THOUGHTS ON LIFESTYLE BLOGGING & FINDING YOUR ‘BLEND’ OF CONTENT

Thoughts On Lifestyle Blogging & Finding Your ‘Blend’ Of Content

I’ve been giving a lot of thought recently to lifestyle blogging, and the still-young and every-growing industry it inhabits.

Unlike fashion or beauty blogging, which have one particular focus, lifestyle blogging is a unique blend of interests pieced together by the author of each individual lifestyle blog.

For a few years now, I feel like I have been naturally aligning with the ‘lifestyle blogger’ label, rather than a ‘fashion’ one – despite fashion being where I first started.

With this shift to lifestyle, rather than a specific topic, I feel I am able to better share a ‘blend’ of topics which interest me at this stage in my life.

In today’s article I am going deeper into what lifestyle blogging means for me and how you can hone in on the ‘blend’ of your own lifestyle blog.

I hope today’s post will help you to shape your lifestyle blog’s focus, so that you can create content more easily, and feel more confident in owning your lifestyle niche.

If you are not a blogger, I hope today’s post will still resonate with you. We are all piecing together our lifestyles, so whether you choose to share yours in a blog format or not, I believe it is worthwhile giving thought to what makes you tick.

If you want to skip right to identifying your own ‘lifestyle blend’ there is a writing exercise towards the bottom of this blog post.

What Is A Lifestyle Blogger?

First things first, what is a lifestyle blogger?

Mediakix shares:

“A lifestyle blogger creates content inspired and curated from their personal interests and daily activities. As such, lifestyle blogs are oftentimes highly personalized to the author’s location, life stage and experience.”

The article continues:

“Many top lifestyle bloggers trace their origins back to a single niche or category (i.e. make-up, fashion, baking). As their viewership, audience reach, and affinity increase (the demand), these once niched bloggers expand their blog content verticals (the supply) . . . Furthermore, as top lifestyle bloggers advance through different stages of their lives, many will chronicle their journeys with parenting, family life, and travels.”

Oh bravo Mediakix ????????

A lifestyle blogger is, by definition, a curator of personal interests and daily activities.

Therefore nobody need define your lifestyle blog, other than you. Your site will be unique, find its readership, and develop its following, based on you sharing your personal curation of interests and activities. This curation is what I like to think of as your ‘blend’.

Is It Time To Shift?

Have you been confused about the focus of your blog? Or feel lost or limited by your content?

I hear you!

My unconscious shift to lifestyle blogging evolved naturally as my life changed. From being a twenty-year-old blogger, to now being a twenty-seven-year-old blogger, there are so many life decisions, evolutions and changes which happen.

I am not the only fashion blogger who has felt like a shift in content.

Wit & Delight’s Kate Arends shared her thoughts on evolving her blog content back in 2014:

“Why not reconsider what it means to run a lifestyle blog? After all, lifestyle is- by definition- the way in which one chooses to live their life.

As I enter the next decade of my own life with a strong understanding of who I am, lifestyle has become about the art of living well.

This idea goes beyond creating a beautiful home for your family and investing in a quality wardrobe.

Living well means being hospitable, being good company, contributing to your community, and becoming a person of substance and grace. If designing a life full of substance and grace isn’t aspirational, I don’t know what else is.”

Do you resonate with Kate’s point of view? I know I do.

The Shift From Fashion To Lifestyle

– Where I Started With Blogging And Where I Am Now

When I began The Elgin Avenue in 2011, at age twenty, I was a student at the London College of Fashion.

My environment as a student, as you can imagine, was very fashion-focused. Attending class was the best street style show you could imagine, and I fell hard for fashion and shopping.

From the Scandinavian beauties who introduced me to minimalism (long before hygge!), to the preppy Brazilian boy in class and the stunning punk girl I remember so clearly  . . . fashion was everywhere, and as a student I lapped it up!

Fashion was the real impetus for starting The Elgin Avenue.

For a few years ‘fashion’ felt like a perfect fit for me. I adored experimenting with combinations of clothes, ransacking Beyond Retro for vintage pieces and generally just having fun with my personal fashion choices.

Having a blog meant that I could not only entertain myself with these sartorial endeavours, but also share with others, and meet some really interesting people and brands too.

Whilst I still love fashion, and have now developed an ever-growing inspiration bank on Pinterest, fashion is not the only, or even the main, thing which preoccupies my thoughts any more.

