Blog: www.trineswardrobe.com
Who: Trine Kjaer
Where: Copenhagen
Age: 28
Blogging Since: November 2008
Name some of the brands or companies you have collaborated with. Explain how these collaborations came about, and how both sides worked to make it a success.
I’ve worked with everyone from high-street brands as H&M, Mango and Weekday (a Swedish high-street brand) to high-end brands such as Omega Watches, B&O, BMW and Ole Lynggaard Jewelry. I’ve noticed that the best collaborations are those where I can be creative, and where it’s not predefined how I should solve a given task.
What is the key to building long-term relationships and partnerships with brands?
Be professional, enthusiastic, and remember to be a perfectionist with every post. Plus always remember to give the client a little extra.
Which way do you find to be the most efficient to organically grow your blog?
Word of mouth, actually. I’m not a big SEO geek which means that I’ve never done any backend stuff to make my blog grow. My blog has literally been growing because girls have been telling their friends about it, and the last couple of years Instagram has been a helpful tool as well.
With the rise of Instagram and in the era of social media influencers, how does one keep their readers engaged and interested in coming back to their blog?
That’s a really great question. I struggled with that a couple of years ago. When I started my blog I could just do an outfit post and thousands of girls would like it and share it, but after the rise of Instagram everybody is kind of a fashion blogger, and everybody posts pictures of their outfits and new purchases, which meant that I had to rethink my blog to keep the readers. I found out that the way to keep my readers is to do shopping post with links, posts about my everyday life with loads of pictures and text, and then I do interviews. All these things are exclusively available on my blog and you cannot find them on Instagram.
Do you find it important for your business to attend fashion week, and if so, in what ways?
I guess it was a couple of years ago, but now I’m not that sure anymore – since every blogger is attending fashion weeks now, somehow it’s almost more cool to stay out of it. I do some shows – but I try to be focused, and actually the best thing is if I can attend one or two shows exclusively as a reaction to people who are trying too hard to attend all shows.
What are your main revenue channels, andhow have they evolved since you began monetizing?
Four years ago I developed my own beauty line called Trine’s Wardrobe. It started off as five hair products, and now my line consists of 19 products for hair and face and they’re sold in 250 stores in Denmark. That’s obviously one of my main revenue channels, and then I do a lot of blog collaborations and long-term collaborations with brands that are buying 12-20 posts a year. Last but not least, I do a lot of styling assignments.
How do you evaluate your most popular posts up to date? What do you think has made them successful?
I keep track on the exact amount of clicks on each post, and the most popular post are usually the more private kind of posts – like posts about my home and exciting things that are happening in my life.
What kind of opportunities other than blogging do you see rising for you through your blog?
I do a lot of styling; clients book me because they’ve seen my work on the blog. I do presentations about being a young entrepreneur and social media, and I advise companies about how to get the best out of their social platform.
What are the most crucial elements to establish to take your blog to a professional level?
Be patient and create some good content for your blog. After all, the most important thing is to keep the readers interested. If you got a lot of loyal readers, you’ll automatically be attractive for the companies to collaborate with.
Images © Trine Kjaer
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