Why Blogging (Successfully) Is Harder Than It Looks

by Dodo Charles

So, I recently started a blog with my friends on fashion design, which I thought would be easy, but is in fact as difficult as trying to thread a minute needle. Setting up the blog alone was difficult enough. There was a whole array of decisions to be made, and for a not particularly decisive person, it was a challenge that I did not readily accept.

First problem- deciding what our main aims of the blog were. We knew that we wanted to specialise in vintage and indie clothing, but beyond that we were quite unsure. We also wanted to alter old clothes rather than start from scratch, so we needed to make this clear. In the end we decided that we would specialise in designing and altering clothes so that they had an indie or vintage twist.

The next problem encountered was: the blog’s name- it seems simple enough, but deciding on a name when there are three of you, each with different ideas, is not a fun task. We of course ended up using our great friend- the thesaurus, to attempt to find a unique word for clothes. Let me tell you now, there are not many enticing words out there… Eventually we decided to go French and our blog was named, La Grande Allure.

Right, the second hurdle had been jumped over, but there were still many to come, the first in the form of a layout design. Whoever decided that giving a person so much choice was a good idea, I do not salute you. We spent far too much time staring at a laptop trying to find the right format, but to not much avail until I wandered over from where I had been stitching a top and with the help of Sophie chose the one that best suited our vintage design.

Finally we actually had to write an entry. This was by far the hardest thing to do. I mean, how do you write something that would appeal to a bunch of people you have never met? Do you go for the formal approach or the slightly slapdash approach of pretending that they are your friends (if anyone actually reads it, that is)? In the end we went for a mixture, and actually recommended another fashion blogger’s blog; probably not our best move, but it boosts the other person’s views.

I said finally but I did not mean it because next came the laborious task of uploading the photos of the clothes we had made. This involved uploading all the photos taken to a computer, editing the ones we didn’t like, then choosing the best ones to go on the blog. Except to physically get them onto the blog we had to upload them onto the internet to get their URLs to be able to paste them onto the page. All highly stressful, but well worth it.

Overall the experience was incredibly time consuming but it was definitely enjoyable for the large part. Our blog is called http://www.lagrandeallure.blogspot.co.uk/

Please take the time to check it out.