Archive for: Media Database

Brian Palmer is the author of thewashingmachinepost, a top 10 cycling blog. Covering reviews of cycling gear and equipment, as well as ride routes in Scotland and the Hebrides, Brian’s blog has a loyal following of cycling enthusiasts. We caught up with Brian to find out about the best bicycles, his favourite collaborations and the fear that stops him reading other blogs.

How do you describe what you do to other people?
I write incessantly about road bike culture, hopefully with a soupçon of humour along the way.

How did you discover your love of cycling?
I don’t like driving, so I’ve always ridden my bike to get about, even in atrocious Scottish weather, and it keeps me fit.

What’s the best bike you’ve ever ridden?
It almost seems unfair to single one out, so I’ll mention my Specialized CruX cross bike and my Campagnolo equipped Ritchey Logic. Mind you, the Basso Diamante I’m reviewing at present looks very promising.

What’s the best cycle route in the world?
Anywhere on Islay, but I did enjoy Hot Chillee’s annual ‘London-Paris’ ride.

What will be the next big thing in cycling?
Honestly I dread to think as a confirmed luddite. I’d be quite content if they simply left things alone.

What’s the cycling blogging community like to be a part of?
To be honest I really don’t know. I’m too scared to read other blogs in case they’re much better than mine!

Do you accept press releases?
Yes. Always. But they’re only the starting point. I always rewrite everything in what little style I might have. I never just publish the original.

What are the best campaigns you’ve collaborated on?
I did some work with Daniel Pasley in Portland in the very early days of the North American ‘Rapha Continental’. That was fun.

What advice would you give to PRs/brands reaching out to you?
Please don’t offer me pre-written content. I write thewashingmachinepost because I enjoy writing, so I’m never going to use somebody else’s work.

Leading food blogger Amuse Your Bouche rebranded earlier this year to become Easy Cheesy Vegetarian. Still a top 10 food blogger, author Becca Heyes spoke to us about the process of rebranding, the ethos of her blog and the way she works with brands and PRs.

Why have you rebranded?
I felt like I’d outgrown the name Amuse Your Bouche. Lots of people didn’t understand what it meant, and it didn’t actually give any information about what you’d find on the site. Easy Cheesy Vegetarian is a real ‘does what it says on the tin’ kind of name – if I saw that name, I’d immediately want to browse the site, as that sounds like just the sort of recipes I’d love to see.

How big a project is it rebranding a blog? Any major challenges?
It was quite a big project, but luckily I had a great developer who designed a fantastic user-friendly site for me, and set up all the redirects from the old site perfectly. I definitely wouldn’t have attempted that aspect of the rebrand on my own, as it’s so important to get the redirects right.

Changing social handles was actually easier than I thought it would be – most social networks allowed me to make the switch with no problems.

What’s the Easy Cheesy Vegetarian ethos?
My recipes all tend to fit three main criteria:

1. They only use straightforward ingredients that you could easily find at your local supermarket. I find a lot of vegetarian recipes use ‘weird’ ingredients that can be hard to get hold of and seem pretty alien to a lot of people.
2. They’re simple and easy to follow, with no unnecessary steps.
3. They’re hearty and filling – I don’t do tiny portions of fussy food.

My recipes are (hopefully!) really accessible, and easy for everyone to enjoy, whether they’re a vegan, omnivore or anything in between.

What kind of people do you write your content for?
Just normal people like me! I could try to write for specific kinds of people, but really all I can do is to write content that I would enjoy, and hope there are enough people like me who will enjoy it too. So I suppose, if you’re a slightly busy (but also slightly lazy) person who just wants to enjoy some good, straightforward vegetarian food, Easy Cheesy Vegetarian is the place for you.

What’s the best cheese?
That’s the hardest question in the world! I suppose it depends what counts as ‘best’. Halloumi is definitely one of my favourites – the rich salty flavour is amazing, and you can’t beat it when it’s gooey in the middle and crispy on the outside. But I probably use a good old cheddar more than any other cheese, as it’s just so versatile. My fridge would feel empty without it.

