Blogger Spotlight: Dannii Martin, Hungry Healthy Happy

Hungry Healthy Happy was created in 2011 by Dannii Martin to document her transformation to a healthy and balanced lifestyle after losing 100lbs (7 stone) due to a health scare. The blog is now regarded as one of the most influential in the UK and since expecting her first child with her partner Dave, now features lifestyle content. In this spotlight #VuelioBlogAwards nominated blogger Dannii Martin who also recently appeared on our top ten food blog ranking chats to us about how she measures the success of her Hungry Healthy Happy, how she works with PRs and the challenges of promoting her content across the different social channels. 

Why should people read your blog? What makes it different? Hungry Healthy Happy is all about finding healthier ways to enjoy your favourite meals. Getting healthy and losing weight doesn’t mean being restrictive and it doesn’t mean not enjoying food. It’s about balance!

How do you measure the success of your website? High traffic and a large social media following is a great gauge of success, but it’s the emails and comments that I get from readers saying their family loved a recipe of mine, or they discovered a new product they loved through my blog. Numbers can just be numbers, but those messages show that people are reading and engaging.
 
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? Start it for the right reasons. Start a blog because you want to share something with a world, not just because you want to make money from it.
 
How do you work with marketers and PRs? I will only ever promote products that I truly believe in and would use myself, so I create recipes that promote products, and we have just started a home, garden and family section on the blog too. I also do social media management and public speaking.
 
How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? The challenges are that it is ever changing – the changing algorithms does make it harder for bloggers to promote their content, which is frustrating when you have spent years building up your social media following and then FB charges you for them to see it. I just try to be natural on social media and post what I like. I try not to get caught up in the algorithms too much.
 
What can PRs do in working better with you? Honesty really does work both ways in that kind of relationship. Also, understanding that bloggers work really hard, and that is not something that should be expected to be done for free.

What has been your blogging highlight? Having my book published in January was a dream come true. I think it is the goal for many bloggers and seeing all my recipes in print like that, and being able to gain a whole new audience, was just amazing.

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? For me personally, it will be the birth of our first child. It is going to change what we blog about and we can’t wait for the change!