Who is Mrinalini Sachan?
Listen, in her own words…
Hi, I am Mrinalini, a beauty blogger with over 5 years of experience in the domain. I am an engineer by degree and currently work as a digital marketing consultant. However, beauty and lifestyle products have always garnered my interest.
Therefore, I started my blog lipstickforlunch.com in 2017, to share my reviews of beauty products with my readers. Through my blogging journey, I have connected with various beauty brands and have collaborated with numerous such brands. I have also built a loyal audience with whom I have developed a personal connection through my blog.
Can you tell our readers about yourself and your blog?
My blog is called lipstickforlunch.com. It is a beauty and lifestyle blog where I share my experiences with Indian makeup and skincare products. Since I have oily and acne-prone skin, my reviews are centered around products that are suitable for this skin type.
Hence, the aim of my blog is to help women dealing with skin issues like acne and pigmentation find effective yet affordable products to tackle their skin concerns. Apart from skincare, I also share haircare and makeup recommendations with my audience, along with some interesting posts dedicated to fashion and lifestyle.
Describe how you first get into blogging?
My interest in blogging was ignited when I was in college. I used to struggle with acne and tried to look online for effective products to tackle the same. Thus, I stumbled upon product reviews by beauty bloggers that helped me build a skincare routine.
Over the years, I tried a myriad of products and realized that my reviews could help other women make the right skincare choices. Therefore, I decided to create my own blog to share my experiences with different products with the world.
How would you describe your blogging style?
I have a conversational blogging style where I try to talk to my readers through the written word. I share snippets of my personal life and personality along with my product reviews so that my readers can connect better with me.
Apart from this, when it comes to reviewing a product, I try to answer any questions that my readers would have about the said product in as much detail as possible.
What type of networking do you think is better to enhance your traffic to the blog?
I feel that networking with fellow bloggers and brands can help you explore collaborative opportunities such as guest posts and sponsored posts, which may bring more traffic to the blog. However, the uniqueness and quality of the content, and SEO, are of utmost importance.
What do you think is the best service a blogger can provide to his readers?
The best service a blogger can provide to their audience is well-researched or authentic information about the subject matter.
One should try to answer the questions that cannot be easily Googled. This way, you will be providing unique and useful information to your readers. Also, presenting the information in a succinct and easy to understand format is quite helpful.
How do you manage time to run your blog efficiently?
I like to list down all my tasks for the day and the week in my journal. I then dedicate specific windows of time to each task. This allows me to run my blog efficiently.
How do you want to improve yourself in the next year?
I want to increase the frequency of posts on my blog and what to further enhance my knowledge of SEO.
What was your greatest failure and what did you learn from that?
Not a failure but an oversight that I regret is not paying enough attention to SEO during my early years of blogging. Once I started focusing on SEO, my audience grew multifold. So, I wish I had worked on it from the beginning.
Tell me about your proudest achievement?
I feel extremely proud each time my blog is mentioned as one of the best blogs in the country by a leading website or magazine.
Also, I am proud when a leading beauty brand finds my work worthy and wants to collaborate with me.
I have collaborated with almost all the top beauty brands available in India and that is a huge achievement for me!
Who has impacted you most in blogging and how?
In terms of support and motivation, my husband has been my biggest cheerleader so far *touchwood*. He encourages me to keep pursuing new opportunities and challenges.
In terms of role models, I am heavily inspired by all the top bloggers in the beauty and skincare space. Each of them brings their unique voice to the table, which encourages me to find my own.
What is your greatest achievement outside of blogging?
I hold a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from IIT Guwahati, one of the top engineering institutes in the country. I have also worked at some of the leading MNCs as an embedded software engineer and have had a successful career.
What do you do in your spare time?
I like to read, travel, cook and watch movies in my spare time.
Where would you like to be in blogging five years from now?
I would love for my blog to be one of the top 10 beauty blogs in India. As of now it is performing well and is often listed among the top 100 beauty blogs in the country.
What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?
There have been plenty of challenges along the way. In my initial days, it was challenging for me to understand all the nuances of running a blog and reaching out to brands for collaborations as a complete beginner. In the later stages, time management was a challenge and still continues to be so.
Can you name some of your favorite bloggers and explain why they are your favorites?
Two of my favorite bloggers are Ankita from corallista.com and Mehak Sagar from peachesandblush.com. Both these ladies are OG beauty bloggers whose blog posts I used to refer to back in college. Their reviews are authentic and their blogging style makes me want to keep on reading!
How do you motivate yourself to keep the blog up and running?
Writing has always been a passion and simply putting my thoughts into words is incredibly therapeutic for me. This combined with the massive interest in beauty and skincare encourages me to keep my blog up and running.
I am always curious to try new and interesting beauty products, and once I try them, I have to share my thoughts with my readers.
Can you tell me about a few sources from where you get products for review on your site?
I purchase most of the products that I review on my site from online shopping portals. However, I have also built good relationships with various brands and PR agencies over the years and they too send me products to try and review.
What do you find the most frustrating aspect of blogging?
That it is really hard to predict which piece of content will perform well. Sometimes the blog posts that took the least effort get the largest traction while the blog posts that I worked the most on get relatively lesser readership.
What is the biggest difference in your life post-blogging?
I feel that blogging has taught me self-discipline and has also improved my communication and networking skills.
Did you have any professional help or did you create the blog yourself?
I did not take any professional help and everything on my blog is my own doing.
How active are you on a weekly basis? How often do you communicate with your followers?
I try to put up a blog post at least once a week. I also have a monthly newsletter through which I communicate with my readers.
How much time do you spend blogging?
I spend at least an hour daily working on my blog. Apart from that I often dedicate one day a week solely to blogging.
What do you think is the best social media strategy for getting more visitors to a blog?
I believe that short form content in the form of Instagram reels or YouTube shorts is booming these days. So, you can share a video snippet pertaining to a certain blog post on these platforms with a call to action to visit the blog for more information.
Would you encourage other people to make their blog?
Absolutely! Anyone who has the passion to write and share their thoughts with the world should explore blogging. However, the intention should be to create engaging content and not to monetize the blog from the get-go. That should happen organically.
Is blogging your profession or just a hobby?
I would call it a part-time profession as I do earn a percentage of my income from the same.
A lot of people think that blogging is an easy way to make money online. Do you have some tips for those people who are interested in making money from the blog?
My top advice is that you should not get into blogging with the sole intention of making money. While you may earn a good amount through blogging, it requires a lot of patience and time to reach that stage.
Therefore, your primary motivator should be the passion for creating unique content with quality and consistency. Only these qualities will be able to help you create monetizable content in this competitive and arguably saturated space. And yes, I would like to clarify that while you can make good money, it is not easy money 🙂