What’s your favourite recipe from your own repitoire?
Ooh, it’s so hard to pick. I’ve spent the last seven and a half years years coming up with new recipe after new recipe, and there are hundreds to choose from! I suppose my cheesy bean bake is one of my favourites because it’s hard to think of anything that could be better than a rich, hearty casserole topped with plenty of cheese! Or, the lentil and halloumi curry I shared recently was pretty incredible too. Halloumi in curry is a real revelation.

What’s the best vegetarian restaurant/option at a restaurant?
To be honest, I don’t go to vegetarian restaurants very often. I find it overwhelming when there’s too much choice, I’m so used to only having a few different things to choose from, not a full menu. I’m actually pretty predictable when it comes to eating out, I like to choose something I know I’ll enjoy, and that I rarely make for myself at home. I find it hard to resist a good veggie burger and chips.

Has the rebrand changed the way you work with brands/PRs at all?
Nope! Luckily, everyone seems to have realised that the site content is the same as before, my readers are the same as before, and I am the same as before, so very little has changed in that respect. I still love to work with brands to bring new and interesting products to my readers.

What advice would you give to brands looking to work with you?
Be good communicators! It’s frustrating when I’m talking to a brand about a new project, and they stop replying to emails for a few weeks. All it takes is a two-sentence email letting me know that I can expect to hear from them in a couple of weeks’ time, and everyone is happy.

Food & Drink is a supersector as identified in the UK Bloggers Survey – how do you feel it fits in with the rest of the blogosphere?
I think there will always be food and drink blogs because everyone needs to eat. So, it’s an important category that can reach all sorts of people from all walks of life, rather than more niche categories that may only be relevant to certain types of people.

Food & Drink can also command some of the highest prices for posts and collaborations, but it’s by no means consistent – do you feel there should be standardised pay?
I definitely think that everyone deserves to be paid equally for their time, nobody should be working for free. But it’s also important to remember that brands are not only paying for a blogger’s time, but also to reach their audience, which can obviously vary greatly in size. Therefore, I do think it’s fair for a blogger with a huge reach to be paid more than a blogger with a small reach. There are lots of factors involved.

What other blogs do you read?
I have very little time to read other blogs these days, with a toddler to look after alongside blogging, and another baby on the way! So, I wouldn’t say there are any blogs I read consistently at the moment. But, I do think it’s really important to know your industry, so I do try to keep up with general trends in blogging, and to keep an eye on how other people are doing things. I’d say I read a little bit from everyone, rather than reading any blogs in particular.

Along Dusty Roads was created by Andrew and Emily back in 2014. Now a top 10 travel blog, Along Dusty Roads covers slow travel; living, breathing and falling in love with every destination they visit. We caught up with the travel couple to find out about their lives as bloggers, use of social, the best places in the world and how they work with brands and PRs.

How do you describe what you do to other people?
With great difficulty.

We wear many hats in this job, literally and metaphorically. There’s a bunch of creative stuff (writing, photography, design), lots of admin, lots of logistics and planning, lots of website and tech things, areas that are akin to marketing and advertising, and then all the day-to-day jobs that come with running our own digital business.

It’s the travelling that’s the easy part, but most people perhaps don’t realise everything else we have to do to keep Along Dusty Roads ticking over.

However, the golden thread running through absolutely everything we do, and motivating everything we do, is trying to help people to travel more, and travel better.

That can take many forms, but primarily it’s about writing personal guides and tales based only on our own experiences and adventures so that others can read reliable, realistic, and relatable writing to inspire or plan their next trip. And taking pretty pictures along the way while trying to raise awareness of a travel style that’s more responsible, considerate and curious!

How do different social channels work with your blog?
We try to maintain a consistent voice across them, but it’s difficult as each social media channel lends itself to a different type of content and a different type of attention. Simply cross-posting the same things or pushing out old blog posts each day isn’t what our social media is there for – instead it’s somewhere to show our personality a little more, build a community outside the more static medium of the blog and share different stories of our travels or a destination.

