00:00I'm Lucy Fink. I'm a video producer at Refinery29, but every so often I like to
00:04try other people's jobs. Today I'm hanging out with Courtney Quinn from
00:09Color Me Courtney to see if I have what it takes to be a blogger. This is Lucy
00:13for Hire. While I have a pretty substantial Instagram following myself
00:19and I occasionally do paid brand partnerships on social media, my main job
00:24at Refinery29 is being a video producer and a lifestyle host. I find that I'm
00:29occasionally lumped into the blogger category just because of my Instagram,
00:33but the truth is I'm not a blogger. Courtney Quinn on the other hand is one,
00:38so I spent the day with her to see if I have what it takes to do her job.
00:43Hi, I'm Courtney Quinn and I'm a blogger at Color Me Courtney. Courtney lives with her
00:47fiance Paris and her adorable French Bulldog Waffles, who's paralyzed in his
00:52hind legs but does not let that stop him. So I became a blogger kind of by
00:56accident. I went to school for marketing and I had a degree in finance and I
01:01looked kind of like a numbers nerd on paper. I started a blog so I could start
01:05applying for fashion jobs and eventually get hired. I think people think blogging
01:11is really glamorous and it's not a lot of work, but it is. I always like to explain
01:15it like an iceberg, like the tip is all you see but there's so much work underneath
01:20the iceberg that goes into it that you would never see. Most bloggers don't work
01:25for a big corporation. Instead, they work for themselves. They're aiming to build
01:29their following, grow their personal brands, and of course, make money.
01:34Okay, so let's talk about money. Someone with like about a hundred thousand followers
01:38on Instagram who's maybe just doing Instagram, I think you can bring in about
01:42a hundred thousand dollars a year, somewhere in that range. You can charge like
01:46anywhere from like on the low end kind of $500 for a post to maybe on the high end
01:51like $2,500. And it's important to remember that's not just taking a selfie
01:55and like posting it. It's all the work that went into it, all like the back and
01:59forth. A lot of times you have to pitch your idea to a brand ahead of time and
02:03kind of go through all these hoops before that actual content gets published.
02:08People pay way more for blog posts than they pay for actual Instagram posts. So even
02:13though it's only 25% of my content, it accounts for 50% of my income because
02:17people pay more for them. Yeah. I gotta start a blog! Whoa! And based on
02:24Courtney's formula, I'd say she's doing pretty well for herself. So after
02:28gathering a little bit of background about her day-to-day happenings, she put
02:31me to work. Your first challenge is self-management. One really cool way to
02:36grow your following is to partner with other influencers and it's also a really
02:39good way to pay it forward and share your followers with other influencers and
02:43kind of get exposed to their followers too. So it's just win-win-win-win-win.
02:47I've done a few of these collaborations with other influencers, but Courtney does
02:50them all the time. It's an amazing way to grow and expand your audience. So today
02:55we partnered up and we each put in a little bit of money to give a gift card
02:59to one lucky winner. Two. One. Post. We shared our posts at the exact same time and
03:07each told our audiences to follow the other. By the end of the day, we had each
03:11gained a few thousand new followers from this. Now that we're growing your
03:15following a bit, let's go make a pitch deck. Next Courtney showed me what a
03:20typical media kit would look like and we sat down to evaluate hers before I made
03:24my own. So basically you just want it to be like a quick one snapshot of your
03:29personality, stats, faction figures, contact information, if you have a manager, all
03:33that kind of thing. So are you ready to try? Yeah I think so. I think I've got a good
03:37idea of how I want to arrange the photos. Yeah. And I think I know a few photos I want
03:41to
03:41use. Most of daily life as a blogger involves creating original content. So
03:46you won't get that far by reposting other people's photos. Be creative, be
03:50innovative, and stay true to yourself. As a blogger, you're responsible for
03:54building your own brand. So the best thing you can do is set yourself up with
03:58all the tools you'll need to truly sell yourself. Your second challenge is content
04:03prep. So one thing I spent a lot of time doing is scouting locations. About one day a
04:08week when it's nice weather, I'll like go out for like three or four hours to a new
04:12neighborhood, walk around, put in a podcast, and just look for colorful ideas. The two
04:18of us took a little walk to scout a nice shooting location. They'll use cabs a lot
04:22of times for yellow. How far in this radius do you usually go to get location
04:28scouts done? Oh, a lot of times I'll take a car to a totally different
04:32neighborhood and like try to figure it out because I kind of get sick of doing like
04:37the same neighborhood. So you would never do something like, no, this. Uh-uh. Okay.
