I’ve been doing Second Life fashion blogging for a year now. It can be a lot of work, but it’s also been incredibly fun. I get messages from people saying it must be awesome to get all this free stuff. Well, I do get a lot of review items, but it takes time and effort to keep up with deadlines, blogging reports and just keeping the stuff organized in my inventory. I made an effort to have everything organized and all the tedious work to a minimum, so I would not feel bogged down by the details. So far, it’s worked out great. Sure, I have days when I just don’t feel like blogging anything. And it works out fine, because I don’t wait until last minute to get things posted. And if I have a deadline coming up, all the hard parts are done. I just need to bust out some creativity and get a picture.
I’m not saying my way is the only way, or even the best way. This is just how I do my blog, and maybe some of this information will be helpful!
Keep Organized
Inventory
If you plan to blog on a regular basis, then eventually take on sponsors, I can’t stress enough that it’s important to keep an organized inventory. I found it very tedious trying to find things and it made me feel uninspired at times to blog. I should have taken the time to completely organized my inventory before I started (I had never done such a thing in my entire time on SL, everything was just dumped into one folder and I had countless items in my ‘recieved’ folder) I half organized things, and it was annoying me. So, do a good inventory cleaning! If you are already organized, I applaud you. It was not an easy habit to get into.
There are lots of ways that people organize their inventory. I see a lot of people do it by designer, but I buy from so many different designers, that I would never find what I was looking for. I organize by type, then break it down into smaller sub-catergories. I also rename the folders to exactly what I would type into my blog (minus the price) , so it becomes a very easy copy/paste to credit things.
Deadlines
I personally keep a google doc of my monthly deadlines. Some of my sponsors use Blogotex, and some use blogger groups. I didn’t want anything to get lost in the shuffle so this keeps me on track.
Designer’s Info
I try to tag the designer’s on all the social medias that I use where possible. I use a lot of same designers on a regular basis, and I keep a list with all their social media contacts with the links for easy access, as well as their in world locations and marketplace stores. It’s a huge time saver, because they don’t always include this information in their notecards when you buy things or when you get a blogger pack. It can take a lot of time to go into each designer’s profile and try to find their social media links.
Blog Layout
I keep a folder on my desktop for my blog photo layouts. This helps me keep a uniform look (which is just something I personally like) and saves a lot of time. I always do a front and back picture, and two close ups, usually the face and shoes. I don’t edit my photos, so it’s mostly just snap a picture, click and drag, and I’m done.
If you don’t use photoshop or other editing software, that’s totally fine. It’s not needed, and just something I used since I already had it. You can see from the image below, to make the two close up shots, all I have to do is drag the layer and make a clipping mask, and it’s done.
I also keep a blank blog post with the layout I use in a draft on my webpage, so I all I need to start a post is copy and paste it, then add the designer info. I don’t have to retype all section titles.
