How To Start Your Nail Blog
This post contains affiliate links and Lots of Lacquer will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.
Lots of Lacquer is now approaching its 4th anniversary as a nail blog and we have a lot to be thankful for.
We’ve reached many markers of blogging success - we’ve published nearly 400 blog posts and received gifts from our generous product sponsors.
We also make an income that allows us to keep publishing.
The best part of nail blogging is that you get to share your hobby and passion with other people who have the same enthusiasm.
Nail blogging is certainly an outlet for joy - it allows you to immerse yourself in your art and you’ll get paid to get better at it.
As a nail blogger, your blog will eventually make money that’ll fund you to keep going. This funding will allow you to continue to build upon your expertise, so you can provide more value to your audience.
With diligence, effort and continued excellence showcasing your craft, your nail blog can become a real business.
You can make money doing what you love when you have a nail blog!
Below is the step-by-step process to start your nail blog:
1 - Choose a domain name
To begin, you’ll decide a brand name that will be your domain name.
Using a blank sheet of paper or a whiteboard, brainstorm different names you could use for your nail blog. Your ideal blog name is original, not taken by anyone else, plus it’s easy to spell and remember.
If your blog’s name is taken as a domain or business name, go back to the drawing board until you find your perfectly original blog name. This process can take anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days.
2 - Buy your domain name and hosting package
You’ll need subscriptions to both because your domain name is where people find you on the web and your hosting platform is how users will navigate to your website.
3 - Buy your branded email address
With a digital business, you’ll need a way for people to contact you via email.
Once inside your Squarespace Account, head to the Settings wheel in the bottom right corner of your dashboard, then, head to “Emails & Domains.”
Here you’ll purchase a Google Workspace package at a discounted price, which includes a professional email address and all the Google Workspace features you’ll need for organizing your blog’s files - Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Calendar and more.
4 - Set up your social media accounts
Using your blog’s name, set up a Pinterest account, an Instagram account, and any other platforms you enjoy. Pinterest will drive traffic to your blog and Instagram can advertise your blog.
Even if you don’t publish anything on these accounts right away, you want to secure your free branded social media accounts before they are snatched up by others.
5 - Set up your blog’s core pages
Your blog’s foundation will need 5 core pages:
Home
About
Blog
Contact
Privacy Policy
In the dashboard of your new Squarespace website, create each of these pages.
Use your own photos or royalty free images from Pixabay or Pexels to add color to your pages. Add engaging copywriting to each page to let your readers know what your blog is all about.
6 - Set up performance tracking tools
Google Analytics and Google Search Console are blog must haves.
Use Google Analytics to monitor your top performing posts and traffic sources. As we’ll discuss later, you’ll need Google Analytics data to provide to advertisers so they can pay you for your traffic.
Use Google Console to submit your new content for indexing, find out who’s linking to your posts, discover your top performing searches and highlight your trending content.
7 - Source products for your blogs
5 ways to find nail products to feature:
Your existing collection.
Ask family and friends to borrow their nail products.
Send pitch emails to brands you like asking to be on their PR list.
Create a partnership landing page advertising your partnership opportunities.
Find discounted products on clearance, at discounting stores, via wholesalers, in yard sale groups, etc.
When you send pitch emails, keep in mind you may only get a response rate of 1-2% - don’t be discouraged, be persistent. As you send pitch emails, your pitches will improve and as your blog grows, brands will begin to send you pitch emails to collaborate with you.
8 - Get to the blogging
Aim to post at least 2-3 blogs a month. Shoot for publishing your first 30 blogs as quickly as possible. Once you reach your first 30 blogs, race to your first 100 blogs.
I want you to race to your first 30-100 blogs because somewhere between this magic blog range is when you’ll start to see traffic and your blog will begin to have monetization potential, which you’ll hear more about in a moment.
Blog about your collection, seasonal trends you see, nail trends you observe in your local community and any idea that comes to mind. You never know what will stick!
While trend reports are helpful, you can’t always trust the trend reports. Sometimes you must create the trend.
