Marie Claire Australia were kind enough to do a write up about us in their August 2009 issue (featuring the gorgeous Cameron Diaz on the cover) but there are a few little things I’d like to clear up (as I wait to hear if there is anything they can do on their side).
I was quoted as saying:
“When I started my blog in 2002, I had about 10 readers a week. Today I have 2,000.”
Ahem, I told the journalist who wrote the piece, I average about 2,000 visitors a day, not a week. It may be a small oversight on their end, but to be featured in a piece about ‘How to Make Money Online’ and underplay my statistics in a national magazine is not small to me.
Statistics are what all bloggers are able to leverage advertising off, and for a magazine as widely read as Marie Claire Australia to get my statistics wrong could be potentially detrimental for me financially as I don’t have the buffer of a “day job” any longer. I love blogging and jostling for an interesting story or three to write about every day, but when things happen that are out of your control it is extremely frustrating.
I would also like to note, though the directly quoted talking about SASSYBELLA.com’s ad rates, I never talked about my rates to the journalist, instead pointed her to our rate card. And I no longer use Google AdSense ads and are not thinking about going back to using them.
So what did I tell the journalist exactly? See my answers to her questions below. Looking back, it’s a shame each featured online business woman didn’t get a bigger write up. So many women are starting their own online businesses today.
[Update] Marie Claire have kindly updated my numbers and posted a copy of the article up on their website. View it here, with the correct numbers. And my incorrect Google Adsense recommendation.
In the meantime, did I mention we’ve also been lucky enough to be nominated in the Blogger category of Cosmopolitan Australia’s Fun Fearless Female awards 2009? Please take two seconds to put in a vote for us, voting ends very soon!
Helen’s answers to Marie Claire Australia’s initial round of questions for the ‘How to Make Money Online’ piece, Marie Claire August 2009.
1. When and why did you start your website?
SASSYBELLA.com started off as an offshoot of my personal blog launched way back in August 2002. It grew into a fashion website with a blog, before becoming a fashion blog because of a revelation I had while I was sitting in a lecture hall at uni and I realized everyone else in that room wanted to do journalism of some kind and I had to have a point of difference.
2. Where did the idea come from?
The name was the most random thing, I think being ‘sassy’ was how I was feeling at the time and I’ve kept it ever since. SASSYBELLA.com has just grown out of what my interests are in fashion – mostly fashion news and cool/interesting things. The growth has been really organic which I am really proud of.
3. Were you familiar with the technologies?
To be honest, I have a little geek in me. Rather embarrassingly, I started making fan sites when I was about 15 about my favourite bands at the time. I had no knowledge of html and had just gotten my first computer (this was the late 90’s) but a friend of mine had her own website so naturally I wanted one too. Eventually I noticed all these competitor websites that were so much nicer that it motivated me to teach myself a little html and learnt how to use Photoshop – the rest they say is history. These days I have a friend who helps out with the back end, but I’m still across how everything works on the site and have a good understanding of it all.
4. What were some of the early highlights in starting up the site?
In the early days I use to be so excited to get 100 visitors to my site a day, then it was 200 and etc. Then one day (a few years later) Jezebel linked to me in their Rag Trade news round ups and I was really excited to hit over 5,500 unique that day. Traffic aside, I was so happy when Glamour.com interviewed me last year for their Blogging Babes feature and wrote some really sweet things. It’s really lovely when other bloggers recognize what you’re doing, and I try to do the same.
I also love when I hit the nail on the head by finding a hot topic to write about that really pays off. Last year I wrote about Kiera Knightley’s green silk dress from Atonement and it got so many thousands of visitors just to that page alone because fans of the movie wanted to know where to buy the dress and to see more photos – and a year later it still continues to bring in traffic.
But to be honest, while I am proud of my site, I still see it as a work in progress – there is more and better to come.
5. What have been some of the challenges?
Time constraints! Juggling a full time job and a full time blog is exhausting and I feel like I’m letting my readers down when I’m not doing my best on SASSYBELLA.com. But sometimes sacrifices have to be made to pay the rent, or to put up good content (in reverse).
It has also been a struggle to get information from PR people over the years, they didn’t place much importance on blogs so it was hard to get information or be allowed to attend press functions or even fashion week. The only time I would hear from them is when they didn’t like something I wrote about their clients which was frustrating – they wouldn’t help with info but when it wasn’t the most position piece, they would be on your case immediately.
But for the last year or two I’ve been hearing from the PR’s from international fashion houses about new products and runway show – I was actually surprised when they first got in touch. Now everyone is jumping on board slowly and surely. Bloggers may not be the preferred mode of publicity for some PR agencies, but we start conversations and are a source of information when people want to find out more about a product or a news piece. You can’t go to Google to search about what’s in your favourite print reads, but you can find out what we said about the topic which I think is a great place to start.
6. When did you realise your blog would become your job?
It’s not at the moment – it was for a few months last year when I realized I didn’t want to be doing my full time job anymore. Blogging about fashion made me happy so I was very happy to be doing that, I rejoined the work force just because it was nice to have extra money to save for holidays! Now because of my fashion week experience thanks to IMG’s Chic Report Australia blog, I’m starting to feel like I want to be a full time blogger again, I just need to figure out a way to not be a struggling blogger this time. But who knows what the next few months will hold!
7. How many sponsors do you have? And roughly how much does it cost per week/month for a banner?
I have the odd advertiser on SASSYBELLA.com, nothing consistent enough to make a living out of unfortunately. We recently cut our rates to make it a little more attractive to advertise, but we do struggle with keeping the balance to relevant advertisers to both our Australian and US audiences. Our rates can be found here: https://www.sassybella.com/advertise/
8. How many people visit your site daily?
On average about 2,000 but it can jump if we pick up a hot story first.
9. What has been the most exciting part about setting up your blog?
Too many things! I was so excited when Jezebel, then NY Mag’s The Cut blog started picking up our stories; the Glamour.com interview was really sweet… but what takes the cake is that SASSYBELLA.com gave me the opportunity to write for IMG’s Chic Report Australia blog during this years’ Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. It was an amazing experience and I think the other bloggers and I really made a splash in Australia’s predominantly print market with our immediacy of Twittering (tweeting) and then getting content up on our blogs before most mainstream outlets (except for Marie Claire of course, thanks to the lovely Jade) had time to sort through their pictures and finish their Rosemount wine. Plus I made some great friends and have so many fabulous memories from meeting people who’s I’ve never had the opportunity to meet face to face.
10. Do you have plans to expand?
I would love to expand so I have time to write more posts and have a freelance blogger on board to help out. It’s just a question of when and how we can afford it.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
I just read through what they printed – clearly not accurate. Maybe they felt embaressed by their own readership figures (inflated no doubt) compared to yours. Must be hard for them considering the money and staff they throw at the mag while bloggers like yourself can attract good traffic on your own.
Wow – so first of all, Marie Claire’s writer fudged your quote, then the subs didn’t bother to fact check it? FACT CHECK, people!
Been in many situations, mainly with print where I’ve told a journo I need to check the facts prior to print, and they have come back with ‘ok but don’t let fact checking get in the way of a good story’
If it’s any consolation, I read the article and having never visited your blog I checked it out, thought it was great and may just have me another blog to obsess over!
I checked out your blog after reading marie claire because i am thinking of starting my own fashion blog and i was impressed by the figure of 2000 readers a week! 2000 a day is unbelievable – keep it up (Y)