Blogger Spotlight: Natalie Lue, Baggage Reclaim

Baggage Reclaim was created by Natalie Lue as an attempt to figure out the reason why she kept attracting ‘Mr Unavailables’. Her self-help style blog includes a weekly podcast, ‘The Baggage Reclaim Sessions’. This explores topics based on questions her readers and listeners have, and encourages women to identify why they have been suffering from relationship woes. In this spotlight, Natalie, who was crowned our number one relationship blogger chats to us how noticing her unhealthy relationships patterns inspired her to start blogging, how she keeps the content on Baggage Reclaim fresh and reveals the PR campaigns she is interested in working on this year.

Relationships can be a complicated topic, what encouraged you to start a blogging about this? I kept saying that I really wanted to meet a ‘nice guy’ and yet they were never the guys I was interested in. Discovering that I wasn’t alone in chasing after men who blew hot and cold and who built you up but then held out on committing, was a revelation. I also wanted to talk about the complexities from a totally different standpoint as opposed to the ’50 Ways To Please Your Man (Who Doesn’t Love & Respect you)’ pieces.

Do you find that writing a dating blog encourages people to come to you for advice? Yes, definitely. Aside from readers and listeners seeking me out, I’m often the first person friends call when they have breakup dramas or are confused by a relationship.

What do you think makes your blog different to your competitors? Each blog is doing their own thing and speaking to their people as such. I tend to talk about experiences and frustrations that people struggle to put into words, often giving a name to issues that they thought were unique to them. I think the mix of humour and candour along with illustrations and storytelling give a unique spin to what I do.

How do you define the success of your blog? Do you do this through the level of engagement with your audience or unique visits? I think it’s a mix of engagement (people opting to work with me in some way, e.g. sign up to something, books, courses etc) but ultimately knowing that I’m making a difference.

What has been your experience with working with PRs and marketers? Limited in terms of Baggage Reclaim as I don’t run advertising or do sponsored posts. That said, I tend to hear from people who either clearly haven’t read the blog or who want something but don’t want to collaborate. It’s the casual relationships of marketing. I’ve worked with PRs and marketers with other blogs (I founded Bambino Goodies) and had lots of positive relationships there.

How much planning, research and preparation do you need to execute your content marketing plan? Probably around a month although am trying to work further ahead.

How do you keep your content fresh and up to date with current dating trends? I don’t follow trends per se. I have a community sharing stories and problems to draw from.

What kinds of PRs or campaigns are you interested in working with/on in the future? Wellbeing brands.

What are your thoughts on media databases, such as Vuelio? Very useful given that there are a vast amount of blogs out there.

Do you have a funny dating story you could share with us? Too many to speak of but when a date’s brother-in-law turned up, crying about [my date] cheating on his wife and how heartbroken she’d be, I was beyond mortified! After the shock wore off, I cried laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation and the lucky escape.

The feature image is owned by Online For Love.