At first I was against this idea. Cause it’s much more exciting to tell about our adventures rather than boringly count time, spent on blog. But after I had a six hours experience of making THIS POST on weekend and my sister told me that it’s just “three paragraphs and photos stollen from Internet” from readers points of view, I decided it was quite right time to show you everything.
Hope I don’t need to explain you, guys, that most of our posts are made of our own shootings. How we are getting ready and making them YOU KNOW ALREADY. Shortly, it all starts with the idea. It can be either what we want to SHOW you (and than I’m starting to think over the right text for photos) or what we want to TELL you (in this case, like it was with this post, when we had idea but no photos, I’m thinking over right photos or video). Ideas can be born anywhere (obviously) and are being discussed while subway trip, via Kontakt or Facebook chats, in one of thousand notebooks. But let me not count this time cause it doesn’t tear me off my everyday routine. I don’t want to count business letters and meetings, reading other blogs and web-sites helping me to produce interesting and up-to-date content, and the most important – communication with you, my dear readers. Cause your comments, letters and private messages are everything we are working for.
After the idea comes clothes choosing. I feel lucky when I have everything in my closet. But what if we are having a new partner and no his clothes yet? Or there is no new partner, but I’m strongly in need of one particular piece for one particular shooting? Than we go to the shop, show-room or designer’s home together with Alesha. I don’t see anything wrong in wearing clothes that don’t belong to me. Sometimes I can return my outfit after shooting. But I will never pretend like those clothes were mine. I only use them to demonstrate trends correctly or to look properly on an event or my workshop. So you can always understand that that was out of ordinary situation.
To collect all the clothes for one post in Moscow (with the size of the city and our traffic problems) you can spend more than one day. But we try to combine several meetings in one day and somehow manage to visit 5-6 locations at once. So here goes the first number: day! Or about 10 working hours.
Shooting. Shooting itself is not such a long process. After we learned how to share our ideas and discuss the result wanted in advance, it only takes us about 15 minutes. But we still have to get to the location and than return back:) Let it be 3 or 4 more hours? (Am I a little to systematic today? Are you already sleeping?:) )
Yet 15-20 minutes to choose good photos and from an hour up to… as much as you can imagine – for the postproduction.
And finally it’s time to enter the blog and add new post. Since we added English version of this blog, it takes me twice as much time it used to, to prepare new article (OK, it was obvious). It usually takes us about three hours for one post: to write a text needed, to check it about 15 times, to translate and check the same number of times. And to add photos afterwards (and sometimes there can be up to 50 photos! And you can only add them one by one!). And there is also Youtube waiting time for videos. And have you ever heard that you need three times more time to write dow an interview from the dictaphone? For example, to write down the main phrases from an hour long INTERVIEW WITH KATYA ZHARKOVA I needed three hours (and seven A4 sheets) + 1,5 hours to create the final text + the same for the translation + photos. And don’t forget about additional 30-40 minutes for choosing clothes from the web-shops (like it was HERE. But the way, how do you like this new idea? Do you even use it or need it?).
And the last to be talked about is – sharing all this!:) Of course, networks like Facebook or VKontakte can hardly take more than 30 seconds, but I also use some web-sites where they ask for outfit collages, clothing notes on photos, full description and links. When I’m strong enough to do each web-site simultaneously, I’m done in 1-1,5 hours.
So to prepare new post takes me about…. 20 hours?! Freankly speaking, I’m surprised myself now. I always answered “About six hours”. How far from reality!
Blogging today is way more like being editor-in-chief of the magazine. We also have content plans (though we are more often to break them rather than follow them, but no one is perfect, right?:) ), meeting schedule, presentations, statistics and traffic plans. We hire programmers, while web-designers offer us their interface ideas. We are being represented by one advertising agency and the other ones are buying our space for their clients. We are being invited to events and do organize them ourselves. You should know that time when it was enough to post mirror selfie and call yoursef “fashion blogger” is the past already. You will never return to mirror photos blog after you have seen Kristina Bazan. Correct me if I’m wrong!:) Blogs are now for morning inspirations, lunch personal mantras and afternoon positive sleep. I really think the time of bloggers being a so called “trendsetters” has passed as well. Because we don’t do it to show you how to dress. And you don’t read us to know what to wear. We are searching for an inspiration around the world and you can find your inspiration in favorite blogs. And when you discover it actually works, you can’t be happier as a blogger! It is worth any sleepless nights, any work, any hours of life. Pathetic enough to finish at this point, right?:)
Now let’s make the following: if you also want me to write about any specific theme, just write it down in comments. Cause it’s way more pleasure when you know that at list one person will be happy with your update.
And by the way I started this post at two at night. And look at the publication time now:) And the first of four Friday business meetings is at 10 in the morning. That is what I call “24/7”.
Have a great day you all and a good night to me:)