There’s no doubt that Instagram takes up more of our time and attention than we’d like, but it’s also the social media that most clients care most about. We were slow starters to Stories, but absolutely love it as a creative space and way to interact better with our followers. We struggle with Twitter as a forum for travel, but recently have found our audience actually really enjoy images, which we previously thought weren’t a good fit for the medium. Facebook is comfortable and we have a lot of people there who have been with us since the beginning, but sometimes being a bit more personal or longform on that platform doesn’t feel right.

Do you think travel blogging will be your job forever?
We certainly hope so.

The dream is to grow Along Dusty Roads while always keeping it true to our core principles and travel philosophy. There are various projects, improvements and innovations we’d like to do based around the blog, but the trouble is finding the time to develop these.

Where’s the best place for street food in the world?
Based on our own experience of the world (there are so many places we haven’t visited), we’d go for Mexico.

Which country has the friendliest locals?
Every country has friendly locals who go out of their way to make you feel welcome, but every country also has people who may not. Thankfully, we’ve experienced more of the former rather than the latter on our own travels.

What’s your favourite mode of transport?
Due to our travels across Latin America, we’ve probably spent about two months in the last five years solely travelling on buses (which usually had a Fast and Furious movie on, or anything else from The Rock’s back catalogue).

When it isn’t packed or ridiculously expensive though, there’s a gentle romanticism to train travel – and as a traveller it is the sort of environment where conversations different to the ordinary with a new person are possible. It’s also less stressful and more sustainable than many other modes of transport.

Do you accept press releases?
We write everything on Along Dusty Roads, and we only write about places that we have personally visited and experienced. We think that’s something core to what distinguishes a travel blog from any other travel-oriented website out there – and readers value that. This means that we don’t accept or publish press releases.

What are the best collaborations you’ve worked on?
We’re very selective on collaborations.

That travellers trust us, and respect our opinions, which means the absolute world to us, and we take that responsibility incredibly seriously. We would never jeopardise it or take it for granted. This means that any collaboration has to be a great fit for our audience and our travel style, and something or somewhere that we can genuinely and wholeheartedly support or recommend.

Thankfully, this focus on suitability and quality means that the campaigns and collaborations we do work on are pretty great. For example, we’re Wanderers for G Adventures, a small-group adventure company that does great things to lead the conversation on responsible and sustainable travel.

What advice would you give to PRs/brands reaching out to you?
The main advice is to start conversations about working together as early as possible. We have to plan out our travels months in advance, and having things sorted earlier rather than last-minute helps massively.

Also, taking the time to look into who we are and what we do at Along Dusty Roads before getting in touch makes a world of difference. Generic queries waste everyone’s time, but we love discussing how we can work together when it’s clear that somebody has taken the time to actually think about whether we’re a good fit for them (and vice versa) and contacts us with a clear idea about what they want to do together.

We only really work on bespoke campaigns now, so the final thing would be  to trust our experience as travellers and bloggers so that we can create a campaign together that doesn’t simply visit the same places mentioned in every single other article about a destination, and understanding that free time on an itinerary is a good thing, not a bad thing, when it comes to travel writing.

What other blogs do you read?
We like to get our travel inspiration and travel journalism from a really diverse set of traditional and modern media, rather than only reading blogs, but we are big fans of The Common Wanderer, This Battered Suitcase, Jungles in Paris, Budget Traveller and Flora the Explorer (to name just a few).

MenswearStyle has once again been named the number one blog in the top 10 Men’s Fashion Blogs. The creation of editor Craig Landale, MenswearStyle is multi-award-winning, including two Vuelio Blog Awards and Best UK Blog. We spoke to Craig about the biggest issues in men’s fashion, his love of New Balance, how he works with PRs and the blogs he loves to read.

How do you describe what you do?
The simplest way to describe what I do is probably what I tell my parents; I write blog posts about menswear and men’s grooming, but in reality it’s much more than that.

