How to Start a Beauty Blog in 2021

Wouldn’t it be amazing to spend your days writing about a topic that you’re passionate about?

Blogging can be a smart way to launch a career, combine your interests, or start a business.

This is especially true for beauty bloggers, who can quickly build a name for themselves based on their talent, passion for the industry, and unique style.

If you’ve read our list of top beauty blogs to follow and want to launch your own, we’re here to help.

In our step-by-step guide on how to start a beauty blog, we’ll walk you through the steps to start a blog, including how to:

• Make a Plan
• Buy a Domain Name and Hosting
• Install and Customize WordPress
• Write Blog Posts
• Launch and Promote Your Blog

Is It Too Late to Start a Beauty Blog?

Even though blogging has grown in popularity and there are thousands of blogs out there, don’t be put off by this.

Your passion, your voice, and your blog is unique — and this can go a long way in helping you to create a successful beauty blog.

One thing that a lot of successful bloggers say is that they wish they’d started their blog sooner.

Be inspired by this and make today the day you start your blog.

Reasons to Start a Beauty Blog in 2021

Blogging is amazing for a number of reasons.

Starting a blog can lead to big opportunities for your career and personal life, it can introduce you to new interests, help you find your community, and transform your life.

Here are six of our top reasons to start a beauty blog in 2021:

• Quit your full-time job to create a career in the beauty industry
• Combine your passion for beauty and writing skills together
• Make money as you share your knowledge and experience
• Build your personal brand and grow a following online
• Network with others in the beauty industry
• Attend exclusive events and receive products before they launch

We think that blogging can open the doors to many opportunities, especially if you’re talented, knowledgeable, and create high quality content.

Here’s how to take your blogging dream and turn it into your new reality.

Step 1: Make A Plan

Planning might not sound like much fun, but it’s an essential step if you want to start your beauty blog the right way.

If you create a plan for your blog you’re more likely to stay focused and remain true to your goals.

You don’t need to create a detailed business plan, but it can help to take some time to consider these prompts and how you want your blog to look, feel, and grow.

Why Do You Want to Blog?

We all have different reasons for starting a blog.

Some bloggers want to build a personal brand online that allows them to host events, create products in collaboration with brands, and launch a beauty-related business.

Other bloggers want to share tutorials and help readers discover their own love for beauty.

Whatever your reason to start a blog, always keep this in mind. If you reflect on your “why” you’ll find it easier to make decisions that affect your blog — from which brands to work with to how to build your email list.

For most new bloggers, their blog starts as a hobby and develops into a profitable income stream or standalone business.

If you plan to grow your blog into a successful business, you might have an extra “why” — to create a sustainable income for you and your family or team.

You can have more than one goal or purpose for your blog, and you might find this changes as you learn more about your style and audience.

What Is Your Niche?

After you’ve thought about why you want to start a blog, it’s time to consider where your beauty blog fits in the blogosphere.

A lot of bloggers refer to this as your “niche” — what makes your blog different or interesting, and who this attracts.

To find your niche, make a list of all the aspects of the beauty industry that excite you.

Maybe you’re passionate about drugstore beauty brands, or you have specialist knowledge about ingredients or skincare.

Think about your readers too — their lifestyle, what they currently read, and how you can connect with their feelings about beauty.

Within beauty blogging there are lots of niches or areas that you could specialize in.

Here are some examples to help you figure out your niche:

• Affordable beauty
• Vegan or cruelty-free beauty
• DIY beauty products
• Minimalist beauty
• The science behind beauty
• Makeup for beginners
• Luxury beauty and skincare

Another aspect to consider when you choose your niche is whether it has the potential to be profitable for you.

For example, if you blog about luxury skincare you could find it easier to generate affiliate income as your readers have more disposable income.

What Will You Name Your Blog?

Now it’s time to jump into the fun stuff — finding a name for your beauty blog.

This is one of those moments where you can be creative and draw on your excitement to create a name and brand for your blog.

To help you with the process, we’ve created a guide on how to find creative blog names.

This walks you through the process and gives you some ideas on how to find the right name for your beauty blog.

While creative names are popular in the beauty niche, you can also start a blog in your own name.

High profile beauty bloggers like Jaclyn Hill have done just that.

Do You Need Any Equipment?

Starting a beauty blog can be a low cost way to create a career in the beauty industry.

Blogging has only a handful of costs associated with it, which means you can get started quickly and invest in better equipment as you go.

All bloggers will need to invest in two key areas to get their blog online — a domain name and web hosting.

We’ll talk about these in detail in Steps 2 and 3.

