I've Been Nominated for the Liebster Blog Award!

Fashion blogger Lady Silk Liebster Award nominee

I've Been Nominated for the Liebster Blog Award!
I have been blogging for about three years now, but I'm honestly just now starting to do it "correctly", so I am honored and excited to have been nominated for this award by fellow blogger Queen C of  Lavender Luvah!

I can't lie, I had to read up on the Liebster Award to see what it was about because I had no clue. I discovered that it is an internet only award given to bloggers by other bloggers. It's sort of like a chain letter that acts as a way to recognize, highlight, promote and discover new blogs. Some people accept it, some don't, but it opens up your blog to new audiences and allows people to find out a little more about you and your blog so why not?

The nominee answers questions asked by the person that nominated them and then includes 10 random facts about themselves. Once that is done, the nominee then nominates another group of bloggers and so on and so on.  

Q&A from Queen C:
Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to combine my two loves of fashion and writing together, and I wanted to write about my journey as a freelance fashion stylist in Cleveland, Ohio.
2. At the time the most popular blogs (even today) are fashion blogs that focused on what the blogger was wearing. I thought that was boring as shit after awhile and decided to write ABOUT fashion and style, not just show mine. 
3. It seemed like there weren't that many Black bloggers out there, but I found out there are lots of us- we just don't get the recognition as much.  I needed to add my style of  voice to the conversation, so I did.
4. I wanted a nice mix between a personal portfolio, fashionbombdaily.com and the now defunct style.com. But starting out I really only covered fashion news...
5. I needed an outlet to release all this fashion stuff in my head lol.

What is your goal as a blogger?
My goal as a blogger is to inform and educate my reader on All the Fly Things. I want to solidify myself  as a fashion expert and a style leader and I try to do so through my blog posts by giving  fashion and style tips, writing fun fashion features, attending and reporting on local fashion events, discussing fashion industry news, interviewing cool people, and my own FlyGirl Chronicles adventures in fashion.

Is blogging your hobby or a job?
Nah, I work way too hard for this to be a hobby!

 How do you promote your blog?
I mainly use social media, I am a part of lots of blogger and fashion and style groups on Facebook and I use word of mouth while I am out and about. I have a few other tactics that I use including traditional marketing strategies: business cards, postcards, events.

Do you make money off your blog ? If yes how do you do it?
Yes, by collaborating with independent brands and businesses and hopefully off of affiliate marketing really soon. I also host an account for models through my Model Portal. It's for models who are looking for a professional online portfolio to store their photos, booking information, stats, etc. without having to do any extra work.

 Have you ever won other blog awards?
I never even knew that they had blog awards!

What is your advice for new and upcoming bloggers?

1. Learn something new to improve your blog every week, if not every day.  Join blogging groups and look everything up on Google.
2. If you really want to do this you don't get frustrated and stop, focus on something else. If you have writer's block- focus on maintenance, look at different ways to promote- take a break, but don't stop.  
3. Come up with an editorial calendar so you will know what, when, where and how often to post your content.
4. Keep a notebook or document full of ideas. I use a Notebook app on my phone and Google docs to store ideas for blog posts, links, photos etc...
5. Know and understand who your audience is so you can talk to them. Look at your demographics and figure out who is reading your blog and take it from there.

Do you blog on YouTube ? If yes,how many subscribers do you have?
No I don't, but I micro-blog on Instagram and I have a personal blog: The FlyGirl Chronicles where I talk about things that don't involve fashion and style. I started it a few months ago and enjoy the freedom that comes with not being inside just one niche.  I can write about other things that move me: my weird favorite movies, my favorite street lit books and old school southern rappers I love and other random things.

These are a few of my favorite things! *in my Julie Andrews voice

10 Random Facts About Me:

1. I was suppose to marry either Zack Morris, Jason Weaver or Ghostface Killah. I'm currently still single.
2. I don't like my wet and dry foods to touch each other and for every family event my grandmother buys me special Styrofoam containers with sections for my meat and my sides. She's a seamstress, loves the color purple like me and also introduced me to Vogue at an early age- so yeah, she's the bomb.
3. I don't like to wear socks. My toes feel so restricted and confined and unhappy. Winter is always hard for me.
4. I've been collecting magazines since I was eleven, starting with Sister 2 Sister, the Source, Right On, Word Up, Rap Pages, Ozone and XXL, then Honey, Suede, Vibe Vixen and CosmoGirl before I moved on strictly to fashion magazines. My favorites are People Style, Harpaar's Bazaar and Instyle.
5. Many people can't stand her, but I look up to Wendy Williams. She has had (and still has) an incredible career that she started from the ground up. I think if more people knew her story and what she has done for Black women in journalism/radio/tv/publishing that she would get more respect. There would be no black gossip blogs if it wasn't for her and Jamie Foster Brown.
6. If money were no object the only designer labels I would wear would be Stella McCartney, Ports 1961, Celine, Balenciaga and Off White by Virgil Abloh.
7. Lil Kim is my favorite rapper, the reason I wear purple hair (13 years and counting) and my fashion and style icon all rolled into one. I wouldn't even know how to say Moschino if it wasn't for the Queen Bee. Every pop/female rap star's image can be traced back to Kim. Designers have created whole collections around her and love her to death (McQueen, Marc Jacobs). Ima need the CFDA to recognize that soon! Rihanna is a close second...
8. My favorite movies with great costume include, Mahogany, Gigi, Foxy Brown, Pink Flamingos, Gilda, and The Women. I love Old Hollywood movies costumed by Edith Head, Travilla and Adrien and I also love the flamboyant style of Blaxploitation films like Superfly, Willie Dynamite and Dolemite.
9.  I often use rap music to help me plan my fashion show looks and to style my photoshoots. My last show was inspired by Master P's Down South Hustlers Compilation album.
10. ​​I would like to retire as a fashion historian documenting Black fashion and style, because I feel like we get left out of the conversation when it comes to fashion history, which is disrespectful and unfortunate because so much comes from us...

*Below are my nominees and questions for them:
​
Tavkay Beauty
AriesGallery
TheLibraryRadio
Curvy, Confident & Nervous as Hell
The Fashion Wordsmith
Forever Young, Black and Married
Mascara, Martinis and Motherhood
Courtney Covers Cleveland
Awesome Fat Girl Rules
One Hot Mom
Queen Thrifty
Diary of a Broke Fashionista
Enanny Link
Yeah I'm Famous
FoodLoveTog
The I is Never Silent
Sportz Street Heat News
Official Haute Food
Adore Color
Darkerberrie.com

Q&A 
1. How long have you been blogging?
2. Why did you start your blog?
3. How often do you post to your blog?
4. How do you promote your blog?
5. Do you monetize your blog? If so how?
6. What has been the hardest thing about blogging?
7. What has been the most rewarding thing about blogging?
8. What is your advice for up and coming bloggers?
9. What apps or plugins do you use to enhance your blog?
10. How did you choose your domain and hosting site and are you happy with them?

To my readers- what other blogs do you follow? Leave a link to their blogs in the comments below!