How do different social channels work with your blog?
Pinterest and Twitter drive the most traffic to my blog posts, whereas Instagram is more of a branding medium that shows our fans a little more going on behind the scenes day-to-day. Facebook is quite useless unless you’re willing to spend money.

What’s the biggest issue in men’s fashion at the moment?
Men have come a long way in educating themselves on men’s fashion rules, dress codes and trends. However, I still see guys in suits going into the city on the London Underground wearing horrendous shoes such as loafers, which should have been thrown in the bin a few years ago.

How significant is waste and sustainability in the fashion world?
It’s so important right now and it has been a real eye opener. Britain alone is expected to send 235m items of clothing to landfill this year, the majority of which could have been re-worn, reused or recycled. I blame the large companies making throwaway fashion more than the people though. This is where true rapid change can happen.

Who is the best fashion designer we haven’t heard of yet?
Have you heard of Oliver Spencer? I’m sure some of you will have but he’s British and he’s pivoting his brand towards the sustainable route this year. He started out selling second hand clothes on London’s Portobello Road. Today he sells his own brand of clothing made up of high quality relaxed and modern style basics and classics.

What’s your favourite item of clothing?
I love my New Balance sneakers. I’ll wear them with almost everything, even a suit.

What are the best campaigns/collaborations you’ve worked on?
A recent standout collaboration I’ve worked on is with a new Northampton-made goodyear welt shoe company called Artisan Revolution. I showcased their four styles of shoes in a photoshoot and video shoot located around King’s Cross.

How important are press events for you, compared with releases or being sent product?
I find press trips have a big impact on the way I feel about a brand. I often come back from a few days away with a brand as a true advocate with a full understanding of a brand’s ambition.

What advice would you give PRs looking to work with you?
Just get in touch via email and we can discuss some ideas. I do like it when a project is already set with clear tasks and I’m invited to take part but I can also be flexible too.

What other blogs do you read?
I ready Glossy, Lean Luxe, Courier Magazine and Business of Fashion.

Queer Little Family has once again been ranked in the top 10 LGBT+ blogs. Written by Bread, the blog shares a personal journey about being queer and raising their child, Snappy. Known for being honest and direct, Bread told us about society getting worse for the LGBTQIA+ community, brands working with the community and their favourite blogs.

How do you describe what you do?
I write. I write about being a queer parent, I write about mental health, I write about being queer. I write because I love writing. It’s the only way to describe what I do, why I blog, accurately. It started and continues as a writing project more than anything else.

How do you use different social media channels with your blog?
I don’t use Twitter much for my blog, I think I need to have a bit of clean up, but I do use Facebook to post articles I find interesting or are relevant, as well as memes. I can’t resist a good meme. I use Instagram a lot too with pictures of my kid and stuff we’re doing. I was a late comer to Instagram and dead against it, and I’m still not a big fan of filters but I love it now!

Is society getting better or worse for the LGBTQIA+ community?
Worse. If you asked me six months ago I wouldn’t be saying that – but homophobic and transphobic attacks are on the increase, by 90% in some areas. People are protesting outside of schools, and disrupting the lives of kids over the fact LGBTQIA+ people exist and a book that depicts two male penguins raising a chick together, and transphobic ‘feminists’ are taking over the media with lies and scaremongering that is definitely affecting the entire community. I am pretty isolated here on the edge of nowhere, but I’ve never felt this unsafe, never felt this anxious about leaving my safe haven.

Have you ever experienced online trolling?
I dislike the word trolling, because I think it minimises what these people are doing and the effects they have on people like me. It doesn’t matter what their intention is, they are harassing people online, spreading hate and bullying people. And yes, I have been subject to that, but I’m pretty tough and don’t let it stand. I fight back. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequence.

Why are Pride events important?
For the reasons above. The increase of hate crimes on the LGBTQIA+ community, the online bullies, the media lies about transgender people. Pride is a protest and more important than ever. It’s important to stand united against hate, to show the next generation that they can be themselves, and be happy and healthy and loved.

