Come & sit down, my dear, and I’ll tell you your fortune….
Yes, yes… I see much wealth, many photos taken, and much fame…

All right. So my career as a fortune teller is a short-lived as my ones as princess ballerina of the unicorn ranch and Clarice Starling.  BUT! That doesn’t mean I’m not capable of making some fashion blogging predictions for 2012.

The rise of unique voices.  In the past year, I think many bloggers were staggered to see how quickly The Man Repeller gained popularity.  But she also showed bloggers two things: regular, great content and a unique perspective.  We read about those two tips on blogging sites ALL THE TIME, but seeing it put in to practice– and the success that can rise from it, makes the experience all the more valuable & educational.

The rise of the blogger agent. Blogger agents like Digital Brand Architects and collectives like Style Coalition keep getting bigger and bridging the divide between fashion companies and bloggers.  I’m predicting we will see more of these agencies and collectives in the upcoming year, and more bloggers in fashion campaigns.

The thinning of the herd.  Blogging, in general, has exploded since I began and it’s obvious that it’s becoming oversaturated.  While I think we’re going to continue to see great numbers of fashion blogs created every day, I think this will be the year we begin some many abandoned.  Blogging is hard, time consuming, and the payoff isn’t what the media promotes it to be.

But let’s not just hear my own predictions– let’s hear what other bloggers predict for 2012!

Kristina, Pretty Shiny Sparkly

I believe photo-sharing apps like Instagram will become even more popular in 2012. I also think that people will look toward optimizing their under-utilized social media outlets–avid tweeters will become more conscious of their Facebook pages, bloggers will turn to YouTube to expand their reach, etc. I also think we’re going to be seeing a lot of blogger weddings-  there are quite a few of us getting married this year, so wedding-related posts will be ubiquitous.

Marie Denee, The Curvy Fashionista 

I think that Blogging will receive an official definition among the legal lines. With the recent lawsuit the blogger lost late last year and SOPA threats, I think blogging in general will receive an even more detailed definition of just what it is–freedom of speech and journalism practices included.

Going Mobile- I think that you will find more and more bloggers stepping up their platforms to the mobile blogging level. Apps, formats, and ways that we engage will be heightened with the evolution of mobile capabilities.

Taylor Davies, IFB and Shut Up, I Love That Shirt On You

I think that social media is going to become more important than ever for bloggers. As more of, ehem, the rest of the world, (ie people without blogs or careers in online media) join Twitter, start Facebook fan pages and get Instagram accounts, it’s becoming a more and more useful tool to share your fashion blog with the world. I’ve seen already that photo-sharing social media is becoming particulary huge. Apps and sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Pose are fun and easy ways to share your style, your taste and your daily looks without having to create a full blog post each time. Personally, I just got an iphone about two months ago, and I’ve already posted 258 photos on Instagram. That’s ridiculous, but it’s so fun to share little bits and pieces of life that way!

B, Beautifully Invisible

I think that 2012 is going to be a year of continued growth and change in the fashion blogosphere.  Who we label as “fashion bloggers” will change.  It’s a diverse group that doesn’t just include teenagers and women who post OOTD shots.  Our interests and blogs are as diverse as our ages and sexes!  The New York Times just recently ran a piece on the newest breed of fashion bloggers – men!  Technologically, we’ll rely more heavily on sites like StumbleUpon and Pinterest to drive traffic.  Mobile/iPad/tablet blogging will continue to thrive and we’ll connect with readers AWAY from our blogs with social media and apps like instagram and pose.  And that is just the beginning!

I know we’re not the only fortune tellers and soothsayers in the IFB community – what are your blogging predictions for 2012?

Image by Trey Ratcliff.

Whether it’s your first time or you are a repeat visitor, New York City is a fashion bloggers playground. So much to see and eat! Luckily, we’ve got a list of places that you must visit. No, seriously. Like, if you didn’t visit them, you would be making a major IFB faux pas. This is serious business, guys.

Eat:

Meatball Shop: In these cold winter days, nothing is more satisfying than a plate full of meatballs. Honestly, they might be the greatest things since sliced bread. You can get them anyway you want with any sauce you want. And we must not forget about their ice cream sandwiches. The Lower East Side location is always packed so be prepared to wait or head to the West Village location.

ABC Kitchen: This farm-to-table restaurant not only boasts a delicious menu but serves it in the warmest, natural atmosphere. Vegetables take the main stage here and are beautifully prepared. It’s the kind of food that makes you want to cook and discover new ways to prepare the heartiest of vegetables. That is, if you actually had a functioning kitchen…

Torrisi: Now this is Italian food at its finest. Unpretentious, filling, and full of heart, Torrisi’s prix fixe menu will make you drool. Literally. From the pasta to the cheese to the bread, it is one of my favorite places to eat in the city.

