5 Days. That’s the official countdown to #IFBCon.

All the bags have been assembled, the panelists have been lined up, tickets are being sold. I can’t even believe we are in the home-stretch but it’s true. The only thing left to plan is my #IFBCon outfit. It must be the winter blues or something but I’m in serious need of outfit inspiration. Should I wear a dress or colored denim? Go in all black (this is New York) or deck myself out in neon? Bold baubles or simple jewelry? Too many options and now my head hurts. Total #fashiongirlproblems.

IFB Project #33: Share Your #IFBCon Outfit

Since I’m in need of #IFBcon outfit inspiration, this week I’m asking you all to share your own #IFBcon outfit. Even if you can’t make it to the big apple (you will be missed!), show me what you would wear if you could go. You can create a collage or snap a picture of your outfit and share it below. I can’t wait to see your outfits; you all never let me down!

Over the years, my career as a blogger has really evolved. Here at IFB, I’ve taken more an editorial strategy role since the IFB team has grown. One of my daily activities is to focus on is how to bring more traffic in to the site through planning. Yes, you heard me planning! Luckily, we have great writers like Taylor, Ashe and Amanda… In the last few months, we’ve doubled IFB’s traffic, then tripled it. It took a lot of focus, and we did it! And here’s how…

1. Use Your Editorial Calendar

Who knows when the Editorial Calendar was invented, but it’s probably been an integral part of publishing from the very beginning. When it comes to blogging, you don’t need to make a big deal about your editorial calendar, but it makes a huge difference when you do something. Even if it’s on a post-it. Here at IFB, we generally plan or Editorial Calendars a week or two in advance, in a spreadsheet. This allows for creating a content rhythm, and mixing things up when it starts to look a little stale or repetitive. Editorial Calendars also help you stay inspired and keep you motivated!

2. Content Marketing

Everything I’ve learned about content marketing was from CopyBlogger. There’s so much to learn!  I can say that the little we’ve applied to IFB has had a profound effect on the traffic.  Borrow your post title strategies from magazines and newspapers (no more esoteric fashion puns!). Look at the types of posts you click on and analyze why. Reward readers by giving them something they need, what is your reader looking for?

3. Send Sticky Newsletters

Time and time again, the IFB newsletter has been our largest traffic driver. Since the beginning, I’ve personally sought to create a newsletter that would be useful. Email marketing is not dead, personally, I love the newsletter emails from Mashable, LinkedIn, Gilt, WhoWhatWear and Refinery29…as well as IFB. Look at the newsletters you love, analyze them and see how you can appropriate those principles to the newsletter promoting your blog. It’ll do wonders!

4. Host an Event, Either Online or In Real Life

The IFB Conference is coming up next week. Now it’s sixth season, it’s possible to say, that after every confernece the community grows. Organizing conferences is a lot more work than I would suggest anyone do, however, there are other events you can plan to promote your blog. You can pitch your idea to a brand to cover the expenses (or even get paid for some events), and it would be a great way to connect with your readers. Heck, I even hosted a garage sale in my apartment lobby and it was a great way to meet my readers and make connections.

5. Experiment, Monitor, and Drop What Doesn’t Work

I’ll try just about anything, once. With blogging, there is just about a million and one things out there that promise traffic growth. A “million,” said with Dr. Evil voice. The truth is, different people have success with different things. A newsletter might not work for you. Twitter might be your game, or these days, Pinterest.  Stumble Upon might be your holy grail one month and the next it’s all about Facebook. The traffic gods might seem fickle, but it helps to see what works by looking at the numbers that come in your analytics. That way you can see what is working, and have more information around why it works. Do your list posts work better than your outfit posts? Did that DIY post bring in enough traffic to justify the labor and, well, ok that DIY post was fun. Anyway you get the point. Looking at the numbers helps you make informed desicions about how to plan your time, how to experiment and how to know your traffic is really growing.

6. Set Clear Goals for What You Want to Achieve

If you start of by saying, “I just want MORE traffic.” chances are you’ll have difficulties structuring your strategy, you’ll also have a hard time knowing when you’re really getting to what you want.  Set your ultimate goal, which could be anything like 3,000k a month to 3 million a month or more if that’s where you’re heading. Then break it down into achievable steps. Three million visits a month might sound crazy, but bloggers are doing it, if you set your goal to three million from three thousand in one month, that may not work. But setting a goal of three thousand, to four thousand in one month is achievable, and you can outline what you are going to do to get there. My favorite way is to write our goals down on our white board. Seeing the goals and the outline of how we’re going to make it happen makes it easier to take steps and to recognize when it actually happens.

Of course there is a lot more we do behind the scenes, but basically this is where we start. How do you grow your traffic? What has worked the best for you?

Before you jet out for the weekend, catch up on this week’s picks for Chic Reads.

Delivering the biggest news article and stories onto your screen, these are a few of IFB’s favorite picks. Happy Friday!

