Are you interested in starting a skin care blog but don't know how to start? Here are 10 easy steps that will help you set up your skin care blog in no time!
According to a study, in 2017 the global cosmetic products market was worth $532.43 billion and by 2023 it was expected to reach a market value of $805.61 billion.
However, Covid-19 took the word by surprise and the statistics shifted, fortunately, for bloggers and vloggers for the better. With stores being closed, businesses were forced to either adapt and transition their business online or shut down.
Online sales increased, e-commerce beauty-product brands and retailers reported having sales twice as high than before Covid-19 and Sephora’s and Amazon's online sales increased 30% in comparison to 2019.
A survey conducted by the Global Consumer Insights Survey, showed that out of 19,098 people surveyed, 93% are likely to continue shopping on their mobile phones even after isolation measures are completely lifted.
One thing is certain, despite the Covid-19 outbreak, the global cosmetic products market is very popular and with so many businesses transitioning online, there are endless opportunities for bloggers and vloggers.
Why should you start a skin care blog?
The 5 most important reasons why you should start a skin care blog are:
1. To Be Your Own Boss.
Blogging gives you the freedom of making all the decisions from the amount of hours you’ll dedicate to your blog, the amount of articles you'll write and publish per week, how you will grow your blog and how you will monetize your blog.
2. To Build Your Online Business.
With the Covid-19 outbreak, businesses have realized the importance of transitioning their business online.
The more you write about a certain niche, the more of an authority you become which in turn helps you build your online business and catch peoples attention.
3. To Market Your Business.
Through blogging you're able to market your business by driving qualified traffic that is interested in what you have to offer, whether it be services or products.
4. To Make Money.
Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme but if you take it seriously you can make a substantial amount of money.
5. To Create Opportunities.
Blogging creates endless opportunities for you, whether it's financial gain, networking or self-growth, it puts your personality out there for the world to see.
Don't Start A Free Skin Care Blog
If your goal is to make your skin care blog your full-time job, then don't start with a free blog, here's why:
- The Domain Name Looks Unprofessional
If you are serious about starting a blog then choose a self-hosted platform with your own blog name.
Using a free blog name is highly unprofessional and brands and readers will not take you seriously.
- You Have Limitations on Free Blog Platforms
On a free blog platform, you can't fully customize your blog's design or add custom functionality.
- You Have 0 Control Over Your Blog
Free blog platform can terminate your blog at anytime without any warning, so your blog will be always be at risk.
- You Can’t Monetize Your Blog
All bloggers, whether they admit it or not, are looking to monetize their blog. Unfortunately, free blogging platforms won't allow you to monetize a free blog.
- You Have 0 Support From Developers
Developers won't go out of their way to help you, unless you're a paying customer.
In some platforms, even as a paying customer, it's already difficult enough to have support from developers.
Start A Skin Care Blog Now
Starting a skin care blog can be very exciting and promising, specially if it's a passion of yours.
I created a unique set of guidelines for anyone that wants to start their own skin care blog but doesn't know how.
10 Easy Steps You Want To Follow To Start Your Skin Care Blog
Here are 10 easy steps you want to follow to start your skin care blog:
1. Find Your Niche.
You can’t have a skin care blog without knowing the skin care niche you want to focus on; the more specific the niche, the better because competition has become tougher than before.
Choosing a specific niche from the start is very helpful and ultimately brings plenty of growth potential for your blog. It's easier and faster because readers will identify you as an expert and authority in the specific skin care niche you're covering.
An example of a specific skin care niche would be skin care product reviews for people with oily skin. A lot of skin care enthusiasts search for skin care product reviews before they buy a product.
If your skin care product reviews are of products you've tried and you give your honest opinions, you'll generate a lot of excitement around the products and readers will ultimately buy them through you; allowing you to earn commissions.
2. Choose Your Blogging Platform.
For a successful skin care blog, I use and recommend WordPress. WordPress offers its users two different platforms, WordPress.com and WordPress.org, if you're serious about making your skin care blog a business then you should go with the self-hosted option (www.wordpress.org).
A blog needs a theme where you can have widgets, ads, shopping pages and beautiful images; with a hosted WordPress blog you will have too many limitations.
If you want to know more about the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, here's a comprehensive guide.
3. Pick A Web Hosting Service.
Picking a web hosting service is important to get your website live and active on the internet. Web hosting companies make it possible for websites to be accessed and viewed by everyone on the web.
A web hosting service provider will manage all backend concerns of your blog which will make your life easier. There are many web hosting providers on the market, but I use and recommend GoDaddy.
I'm not tech savvy so I love how GoDaddy is so easy to use. I also love their customer service, I've had several technical issues which I've been able to solve within minutes.
4. Choose Your Plan.
To create an account with GoDaddy, head to sign in, then click on the button that says “Create My Account” and fill in the necessary information to complete your account.
I know I said to go for the WordPress self-hosted option, however, since I'm not tech savvy I decide to go for the Enhance Plan within the Business Hosting in GoDaddy.
Business hosting offers the power of a Virtual Private Server (VPS) with the ease of a shared hosting. Which ever plan you choose, make sure it works for your websites needs!
5. Pick A Blog Name.
If you want to have a great skin care blog, then spend some time researching for the right blog name; your blog name can either bring you failure or success.
Come up with a short name that’s relevant to your niche and your readers, make sure you pick an easy and catchy blog name because people tend to forget hard and difficult words.
Take into consideration that they must type the name of your blog every time they want to visit your website. You want them to have a seamless experience, so try to go for the simpler stuff instead of making things complicated.
