Happy 3 Years to For the Love of Coffey

O U T F I T  D E T A I L S

henley top // distressed jeans // cheetah slides // quay shades

grab a coffee ~ this one is a long one!

last year's 2 year blog post: click here --> advice if you are new to blogging!

wow. i cannot believe for the love of coffey was born 3 years ago! i have to admit, sometimes i am surprised it is still up and running. if you would've told me years ago that one day i would have 40k+ followers and be invited to hotels/events and receive free product, i would've laughed it off. there were times i just wanted to quit and give up because it took too much of my time, but i would always take a mini break and keep going and pursue this crazy dream of mine. well, here we are, 3 years later and we are better than ever. learning new things in this unknown industry and making new friends daily!i always receive questions from new bloggers or people who want to start a blog. the one thing i want to say before going into a bunch of questions, is WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK? is it the lack of knowledge of the blogging industry? are you scared what other people will think? are you afraid it won't go anywhere? do you not have the right equipment? do you not have the appropriate time to put into it? whatever it may be, JUST GO FOR IT. there's no better time than now, the more you ponder on it, the more you will question it. anyone can do this if they put the time and effort into it. what you put into it, is what you get out of it.when i first started my blog, it took me all of 2 days to create and launch it. i am one of those people that when i have something on my mind that i want to do, i do it and don't think twice. my name started out as chictwentysomethings and i kept that for a few months, then wanted to "rebrand" and knew i wanted my last name in it. that's when i came up with for the love of coffey as my maiden name is coffey! what is crazy to me is that i didn't even follow fashion bloggers. i honestly had no idea what i was doing or what i wanted my blog to be about. i started to discover bloggers on instagram and that's when i became more in tuned on what niche i wanted stay in line with. the first few blog posts of mine were lifestyle with rarely any fashion! i didn't even know what liketoknow.it was!the whole industry of blogging has evolved the last 3 years and it's crazy to me how much i've grown and inspired people to start blogging. this is crazy to me because i feel like i am constantly learning and looking up to bloggers bigger than me. one thing i always want to be with you all is truthful and transparent with you! blogging is no joke and when you take the plunge and dive in deep, you have to constantly show your worth as the blogging industry is so saturated. these companies need to understand that your work is worth it. i love all of you and thank you so much for your constant support 24/7. i would and could not be doing this without you all and literally blessed to do this as my second full time job.okay - now that i've already wrote a book, let's get into the questions..... all of these questions were asked via instagram and i will answer in order below!

• how did you get traffic to your blog when you first started? 
  • i honestly had no idea what i was doing at the beginning of my blog. the first year and a half was me piddling around, not working with brands and writing blogs every other week or so. it wasn't until january 2017 that i gave myself two options: buckle down and work hard or don't blog and i chose the first, obviously or i wouldn't be writing this.
  • do your research on seo functions and how you can create more traffic, also create a facebook and pinterest so people can be directed to your blog. the more your name is out there, the more exposure you will have.

• how did you gain a bigger audience this year? 
  • i mentioned in my instastories last week that since the beginning of 2018, my following has tripled and i've worked hard for this. i may not always be 100% on my blog, but i do put in a lot of time on instagram. i engage like crazy. i have post notifications on for all of my favorite bloggers. i participate in giveaways that are with bloggers like myself (never loop or international - they have to be genuine and legit). every time my photo lands on the explore page, i gain a few hundred followers. the key to growing is engaging and i will repeat that until i am old. you will become stagnant if you don't reciprocate the gesture.

• what kind of camera do you use for outfit pictures? 
  • most of the time i use my iPhone X, but when it is for a campaign i use my moms Nikon D810. personally, i think iPhone photos have better engagement because people like real life circumstances, for instance, me standing outside the mall in my ootd with a chicfila cup taken by my iPhone. that photo would probably do better than my mom taking professional photos for a campaign. crazy, but it's true.

• how do you monetize your blog?
  • so there are a few different ways you can monetize your blog. you can work with brands who pay you to produce content, you can use affiliate links like liketoknow.it, you can put ads on your website. :)

• daily routine:
  • aside from blogging, i have (another) full time job from 9-5 monday-friday! so my daily routine probably looks like yours:)

• how do you edit your pictures/keep a theme? MY NUMBER ONE ASKED QUESTION 
  • this is something that i spent so much time stressing myself out about. i could never keep a "theme" and would get upset when others' feeds looked so much more put together than mine. even though it sounds like something so small. i started using a preset in june and have used it every since. i love it! it's called millennial pink by dreamy presets.

• how do you come up with content?
  • you guys!!! i receive messages daily about people requesting to see certain things on my blog OR if i'm trying out a new product and love it, i want to talk about it. if i have a favorite outfit hanging in my closet that is fully in stock, i'll post about it. if a brand wants a post dedicated about their product and i like it, it'll be on the blog.

• what would you do differently if you were just starting out?
  • more research and following bloggers beforehand. i wish i would've reached out and asked questions to other bloggers too as so many of you do now! i never did that and i should have! it's the number one resource to starting a blog - communicating with people who have been there before. i honestly think i would be further along with my blogging if i would've taken it more seriously in 2015.

• would you ever blog full-time?
  • that's the goal. as of right now, it wouldn't pay for my shopping addiction so i'll have to continue doing what i am doing. LOL

• how do you keep your motivation to keep going? i keep comparing and it's so hard. 
  • this question is everything! i think every. single. blogger. goes through this at least a few times in their career. as hard as it is sometimes, you cannot play the comparison game. not just in blogging, but in life. there will always be people in front of you and behind you, but don't let that discourage you in any way. keep working hard for what you want and you will achieve your goals. if you let it, the game will control you and have negative effects on your life! have a single tunnel vision of what you want and go after it! get yourself a great group of friends that will be your hype team. have friends who are excited to see your accomplishments.... that's what keeps me going and i promise you it helps! :) i will tell you one thing - FOMO is real, but that's life! you can't be at everything LOL.

• how many hours a week did you spend on blogging starting out? 
  • not many. probably like 5-8 hours! now i spend about 30-35 hours which normally occur on the weekends. i try to spend at least 3-4 hours a night answering email and creating content, but sometimes i have to tell myself to take the night off to hang out with my husband.

• did you start out using a site like wordpress? 
  • yes, i did. i used the free version and then a year of having my blog, i paid for the upgrade and now i use a host (i use siteground) and switched over to wordpress.org. the difference between .org and .com is you have more freedom with themes and widgets. :) siteground is awesome if you're indecisive about a hosting site.

• how long did it take you to build a following? 
  • quite a while because i didn't know what i was doing. i did ig bubbles before i even had 10k followers, quickly realized that took too much of my time and they were not genuine followers. my number one advice which i said above would be to engage! engage! engage! literally the best advice i could give you besides creating quality content.

okay - so those were the most asked questions! they were very loaded and i probably answered about 3-4 other questions in one answer. LOL that's how i've always been. when i used to take exams for college, i would load my answers up so at least one part of the answer was in there so i could get credit. HAHA am i the only? i'm sad i just admitted that, but oh well!hope you got something out of this post and i loved writing this! took a while, but totally worth it!love you guys and thank you for everything!!! xo