One year ago, I created my Instagram and Facebook page aspiring to be a content creator in hopes to inspire myself and other women to love their midsize body. What a year it has been. I have grown, created, and learned so much. I am so glad I decided to take the leap. It has been a wild ride, but so grateful for it. I want to share the timeline of everything because I am proud of it, but maybe inspire someone else to take the chance if what I'm currently doing is something you aspire to do as well.
June 2022:
Inspired by my husband who started in YOUTUBE channel in May. I decided I wanted to jump on the social media train and create content of my interests. I struggled at first deciding what I wanted to do. All Things Susana (the name) was almost immediate, but I wanted to narrow it down to my main interests. I wanted to share what I was passionate about with others. I did a lot of reflection this month. One BIG thing this month and the past two years was motherhood and learning to love my body postpartum. I struggled with finding clothes that made me feel good about myself and confident. I discovered midsize content creators on Instagram this month and it came to me. I wanted to create an account and share Amazon Fashion. Why Amazon Fashion? Well because when I was pregnant with both babies, I went on a purge and got rid of about 95% of my wardrobe. So after my second baby was born, I had nothing. I was okay with it because my body changed. Starting a fashion page inspired me to rediscover my style as well as gain confidence in my Size 10 body. I also had so many things I wanted to say based on experiences during motherhood, and I wanted to share that as well. So I created a Blog. Writing is my creative outlet and how I best express myself.
After I decided what I wanted to do, I created my handle, and Instagram page, Facebook page, blog website and I signed up for the Amazon Associates program. Anyone can sign up for this program FYI. Amazon gives you 6 months to grow a following and make at least 3 confirmed sales. After that, you are officially an Amazon Associate.
July 2022:
All Things Susana was official. I shared it with family and friends. I started writing and creating content. This month though, my content was all over the place. It was not just fashion. I did Fashion, recipes, book reviews, mommying, lifestyle. Everything that was a part of my life at the time. It actually was a little too much. Even though I created a schedule for myself, I could already feel myself burning out. So by the end of the month, I made the decision that my Social Media would be only fashion, and everything else would be in written blog posts. That change made things wayyyy more manageable.
August 2022:
This month, I reached out to a lot of Instagram friends sharing my profile to them personally. This was actually a VERY scary thing for me to do. I felt like an imposter, but this month was when I started an actual following on Instagram with people I knew and trusted. I don't know why I was so nervous because about 50 people responded and started following me. It meant so much to me. I was getting a lot of support and comments from what I was doing. I don't know why I was so nervous to reach out to family and friends. This month I also searched for and followed a lot of accounts who had AMAZON FASHION accounts and other fashion niches. I also followed a lot of midsize fashion bloggers. I felt that if I was going to grow, learn and be inspired with new ideas, finding a community who has similar content was the way to go. I met SO MANY content creators.
October 2022:
I was seeing a lot of fashion bloggers sharing a shopping app called LTK. I honestly had no idea what this app was until I started following other content creators. I decided to apply and I was denied. Ugh. I was so disappointed. I felt like all the work I put into my social media pages was labeled as a "failure". I think I even considered giving up. I am so glad I didn't. After being denied from LTK, I had to wait a full 30 days until I could apply again. I decided to just keep doing what I was doing and then try again in a month.
November 2022:
I had my first (and only) VIRAL REEL. Well, viral for me. I made the reel in October, but it did not "pop off" until early November. From this reel that had over 87,000 views, I gained a little over 1200 followers from it. My Instagram page was finally over 2,000 followers. It was the most exciting thing. I was receiving mostly positive comments. My notifications were blowing up that I had to turn it off. I reapplied to LTK and got accepted. I started to share my fashion pictures to LTK and sharing links through that. This month I also created a TikTok, and a Pinterest. I did not do too much with it, but I at least had an account set up. I was still learning a lot what I could do.
December 2022:
I applied for the Amazon Influencer program and got accepted. I finally had an Amazon Storefront that I saw a lot of fashion bloggers share as a way to shop links. I was still trying to figure out the LTK shopping app that I did not do as much with my Amazon Storefront at first. This is probably my biggest regret. I did not realize the value of having a storefront and getting accepted into the Influencer Program. I should have done so much more with it the moment I got accepted. But oh well. You live and you learn. At least now, in present time I know and I am taking full advantage of the Amazon Influencer program and all it has to offer.
March 2023:
I started a YouTube channel. Mostly just for shorts. I share the reels I made and post it as shorts on YouTube. My husband actually encouraged me to start a YouTube Channel. There were a lot of changes happening with Instagram that my reels were not reaching a lot of people anymore. Not even my own followers. I was getting extremely frustrated. My husband said to start a YouTube Channel since Shorts at the time was the current "hot" thing to do. I was already putting in the work, so why not! I plan to create longer videos one day. But I need more time for that. So until I figure that out, just posting Shorts it is.
April 2023:
I changed my strategy. I stopped writing my blog posts this month because I was doing more on my social media pages and on my Amazon Storefront. I decided to post twice a day. One being a collage outfit inspiration and one being a reel or pictures of outfits. I did a lot of scheduling in advance to prevent burnout. I also posted all my collages on my Amazon Storefront. I thought "why not". I have the storefront so why not make it my collage space. My new strategy worked great. I was reaching more people with my pictures and collages. In some cases, more than my reels. So it definitely was worth it. Plus, creating outfit inspirations in a collage was a lot of fun for me. I was finding more fashion and best sellers on Amazon that I did not know existed.
June 2023:
It wasn't until June that I realized the value in having an Amazon Storefront. All the collages I was posting daily since April started to be shown more on Amazon. I thought the only way to make money in the Amazon Influencer program was with sharing links. I didn't realize that the sharing links was mainly the associates program. The influencer program was more of what was happening on Amazon. The collages I was making was being shared on product pages and other search areas on Amazon. When someone clicks on one of my pictures and buys a product or a similar product, I get commission once the item is shipped. I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS A THING! I remember looking in my influencer hub. The number of commission earned was always in the negative. But in June, I was making between 50cents to 12 dollars daily. I could not believe it. Again, this is why I kick myself that I did not start posting more when I first got accepted into the program in December.
I also discovered this month the "Shoppable Videos" opportunity on Amazon. I did not start sharing videos on Amazon until I figured out this program mid June. I did a lot of research learning what it was and that I was already able to do it. I just needed to get approved. Basically, I needed to submit 3 videos of what my content would look like that I share to my Storefront. I shared two voiceover videos and one without audio. One was an outfit (that I already posted on my social media pages), one was a travel bag, one was candy jars. I decided that if I was going to start doing Shoppable Videos, I was going to do it right and share more than just fashion. My plan was to share everything in my house that's Amazon once I got accepted. After two days, I was accepted. I immediately started creating videos. The goal of these videos is to create and post to my storefront and then Amazon does the rest. Basically, once the video is published it has the opportunity to be a video on the product pages. If someone watches it then buys the product or a similar product, I get commission. I learned my lesson and decided to go all in with this opportunity. It feels like a part-time job, but it's worth it! Check out my Amazon Storefront! You will see what I'm talking about!
There are 3 things I learned about myself in the past year. One, I am obsessed with bodysuits. All types of bodysuits. Two, I have more confidence in my Size 10 body postpartum (X2) than my Size 4 body before babies. Three, I discovered creating outfits and sharing it with others is fun and has become a passion. My goals changed, my dreams changed, I changed.
To my community and other content creators who supported me this past year, THANK YOU! I will continue to show up and build what once started as a dream. Here's to the next year of All Things Susana.
Love you all!
Susana
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