Therefore it makes sense to me, as The Elgin Avenue is my outlet, to share the ‘blend’ of topics which do resonate with the twenty-seven-year-old version of me.

Having a blog meant that I could not only entertain myself with these sartorial endeavours, but also share with others, and meet some really interesting people and brands too.

Whilst I still love fashion, it is not the only, or even the main, thing which preoccupies my thoughts any more.

Around the age of twenty five I decided to start blending topics on The Elgin Avenue differently.

I opened up my content to include more topics which interested me.

In doing this, I hoped to connect with people like you who enjoy a similar blend.

Perhaps you enjoy The Elgin Avenue for my style posts, my home decor, blog discussions or something else.

Whilst I truly hope that you find something you enjoy here, ultimately I will continue to share the lifestyle elements I enjoy, so as to most authentically be the ‘lifestyle blogger’ I want to be.

Long-term readers may be familiar with the article I shared about leaving London to live in the countryside. (You can read my 5 year update here too!)

Right around the time I wrote that piece, everything in my life was changing in a big way.

As I expanded my realm of interests to include so much more than fashion, the ‘fashion blogger’ description didn’t feel like an authentic fit any more. In fact, for me, it felt limiting.

If at any point in your blogging career, you feel a niggle about your content’s focus, perhaps it is time to reflect and re-group? For me, moving out of London, and going through a huge realisation about my health and wellbeing, encouraged me to explore other interests.

The interests I now share on The Elgin Avenue, as a lifestyle blogger, truly reflect my ‘blend’.

This ‘blend’ then helps to shape my content, and the way I lead my life. As Steve Jobs famously said:

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

Think – what is inspiring and interesting to you, right now?

Here are a few things I am interested in, in this chapter of my life:

• Home Decor
• Personal Style
• Beauty & Skincare
• Affordable Travel & Adventure
• Self-Development
• Wellbeing
• Exercise
• Blogging
• Small Business
• Entertaining At Home
• Figuring Out Life As  Twenty Something
• & . . . Who Knows What Else Will Come Along?!

Want To Find Your Unique Blend Of Content?

A Short Exercise For Your Lifestyle Blog

This exercise is designed to help you to hone in on the identity of your individual lifestyle blog. From this you can better understand what type of content to create, so that you can feel more confident and focused.

1. Write down three – five lifestyle topics you are interested in.

These may include (but are by no means limited to): fashion, home decor, beauty, wellbeing, family life, DIY, small business, shopping, fitness, travel, food, photography. Anything which piques your personal interest.

Note – these topics can, and most likely will, change over time.

For example: When I shared a rented flat in London, I didn’t take much interest in home decor at all. The moment I moved into the home Oli and I now share, I became a home decor fiend.

Your lifestyle blog will experience different chapters, as you do personally.

2. Write down three – five adjectives which feel reflective of your blog.

How would you like your blog to be described to others?

Adjectives which describe your blog may include: elegant, happy, fashion-forward, contemplative, stylish, supportive, glamorous, minimalistic, authentic, genuine.

3. Note down three lifestyle blogs which you personally enjoy and analyse the lifestyle topics they cover.

We can all be passive consumers of information, but it is when we take the time to analyse why we like something that we can learn from it.

For instance, a lifestyle blog I enjoy is Cupcakes & Cashmere. Emily clearly has six categories of content she regularly contributes content to:  Fashion, Food, Beauty, Decor, DIY and Motherhood.

Not only do I enjoy the specific categories Emily shares information on, I also like the way Emily and her team cover different topics with an even spread of content.

Emily’s lifestyle blog is completely unique to her, the recipe for what she shares reflects her life. What is your recipe?

Bonus Tip – Begin A Secret Pinterest Board For Inspiration

When I was working on The Elgin Avenue’s branding re-design in 2015 I worked on a secret Pinterest board. I pinned things which instinctively spoke to me, and I was able to identify a brand which felt reflective of me and this blog.

What’s Your Take?

What interests you right now, both as an individual, and as a blogger? What does your ‘blend’ look like?

I’d love to hear from you! And if you have any questions surrounding this topic, feel free to leave me a comment below, reach out via email or tweet me!

Love, Monica x

P.S. If you’d like to read more on this subject, this article on the Elle & Company blog is brilliant: Laying the Groundwork for a One-of-a-kind Brand.

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