What’s the best ways for brands to get involved without them just woke-washing?
Include LGBTQIA+ people in campaigns outside of June. Involve them in campaigns outside of one marketed to LGBTQIA+. I find not drawing attention to it, just LGBTQIA+ people just existing in campaigns without it being Pride month, or having anything to do with being queer makes all the difference. Include us on lists of blogs that aren’t just LGBTQIA+ blogs, include us in campaigns with cishet people.

What are the best campaigns/collaborations you’ve worked on?
I don’t really have anything this year. I stepped back from blogging for a little while and am only just getting back into it over the last six months.

What advice would you give PRs looking to work with you?
Actually read the blog. Actually know who you’re talking to. Know what the blog is about before trying to sell your business that is so far removed from any of the topics on my blog. Stop sending me emails that are gendered. Hell, at least change your template to reflect who you’re emailing – I can’t tell you how many lazy PRs have done that recently. I will call you out and block your emails.

And be very aware that I do charge. I don’t work for free but I do donate half of everything to different LGBTQIA+ charities and Domestic Abuse charities.

Do you accept press releases?
Yes, but usually you have to tell me what you want me to do with them. Do you want me to tweet about it? Link to it somewhere? I get too many emails that tell me about something I may or may not be interested in without asking me what they want. I find it much easier if people specifically send me tweets or Facebook posts to repost/retweet.

What other blogs do you read?
LesBeMums, Papa, Eden and Me, The Milky Gay and TwoDads.U.K..

Jamie Beaglehole is one half of Daddy & Dad, which has once again ranked in the top 10 UK LGBT blogs. What started as a means to share adoption information for same-sex parents, Jamie and partner Tom have now become a major force in the parent blogging world with sons Lyall and Richard, and have featured in national television campaigns for the likes of eBay.

We spoke to Jamie about social media (and Lyall making sure they’re on the right platforms), homophobia in society, supporting LGBT+ all year round and going mainstream when working with PRs and brands.

How do you describe what you do?
We’re Jamie and Tom, dads to Lyall and Richard. We share our family’s adventures via the Daddy & Dad blog. Our ‘no filters’ approach helps prospective adopters and young people get a feel for real-life parenting from a gay dad’s point of view. The blog and social channels became my full-time job last year. Through partnerships with global brands and publications, we aim to raise the profile of LGBTQ families; showing the world how happy, settled and thriving our kids are with their two dads by their sides.

How do you use different social media channels with your blog?
There are so many channels now! As a thirty-something dad I’m trying my best to keep up. The Daddy & Dad blog has always been our main focus and I established our Instagram as a convenient gallery to run alongside the blog. Quite quickly Instagram became its own entity with its own troupe of followers and an outlet for brand-collabs. The engagement we receive on Instagram is fast and easy to respond to. Twitter is our channel for giveaways, general chit-chat and allows me to respond to LGBTQ current affairs. We’re new on YouTube – we have a few clips on there, already attracting thousands of views. We’re also new to Facebook (believe it or not!) and we’ve been blown away by the level of engagement our page generates.

I should also mention, Lyall’s pestered us into signing up to TikTok – we’ll be trying a few things out on there in the coming weeks. Brands have an expectation that influencers are conversant with all the latest social apps and channels so Lyall’s a great resource for me!

Is society getting better or worse for the LGBT+ community? 
Do you know, a couple of years ago I would say better, but now I’m not so sure. The current political climate (I won’t mention the ‘B’ word) has created a comfortable environment for homophobia. When homophobia is unchallenged by our political leaders and influential celebrities, people with extreme opinions come out and join ‘the debate’. The trouble is, there’s no debate. Prejudice against LGBTQ people is inherently wrong, whether it’s born through religious teachings, family, upbringing, peers, whatever and it has no place in the UK in 2019. Unless we have the full, explicit support of the Government and our leaders, things aren’t going to get better on their own.

