Daniella Westbrook returns to EastEnders on Friday as Sam Mitchell.

Her comeback outfit is an orange and pink Lipsy dress, which can be seen in promotional adverts and press shots.

On Friday night and all weekend I imagine there will be a surge of Google searches for ‘where can i get the dress sam mitchell wore on eastenders’.

Well the answer is here.

So come on affiliates, grab that search traffic.

And Lipsy, get the dress on the homepage and blog about it too!

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The London Fashion Network held a series of events in Kentish Town focused at online retail and blogging, two of which I chaired (getting noticed, merchandising, blogging).

Now it’s the turn of Manchester to host a beginners class to online retail at the Circle Club in Deansgate on August 25th.

Tickets are £8 and the panel includes CJ Brough from Blunt Communications, Usability expert Paul Rouke and Christina Barratt from Moonsparkonline.

Book your ticket here.

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I chaired the final online event for the London Fashion Network; this one was about the power of the blog.

One of the hot topics was making money from blogs.

Charlotte from Glam Media was keen for fashion bloggers to monetise their websites with Glam’s network adverts but the panel of bloggers weren’t so sure.

Some thought it would put readers off, whilst others just didn’t want the hassle.

It is possible to make a living by having affiliate links and adverts on blogs, but it can compromise the content; a lot of bloggers in the fashion space don’t want to risk that.

Blogger Mademoiselle Robot charges for personal styling (see here)

My own view is that blogs can be used to enhance how someone already makes money offline.

Mademoiselle Robot is using the following she has built up on her blog to launch a new online personal styling consultancy.

I think the team at Glam, and many other ad networks, will just have to accept that some fashion bloggers just don’t want adverts.

It doesn’t mean they’re commercially dim or afraid of advertisers, it just means they don’t want to make money from their passion – because then it becomes a job.

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Emap’s Commercial Brand Manager Antony Hawman will soon be taking up the role of Brand Partnerships Manager at online fashion retailer My-Wardrobe.com.

Antony was the creative head behind the very first Drapers Etail Awards earlier this year, and Retail Week’s 21st birthday party at Liberty.

He’s struck up a series of partnerships for Emap’s B2B publishing brands, including affiliating Drapers with the Fashion Business Club.

At My-Wardrobe.com, Antony, who featured alongside Lauretta Roberts in Online Fashion 100, will be responsible for creating tie-ups to develop increased brand awareness and drive traffic to the online designer retailer.

Antony is a great coup for My-Wardrobe.com and focusing its marketing strategy on partnerships is a canny decision as many brands which are complimentary will be seeking cost-effective ways to market themselves.

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Online stores of bricks and mortar retailers are sometimes at risk of boring token operations of the physical store.

Not known for anything in their own right, the websites merely act an alternative platform for purchase or pre-shopping.

But many are now beginning to develop their own identity with online only exclusives.

This week the House of Fraser website has an exclusive on Calvin Klein World Cup themed underwear.

Alone, these kinds of specials won’t set the world alight. But regular exclusives will work to develop the customer’s attachment to the online brand.

And that slowly developing attachment will lead to the online operation being seen as more than a token operation to the physical brand, but a valuable accompaniment to it.

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Read my Drapers blog, ‘theOut of my size – but they do fit, honestly. theOutnet.com’s appeal’

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Recently there has been an explosion in non-fashion brands using fashion for marketing.

Electricals led the way as mobile phones, laptops and even Sky HD boxes were given fashion designer makeovers.

Now, make way for food and drink brands to become more fashionable than ever.

With more and more fashion magazines and blogs readily available, there are pages to be filled, and sometimes with non-fashion but fashionable items.

Sip Water, a new natural flavoured water drink, is already getting attention from magazines such as Elle and Grazia.

It is sampled at top fashion events across the country, including the recent launch party for theOutnet.com.

All documented on the brand’s blog Gos-Sip (see what they did there?)

Speaking of Sip making an appearance at theOutnet launch, Genna Meredith, the company’s Brand & Marketing Manager said “We here at Sip are huge shopping fans so being at the launch of theoutnet.com was seriously exciting! The two brands fit together so well”.

Go Sip

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Carly Newnham’s final project concentrates on affiliate fashion sites and social networking. The student, who is doing a Fashion, Media & Promotion course, asks...

“Why does osoyou.com only concentrate on online promotion of the site?”