It can be hard trying to find a blog name but experiment with a variety of ideas; check domains in GoDaddy for availability.
Once you find a blog name that suits your brand, buy the domain.
6. Choose a Theme For Your Blog.
Ideally, you want to choose a theme for your skin care blog that's mobile friendly. While most WordPress themes provide a mobile version, not all of them do, so make sure to double-check.
Don’t go with an overly complicated theme, choose a responsive website theme that's compatible on multiple devices and ultra-easy to use; not only for you but for your readers as well.
The good news is that there are many dedicated skin care related WordPress themes that you can buy online. You can also take a completely different theme suitable for other niches and customize it the way you want; which is exactly what I did.
The possibilities are endless, you just need to see what works for you. Regardless of what theme you want to go for, you will need to fully customize your website which can be time-consuming depending on the scope and size of your blog.
The website theme I currently use is the Amelia WordPress Theme by 17th Avenue Designs.
At the end of the day, customizing your website helps bring your vision to life. It will be worth the effort, especially if you want to stick to your blog in the long run.
7. Identify and Understand Your Audience.
Now that you have the core, technical aspects nailed down, you need to identify and understand your audience which will help you decide the content and tone of your blog.
Identifying and understanding your audience and their needs it's what will help you achieve success, you need to understand where your audience is coming from and what are their likes and dislikes.
Google Trends is by far the most helpful tool that will help you identify and understand your audience.
8. Write In Simple Terms.
You’re sharing your opinion and ideas with others, so you need to use simple terms. The content needs to be easy to follow so that your readers stick around, otherwise, they won't ever return to your blog.
It’s not for industry professionals, you are writing for people that are interested in taking care of their skin. That means you can avoid industry jargon and use a very simple vocabulary.
The easier and more understandable your content is, the more traffic and exposure you'll get.
9. Do Your Research and Be Honest.
It’s easy to start exaggerating just to make people buy a product you're affiliated with but you need to be honest with your audience.
If you recommend a product that you don't believe in or use and your readers have a bad experience, they will not return back to your blog ever again.
Don’t sell out to the highest bidder, instead maintain a sense of honesty. The truth is that people will like you a lot more if you provide honest opinions instead of just trying to shove a variety of products in their face.
Before publishing content, make sure you've done enough research so that you can provide value to your readers. Is it going to be a challenge? Absolutely, but in the end all the hard work and commitment will be worth it in the long run.
10. Monetize Your Skin Care Blog.
There are actually a lot of methods you can use to monetize your blog. One of the most popular methods is to insert ads on your website. Some bloggers choose to pass on ads because it slows down their website but money is money.
In addition, you can also join skin care affiliate programs, you basically promote skin care products and skin care tools (or anything skin care related) created by others and you get a commission for every sale you make via your blog.
Stick to skin care products and skin care tools that you know will provide the best results to your audience. Make sure to build trust within your audience, they hold the key to your blog's success.
You can also make money by allowing others to share content on your website, it’s known as guest blogging, and a lot of blog owners do this to get exposure and reach new audiences.
You might even end up having sponsors that pay you to review their products.
As your skin care blog grows, there will be new methods and opportunities to earn a lot of money. It’s obviously challenging but worth it!
What Equipment Do You Need For Your Skin Care Blog?
When starting out, depending on the type of content you want to create a laptop is all you need.
If you want to take your own images then you need a camera, natural light and an image editor like Photoshop or Canva.
If you can't take your own images or simple don't have the time and want images that can be used for commercial use, then I recommend DepositPhotos.
DepositPhotos is so cheap compared to other stock agencies and they have a massive library of high quality images, vectors and icons.
Don’t invest a lot of money at first, make sure you're first making a substantial amount of money before making any huge investment.
What Type of Content Ideas Should You Write About For Your Skin Care Blog?
There are hundreds if not thousands of content ideas you can write about for your skin care blog from how-to guides to product reviews.
You can write about skin care tips and trick, guides to buying and using different products or best products for different skin types.
You might feel compelled to write content that's interesting to you, but remember that your skin care blog is for your audience and not for you. They care about what your blog has to offer them that other blogs don't.
You need to make sure people are searching for the content ideas you're planning on writing and publishing on your blog. Otherwise, there's no point in writing them in the first place.
To find content ideas for your skin care blog that people are searching for, use Google Trends and research what other skin care bloggers on your niche are writing about.
Write Engaging Content
Now that you've picked a niche and researched content ideas, start writing unique and better content than everyone else in your niche.
Unfortunately, that's not enough you want you're content to be engaging to drive more traffic to your website and build a relationship with your readers to help increase brand awareness.
Where To Promote Your Skin Care Blog?
If you think that the hard work is over, you thought wrong. Promoting your skin care blog is perhaps is one of the most difficult, yet most important steps to achieving success.
Promote your blog on Google and Pinterest first then Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If you want to create videos, YouTube is the best option; but you'll have rely a lot on visuals. After all, you want to show how to use the product and the results it provides.
Is It Possible To Start a Skin Care Blog While Also Making a Living Online?
Yes, but it can take a while before you actually monetize your blog and start making a decent amount of money. Patience is the key!
Don’t Get Discouraged
It's extremely hard to work months on end on your blog and see no results but blogging will test your patience; don't give up before you start seeing results.
Blogging will be difficult and will take time but if you want to have a successful skin care blog then you have to be committed and persistent.
Be patient and don’t rush results, the first months will be all about experimentation and figuring out what works for your blog.
Be organized, set a schedule and stick to it, it will keep you accountable and consistent.
Follow the guidelines and don’t hesitate to get in touch or share your comments!
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