Blogger Spotlight: Ed Lemont, The Discerning Man

Having worked with big brands such as Asos, The Idle Man, NME, and Virgin Active, blogger Ed Lemont is doing quite well for himself. Since founding The Discerning Man, his blog has become one of the leading UK lifestyle blog, bringing the latest and upcoming trends to the surface. In this spotlight, Ed chats to us about why he started his blog, how he uses social media to promote his content, and how he likes to work with PRs. 

Can you tell us a bit about The Discerning Man, and what made you start your blog? The Discerning Man was created at the beginning of 2016, as an online platform for readers to discover the very best in fashion, grooming, health, fitness, food, drink, tech and travel.

It was born out of my passion within these areas and provided a platform for me to share my findings, experiences and suggestions of the latest innovations and trends within these categories with men just like me. Although there is a steer towards men’s interests, The Discerning Man also offers articles which appeal to the discerning women too.

How do you measure the success of your website? For me, success comes in the shape of a few things; engagement when I promote a new blog post across social media. Feedback from readers, brands and PRs and looking at analytics and not only discovering the high volume of traffic coming to my blog but the breakdown of the audience which for me has been a spot on sixty percent male and forty percent female, aged 18-45.

What’s your favourite blog and why? That’s such a tough question, as there are so many great blogs out there and they are all so different. However, I’m a big fan of Robin James (A.K.A Man For Himself). I’ve followed his blog from the very beginning when it was called ‘The Utter Gutter’ and seen him blow up on his YouTube channel, Man For Himself. Robin covers a range of interesting topics to do with grooming and fashion and is never afraid to voice his opinion!  His production value is also extremely sleek.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? Start with passion, write about what you’re passionate about and don’t worry about gaining a huge following. As long as you put passion into your writing and take your time to produce quality content, you’ll be noticed by the right people.

How do you work with marketers and PRs? I’ve actually had the advantage of working in PR myself, so as a blogger I see everything from a 360-degree perspective.

When a PR approaches me about a collaboration opportunity, firstly I’m always honest about if I think the opportunity is a good fit for my blog or not. Secondly, I’ll always give a rough time frame for the coverage to appear and offer to send the links once live. Finally, I’ll ask if they would like any particular handles or hashtags included within social posts.

How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? Once my blog posts are live I’ll promote them across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. In terms of challenges faced, I’d say for me the biggest challenge for me would be turning around images to go live in real time! I only ever want to put high-quality imagery out, so you’re likely to find me sneak out of an event half way through to find a coffee shop to download my images onto my phone and then put out on my social media channels.

What can PRs do in working better with you? Get to know my blog and the kind of quality content it produces, as well as previous brand collaborations I’ve worked on. I got an email pitch for women’s leggings the other day, which I’m sure would appeal a lot more to a female fitness blogger!

What has been your blogging highlight? My first London Collection Men in June. Being invited along to attend various LCM shows of designers I completely admire, confirmed that I was being taken seriously as an influential menswear blogger. I was literally pinching myself when I was next to Jim Chapman and Dougie Poynter at one of the shows. I was also lucky enough to be invited backstage by American Crew to meet the hair teams, which was a real eye opener and provided an excellent content opportunity.

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? Bigger brand collaborations, I’ve got some really exciting ones coming up. More travel content, I’m heading off to some fantastic locations on press trips and the introduction of embedded video content on the blog.