Answering Questions from my Reader Survey

At the time of writing this on Thursday afternoon, I have almost 2,500 responses to my reader survey and they are SO HELPFUL! I really appreciate you taking the time to answer so I can help keep Wardrobe Oxygen a place you trust and enjoy. I've seen a lot of questions asked in the survey and wanted to answer a few. And if you haven't filled out the survey yet, I'd love your anonymous feedback!

Answering Questions from my Reader Survey

How Can I Contact You Directly?

Have a question you don't want left in the wide open comment section? I have a Contact Form and when you fill it out, it goes directly to my email inbox. Also you can email me directly. I won't put the email here because spammers gonna spam, but it's my first name (or info) at the URL of this website.

I cannot guarantee every email will get a response. A few things that will make it more likely your email will NOT get a response:

• This is not where to air grievances about retailers changing their quality or sizing or not having your item in stock. I don't have some magic control over the buyers at department stores or manufacturers for small businesses. Though discussions that get a lot of responses about bad customer service or quality in my Facebook group or in the comments are noticed and I do use them to determine if I'll recommend that brand in the future.
• I do not offer personal styling or personal shopping. I encourage you to join the Facebook Community and pose your question as the folks in there are really amazing and may offer you great advice or suggestions.
• I am a human, not a robot or a major corporation. If you lack common courtesy or are nasty in your email to me, you will not get a response.

That being said, I love hearing from you and try to be as much as a resource as I can with the time and access available to me!

Where Can I Find Exclusive Promo Codes?

I hope to update the site soon so it's easier to navigate, but for now, you can visit this link and there I have links to most of my favorite retailers as well as any exclusive promo and discount codes offered by brands and retailers. It's a bit hidden in the menu, but if you click “About” you'll also find the page there.

Have You Considered Columnists or Guests of Different Ages/Sizes/Styles/Skintones/Hair Types?

Yes, I love this idea!!! Back in the day, I had three columnists who brought unique voices and expertise to Wardrobe Oxygen but it didn't do well. In 2015, folks wanted to only hear from me. But since then blogging has changed and I think a variety of voices and expertise along with my own can only benefit Wardrobe Oxygen.

Do you think you'd make a good columnist for Wardrobe Oxygen? Would you like to share your experience shopping for a certain product or review a certain item or brand? I accept such content from the Wardrobe Oxygen community, and I pay too!

I am being very squirrely with my wording because daily I receive dozens of emails from strangers wanting to write on this site using words like post and guest. It's an old site with good SEO and can benefit them while providing me nothing but an AI-written piece of junk. I just delete them. But if it's someone who knows Wardrobe Oxygen and cares about the audience and can bring a unique perspective that the audience desires, I am all for it! Some examples of past contributions from the Wardrobe Oxygen community:

• Grace shared her experience searching for the best travel pants
• Lissa wrote a series about her experience shopping sustainable fashion brands such as Alder Apparel
• Jackie received a free pair of sandals (and payment) in exchange for a Poppy Barley sandal review
• My sister Debbie received a free mattress (and payment) in exchange for a Big Fig mattress review
• Amanda shared her experiences as a professional reseller on how to make money on Poshmark
• 16 Wardrobe Oxygen readers received a free swimsuit and payment to do a Miami Fitwear swimwear review (FYI, after this the brand overhauled their fit and design!)

If you are interested, send me an email with “I want to write for WO2” in the subject. I will share my expectations for such a piece and the rate. Up front, know they need to be detailed, they need to be fair, and they need to have clear, high-resolution photos that include you in them.

I am especially interested in reviews and articles by people of color, people who are older than I, and people who wear a different size range than I (tall, plus, narrow feet, large feet, very petite).

I also love to hear from those who are super knowledgeable about some subject important to the community, like Amanda's piece on Poshmark. Are you expert in looking chic while using a mobility device? Have tips on how to thrift when plus size? Do you know the best way to repair torn jeans or alter a garment with zero sewing skills? Are you a drugstore beauty diva and want to share your favorite foundations or mascaras? Are you really into a certain sport or hobby and have found the perfect garment or attire for it? If you're serious and are willing to write the content this community deserves to read, I'd love to hear from you!