1. Only 1% of Facebook Fans Engage With Brands
2. 23% of Tweets Are Likeable, Study Says
3. Vogue shares 10 ways Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Sex and the City” style will live on forever
4. Beat Blogger’s Block with Simple Exercise
5. The Top 10 Fashion Pinners to Follow
6. 10 Pro Tips For Social Media Writers
7. Glamour magazine shows off its new look

We are so excited to bring you the first in a new series of posts on IFB. We’ve brought you the best advice from the best bloggers in the business through the Professional Blogger Spotlight, and now we’re turning the tables. Once a week we will be interviewing brands, to get their perspective on working with bloggers. What are they looking for? Who do they work with? How can you become more attractive to the brands you love?

To kick things off, we interviewed IFB favorite Grace Atwood, who, along with blogging over at Stripes & Sequins (as well as for us on occasion) is the Social Media Director for BaubleBar.

In what capacity does BaubleBar work with bloggers? 

We have been able to form really organic relationships with bloggers because we work with women whose style we really admire, and they work with us because they love our product.  We do gift some product to both bloggers we have formed relationships with as well as top blogger conferences, like IFB.  We also have our weekly Inspired Style feature on our blog, where we send select personal style bloggers an assortment of product and ask them to style it – it’s been really fun for both us and our customers. (And we’ve gotten great feedback from our customers that they’ve found new blogs to follow this way!)

We are now beginning to work on bigger collaborations that allow us to work more closely with the ladies we love to follow ourselves.  This week Kristina from Pretty Shiny Sparkly is taking over our Buried Bauble – every Friday we secretly mark down one item to $10 and give people a clue via email to find it.  We let her pick four Buried Baubles and she has created some great editorial for us to include in all the Buried Bauble purchases.  Collaboration is key here, and we work incredibly hard to come up with programs that are not only creative and interesting for readers, but also feel very on-brand and supportive for both parties involved.

How do you select bloggers to work with?

We look at a lot of things.  As an avid blogger myself, I follow nearly 300 blogs and constantly stay up to date with the who’s who of the blogging world to make sure we are reaching out to the bloggers that make the most sense for our audience.  I spend a lot of time on Alexa.com and Quantcast.  There are so many different variables these days (followers, # of comments on a blog, twitter following, Facebook likes,) that it can be hard to measure.  Everyone has an Alexa.com score, so that’s a good starting point.  From there, it’s less quantitative and more intuitive.  Factors like style, reputation, and site design also weigh in – and sometimes being able to spot a really great up-and-comer is invaluable.  If I visit the blog and find myself sucked in for the next half hour, I know it’s someone we definitely want to work with!

We like to work with bloggers who are creative, collaborative, and have a strong sense of personal style.  We also love finding bloggers with a very genuine voice.  We were over the moon to start working with Erica and Lauren from Honestly WTF because the two of them not only have incredible style, but there is something very authentic about their blog – going through it you really feel as though you have a strong sense of who they are.  A blogger’s ability to connect with their audience in that way is something very powerful and something that a score can’t measure.

What value do you think blogger collaborations have, as compared to traditional marketing?  

We work with bloggers for several reasons, but the overarching/obvious reason (besides the fact that our entire team is a bit blog-obsessed) is that bloggers really drive awareness of our brand, product and value proposition in an authentic way.  You can’t buy blog love – if they don’t truly like and want to use your product, it comes through in what they writeI think it feels more authentic – and more interesting!  There are a lot more opportunities to get creative and have some fun when we do blogger collaborations.  A blogger is a real person, vs. a model (though a lot of bloggers look like models!) with an opinion and sense of style.  One of my favorite parts of my job is getting the photos back from our Inspired Style bloggers – they always manage to style our sparkle in ways I would never imagine – it inspires me, and inspires our readers!

Do you have any tips for bloggers looking to engage with brands? How can they make themselves more attractive to brands? 

I can’t stress how important it is to have a great site, a great design, and a strong community and a following built up before you reach out to brands.  You must spend the time doing these things before you reach out to brands – if you don’t, you will not be taken seriously.  Know your numbers and your growth rates.  (If your uniques + Alexa score are on the lower side, but you are growing at 50% every month, that speaks volumes!)

A good media kit also helps.  I’ve received media kits from a few bloggers that were so incredibly good that we worked with them – despite the fact that their numbers were lower than what we would typically look for.  If you really want to work with a brand, you need to separate yourself from everyone else and do something to stand out!

Lastly, both as a blogger and in managing BaubleBar’s blogger outreach, I have found personally, that if you like a brand, and really want to work with them, the best strategy is to write about them.  Follow up with them by sending a note with a link to the post, and letting them know that you’d love to work with them down the road if they have opportunities for bloggers.  And ask to be added to their press list.  Trust me… the brand will take notice!

BaubleBar is one of the sponsors of this season’s IFBcon. (Purchase a ticket here, before they sell out!)

Stylish Beauty