The Business of Blogging: Bloggers, Fashion Brands, and Retailers (Part 1)

Brian Grey-Yambao of BryanBoy Blog makes $100,000 annually

 (WWD)

Today, there is a blog for just about anything from fashion and beauty to lonely Cheetos (random Cheetos left on the ground... no don't ask us and no shade from us either). It all starts with an interesting subject or hobby and some free time. But now, blogging is a full time gig and paying career for many people around the world. These bloggers form a relationship with retailers and fashion brands when they send the bloggers items to advertise, or send them to specific locations to blog on site and or make appearances. 

We even found some bloggers pulling in six figure incomes from so today's post is dedicated to the business of blogging. Now in fashion law form, we will definitely inform you of some of the laws that surround blogging such as defamation, endorsements, and advertisements- you can never be too careful. But we will leave that for part two of the business of blogging. Since blogging is a lucrative business for some of the one million blogs that exist, we want to highlight some of the highest paid bloggers.

 According to WWD, designers and fashion brands pay anywhere from $5000 to $50,000 to work with bloggers. 

• First they choose a highly influential blogger, someone who's blog has major traffic and many followers and can drive millions of page views a month on the blog and on the brand's website

• Then they send them the products in exchange for posting commentary and driving sales. Think: clothes, shoes, technology, and cosmetics.
• Of course the blogger has to jazz up the look and is responsible for styling, hair, makeup, photography, art direction, retouching, copy writing, and posting, which WWD says takes a magazine 20 people to pull off. Therefore, it is going to cost the retailer or fashion brand.
• Note: since the blogger is officially advertising products, they must follow FTC guidelines and make any and all endorsements "conspicuously and clearly" (found out more information in part two of our series).

• Next is the optional stuff like hosting an event. This can cost up to $50,000. Think: airfare, hotel, and entertainment.

Now just who are some of these millionaire club bloggers? According to RewardStyle, a Dallas, Texas based invitation-only web tool that helps top tier style publishers find and monetize their content, the top five bloggers are:

• Mary Seng of Happily Grey
• Chrissy of The Perfect Palette
• Erin Gates of Elements of Style
• Rachel Parcell of Pink Peeonies 

The bloggers listed obviously do more than the "pay per click" advertisements. They are out and about making appearances at store openings and events. But there are rules and regulations that go along with endorsing fashion brands and retailers which we will cover tomorrow in part two of The Business of Blogging.