How I Got Started: The Rise of Lifestyle Blogging and What’s Next?

Lifestyle of a Londoner is ebbing closer to being a year old. Just a few months away – I can’t believe how quickly this first year of running a lifestyle blog has gone! With some experience behind me, it felt like the perfect moment to reflect on my blog’s beginning, drivers, lessons and inspiration and share these thoughts with my readers. Throughout this post, I hope to give a sense of the story behind Lifestyle of a Londoner and the future that we may be leaning ever closer towards. If blogging or influencer marketing is something you’ve always been interested in, then keep reading as I have some tips and practical steps to enable your journey to start.

The start of Lifestyle of a Londoner

Having been an avid blog reader for many years and also someone who enjoyed writing, I decided to take the leap in 2021 and create my own blog. It had been sitting on my goals list for the past couple of years and I finally felt ready to dive in. I knew I wanted it to be a lifestyle blog and felt passionately about city life specifically living in London. One Friday night (it’s amazing the small details you remember!), I took out my notebook to start brainstorming some ideas and the first thing I wrote at the top of the page, almost subconsciously, was ‘Lifestyle of a Londoner’. Like so many lifestyle bloggers, I wanted to write broadly and on lots of topics, so I set out my initial posts on money, self-care, places to visit, romance in the city and grew from there. I was taken by the freedom that the frame of lifestyle gave me and just kept going! As time passes, it’s humbling to see a community grow as my blog has given me the opportunity to connect with readers, bloggers and brands alike – I’m excited to see what the next year holds.

The rise of lifestyle bloggers in influencer marketing

I think we’ve all seen a recent growth in lifestyle influencers and bloggers. Lifestyle blogging is great for those who are keen to share on a range of topics that expand everyday life and shed light on widely shared experiences. From food to money, fashion to mental health, home décor to travel, the breadth of lifestyle blogging enables influencers to capture many audiences and demographics as part of their content creation. Through the lifestyle niche, influencers can open up their lives and share more candidly finding genuine connections with their audiences. Instead of being seen through only one lens, their content becomes more relatable and accessible for their readers and followers. I really noticed this when listening to Kendra Muecke share her influencer experience in an interview with influencer marketing platform, Intellinfluence. During the interview, Muecke is asked about how she structures her everyday life to encompass her many roles as a singer, songwriter, actress and influencer. In her response, she outlines the ways content creation blurs the lines between work and free time as it is a creative outlet and links so much into her identity as an artist. I think for many influencers (myself included), we feel this blurring as the sharing is intrinsically linked to our own identities and creative passions. This was definitely a key driver for starting my own blogging journey!

Top tips if lifestyle blogging interests you

If reading so far has prompted you to feel that blogging or influencer marketing might be something for you, I have put together 3 top tips to support your journey along the way. Although, my biggest piece of encouragement will always be to go for it! If you’ve been toying with the idea for a while, then let this be your sign to grab on to this new opportunity with both hands. Hopefully, these tips will give you the final push and inspiration to get started.

Be Authentically You

This felt like an important place to start, readers and followers want to invest in you, your life and experiences so be YOU! Authenticity shines through and is what truly holds and engages your audience. Instead of comparing yourself to other influencers and spending more time looking for inspiration in their content, focus on finding your voice and position in the lifestyle field. Finding a unique style that expresses your personality and ideas will sustain your audience for a much longer period than recreating current trends that are out there.

Show Up for your Audience

Your audience want someone that feels relatable and familiar so it’s important to keep consistently showing up. This will support you to build relationships with them and, in turn, their investment in you. In order to do this effectively, set out a time each week to plan out your content creation. Break your plan down into bitesize tasks that will enable you to maintain your presence. Start small if that’s what you can give and grow with each plan adding to it over time, this is more effective than peaks of engagement and disengagement.

Always be Open to Learning

This is a process that no one comes in to knowing how to do everything or with all of the answers – be open to learning new things all the time. Allow it to be frustrating, time consuming, exciting, rewarding. I can tell you now, it is going to be an emotional rollercoaster with lots of ups and down. Keep going and keep learning and your skills will grow too!

Conclusion

Having reflected on my own experiences and the growth of lifestyle influencers, I wanted to end with some final thoughts on what I think is next for influencer blogging.  While logging into your social media apps, you might have noticed the ‘from meta’ sign popping up after Facebook’s rebrand in late 2021. Although the metaverse might feel far off right now, there is some momentum picking up as we hear more about NFTs, crypto, virtual reality – so where will influencer marketing fit in to this new online space? Perhaps we’ll see the rise of the virtual influencer sharing content through an avatar? Or will influencers be leading virtual experiences with their audience? Who knows, I’m populating the future with more questions than answers but I’m confident that lifestyle influencers and bloggers are here to stay. How they look in 10 years’ time is set to grow with the online platforms around us!