearch. I’ve been using this tool since 2019 and love that it’s more user-friendly and offers similar details for way less. One month of SEMRush will cover the entire year of a KeySearch annual plan.
Best Fashion Blog Themes
Ah! The fun part. Most newbie bloggers spend most of their time looking up blog names or customizing their blogs. And there is no shortage of free and paid blog themes out there. It’s seriously overwhelming!
You want your blog to be a perfect depiction of your personality while delivering the best user experience. I’ve used a lot of themes over the years: from Etsy themes to Pipdig themes.
Want to set yourself up for success? Stick with Astra, Kadence, or GeneratePress. For fashion bloggers, go with Astra. You can mostly recreate any “fancy” theme you see out there on Astra.
Astra offers the most customizable, lightweight, blazing-fast themes for style bloggers. I loved the look of my Pipdig theme so much that I recreated, without any coding experience, the same look using Astra.
Just want a one-and-done theme? You’ll love the theme designs from Restored316 Designs. I just switched one of my blogs to Kadence, and I chose a theme from here <-. It is super light, stylish, and loads fast.
Other Relevant Resources