The Substack Thing Sounds Complicated… I Don't Want Any More Emails/Apps/Logins

I hear you, and that is a BIG reason why I haven't done anything yet. We're busy women with a diminishing number of f*cks to give and adding more social media and apps and logins… that's a big nope.

I can tell from the responses I have already gotten from my reader survey that a few of you also read Cup of Jo, Girls of a Certain Age, and The Stripe. And all three are now on Substack. Cup of Jo and The Stripe are only using it as their new newsletter platform, while Girls of a Certain Age is using it in place of their blog. I would be using it closer in a manner to Grace and Joanna, where it would be free, and you wouldn't have to do a single thing as a reader and user.

See, in Mailchimp (my current newsletter program), I have a list of subscriber emails. I would export those, import them to Substack, and emails would keep coming just like before but just from a different email provider. You wouldn't have to do a single thing. You will never need to make a Substack account, never use the app, never log in (unless you're already a Substack subscriber and want to update or merge profiles).

Right now, I am leaning towards keeping my RSS newsletter where it is, and then using Substack for a weekly digest email. And then folks can choose to get one or the other or both. And anything that would be added to substack would be discussed here and on Substack. I will never have Wardrobe Oxygen content behind a paywall. If I do the paid option, it would only be for something in the future I have yet to create and I would always have an option to offer it free to those who can't afford it, no questions asked.

Have you Considered Doing What [Name Influencer, YouTuber, Stylist, etc.] Does?

I have received a lot of suggestions to do series or topics similar to other online personalities and some of the ideas are really cool. Some of the folks you're mentioning I didn't know of, and I love their content. I am feeling inspired and my creative juices are flowing to see if there are ways I can do something in the same vein without copying and making it right for this community.

But most of the ideas you have are from bigger influencers who have teams, even if you don't know those teams exist. They have assistants who film those videos, then edit them, and then post them on their channels. They have interns who create those posts, those collages, those Instagram slides, those storefronts. Their family is on the payroll, with someone else managing the pitching, the accounting, the contracts, and the tech while they create the content. And I am a one-person show.

It takes me hours to craft one blog post. Weekend Reads alone takes about 12 hours throughout the week. A sponsored Reel can take days of filming, editing, having content approved, re-shot, caption written, all the buttons and tags, and everything is done and then shared. I then follow up on comments, share metrics with the brand, invoice, and follow up on invoices (so much following up to get paid).

Each morning I wake up and usually have at least 30 Instagram DMs to reply to and will get another 100+ throughout the day. Most days, I receive over 500 emails (though most are immediately deleted). I make the collages, I edit the photos (even the ones my husband takes), I am my editor, my tech person, my social media manager, and the only stuff I outsource is Pinterest and a bit of SEO.

I have decided to make this website my top priority, but this is by far the most labor-intensive part of being a content creator. It's why other creators have way more Reels and videos and collaborations and fun stuff but their writing sometimes ends up being a lot of shopping posts or short reviews (often written by someone else). I like to play with the kind of content I create so things can always change and I may add new concepts but know that while that website or social media platform may be named after one individual, there's a good chance that if they have 15K followers or more, they likely have a team to support them.

But while I am on this subject, if you think you'd make a good team member for Wardrobe Oxygen, you can reach out in the same way as those who may wish to write for Wardrobe Oxygen. Share with me your resume, give me a pitch, and heck, you may be exactly what Wardrobe Oxygen needs to elevate this already great community!

Will You Be Sharing the Survey Results?

Yep! I plan to keep it open a bit longer because I also know from the survey some folks only visit here once a week or so. I want to get a good range of feedback from all types of readers of the blog. I'm sharing this survey link a bit on social, but focusing here because the changes will make the most impact on the blog and how y'all consume/access it.