Making Money and How to Get Press Samples

These aren’t exactly my favorite topics to talk about, because I think that focusing on them can undermine the genuine passion and effort that a lot of beauty bloggers put into their blogs, but they are certainly important pieces of a larger puzzle.  If it’s something you want to do full-time, it has to be a viable full-time job, which means you do need to earn money.  There are also expenses like products, equipment, hosting, and technical expertise.

Monetizing Your Blog

Display Advertising:  When you just start out, I fully recommend Google AdSense.  It’s free, easy to implement, and proven.  If you’re outside of the U.S./Canada, AdSense may not be as viable.  Since I’m not familiar with what networks may serve your specific region or country, you might want to google something like “AdSense alternatives for [your country].”  We continue to use AdSense to backfill any unsold inventory.  After you’ve built up your audience, you can consider joining one of the many advertising networks that exist, which usually have minimum requirements (usually in impressions, pageviews, or visitors). A few networks to look into: Glam, Style Coalition, and Total Beauty.  My experience is primarily with Glam, as we have been using them for three or four years now.  Networks are middlemen, just like AdSense is, that sell your inventory to advertisers, and they will take a cut.

Sponsored Content:  Sponsored content is usually when an advertiser gets involved with some other piece of the blog that isn’t the traditional advertising units (banners) that you see on a blog/website.  Brands can and have sponsored anything and everything, so it’s up to you where you want to go with that.  I will caution all on sponsored reviews, which is a sensitive subject.  Depending on your readers, they may be more or less receptive or skeptical of sponsored reviews. For us, we have determined that that’s an area we aren’t going to go into.  We do, however, write sponsored editorials (e.g. “what makes for a great girl’s night out?”) as well as advertorials (content that is written and supplied by the advertiser), and sometimes we have sponsored contests (many of our contest prizes are bought and provided by Temptalia but not all).  Sponsored content often pays at a much higher rate than regular ads.

Affiliate Marketing:  Affiliate marketing is usually in the form of links.  This means that when I link you to a product at a retailer, I might use an affiliate link. When you click on that link and actually buy something, I get a commission. This commission, for the record, is usually 3-5% of the purchase price (to put it in perspective, a $20 lipstick yields $0.60 in commission).  Most retailers belong to an affiliate network, but not all do, and some networks are more exclusive than others.  Here are a few to consider: Commission Junction, Google Affiliate Network, and Linkshare.

Keep Track of Your Expenses:  Part of monetizing your blog is also keeping your expenses down or knowing what they are.  If and when you start making some money from your blog, you may be able to take some deductions (check with your CPA!).

How to Get Press Samples

Obtaining press samples is a bit of an art form. It’s not a gimme–and it’s not guaranteed at all for any blogger.  We have great relationships with some brands, but other brands are nearly impossible to get samples from.  There are still a few brands who categorically refuse to send samples to non-print media.  Brands often receive 100-200 pieces of a product, and this is supposed to cover print and digital media.  This is why it can be difficult to get samples of a whole collection or a certain shade, and why it can differ dramatically from brand to brand (some get 500 pieces, some might get 50 or less).

How big or small your blog is often a factor in whether or not a brand can justify sending you one of the samples they have; and it doesn’t mean all small blogs are ignored, because genuine passion, good writing, an engaged audience, etc. are all important, too. Someone who is a devoted follower of the brand but may have a small audience may be just as important to the brand as a large blog who barely covers them.  Share your stats with pride (because you’ve worked hard!), and be sure to share metrics like pageviews, unique visitors, and visits.

Brands are interested in blogs and bloggers, and when it makes sense to, they’ll definitely do what they can to get product to the person.  It’s a good idea to focus on working with brands that you already know and love; ones that you regularly purchase from, ones you’ve covered extensively in the past.  It’s a great place to start the relationship from.  You can begin your relationship by introducing yourself, sharing links to previous reviews/posts you’ve done about the brand, and ask if they have a media list for new product launches/press releases.  Remember, you didn’t start your blog for freebies–there’s no need to send a laundry list of products you’d like them to send over.  If you’ve asked for a sample and have been denied, don’t take it personally.  Use it as motivation to keep building up your blog so the next time you ask, there’s no way for them to say no!

