Blogger Spotlight: Phil McCormick, Gentleman-Project

Having launched his blog Gentleman-Project in March of this year, Phil McCormick is new to the blogging scene. Equipped with a passion for fashion and grooming Phil uses his blog to share his tips and advice on how to look suave. In this spotlight Phil chats to us about what inspired him to start blogging, how he likes to work with PRs and reveals what will be big in his blogosphere in the coming months.

Can you tell us a bit about Gentleman-Project, and what made you start your blog? Gentleman-Project is a Men’s UK Fashion and Lifestyle blog. It was started by me, Phil McCormick,  a lover of all things fashion, grooming and lifestyle who wants to share my ideas, thoughts and findings. GP is my outlet to do this. It has been created for those who would like an opinion on anything from their next pair of shoes to a certain type of aftershave.

I started this blog as I’m a huge lover of fashion especially ‘Best of British’ styles and suits. I believe in the traditional gentleman look along with the casual streetwear look and therefore wanted to share my thoughts and ideas, maybe so that my readers would love these ideas as well.

How do you measure the success of your website? Success is a funny one. At the moment – as my blog is still fairly new – I measure the success of Gentleman-Project in two ways. Firstly by how well it is doing on social media. I tend to see how many people share or like a post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. I also measure the traffic and where it comes from on Google Analytics. This for me is the only true way to show PR’s or brands how many unique visitors you’re getting. From both of these techniques, I can then do a month on month data collection and see how we are growing and what areas we can target specifically.

What’s your favourite blog and why? Uh-oh, putting me on the spot here! I don’t have a favourite blog but two that I read quite often are Craig from ThatDapperChap and Aftab from Fresh&Fearless. Craig conducts brilliant and well thought out reviews which I find give the reader a real insight into the product. Aftab produces really brilliant restaurant reviews, superb lifestyle posts and also has a great eye for fashion.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog? If you want to start a blog, I’d recommend basing it on something you’re truly passionate about and then the rest is easy peasy. I wouldn’t go into it thinking about earning money or ‘what freebies can I get?’. It’s as simple as if you have had an interest in something and enjoy writing then why not give it a go? What have you got to lose? As long as you have this mentality then I think you just have to remember that it’s a lot of hard work. I, for example started my blog right at the end of my final year of university, therefore I have been snowed under with essays, dissertations, blog posts, among many other things. Would I change it, though? Would I heck!

How do you work with marketers and PRs? Although I only launched my blog in March 2016 I have had a few PR’s and brands get in touch. So far everyone has been really friendly and professional. I’d say the way I work with them is by asking if they have checked out my blog (making sure it suits what they’re looking for). Then it’s just all about communication. I like to be very honest and not beat around the bush. I’ll say how many words I usually write per post, what the turn around time of post will be and that they can expect a similar style to other posts because ultimately, that is my personality in my writing.

How do you use social media to promote and share content? What are the challenges? I currently use Twitter, Instagram, G+, personal Facebook and my blog Facebook page. They’re all very different platforms, Instagram is great when utilising hashtags and creating a following of people with similar interests. Twitter is great as the blogger communities are there and when we share each others work, PR’s and brands are able to find us easily. Finally, I’d say Facebook is great because your friends are always interested in what you’re getting up to, some even take what you talk about and look into products themselves.

The challenges with social media are that it is so saturated. Being a male blogger, however, isn’t so bad as there aren’t very many of us so it’s almost very new and fresh. It’s also quite time-consuming running the blog and planning social media. I can definitely understand why companies have a social media team these days as it is a full-time job.

What can PRs do in working better with you? Ideally, PR’s for me should show personality. They should speak in a professional but relationship building way as that is what they will receive from me.  It kind of bothers me when you receive a blanket email which isn’t very personal. However, I do understand that time is of the essence and they are very busy people. So I would at least expect them to have looked at my blog and understand whether a certain product or experience would suit my readership.

What has been your blogging highlight? For me, my blogging highlight has to be my first ‘official’ review. It was of a Nelson Martina watch all the way from Switzerland and it felt absolutely great to be chosen by the company to conduct a review. What makes it a better highlight for me is that a fellow blogger had recommended me and it genuinely made me feel so grateful that somebody had enjoyed my blog to the point of recommending it. I’ve always liked to try and help other bloggers out by sharing their content among other things but from this, it really has made me dig down and support others work. We’re all in this together at the end of the day.

What will be big in your blogosphere in the coming months? For me, the big things in the next few months will be bigger and better content. At the moment I am located in Middlesbrough, but will be moving to London in the coming months so you will find a very different look and feel (especially in my images). I’ll be focussing a lot more of my attention on men’s outfit posts and including more reviews from some cool and exciting brands. One final thing for me will be meeting a lot more bloggers and attending events. As I have started my blog right at the end of my final year of uni, it’s quite difficult to get to events and mingle. But when I move to the old smoke I will be going to many events and hopefully meet plenty of fellow bloggers and PR’s.