What is a lifestyle blog? Good question – and one that has been on my mind a lot lately…
If you’re a regular Girl vs Globe reader (yay!) you’ve surely noticed that I’ve been posting about a lot more than just travel. Food recipes, fashion shoots, tips on how to be happy in your own skin – a really wide array of new topics.
Some of you have been enjoying the transition, but others not so much. I recently found the following comment underneath one of my posts:
“Would also be nice to see some actual travel experiences; the content and writing style are becoming disappointing overall. Instead of a travel blog, a lifestyle blog is more about what’s happening right now. My natural response was to curl up in bed and sob uncontrollably. Not because the comment was particularly mean or anything. It wasn’t. I was upset because it tapped into my biggest fear in transitioning into a lifestyle blogger.
It made me feel like I was letting you all down and turning my back on all the things that once made you excited to follow along on my journey.
But instead of feeling sorry for myself I decided to sit down and figure this out the best way I know how – by writing about it (and illustrating it with Mean Girls gifs, because I’m cool like that).
Let’s get to the bottom of this and figure this out once and for all.
What is a lifestyle blog?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what a lifestyle blog is. Simply put, it’s a website documenting one person’s life – a curated gallery of their personal interests and everyday existence.
The problem with this definition is just how broad it is. As a lifestyle blogger you can write about anything. Nothing is off limits—food, fashion, technology, your job, home decor, relationships, career, DIYs, financial advice, freelancing, parenting—ever. Anyone can have a lifestyle blog, from a 60-year-old garden gnome designer in Minnesota to a teenage LGBTIQ activist in Taiwan. As you can imagine, although they might both call their virtual plot of land a ‘lifestyle blog’, the content would be fairly different.
However, although anyone can start a lifestyle blog, women in their 20s to 30s who write about fashion, beauty, and fitness are most frequently associated with it. Unfortunately for all lifestyle bloggers, the perception that we write about “everything” implies that we write nothing at all. On Facebook, my boyfriend asked our blogger friends, “What do you think of when the words “lifestyle blogger” are used?” Unsurprisingly, many of the answers support that view…
“I know it doesn’t need to be women, but lifestyle blogger does make me think of women. fashion, food, interior design, beauty, and travel. It somehow also makes me think of someone who more scratches the surface of a lot of things than goes deep into one thing.”
“Someone who’s trying to tell others how to live their lives.”
“Someone who is more concerned with appearances than reality or depth. And most likely too young to have much life experience. Isn’t that intriguing? Lifestyle bloggers were the only ones who maintained that lifestyle bloggers were not shallow. One of their comments really stuck with me though. Beverley of Pack Your Passport wrote, “I’m just concentrating on writing what I want to write.” To me, that’s what lifestyle blogging is all about.
A lifestyle blog is a true extension of its owner. Girl vs Globe is a place where I can be 100% myself without fear of judgment. My blog is mine (and yours too, in a way) and I can do whatever I damn please with it.
How can you set your lifestyle blog apart? [custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”true”] /custom_headline]
Because the term “lifestyle blog” is so vague, it might be a good idea to come up with a more descriptive name for your blog’s niche. Simply adding a few more words seems like the most elegant and logical approach. Par example… Emily Schuman calls her incredibly successful Cupcakes & Cashmere the “premier destination for fashion, food and lifestyle inspiration”. Her lifestyle blog is about her, but its main focus are her fashion picks and her food recipes. Get it?
The same thing can be done with ease for your lifestyle blog. If the right words don’t come to you easily, don’t worry. It might just mean your focus isn’t that fine-tuned yet. Even though this isn’t a big problem, you should probably sit down and really think about the direction your blog should go. If you’re a little lost, you’re not alone. I’m still trying to figure out my short description – travel, fashion and food lifestyle blog just doesn’t sound that great, does it? Oh, and let’s not forget all of my self-help empowerment psychobabble!
Where does that even fit in?
The closest I have got to finding a good description is… a happy lifestyle blog. because ultimately, that is my objective. Helping you become a more confident happier you and finding magic in the ordinary.
