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Rusted Revolution: How to be a Successful Fashion Blogger

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Lucy McBride
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Lesley Burr
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BC chapter.

 

Allow us to introduce ourselves:  Our names are Lucy McBride 
and Lesley Burr. We’re two bloggers with a love for fashion, among other things.  Our site, Rusted Revolution, began as a side project – a hobby through which we could channel our observations on fashion, music, travel, food, and the arts, sharing them with whomever cared to look. Since RR’s birth in early September 2010, a growing Internet following has encouraged us to provide our readers with consistent news, trends, and reflections in the vast realm that is pop culture.
 

RR is less than a year old and already we’ve accomplished a lot:  the purchase of our own domain online, a partnership with Her Campus BC and joint promotional party and RR-directed fashion show at Cityside, three Heights articles, a photo/video shoot and interview with Smashion, the start-up of our own entrepreneurial venture on Etsy.com, and this past weekend a craft fair in O’Neill Plaza as part of the BC Arts Fest and a second fashion show at An Tua Nua to promote our business.
 
This last semester of our college careers has been a whirlwind of papers and projects, friends and senior activities, and quite literally, clothes and chainmail.  You’d be shocked stepping into our dorm room:  we have a collection of handmade RR jewelry hanging from our common room wall and piles upon piles of clothes stacked on sofas, the coffee table, and inside a grocery shopping cart we found about two weeks ago abandoned in the mods.

Fashion blogging might seem like an extracurricular activity to the outside world, but to us, it’s a full-time job.  The duties of a fashion blogger in 2011 extend far beyond posting style shots of outfits on their WordPress account; the writing has developed into full-blown Op-Ed and journalism pieces, YouTube channels are practically mandatory, and Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr are a given.
 
So what’s it like to be a fashion blogger?  Here are some tips that someone shared with us when we started Rusted Revolution.

Plan Ahead
It always pays to be organized.  As a blogger, you’re always expected to be thinking about your next project.  Every time a new idea pops into your head for a blog post, write it down or start a draft of a post.  When you’re experiencing writer’s block, you can always come back to it.  

Teamwork
We’re lucky to have each other in terms of workload – we feed off each other’s ideas.  But even if you’re blogging solo, it helps to have other people in your life to help you with your ideas or with publicity.  Friends and family can make your life so much easier, and the support you can get from them makes the blogging experience that much more rewarding.  We are also very privileged to have our very own intern, Anna Schuler, a freshman at BC.

Fuel Inspiration
First and foremost, a blogger must always keep up-to-date with other blogs on the web.  Here at RR, we’re constantly looking at other fashion blogs and websites for inspiration, and most importantly, information.  Knowing your topic and being well-researched are key to writing not only interesting blog entries, but credible ones as well.  Browsing products in online stores is a good way to familiarize yourself with new trends and products.  And of course, finding role models in other successful bloggers keeps you motivated along the way.

Explore New Horizons
While you may have a very specific direction when it comes to blogging, don’t be afraid to try new things.  Here at Rusted Revolution, our main focus is fashion, but we’re also very inspired by music, travel, food, college life, and languages.  Don’t start blogging with a narrow focus.  In our case, Rusted Revolution began as a side project for our own personal fulfillment.  Never did we imagine it would grow into a full-time job.  While we are still students, Rusted Revolution consumes most of the free time that we have.  It’s developed into a brand, a business, and quite literally, a lifestyle.  It’s been less than a year and RR has exceeded every one of our expectations.  In retrospect, part of the reason we feel so accomplished is because we didn’t set any limits on what we could do and how we could do it.  In fact, we didn’t even know we could design jewelry until we did it.

Hopefully our perspective on pursuing our dreams will help you follow yours!

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Lucy McBride is the co-founder and writer of Rusted Revolution, a fashion, music, and arts blog she maintains with Lesley Burr. Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Lucy developed an early eye for the arts which inspired her to relocate to a bigger city, where she attended Marymount School of New York in Manhattan. In 2007 Lucy enrolled in Boston College to pursue a French major and an International Studies Minor with a concentration in Global Cultural Studies. Lucy has since perfected her French language skills and gained a strong understanding of Italian. Through various courses in International Studies, she has developed a strong understanding of the cultural, literary, economic, and political undertones of places such as Rome, where she lived and studied for a spring semester. Between her travels through Eastern and Western Europe, Lucy studied Art History, Italian, Opera, and Photography in Rome. In 2007 and 2008, Lucy worked as a U.S. Beauty Marketing Intern for Avon Products, Inc. within their Wellness division; here, she played an active role in the formulation, design and promotion of Avon Wellness products, as well as served as a company correspondent. Since the fall of 2008, Lucy has worked as a Sales Associate for Free People Boston during the school year and Free People Roosevelt Field during winter and fall breaks. As a member of the Free People community, Lucy plays an integral part in sales, customer service, marketing, and visual design. She has achieved the title of “Top Selling Associate” several times. Lucy is passionate about style as an individual art form which encourages individuality, expression, and inspiration. Her guilty pleasures include watching reality television, red velvet cake, and updating her ridiculous large and cumbersome perfume collection.
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