Peels: It’s the most important meal of the day so fill up properly with Peels. This cozy restaurant serves a killer breakfast including an array of pastries, savory egg dishes and the best buttermilk biscuits in town. I’m not exaggerating. You must get the buttermilk biscuit while here, and if you are feeling daring, load up your biscuit with avocado, ham or cheese.

Abraco: Coffee is a part of New York’s culture and this is the spot I go to when I want an extra fine cup of jo. The lattes, espressos and cappuccinos are practically an art form here and don’t forget to load up on their Olive Oil cake. Sweet, moist, with slight tang.

Explore:

High Line Park: yes, it is freezing but a walk through the High Line Park is totally worth it. Gorgeous greenery, a crystal clear view, and some peace and quiet. What more could you want?

New Museum: After that jaunt through the park, warm up with a trip to the New Museum located on the Bowery. Unlike other museums, this one features highly interactive and vibrant exhibitions. Videos, paintings, sculptures. You will get your fill of inspiration after an afternoon here!

Paris Theater: Step back in time and catch a movie at the renowned Paris Theatre. Romantic and very tres chic, you’ll think you are in Paris, not New York! The theatre is currently showing the much-buzzed-about film “The Artist.”

Brooklyn Bridge: It may sound cliche but sometimes, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge is the highlight of this girl’s day. With breathtaking views and a reasonable 20-minute walk, it’s a definite must while in New York. Plus, you can explore Brooklyn Heights and the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade once you get to the other side. A fun area with lots of camera opportunities!

I know, I know, it sounds practically criminal to be speaking of getting ready for the holiday season in the middle of October. I mean, I don’t even know what I’m going to dress up as for Halloween, let alone what I want to blog about in November and December.

So if you’re anything like me – and I bet you are, we’re all fashion bloggers after all – you probably haven’t given holiday posting much thought yet. But you and I both know that once Halloween blazes by in a sequined and be-wigged blur, you’ll be staring down the barrel of a dead sprint to New Years Eve. You’ll hardly blink an eye between the parties, travel, family get-togethers, shopping, events, more travel and more parties before it’s January 2nd and you have absolutely no idea where the heck 2012 even came from.

That sounds sort of awful, doesn’t it? Did I just totally terrify you?

Okay, then. Let’s do this together. Let’s start brainstorming, drafting, emailing, reaching out, and scheduling – now. It’s crazy-talk I know, but really, it isn’t. The holidays are prime time for content, community and building brand relationships. The more early and preemptive  effort you put in (now-ish), the better your posts will be, and the better (more enjoyable! more relaxing! more festive!) the season will be for you, personally.

Brainstorming

• Start small: Now is a great time to begin thinking about what kind of posts you want to have during the holiday season, and what you might want to put in them; just let the wheels start turning. Gift guides? Holiday party outfitting? Party-planning tips? Recipes?
• When you’re out shopping (or in, shopping online), take mental (or written) notes of items you see that might make great gifts
• Look back through the archives of your favorite blogs from November and December last year. It will give you inspiration for how you might want to frame your editorial calendar this season, and what kind of posts you might want to do.
• My best ideas for these kinds of posts always come at weird moments – and never when I’m under the gun for a deadline. I put all my random thoughts in my notes on my ipad, so i can just pull up the app when it’s time to sit down and write, and see all my ideas laid out for me in one place.
• I feel like I always say this, but your friends, family & peers are a truly brilliant source of inspiration. Probe them for ideas!
• If you’ve interacted with brands or PR firms before (and had great results), think about ways to collaborate with them again. People always appreciate it when you come to them with ideas in hand already.

Emailing & Reaching Out

• Brands and PR firms are already sending out holiday collection press releases. If they’re thinking about it now, you should be too!
• Depending on the level of your blog, or how you frame your content, you may not need to be emailing people. However, if you want to do gift guides, shopping specials, guest posts, etc – it’s good to start getting in touch with the brands, bloggers and PR firms you might want to work with now.
• Everyone gets busy around the holiday season, so if you can reach out to people early, they will defintiely appreciate it, and will be able to give you more time and attention.
• Some people really might think it’s way too early to be figuring out holiday season blogging (their problem, not yours), so be sure to be tactful in your approach. You can always say something like,”I know it’s early, but I wanted to make sure I got in touch with you,” or “Getting in touch with [brand x / blogger x] is important to me so I wanted to be sure I reached out early.”
• As always, be brief, cordial and straight-forward (see my emailing post from a few weeks ago).

