Brands from bloggers...
- Favourable write ups about products and services
- Blogs posts to contain links to their online retail stores to drive traffic
- Blog posts with links to improve search engine visibility
- Trickle effect of other bloggers mentioning the brand
- Appearance of blog posts in search results for brand related terms
- CPA/affiliate advertising opportunities

Bloggers from brands...
- Free products
- Links from the brand’s website
- Invitations to press days, events and launch parties
- Opportunity to write for the brand’s website
- Payment for advertorial posts
- Payment for adverts
- Payment on a CPA basis through affiliate tracking
- Competition prizes for visitors

Do you have any to add?

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...And why not? Susie’s blog Style Bubble has a huge following and advertisers want to get in front of her audience.

Susie’s blog shows an ad for Levi’s

Advertising is a tricky topic in fashion blogging land (see here).

A lot of bloggers don’t want adverts, and many that have given commercialisation a go have been disappointed by miniscule returns.

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Featured in ‘Web fashionistas are just a click away from high street acceptance’ as seen in The Times September 7th.

Read the article online here

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Naming an online fashion store without a blog is becoming something of an impossibility. Now digital magazines and e-books seem to be coming back into vogue.

Lingerie retailer Mio Destino has just launched an e-book, with trend reports for A/W09 and designer interviews.

A/W09 E-Book from Mio Destino and Shudoo.co.uk’s Shoe Handbook

At Shudoo we produced a Summer Shoe Handbook(download here) which features The Telegraph’s Fashion Director Hilary Alexander, Radio 1 stylist Angela Buttolph and popular fashion bloggers.

Boohoo.com has also created an digital magazine for its visitors, as has Very.co.uk.

Boohoo.com and Very have digital magazines

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Just because a website uses a blogging platform for content, in my eyes, that doesn’t make it a blog; even if the publisher calls it a blog.

So what’s the difference between a fashion blog and an online fashion magazine?

Well, today’s fashion blogs are written by individuals the readers have a relationship with.

The blogger posts photos of themselves; in outfits, at parties and even at work.

An online fashion magazine is newsy.

The news isn’t what the writer’s wearing, where they’re going or what they do for a living.

The news is what someone else wears, where someone else goes or what someone else does.

A fashion blog is…
Shoegalfi, Style Salvage, Disneyrollergirl

An online fashion magazine is…
My Fashion Life, OSOBLOG

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The websites of The Telegraph, Daily Mail, GMTV and Marie Claire, to name a few, use either ShopStyle or LynkU to power their branded shops.

Daily Mail’s online fashion shop

The publishing and media groups see online retail as a way of generating revenue by sharing affiliate commissions with the shopping aggregators.

You’ve probably heard that some publishing groups are looking to introducing pay walls, with users charged micro-payments for content.

If this happens it is likely there will be less visitors finding the publisher’s fashion content through search; leading to a reduced opportunity to direct people to a branded shop.

Less affiliate commission potential all round then? Not a problem for the publisher, if of course they end up making more money from charging users for content than driving online retail sales.

But it does matter to the aggregator, who needs the publisher to achieve reach.

It does matter to the online retailer, who sees conversions coming through from publishers.

And it does matter to the affiliate networks, for obvious reasons.

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You can’t have escaped photos of Kara Tointon over the past few days in the new Michelle for George lingerie collection.

If you’ve read about it online (here, here and here) you’d expect to be able to buy it online.

At the time of writing this, the Michelle for George section on the George.com website shows Suzanne Shaw and the range she promoted.

No sign of the new collection modelled by Kara.

The majority of visits these articles will get is within the first few days – in this case, during that period the range hasn’t been available to buy online.

I think Asda George have been pioneering as a value online retailer (see my first Drapers blog about Asda George here), but they could have missed out on a lot of potential sales by not having the collection modelled by Kara available to buy.

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The future of fashion magazines has made me loose sleep over the past few weeks. Their demise is predicted as imminent and now the only discussions worth having are how we’re going to format it all online.

I think Fashionair.com may have it cracked. Fashionair is a new website launching in September by Spice Girl’s ex-manager Simon Fuller. Whilst we were gagging for girl power and plastic pop back in the mid nineties, the end of the noughties has bought about a more pressing need – an interactive, fashion forward and graphic conscience website.

Fashionair looks like a cut out collage of my favourite issues of Vogue. The imagery is busy without being overwhelming – you want to click on everything because it’s bright, sparkly and inviting.

Fashionair has a good use of space and colouring, and so far – no irritating pop-up ads.

Where the site really excels is on video content. They have ‘Style Council’ which is basically a fashion-shopping channel for discerning customers. The joy being that whilst the video is playing you can click on the product, which is being displayed on the site at the same time.

‘Fashion Insider’ gets some of the biggest names in fashion on the site so that we can go poking around their wardrobes and interactively living their fashionable lives.