Series over!  For now, at least!  Hope you found it helpful

Setting Up, What You Need, How to Get Readers

If you promise not to share it with anyone else, I’ll give you the magic secret to having a successful beauty blog! Are you ready? Remember, don’t tell anyone — I could get into big trouble for spilling all.  Okay, the secret is high quality content and hard work pay off. Usually. Sometimes you need something called opportunity.  For me, opportunity was coming in like gangbusters during a time when beauty blogging was just gaining its feet; not so early on that brands had no clue what blogs were, but early enough where there were fewer beauty blogs.  Opportunity is often seeing what is needed and meeting that need before anyone else does.

It’s a tough nut to crack now. Sometimes, I just want to tell someone not to get into beauty blogging and find another niche that you’re equally passionate about.  It’s completely saturated (and some argue over-saturated), which means that becoming successful takes longer and requires more work than it used to.  It is not impossible, but it’s unlikely you’ll be an overnight sensation, or even an over-year sensation.  If it’s a hobby, just a place for you to periodically share your thoughts, go for it; but if you’re really looking to make something out of it, just be prepared for an uphill battle.  If you stick with it, the outcome is totally worth it! Beauty blogging is rather addictive

What can you do differently?

I ask myself this question all the time.  I’m interested in how can I do something differently or better. What’s my spin? What’s my advantage?  Some bloggers are funny and witty, others are great storytellers.  Do you love all high-end beauty products? Only products you can score a great deal on?  Maybe you’re really into base makeup.  Perhaps you have a skin tone that is underrepresented within the beauty blogging community.  If you think about what you bring to the table, and you can’t really think of anything, you might want to re-think starting a blog until you do figure it out.

Technically, how do I set it all up?

The two most popular systems to use are WordPress (which is what Temptalia has always used) and Blogger (which I have never used, so I can’t help you at all).  I would highly recommend securing a domain name, and I would say the shorter, pithier it is, the better. I’ve been going by “Temptalia” for over ten years on the internet, so it was natural for me to have the domain name at the time, but it’s also enabled me to build more of a brand.  If you get a domain, you need to host it somewhere, and I’d recommend Dreamhost.  We used them for a few years, and for the price, nothing beats it–the support was excellent while we were there 95% of the time.

Once you’re hosted, you can get free and/or inexpensive themes (or layouts/designs), and some places will install them for you–it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either; maybe $20 to $100.  It’s good to get an idea about how WordPress functions, so you might look into a WordPress for Dummies book.  Shaun has always handled the technical side of the blog, including WordPress, plug-ins, design, and so forth.  It’s a more straight-forward system than you think; it’s intuitive, and it doesn’t take long to learn the system without having to get into lots and lots of code.

When you have your name settled, you may want to secure that name on various social networks.  Temptalia uses Facebook, Google+, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instragram, and hopefully nothing else that I’ve forgotten.  In the beginning, it’s not necessary to manage all of those social networks; you’ll want to concentrate on building up one or two.  The reality is a lot of beauty bloggers aren’t full-time bloggers, so they have full or part-time jobs (or go to school), so spending a lot of time managing social networks isn’t going to be efficient. It’s more important to spend that time creating interesting content than tweeting about creating interesting content!

What do I need?

If you plan to photograph anything, you’ll want a decent camera (and no, it doesn’t have to be a fancy DSLR) and to find an area that has good lighting.  For beauty, a camera with a macro function (which is a fairly standard function) is sufficient. Are DSLRs better? Sure, they can be, assuming your lighting isn’t terrible.  Lighting is more important than equipment.  You can make a DIY light tent (just google it), purchase a small one ($20 to $50), or just take two bright lights and shine them on the product and play with that set up for a bit.  I recommend a tripod if you aren’t shooting with flash or excellent lighting.

• What do I use?  I use a Nikon D3s DSLR with the following lenses: 35mm, 50mm, 18-85mm, 60mm, and 70-300mm.  I primarily use the 60mm, as it is my macro lens. At this time, I really only use lenses that are full-frame, but if the DSLR is not full-frame, then Nikon makes excellent DX lenses that are much cheaper.  For lighting, I use two AlienBees B800s along with soft boxes, beauty dishes, reflectors, and other stuff I don’t understand.

A good photo (and possibly video, if you also go that route) editing program is helpful to have.  The standard is likely Adobe Photoshop, but here’s a great post on several viable alternatives to Photoshop that are free.  If you’re a student, you might be able to snag a student copy of software you need, which would save you a bundle.

• What do I use?  Adobe Photoshop CS6.  I know Shaun also uses Adobe Premiere (video editing), Illustrator, and Dreamweaver.