Leon says...

“Sites such as OSOYOU concentrate on online promotion simply because it’s most effective in terms of result and cost.

By marketing online they are able to attract immediate connection as the user will click to view the website. By marketing offline you’re reliant on people typing in the URL or brand name.

Where you do see websites like OSOYOU promoted offline, it is usually because they are affiliated to a magazine publisher.”

Carly also asks...

“What is a reasonable number of retailers for a start up affiliate site to have?”

Leon replies...

“Nowadays an affiliate website can start up with hundreds of retailers by using feeds. How many a website starts with depends totally on the complexity of the design, and the technology capabilities an affiliate has.”

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The Saturdays are creating a capsule collection for online fashion store Rare Fashion.

A myriad of party dresses and wet look leggings, Rare Fashion has everything you need to perfect that celebrity look on a Saturday night out – watch out Lipsy.

Where Lipsy grew its market having its products seen on reality TV stars, Rare is upping its profile with official endorsement from The Saturdays.

Mollie, Una, Frankie, Rochelle and Vanessa have already been seen out and about in Rare dresses, and no doubt the store will have seen an increase in sales from the association with Britain’s newest girl group.

Working with The Saturdays will give Rare an opportunity to create online PR that will have lasting effects.

My first thought would be to use the group for interview opportunities on music blogs – with links back to the Rare Fashion website that will help its SEO forever.

The discussion of the deal and the range itself will naturally attract incoming links to the website which again, helps with SEO, but will also drive relevant traffic.

Universal search is becoming more important; a video of the girls discussing their range on YouTube may appear in Google’s search listings when people search for ‘The Saturdays’ - great for pulling in an audience that is actively interested in the girls.

The tie up will also no doubt also be added to the group’s Wikipedia page, which will be perfect for brand association for the lifetime of the group.

Most importantly Rare is getting in there early. They will be the first online store to have a huge amount of links pointing to them from pages mentioning The Saturdays and fashion – so Google will naturally associate Rare with fashion and The Saturdays.

So in years to come when they’re the next big fashion thing guess which store will be more likely to rank highly when people search “Frankie Sandford’s Style”?

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Regular readers will know I get to meet a lot of successful online fashion retail entrepreneurs. I hear all the stories about how they started to get where they are today, so here are my tips for making it in online fashion retail (not to be taken too seriously! it is April 1st).

1. Get married – For some reason online fashion businesses seem to work best as duos. Must be something to do with yin and yang.

2. Do it in your 30’s – That way you’ve either built up some useful contacts having worked in the industry or you’ll be at the “f*** it, let’s do it” stage in life.

3. Start the business at home – And stay there for as long as you can to save money. You might annoy the neighbours with noise from delivery vans (and it might be illegal) but don’t go anywhere until you start getting s*** through your letterbox; that’s when it’s time to get an office/warehouse.

4. Market it yourself – If you have to hire a consultant (like me), get advice on what YOU can do to market it yourself, keep all the execution in house in your control and remember it’s ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

5. Have children – Yes they’re cute, but they’re also a constant reminder that you have to make a success of the business as you’re spending their inheritance.

6. Show your face – There’s little room for shrinking violets in this business. Our media takes an increasing amount of interest in the owners of businesses, as they can generate interesting stories from personalities.

7. Wear your product – OK, so Nick Robertson didn’t dress up like Posh or Kate Moss, but he saw a customer demand for look-a-like items and wore the values of the ASOS brand on his sleeve. What was your reason, other than profit, for going into your online fashion retail niche?

8. Find a niche – Do you really have a niche? Are you just a me-too? What could your niche be?

9. Bore your friends and family (and their friends and family) to death – Tell everyone and his mum about your business. Always have a story ready, the more unusual the better as they’ll then tell their friends.

10. Read this blog regularly.

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Before you invest in marketing you need to have clarity on your website’s propositions.

Discover places: TrustedPlaces.com has a clear proposition

The proposition needs to feed in to the marketing campaign, in terms of who is targeted, and appear on the website, to affirm the marketing message.

With clear propositions any consultative help you employ, and marketing budget you spend, will be maximised.

Start with the focus on the user/customer – how does the website help their life offline, why should they buy from your store and why should they consume your content?

When coming up with your proposition remember your target audience has managed without you up until now, so you need something that’s better, quirkier, useful, exclusive or different, from the alternative.

