Want to learn how to start a fashion blog? If you love all things fashion, it only makes sense to share your passion with the world. Plus, the fact that fashion blogs are wildly popular right now doesn’t hurt, right?
Plus, it’s more attainable than you might think. While I’m not trying to say you’ll be an overnight success, the actual fixed costs for a fashion blog are pretty low. Depending on how much you want to invest, you can get started for as little as $50-60 for your entire first year.
By that, I mean that while you will certainly have to pour in sweat equity if you want to become popular, you don’t actually need to spend that much money outside the sweat equity.
What You’ll Need to Start a Fashion Blog
I’m going to break everything down in more detail in the following sections, but let’s start with a quick overview of everything you’ll need to start a fashion blog:
- Web hosting – this is the engine that actually powers your website. It costs money, but is an absolute necessity if you want to have full control over your fashion blog.
- A domain name – this is how people will find your fashion blog. And it also gives you a chance to brand your blog. To help you pick, you can use one of the many blog name generators.
- WordPress.org software – the world’s most popular tool for creating a website. Best of all, it’s 100% free! Note – this is different than WordPress.com. They are NOT the same.
- A WordPress theme – this dictates how your fashion blog looks. You’ll want to pick one that matches your style.
- Some helpful WordPress plugins – these help add cool functionality to your fashion blog.
Of course, you’ll also need the drive and passion to post consistently even when the traffic numbers don’t look great. It will take you time to build a following, so if you can’t deal with some dry times at the beginning, blogging might not be for you.
If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a fashion blogger, keep reading and I’ll show you how to get set up!
Pick Hosting and a Domain For Your Fashion Blog
As I mentioned, to get your fashion blog up and running, you’ll need a domain name and something called web hosting.
For hosting, we recommend a company called SiteGround. SiteGround is where we host this site, so you can trust that we truly believe it’s the best host for most WordPress users.
To sign up, first click below to head to SiteGround:
Go to SiteGround
Then, click the big Choose Plan button:
For beginners, we recommend the StartUp plan because it only costs $3.95 per month (billed yearly) and gives you plenty of power to get started:
On the next screen, enter the domain that you want to use for your fashion blog (your domain costs an extra ~$15 per year):
Once you’ve done that, finish out the payment process and you’re almost finished!
SiteGround Makes It Easy to Install WordPress
Beyond good performance and a cheap price, another reason that we like SiteGround is because they make it super easy to install the WordPress software. Many hosts leave you high and dry when it comes to installing WordPress, but here’s how easy it is to do with SiteGround:
The first time you log in to your SiteGround dashboard after paying for your hosting, you’ll see the handy Website Setup Wizard.
All you need to do is check the Get WordPress pre-installed on this account box and SiteGround will install WordPress for you:
The wizard is simple to use – just follow along with the steps.
Once you finish the wizard, you should have a working WordPress website, as well as details to log in to your brand new WordPress site.
Next up – you need to choose a WordPress fashion theme to give your site a unique look.
Choose the Perfect Fashion Theme
A WordPress theme is basically your site’s “clothes”. That is, it doesn’t affect how your site functions – it just changes how it looks.
There are tens of thousands of both free and premium WordPress themes, so it can be hard to wade through all of your options to find the perfect fashion theme.
To help out, we put together a big list of themes that work well for fashion blogs. Beyond those themes, here are some specific suggestions that I think work especially well. These are all premium fashion themes, but you can also search around for free fashion themes if you’re willing to sacrifice some style and function:
Applique
Applique is a flexible fashion blog theme that can work for a variety of aesthetics. While I chose my favorite style above, you can choose from a number of different looks for your fashion blog.
Get Applique
Olivie
Olivie is a nice minimalist theme from Bluchic, the creators of a number of different themes that can work well for fashion blogs.
Get Olivie
Isabelle
Isabelle is another theme from Bluchic with a slightly different design aesthetic. Really, if you’re interested in quality fashion themes, I just recommend you check out the whole Bluchic collection.
Get Isabelle
How to Install Your Chosen WordPress Theme
Once you find a WordPress theme that you absolutely love, you’ll need to install it on your WordPress site.
To do that, log in to your WordPress dashboard (you can find it at yourdomain.com/wp-admin). Then, go to Appearance → Themes in the sidebar:
Then, click the Add New button:
Then, assuming you bought a premium fashion theme, click Upload Theme and upload the theme ZIP file that you downloaded:
Install Helpful Plugins for Fashion Blogs
While WordPress themes mainly deal with how your site looks, WordPress plugins add functionality to your site. Sometimes this functionality is just a tiny thing, and sometimes it can be something huge like adding an entire web store.
There are thousands of plugins out there, so it’s hard to narrow things down to just plugins for fashion bloggers.
Here are some types of general plugins that you’ll want to consider. They’re essential for all types of WordPress websites:
As for some specific fashion plugins, I recommend you search around for the exact functionality that you need. But some good starter plugins are a:
Again, the sky’s the limit here! You can also search on WordPress.org or Google to find other cool plugins for your site. While there’s not technically a limit on how many plugins you can use, a good rule of thumb is to try to keep the number as small as possible.
Just as with themes, you can install new WordPress plugins by going to Plugins → Add New:
Get Out There and Start a Fashion Blog
And that wraps up our guide on how to start a fashion blog! Remember, this is all you need to get started:
Of course, you’ll still need to post amazing content and grow your audience. But the technical work is over – now you get to focus on fashion!