9 - Take crisp photos
10 - Set up your newsletter list
You’ll want a way to connect with your audience independently of search and social media algorithms. This is where a newsletter comes in handy.
The free way to build a newsletter list:
This Automailer will send an automated weekly blog summary to subscribers with no action needed from you.
A paid way to build a newsletter list:
You can buy their email marketing as an add-on service and manually place the Squarespace opt-in forms across your website. The Squarespace newsletter service allows you to send targeted emails, rather than a simple weekly blog round up newsletter.
We’ve tested both. Our audience responded best to Mediavine’s Automailer - which is great because it’s free.
11 - Add advertising
Now to the fun part, making money!
Advertising is a great passive income strategy and you can start making advertising dollars through Google Adsense with very few blogs and just a little traffic.
If you have less than 10,000 pageviews, start with Google Adsense. You can make an average of $4-10 USD per 1,000 views. It pays monthly once you reach a threshold of $100 USD.
If you have more than 10,000 pageviews, you have to consider a higher paying advertiser.
We’ve used both advertising networks. We’re currently with Mediavine’s Journey - we absolutely love it. The revenue earned pays for our hosting fees and then some.
12 - Add affiliate links
You have your blog’s framework set up, a few blogs under your belt and advertising making you passive money, it’s time to talk about adding paid affiliate links.
Affiliate links are sponsored links you’ll add to your blogs wherever you recommend products that are tied to brands with affiliate programs.
Whenever someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a qualifying purchase, you’ll be paid a commission, typically after the sale clears the return window or around 30-90 days.
A few of my favorite affiliate programs to get you started: The Best Affiliate Programs for Nail Bloggers
Cast a wide net. Apply to the affiliate programs in that blog and as many other affiliate programs you can find where you can link nail related products.
Make a spreadsheet of your approvals and commission rates for each. This will allow you to keep track of which brands to feature and help you decide how often certain brands get featured.
Make sure to follow FTC guidelines when disclosing links and when publishing affiliate links in your blog, tag them as “sponsored” links.
I use this code snippet to tag all affiliate links:
<u><a rel=“sponsored” href="(your link goes here)" target="_blank">(your text goes here)</a></u>
Simply add this code to a code block anywhere on your blog you want to place affiliate links, filling it in with your affiliate link and desired link text accordingly.
13 - Add your own products/services
You’ve now successfully set up two income generating streams for your nail blog - advertising and affiliate commissions.
Now it’s time to think about a third income stream.
Consider physical products, digital products and services for your nail blog.
You can also offer services, like paid advertising partnerships through brand sponsorships.
14 - Organize your blog’s finances
By this time, you’ve started to earn some money from your blog and you’ve incurred some expenses. Separate your nail blog’s cash flow from your personal money with a separate bank account.
Keep track of your blog’s profit and loss by entering your income and expenses into a spreadsheet; tally your balance every month.
Decide the legal tax structure of your blog - are you going to remain a sole proprietor or become official with an LLC?
As sole proprietorship, you’ll file a single tax return and all your business money will be counted as your income, which can raise your tax bill.
An LLC requires a separate tax return, but it comes with the benefit of added legal protection and potentially lower taxes.
If you choose the latter, meet with an accountant to file your nail blog officially as an LLC.
15 - Organize your inventory
Finally, over time you’ll likely gather a significant amount of nail related inventory. More nail products coming into your life is one of the finest perks of having a nail blog.
Develop a systematic approach to process new inventory, store your existing inventory and repurpose discontinued inventory.
I like to enter all products into a spreadsheet as they arrive to track whether products were gifted or not, where we’ve posted them and so on. I also prefer “just in time” inventory management, as to minimize storage needs.
These are the basic steps of setting up your nail blog for success! After you complete these, you’ll want to keep your blog maintained indefinitely.
Consistently publish new content, refresh your old blogs with updated material, repair broken links, find new partnerships and build upon existing collaborations.
Over time, you’ll identify blog posts that are very popular with your audience and you’ll want to target your growth in these areas.
You’ll also identify posts that didn’t perform well. Discontinue these blogs, learn from the past and direct your energy to focusing on what works.
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