Better – Amazon (more convenient than ordering a book from a high street store)

Quirkier – Net-A-Porter (delivers items in non-branded packaging, reacting to consumer moods)

Useful – BBC iPlayer (allows TV viewing around users lifestyles)

Exclusive – RightMove.co.uk (more properties listed than any other property website)

Different – Google Street View (offers 360 views)

It’s your job to offer something better to entice them away – whatever it is, it has to be true to the values of the company and something that can be committed to.

When you’ve got it, then go get someone to market it.

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If you’re a designer, artist or creative type waiting to get noticed, use the web to showcase your talent.

For Lauren Luke, a rising celebrity thanks to her popular YouTube make-up tutorials, being spotted online has lead to a newspaper column and her own make-up range.

Lauren was brought to my attention last week when she appeared on Natalie Cassidy’s BBC Three series Natalie Cassidy’s Real Lives.

She is better known by her YouTube username panacea81 and can be seen on the video website offering tutorials on how to recreate beauty looks seen on celebrities, film and television.

She started making the videos to help sell make-up on eBay.

Little did she know a couple of years later that she would be formulating her own make-up range and writing a beauty column for The Guardian.

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I was recently joined by Chantelle Znideric for lunch at Sushinho restaurant in Chelsea.

Chantelle is a stylist who works with clients on a one-to-one basis to revamp their wardrobes and create looks that work for them.

When she’s finished making her clients feel good about themselves the Surrey based stylist is working behind the scenes with digital marketing professional Hayden Allen-Vercoe on a series of web projects, including those which promote her styling service.

Just type ‘personal stylist’ into Google and you will see the hundreds of personal shoppers across the country appear in the search results all vying for attention, but Chantelle’s TopStylista website www.personal-stylist.co.uk takes the #1 prime position.

Teaming up with Hayden, who is also her fiancé, has seen Chantelle benefit from the huge amount of website traffic that being #1 for personal stylist brings.

With that achievement under their belts, the couple are also focusing on bringing personal styling to the masses through iStylista, a virtual service where you can download a customised style guide after answering a few questions.

Understanding that the success of an online application or service is based on continual innovation, Hayden and Chantelle are making some very exciting developments to iStylista which will link personal styling with online retail.

And if that wasn’t enough you’ll also catch Chantelle and Hayden reviewing luxury brands (including the Sushinho restaurant where Chantelle and I dined) for their website Lussorian.

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Beauty brands are often asked to provide items for goody bags to give out at fashion parties.

Alice Stone holds W7 Press Powder from Pink Drinks goody bag

At London Fashion Week the Metropolitan Hotel hosted its Pink Drinks party, which is a fashion industry favourite.

There are lots of fashion press and buyers at the hotel to see new collections from top designers, so placing something in the goody bags of this event is a good move for brands that want to get noticed by fashion journalists.

This kind of marketing opportunity is a good way of promoting a website too.

By placing a URL on the product journalists can tell their readers where to buy the product, whether it’s the brand’s own store or an official stockist, making it a good marketing opportunity for that store too.

It’s probably one of the least exploited forms of offline marketing by online stores.

In this climate PR agencies could consider doing deals with online stores to charge them a per feature fee when they get them credited for a brand they are working to promote – of course with the full agreement of the brand.

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Who needs celebrity style when you can get the look of ‘man on the street’?

Stitsh.com launched last year

Stitsh.com features a weekly updated gallery of stylish people out and about in the UK, allowing you to click on items to buy online.

The website makes money by taking a commission of sales when you click through and buy.

It does look very London to me which I think could put off a lot of people outside of the M25 – Every town has its own style so I would like to see a more diverse range of people and the ability to browse photos by locality.

Locality and super user generate content, by local selected style spotters, could be big drivers for a service like this.

Some of the street style looks I like

Because of its “I want to see what people are wearing” and “I want to see my photo” nature Stitsh can easily grow its audience by viral marketing – local content is easy to relate to and is one of the few areas well exploited on the web.

With a local emphasis Stitsh could be used as a platform to pre-shop, where the user seeks style inspiration before shopping on the high street.

This means the model of affiliate revenue, taking a commission for every web sale, would have to be supplemented by another form of advertising.

Being local, it would make sense to have each town/city sponsored by boutiques.

With that strategy Stitsh’s challenge would be to ensure there is enough regular content for each sponsored town/city.

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