Have you ever experienced online trolling?
Yes we have, I’m afraid. For example, a beautiful picture [right] of our family at Disneyland Paris during Magical Pride was distributed to international news outlets in June and went viral. In the picture, Tom and I are kissing, with the boys looking very proud of their dads. As a result, we were unexpectedly launched into the public eye. To us, it was just an ordinary family photo – one of hundreds we snapped during our Disney trip. But we received a lot of feedback, including several nasty direct messages and comments and one particularly threatening death threat that we shared across social media before reporting to the authorities. Don’t worry, we’re thick-skinned. But we do worry about vulnerable LGBTQ people on social media. Bullying is completely unacceptable.

Why are Pride events important?
As a family, we absolutely adore Pride events. The colourful people, the music, the atmosphere – everything. There’s a misconception among some people who assume Pride events are unsuitable environments for children; too sexy perhaps. But that’s not our experience at all. They’re very family-friendly; in fact you’ll find more adult content at a football match.

As mentioned before, the UK is experiencing a resurgence of homophobia, ranging from a subtle ‘why flaunt your sexuality?’ or ‘lesbian, gay, whatever – we don’t care so why keep shoving it down our throats?’ rhetoric, right through to harassment and assaults as you’ll have seen in the news. Pride events are crucial to show the world we’re here, we’re very proud of our progress and we aren’t going away. Essentially, Pride events are the direct response to people who would rather LGBTQ people weren’t visible.

What’s the best ways for brands to get involved without them just woke-washing?
So many global brands have adopted rainbow branding this year – it’s fantastic to see. But, woke-washing is a problem. Brands should make it very clear which LGBTQ cause they’re supporting and the Pride theme should follow all the way through to the branding on their website. Otherwise, customers click through to their website to find no sign of Pride whatsoever and it’s very disappointing (Marmite, take note!). I think that’s the answer – if they’re genuinely interested in showing solidarity, brands should openly collaborate with an LGBTQ charity and really throw themselves into the theme. Either way, all these lovely rainbow logos are bringing LGBTQ right into the mainstream. Temporarily, I might add!

What are the best campaigns/collaborations you’ve worked on?
As a family we’ve been very lucky to work on several national campaigns with some huge brands. Every single one has provided an incredible experience so it’s very difficult to pick a favourite. We featured in our own Christmas TV and radio campaign with eBay – that was our first big TV job. In February we interviewed the stars of The Kid Who Would Be King movie – that was incredible!

We joined Mo Farah’s family in a home-cleaning challenge for Mr Muscle in April. In May we reported from Magical Pride at Disneyland Paris – Disney’s world-first official Pride event. In June we took part in ‘Screen Free Fathers’ Day’ with Vodafone. During all this we’ve also been visiting and reviewing the country’s top theme parks. We’ve been very busy! I guess if we had to pick a favourite, Disney’s Magical Pride was utterly wonderful, and we’ve never felt prouder of our family.

What advice would you give PRs looking to work with you?
We love working with brands on family-friendly campaigns. Same-sex families are under-represented in the blogging world and in mainstream media so we’re aiming big. While we do work with brands like Disney on LGBTQ content, our mission is to be considered a mainstream parenting blog and a resource for brands who want to feature a happy, active family in their campaigns. The fact we’re two dads should really become less important as time goes on. If you’re a PR and reading this, we’d love to hear from you – please do get in touch!

Do you accept press releases?
We do, yes. We’re especially interested to hear about family-friendly events, movie releases, father-and-son fashion and theme park attractions.

What other blogs do you read?
Parenting blogs, mainly! We’re friends in real-life with loads of lovely bloggers (through events like the Vuelio Blog Awards and Dadcon) and we try to read them all. We keep up with LesBeMums and their days out around the south coast. We follow The Dadsnet and Dadblog UK for tech reviews. Howeydon is our fashion guru! We also read Nige’s blog DIY Daddy for his mental health and DIY musings. Our favourite new blog this year is Two Dads in London.