Photo Credit: areyouabeauty.com
According to Blogrank.com, The Beauty Brains ranks as one of the top 3 beauty blogs online today. The blog is written by cosmetic scientists with the goal of making the rest of us smarter about beauty products. Consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising from beauty product companies that may be confusing, misleading and often false. The Beauty Brains eliminates the clutter and explains cosmetic science to us in our own language. Randy Schueller, The Beauty Brains’ director, tells College Lifestyles more about the successful blog and provides tips for classy co-eds who aspire to start their own blog.
College Lifestyles: Tell us a little about how you came up with the idea for The Beauty Brains and how you got started.
Randy Schueller: Two cosmetic chemists founded The Beauty Brains blog in 2006. After working in the beauty business for 20+ combined years, the founders were tired of the hype and misleading information. We felt there was an unmet need in the market for a place where people could go to learn the truth about beauty products from the scientists who make them.
CL: It seems that your beauty bloggers strive to maintain anonymity; is there a special reason for this?
RS: Our blog is written by a number of different scientists. When we started, many of us were employed by some of the big beauty companies. We began blogging anonymously to help protect those scientists and to ensure that they could blog without bias.
CL: Writer’s block must be a blogger’s worst nightmare. What is your process for coming up with topics and maintaining a steady stream of blog entries?
Photo Credit: blogs.smarter.com
RS: Though we publish new material every day, writer’s block is never a problem for us because we get ideas for blog posts from three different sources: questions readers submit to us through our forum, the latest beauty science breakthroughs found in technical publications and new product news we receive from public relations firms and beauty companies.
CL:Your blog has become very popular, and we all know that success does not happen overnight without hard work. What tips do you have for young writers looking to enter the blogosphere?
RS: First, and most importantly, find a blog topic that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. If you don’t love your topic you won’t stick with your blog.Second, commit yourself. If you’re serious about blogging you need to work on your blog every day. Third, become knowledgeable about the four keys to successful blogging: learn how to set up your blog, create great content, drive traffic and make money from what you write.
CL: Writing about beauty products all day seems like a classy co-ed’s dream career! However, all jobs have their own challenges- what are the most enjoyable, as well as the most challenging, aspects of running The Beauty Brains?
Photo Credit: thebeautybrains.com
RS: Our blog doesn’t do traditional product reviews where we talk about how much we like the latest eye shadow or skin cream. We write about the science behind such products. For us, the most challenging aspect is making sure we’re always as scientifically accurate as possible. At the same time, we have to keep it entertaining and engaging or our readers won’t be interested. The most enjoyable part is when we get a comment from a member in our community who thanks us for helping them save money, or for making them a smarter shopper. We love hearing from our loyal fans.
To learn more about The Beauty Brains visit their Facebook, follow them on twitter at thebeautyblog and, of course, read their blog here.
Loving the girly blogs right now? Check out another interview with fashion blogger Lauren Pfieffer.
Natalie Raymond, TCU Strategic Communications and Sociology graduate, is College Lifestyles’ Women’s Health Writer. She is constantly covered in fur, looking forward to graduate school, and is bursting with fun topics to write about for College Lifestyles.