As beauty blogging is such a visual niche, it can help to invest in equipment to help you create beautiful photographs, including:

• A good quality camera (your smartphone, a point-and-shoot, or a DSLR)
• Backgrounds or styled areas of your home you can use as backdrops
• Props and extra products to feature in photos and flatlays
• Photo editing software (like Picmonkey or Adobe Lightroom)

These aren’t essentials though — you can start a blog with just your smartphone or laptop and a passion for beauty.

Step 2: Buy Your Domain Name

After you’ve made some plans for your new beauty blog, it’s time to move onto buying a domain name.

This is one of those blogging essentials that we mentioned in the first step.

Your domain name (also known as your URL) acts like a virtual address for your blog and your content.

It’s easy to find and buy your domain name through a domain provider like Bluehost.

You can use the built-in search to check that your name is available, add the domain to your basket, and purchase.

You’re now the proud owner of a domain name for your beauty blog.

Step 3: Purchase Hosting for Your Blog

Now that you have your domain name, the next step is to invest in web hosting for your blog.

The most popular type of hosting for bloggers is shared hosting with a web hosting company like Bluehost.

This type of hosting is affordable, easy to set up, and offers you everything you need to start and grow your blogging business.

Bluehost remains our host of choice for bloggers thanks to the quality of service, and if you sign up through this link you can get your web hosting for $2.95 per month which makes it a great value.

Step 4: Install WordPress

Once you have a domain name and hosting for your blog, you can then install a content management system (or CMS).

This powers your blog and allows you to create and publish content easily from an admin dashboard.

The CMS we recommend for bloggers is WordPress — a highly popular and flexible system that allows you to build a blog that’s highly customizable without the need for technical knowledge.

It has all the features you need built in, and you can also add functionality through plugins — for example, a rating system or shoppable widgets.

WordPress is free and easy to install with Bluehost thanks to their easy-to-follow guide.

In a few clicks you can set up your WordPress blog and begin to customize your blog.

Step 5: Customize Your Blog

Wouldn’t it be dull if all blogs looked the same?

Even though many blogs are run on WordPress, it’s rare to find two that look exactly alike.

That’s because it’s easy to customize WordPress to create a blog that looks and feels individual.

WordPress is a system that is ready to go right from the start, so you can choose one of the built-in themes or browse their free theme library to find one that suits your brand.

The most popular option for bloggers, however, is to find and install a custom third party WordPress theme.

There are lots of WordPress theme designers out there, and one of the best places to look for a theme is a marketplace like Themeforest or Creative Market.

Here you’ll find hundreds of themes that you can sort by category, color, or price to find one that you like.

Once you’ve found a custom theme and purchased it, follow this guide on how to install your theme on WordPress.

You can then customize your theme further to feature your brand colors, upload a logo and header image, and make small changes to showcase your style and personality.

Step 6: Write Blog Posts

Before you launch your blog to the world, take some time to plan and create content.

It’s a good idea to write as many blog posts as you can before you launch, so readers have a few posts to browse when they land on your blog.

You’ll also have a library of drafted posts that you can schedule and promote over the next weeks and months.

As you plan and write blog posts, keep your audience and your niche in mind.

This will help you to create content that’s attractive and keeps your readers coming back for more.

To get you started, here are some popular types of blog posts for beauty and fashion blogs:

• Product reviews
• Tutorials
• Beauty tips
• Monthly favorites
• Beauty trends
• New products and collections

Stuck for inspiration?

You’ll find more great tips and writing prompts in our list of beauty blog post ideas.

Step 7: Launch and Promote Your Blog

Now that you have lots of interesting and engaging content ready to go, it’s time to launch your beauty blog.

It’s up to you how you want to launch your blog.

You could do this quietly and share it with friends and family first, or you could create a big buzz around your blog by working with other bloggers, hosting a competition, and paying for social media advertising.

If you want to create some interest around your newly launched blog, here are some ideas on how to get your name out there:

• Talk to friends, family, and your network about your new blog
• Create and post updates on your social media sites
• Join blogging communities and groups on Facebook to network
• Work on your blog search engine optimization (SEO) to help your posts rank in Google search
• Approach other bloggers and ask to write a guest blog
• Look in blogger groups for opportunities to promote your blog
• Try paid social media advertising like Facebook Ads
• Contact your local newspaper or radio station to see if they want to feature your story

Grow and Monetize Your Beauty Blog

Don’t be disheartened if you only have a few readers to start with.

Like all good things, blogging is a skill you learn and it’s a hobby or business that grows and develops with time.

As a blogger there’s always something new to understand or a skill to improve, so if you find yourself with some free time why not spend it learning how to grow your blog?

To help you stay focused and grow your blog, subscribe to our weekly emails.

These free newsletters feature tips and advice on how to start, grow, and monetize your blog from blogging experts.

This is a great way to learn about the specifics of how to monetize your blog, like using Amazon Affiliates, Google AdSense, and sponsored posts to increase your blogging income.