The Personal Style section really works – items such as ‘7 Days of Chic’, with designer Saloni Lodha, takes us on a fashion guide through her holiday wardrobe – this time we can buy high street replicas of what she’s wearing by clicking on the screen.

I suspect in September Fashionair will be in every favourites bar, and the ultimate lunchtime browsing experience.

‘A preview of Simon Fuller’s Fashionair’ by Amy Tipper-Hale

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Littlewoods has rebranded and I’m very impressed.

So what am I impressed by… the Homepage is minimal in feel, giving users the option to browse product or interact with content.

Content is strong at Very. Loving Louise Roe’s street video and the VIP Loungue where customers can chat to Caprice, Simon Webbe and Miranda Levy to name a few.

Very is yet to appear in the natural listings for its own brand name, but they seem to be investing in paid search until this changes.

Well, here’s one SEO friendly link to help - Visit Very, the new online fashion store the e-commerce industry will be keeping a ‘very’ close eye on.

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On Friday I was on the panel for an informal discussion hosted by Let Them Eat Cake magazine at the Design Museum.

There were eight fashion bloggers including Steve from Style Salvage, Rebekah Roy, Vicki Loomes, Elaine Robertson, Susie Bubble, Alex Fury and Jeanie Annan-Lewin.

The old debate of print vs online came up. There was a consensus from the panel that we’re simply going through change, and it shouldn’t be a case or one vs the other. Both will survive.

My view was that blogs can hit niches, because of the easy route to publishing (anyone can blog for free), whereas printed media needs to appeal more to masses, as the route to publishing in print is a little more challenging to say the least.

Photos by Jack Soilleux @ jacksoilleux.com

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Retail Surgery: “Lots of our competitors have set up blogs on their websites. If we create one, what should we write about and how successful could we expect it to be?”

See my answer in Retail Week June 12 issue, or on the Retail Week website.

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Which online fashion stores does NOW magazine editor Abigail Blackburn rate?

Read my latest Drapers blog, ‘Interview with NOW magazine editor Abigail Blackburn (Part 2)’

See Part 1 of the interview here

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What does the internet mean to the editor of Britain’s premier celebrity weekly?

Abigail Blackburn, editor of NOW magazine, reveals her must-read websites, views on blogging and the role of showbiz gossip forums.

So, what are your favourite websites?
Abigail: I’m a regular on Wonderwall, The Superficial and People.com (and its Celebrity Baby Blog).

My guilty secret is First Lady of Style because I actually don’t feel my week’s complete if I haven’t checked out what Michelle Obama’s been wearing - I obsess about all her belts and most of her dresses.

First Lady of Style & Deadline Hollywood Daily

I also check out Deadline Hollywood Daily for US industry gossip, Girl With A Satchel to keep up with Aussie media gossip and The Style Editor because, in all seriousness, NOW’s Alison Tay is an enigma whose blog is always full of surprises, even though I can see her desk from my office.

It’s the only way I can keep up with her. 

The Digital Spy Showbiz forum has a huge user generated blind items thread. What part, if any at all, do gossip forums play in getting new stories for NOW?

A: They play a role if there’s suddenly a big interest or outcry over a celebrity who’s key for NOW’s cast list.

So if there’s a massive reaction over Jennifer Aniston or Cheryl Cole then we may well pick up on that and mention it as part of a feature.

However forums don’t generate complete stories for us as they’re still one step too removed from the celebrity and tend to be litigious. Our news team always work with great sources or they wouldn’t get any story past our lawyers.

Do you see blogs as a way to spot new writing talent for the magazine?
A: Mainly in the sense that it helps to loosen up the writing of staff who are currently blogging as well as writing on the page for the print mag.

Blogging lends itself to a much more informal style and letting that filter through to the magazine makes it feel more contemporary.

I get lots of emails from people asking me to check out their blogs, but I’m afraid I don’t always find the time to take them up on their offer, thanks to the 100+ emails I receive daily.

See Part 2 of the interview here on Drapers Online.

The new look NOW is on sale. See more on www.nowmagazine.co.uk

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Why am I excited about the impending birth of Tesco’s online fashion store?

Read my latest Drapers blog, ‘Tesco will upset the online fashion retail market’

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A few weeks ago I attended the launch party for Spendthrift, a new fashion label.

It was hosted at Jalouse in Hanover Square, and included a catwalk show and live guitarist.

I recently came across a blog about the event by a stylist named Madeleine.

She takes a bit of mystery out of the event by revealing some of the happenings behind the scenes.

The blog post is insightful reading for anyone that wants to work in the fashion industry.

It’s also indicative of our culture, where we are increasingly educated on, and somewhat becoming immune to, the goings on in the creative/media/pr world.

What goes on backstage, doesn’t always stay backstage.

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