04:43It's raining. How are we gonna shoot out here? I don't know. I'm sweating. You gotta
04:49push through. It was hot. It was raining. I stepped in a puddle. An all-around
04:55exhausting experience. I'm just about ready to shoot right here. No, that's not
05:00gonna work. This is it. We found the spot. We have to keep going.
05:06But for Courtney, location scouting is a major part of making sure that her feed
05:11stays colorful and vibrant. This would be cute of you because you have like a cute
05:16little matching outfit. True. Whoa.
05:20Once we returned, Courtney showed me the other major part of her content prep phase,
05:24the prop closet. Over time, Courtney has accumulated a ton of gear to shoot with.
05:30Different cameras and lenses, various types of lighting, tons of backdrops, and more. But
05:35when she was first starting out, just like I did, she just used an iPhone. Once we were
05:40ready, we started our shoot. Your third challenge is to shoot. I've gotta say I'm
05:45pretty happy it's pouring and we can't take this outside. Because of the rain, we set up
05:49indoors by pinning a solid colored sheet to the wall to use as a backdrop. And then we steamed
05:53it to make sure there were no wrinkles. Then we set up the cameras and lighting.
05:57I actually really do love shooting and I can shoot every single day. But it can be challenging
06:03because a lot of times I shoot on my own by myself. So I have this little like pop-up
06:07tent.
06:08Get in there, change, hope it's not a windy day because then you're like falling all over.
06:13To change into the next look so that I can get out and keep shooting.
06:28After we were happy with what we shot, it was time for my final challenge. Your final
06:33challenge is to edit. Since Courtney and I are both into making stop motion videos, we
06:38always receive a ton of questions about which editing program we use. Neither of us uses
06:43stop motion apps or a stop motion program. To edit this stop motion video that we shot
06:48together, I just used Adobe Premiere, which is a video editing software. It takes a little
06:53bit longer than a stop motion app would, but it gives you more freedom and flexibility.
07:03But the real test on whether or not I'm blogger worthy comes down to photo editing.
07:08My mom took this photo, so it was just on like generic settings and that's where the background,
07:12like this was a really yellow building, but it's kind of blown out. But now adding this
07:16like warmth to it. When I'm traveling and like my mom's taking my photos or just like
07:21someone random on the street, like I don't always have the best opportunity to get the
07:26right settings that I want.
07:27Right.
07:28Creating great content is obviously where it starts, but what happens post creation,
07:33I'm really able to just transform it with the editing process and make, you know, a not-so-great photo
07:39something that's up to par with the usual standard of what I create.
07:43Before.
07:45After.
07:46I want you to try one and this photo is really cute, but I think you can make it cuter.
07:52Yeah? Yeah.
07:53Okay, this photo of me and my brother on horses.
07:57Where were you guys?
07:57Anguilla.
07:58But like, I feel like that water was probably bluer than it looks in this photo.
08:03The sky looks totally gray.
08:04Yeah, blown out.
08:06And like my brother's not even paying attention, he's taking a selfie.
08:08Runners.
08:09Alright, I'm gonna fix it.
08:10Yeah, I think you can fix it.
08:12And then I gave it a go.
08:15I edit all of my photos on my phone, like using like free apps because I just want it
08:21to be something that other people can do too.
08:23The before and after is really crazy.
08:27You ready for this?
08:29Before.
08:30After.
08:32Goodbye, Robbie.
08:35Well, that's what you get for taking selfies.
08:37That is amazing.
08:38Being a blogger for the day was not only physically draining, but I really did get a taste of what
08:43it would be like to work for myself.
08:45Your success and how much income you can bring in are tied directly to the amount of work you
08:50do and the amount of time you spent hustling.
08:52I pull all nighters all the time.
08:55At least one a week.
08:56Usually two to three a week.
08:58Just because there's so much to do and it's only me and if I don't do it, it doesn't get
09:02done and everything relies on that.
09:05So the next time you think blogging looks effortless, just remember how much work actually
09:10goes into it.
09:11And just know the market out there is highly saturated.
09:14So if you want to do this full time, make sure to bring a fresh angle and something completely
09:19original.
09:20There's only one you, so show the world what you've got.
09:23We'll see you next time on Lucy for Hire.
09:25Hey YouTube, thanks for watching.
09:27Click here to watch another video on Refinery29.
09:30Here to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
09:32And right here for my...
09:34Sorry, did I just hit my mic?
09:36Personal YouTube channel.
09:38Woo!
09:39Say cheese!
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