Drafting

Scheduling

• Once you get to the point where you’ve got a pretty good grip on what your posts are going to be, start penciling them into your calendar!
• This is key if you know you’re going to be traveling during the holiday season. Think of what a relief it will be to know you can get on a 6-hour wifi-less flight across the country, arrive home to your family, and spend a blissful week or long weekend relaxing with your cat and dog and enjoying the festivities without having to step away to publish posts all the time. (Can you tell I have a goal on my mind?)
• Look back through your traffic analytics. See what days of the week you have the highest traffic, and schedule your strongest and most fun posts for those days.
• Most platforms now have a way for you to schedule your posts way ahead of time, down to the minute. I use this tool all the time since I have no idea if I’ll be able to visit my blog at the specific time I want my posts to go live. It takes so much hassel out of this whole experience, I promise (and you can always edit them further once they’re scheduled).

Writing this post gave me severe flashbacks to high school and college. I was a strong student, but a genius when it came to procrastinating. I would put off beginning term papers and journalism assignments until the last possible second. I spent many an all-nighter hunched over my laptop, stressing myself out and inevitably submitting subpar assignments.I can only imagine what kind of grades I might have gotten had I just started ahead of time.

While you’re not being graded on your posting, you’re certainly going to get feedback, and the results of great blogging have the potential to take you even further than a stellar report card.

We are so excited to share the very first episode of our new video series, IFB TV!

This week, Debie and Taylor are talking about ways to craft blog post titles – that don’t suck.

We hope you enjoy this first video post, and please let us know your thoughts in the comments!

(You can also watch Episode 1 on our YouTube channel.)

This week’s installment of our Elements Of A Good Blog series comes from one of our favorite bloggers in the IFB community. On her blog, Dress With Courage, Elissa Stern discusses fashion, beauty, body-image and vintage finds. Today, she’s lending us her savvy blogging skills to talk about the importance of editing your content before publishing.

What’s So Great About Editing, Anyway?

You’ve spent hours thinking about a great blog post. You brainstormed for ideas, edited your photos, and studied magazines and other blogs for inspiration. Finally, you gather your thoughts and put your words into a draft. But the work isn’t finished. In fact, it’s just beginning.

It’s time for editing and rewriting.

“But why?” you might groan. Your post is finished. Perhaps you like it just as it is. But chances are high that you didn’t get everything right. There could be incorrectly spelled words. Your sentences might not flow the way they should. Grammatical errors may have been missed. And your text might not be pleasing to the eye. Mistakes are made by all of us, and that’s why editing is so crucial.

Clean copy goes a long way towards making your blog credible and professional. It is concrete proof to followers that you are educated and intelligent, and leads them to take you seriously. In addition, clean copy makes it more likely that first time visitors will want to come back to read your future posts.

As you edit your thoughts, here are a few tips to improve your blog copy:

• Don’t write in a too-formal voice: The most effective blog posts are written in a conversational tone, using language you speak in on a daily basis. Pretend you’re having a conversation with a friend, and in the same voice. Avoid preaching and using cutesy language (such as ‘adorbs’ for adorable, ‘totes’ for totally.) One way to help develop your blogging voice is to pay attention to the language used in blogs you already follow. What is it about the tone that resonates with you?

• Edit, Edit, Edit: Review your post for redundancies, spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and punctuation errors. All of these errors distract your reader and take the focus off the message you’re trying to communicate. I always type my posts out in a Word document before copying them into a blog post. Though it takes a few extra minutes, I can be sure that any grammatical and spelling errors will be caught before I post. Watch out for common misspellings that won’t show up on the spellchecker, such as “your” versus “you’re,” “their” versus “there,” and “principle” and “principal.” You can also use dictionary.com and the Website Guide to Grammar and Writing  for additional help.

• Consider total length: An investigation on Problogger found that blog readers stay for an average of 96 seconds. Based on this knowledge, many successful web-masters restrict their post length to a level that is readable in short grabs. In addition, both extremely short and extremely long web pages are not Google ranked as highly as pages of a reasonable length. Most experts recommend a word count of around 250 words per post. This has proven not only to keep readers engaged and interested, but also may encourage you to post more frequently -  a smart technique for generating readership through your RSS feed and in search engines.

• Avoid tired clichés:  A cliché is a phrase that has been used for so long that it’s become tired and repetitive. Take a moment to be creative and replace those clichés with something fresh and inventive.

• DO use lists. Most blog readers skim post rather than read them all the way through. One way to maximize your post impact is to use lists. Bullet lists or numbered lists call attention to important points, and guarantee that readers who are skimming will catch the most important parts of your post.

• Understand basic principles of effective text layout: Readability is one of the most important aspects of good blog copy. Use line breaks between paragraphs. Use italics for emphasis. Your goal is to draw the eye and create a smooth sense of flow throughout your post. Make it easy to read!

• Come back later: If you get frustrated while editing, don’t try to force the words to come. Save the post and work on something else for a while. You can even switch from one post draft to another, spending a few minutes on each as ideas comes to you. I tend to work on two to three blog posts at a time, and I’ve learned that this really helps me keep a fresh eye.

By Elissa Stern of Dress With Courage. You can follow her on Twitter here!

(See Elements Of A Good Blog Part I: Design & Template)