All I’m saying is – don’t worry. Everyone is a work in progress. A blog is an ongoing, ever-changing endeavor that will never be finished. Yes, I’m becoming more of a lifestyle blogger but it’s ok. There’s no reason to worry, I promise.
When I first launched Girl vs Globe in January 2014 I never imagined it would grow into what it is today. But if I said that I didn’t prepare for success, I would be lying. An overachiever by nature, when I invest my time and energy into something I make damn sure it’s the best it can possibly be.
So even way back when I was deciding on my blog’s name I purposely shot down anything that was too travel-specific. I liked a lot of ideas for names, like “The Sparkly Suitcase” and “Away and Astray,” among others… However, I was afraid I would outgrow them, so none of them fitted me well. Ever the fan of alliteration I eventually decided on Girl vs Globe and I’ve never second guessed that decision. The name has not only grown on me but also grown with me.
What does my blog’s name have to do with me becoming a lifestyle blogger? Everything and nothing. While I wouldn’t call myself fickle, I am a person with many interests. In addition, as my blog gained in popularity, readers became interested in other aspects of my life besides travel because it has always been centered on my life and adventures. Not only that – because this blog is now my full-time job I really it to reflect who I am. Furthermore, I am much more than just a girl who enjoys traveling. Although I started out as a travel blogger, I think I always knew that I would eventually outgrow that niche. As more and more of you come to my website to read about my adventures, I’m excited to be showing you everything I love – whether that’s amazing destinations or just my new dress or an amazing recipe.
What Is A Lifestyle Blog?
Sabina posted this at 16:57 in Blogging with 61 Comments. What is a blog about lifestyle? Good question – and one that has been on my mind a lot lately…
If you regularly read Girl vs. Globe (yay!) you’ve surely noticed that I’ve been posting about a lot more than just travel. Food recipes, fashion shoots, tips on how to be happy in your own skin – a really wide array of new topics.
The transition has been enjoyable for some of you, but not for others. I recently found the following comment underneath one of my posts:
“Would also be good to see some actual travel experiences, becoming disappointing in content and writing style in general. Lifestyle blog not travel blog is really more what is happening here now.”
My instinct was to cry uncontrollably and curl up in bed. Not because the remark was particularly cruel or anything like that. It didn’t. I was upset because it tapped into my biggest fear in transitioning into a lifestyle blogger.
I felt as though I had let you all down and abandoned everything that had once excited you to follow along on my journey. But instead of feeling sorry for myself I decided to sit down and figure this out the best way I know how – by writing about it (and illustrating it with Mean Girls gifs, because I’m cool like that).
Let’s find the cause of this and resolve it once and for all. What is a lifestyle blog?
what is a lifestyle blog
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what a lifestyle blog is. Simply put, it’s a website documenting one person’s life – a curated gallery of their personal interests and everyday existence.
The problem with this definition is just how broad it is. As a lifestyle blogger you can write about anything. Food, fashion, technology, your work, home decor, relationships, career, DIYs, financial advice, freelancing, parenting… nothing is off limits.
Anyone can have a lifestyle blog, from a 60-year-old garden gnome designer in Minnesota to a teenage LGBTIQ activist in Taiwan. As you can imagine, although they might both call their virtual plot of land a ‘lifestyle blog’, the content would be fairly different.
But although pretty much anyone can have a lifestyle blog, the people most frequently associated with lifestyle blogging are twenty to thirty-something women writing about fashion, beauty and fitness.
And unfortunately for all the lifestyle bloggers out there, the common misconception is that in writing about “everything” we write about nothing at all.
what is a lifestyle blog
My boyfriend asked our blogger friends the following question on Facebook: “What do you think of when the words ‘lifestyle blogger’ are used?” Unsurprisingly, many of the answers support that view…
“I know it doesn’t need to be women, but lifestyle blogger does make me think of women. fashion, food, interior design, beauty, and travel. It somehow also makes me think of someone who more scratches the surface