You might think you need to have a closet full of beauty products, but you don’t–though chances are if you’re thinking about beauty blogging, you already have quite the stash!  You can write reviews on products you already own, holy grail products, talk about product disasters, and how best to use a product. Maybe there’s a blush that just works with everything–well, you could show us that!  You can also go to your local counter/store and play with displayers, get quotes from makeup artists, and the like.

How do I get more readers?

The superficial matters.  When someone comes to your blog, you want them to stick around for more than 0.003 seconds.  This is why design, layout, and load time can be really important.  What will be the first screen that readers see?  Have you used colors that a majority of people will find blinding or difficult to read on? Is it obvious where your content is?  We are always reevaluating our choices to see how we can improve upon them, so it’s not a process that ever stops.

Content is king. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it several more times before I’m through: content is king.  In order for people to have a reason to go to your blog, there has to be content worth reading.  If you want readers, these aren’t just passer-bys, they’re regulars, which means they need regular content to read.  If you only post once a month, it’s going to be hard for readers to come in droves. As a reader, if I come across a blog that hasn’t updated a couple of weeks, I assume the blogger has lost interest or abandoned their blog.  The harsher reality is that there are hundreds of blogs who post content multiple times a week, if not daily. Readers can read more than blog, but most aren’t able to keep up with 100s within the same niche.  If you only want to post once a week, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it; just figure out what you can do on your end to make that one post worth the week-long wait.

Join beauty blog networks, link lists, etc.  Some blogs participate in link roundups, which include links from a group of bloggers.  I’m sure you’ve seen a roundup or two on other beauty blogs, so you might ask to join that particular list.  If you’re not able to join, you can consider starting your own with other similar blogs.  I’ve heard from others that this is a great way for newer beauty blogs to get their name out.

Time.  It takes time to build up a readership, so just keep at it.  You can periodically ask your readers how you’re doing, what kinds of things they’d like to see in the future, to get a gauge on who is reading.  Just because they never comment doesn’t mean they’re not reading, but sometimes when you ask specifically for feedback, you’ll get some of your most loyal [lurking] readers to leave a comment!  You can also try asking for feedback through polls, which makes it easier for people to weigh in without leaving a comment.

Introduction: How I Started

The most frequent question I get (seriously!) is, “How do I start my own blog?” followed by a few questions in the same vein.  I’m not always able to answer everyone in detail, so I thought putting together a series of posts would be helpful for those interested, and then I can point future inquiries to a really in-depth answer!  I thought the best way to start would be to tell you where and how I started, to give you a better idea of who I am, what level of knowledge I have, and how things have changed.

Temptalia began in October 2006, and frankly, I didn’t know anything about blogging when I started. I’ve grown up on the internet, and I’ve always done quirky things on the web, but the concepts of blogs and blogging were not in my vocbularly.  In my teens, I managed (to my horror, now) ten e-zines, two of which were daily, and then after going away to college, I moved on and eventually landed myself on Livejournal.  After I fell in love with makeup (also, when I went to college, so I was around 18), I started posting makeup looks on a community called MAC_Cosmetics on Livejournal.

Two years went by, and it seemed like a good idea to put all of those looks in one place, like an archive.  I was also doing photo-driven tutorials, and those were included.  For the first two months, it was largely an archive, and then I started posting my collective thoughts about the most recent MAC collection, and by December 2006, I was posting some swatches and photos of products I had purchased.  In August 2007, MAC reached out to us and invited us to go backstage at San Francisco’s Fashion Week (which no longer exists). It was a Big. Deal. at the time, because I didn’t know this stuff was important, that brands would read it, or that it was anything more than an extension of my makeup obsession.  It’s pretty amazing to be writing about one brand exclusively (gateway drug! yeah!) and having that one brand know you’re alive.  That same month, I received my first press samples ever (which were from MAC).

By the end of 2007, we were working with multiple brands, including Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, La Mer, NARS, Prescriptives, Renee Rouleau, Too Faced, and Zoya. In late 2006, we were reaching a few thousand people a month; a year later, over 100,000; two years later, 200,000; and so forth and so on.  Now? We reach around a million unique people a month.  The rest, as they say, is history!

Temptalia started completely organically. It wasn’t a planned operation; there were no real expectations.  I certainly didn’t expect it to become a career path open to me five years later!  When it all began, it was a lawless time, so I made plenty of mistakes and will continue to make them going forward but hope to learn something from each of those. A lot of blogging was trial and error; there weren’t rules or even helpful guides on what to write about, how to get more readers, or what to focus on.  It’s funny to think about, because it’s hard to believe this time ever existed, but indeed there was: a time when product photos, real swatches, and the like were not standard protocol.