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Natasha Courtenay-Smith shares blogging secrets
Following our spotlight interview, Natasha Courtenay-Smith, entrepreneur, digital marketing strategist and publicist rejoined us for a special webinar to share exclusive inside info on how to get rich by blogging. Having interviewed the world’s leading bloggers, vloggers and content strategists for her new book ‘The Million Dollar Blog‘ who better to lead a webinar on this topic? Drawing on her vast knowledge Natasha explained the importance of having a business plan, branding, having a niche, creating evergreen content, and having multiple streams of income. Despite covering a lot of ground during the webinar, she was not able to answer all questions from our listeners with the time we had available, so Natasha has returned to answer your questions.
How should you go about monetising your views as a blogger? Income from blogs falls into two distinct spheres – direct earnings and indirect earnings. Direct earnings come from advertising or helping to sell other company’s products, indirect earnings come from tangible opportunities that arise as a result of your blog’s success. Direct earnings might be sponsored posts, ads, collaborations, affiliate links. Indirect earnings are things like consultancy, freelance opportunities, books and speaking.
What are your top tips for building an audience, both on the blog and social media? Consistency, consistency, consistency.
Are there any other ways of sharing blogs other than social media? Yes! Email marketing, publicity and also talking about them in real life! Going out and about to networking events.
Carrie Green is one example, she’s an entrepreneur who founded the Female Entrepreneur Association. Through sharing the stories of successful women on her blog, she has a hugely successful website plus social media followings of over 300,000, and a membership club for female entrepreneurs which has over 3000 members from around the globe paying £30 per month (and with a waiting list for entry).
Carrie told me: ‘I networked like a crazy person and built momentum by taking massive action. It’s too easy to take a step back and say, ‘I’m putting all this work in and no one is reading it, no one is commenting.’ I googled networking events to go to, found a list of them and started going along to them. I was terrified: networking is awkward and I’m a real introvert.
I’ve been to both great events and awful events, but I soon started to build up a group of people who knew me and knew what I was doing. People would say, ‘I’m interested in your story, do you want to come and be on a discussion panel?’ Then I’d say to my family and friends, ‘I’m doing this thing today, come along!’ I even went down to a local fair near my parents’ house and a local radio station was there and I asked them to have me on the show. They agreed and it felt like a huge deal at the time; I couldn’t believe I was on the radio!’
Do you have any suggestions for what to charge when approached by a brand? This is niche specific and brand specific. You might charge a huge brand more for the same thing than you would charge a cottage industry business wanting to work for you. You need to start to understand the rates in your niche by talking to both your fellow bloggers (just ask them, what did X pay you for that) and also digital marketing managers at the brands in question. It’s a bit of a game of blind man’s bluff. Let them take the lead, say things like: ‘What budget do you have in mind for this?’ and then try to negotiate them up!
How often should you post content to build traffic? Generally, content = traffic. It equals something to share on social media and something new for Google to send you visitors for. There’s no perfect amount. The most successful blogs and online media brands post dozens of times a day. It’s more about what you can realistically maintain. As consistency is everything here!
At what point should a blogger create a media pack? Well, according to Vuelio, blogs start to get monetised at around the 10,000 visitors per month right? So definitely once your traffic is that high. But I would say as soon as you’ve got your blog looking the part, you’re clear on your positioning. Launch strong, open the doors for business. Start how you intend to go on! You never know who might be reading and who might be wondering about approaching you.
What are the best platforms for setting up a new blog? I’m going to say WordPress – but with the caveat that that is what I’ve used since 2008, it’s what I build my client sites on so it’s what I know. I feel its endlessly flexible and can adapt to anything and you never need to move from it – and it only seems to be growing in popularity. But I haven’t done any scientific analysis and there may be a tech geek out there who would have valid reasons why something else is better.
What would you say constitutes engaging content for a business blog? Obviously that depends on the business! But I think behind the scenes and glimpses inside a business always works well – meet the team, inside our office or factory. And I would say answer what your clients are asking you as at least you know that is information that they are seeking.
How should you go about creating a business plan for your blog? Bear in mind most bloggers have no plan at all, they just have enthusiasm but that then wanes. Just get clear on the business model you are running, and write up a single page. It doesn’t have to be the sort of business plan the bank might need. It can be more human than that. Answer questions like: ‘My blog will make money through’. The next steps I need to take are’, ‘When this blog is fully grown it will’, ‘Just get the big picture down in writing’.
How do you turn blogging into a successful brand and create multiple streams of income? You accept that you’re not going to have overnight success, and you buy my book, The Million Dollar Blog!
Media Relations Management
Media Relations Management
The Vuelio media management software is a collaboration tool that helps you organise, share, track and report all of your PR activities and media relations.
Make sure your team is always in sync by quickly allocating tasks and sending updates between team members, so you know that wherever you are, your PR strategy is on course.
Overview
Simplified team collaboration
Distribute notes, lists, projects and tasks between team members – no matter where they are, or when they might be working.
Vuelio is more than ‘just’ media relations software – it’s a CRM tool for your media contacts and PR activity management, for all of your stakeholder engagements. Organise PR projects – activities, media lists, distributions, monitoring coverage and more – by campaign, client, product, company or brand.
Know who’s talking to whom
Vuelio automatically creates activities every time you send an email or distribute a press release. Assign specific activities and tasks to team members and track their progress with full email integration and contact management software. Detailed reports let you know what’s on schedule and what still needs to be done.
Advanced reporting
Our advanced reporting and tracking features keep you on top of all upcoming deadlines, generates status reports available at a moment’s notice, and creates usage management reports for those all-important ROI calculations.
Forward Features
Forward Features
Pitch your story to the right people, at the right time.
Our collation of editorial calendars for the year ahead are crammed with media opportunities for getting effective campaign results.
You’ll know which media contacts and outlets are planning to cover your topic, meaning more efficient and more effective PR.
Overview
Search for relevant opportunities
Get the coverage your story deserves by searching forward features from tens of thousands of editorial calendar listings. Filter opportunities by topic, geography, date range and more to find the best options for your campaigns.
Never miss a deadline
Lead times change depending on outlet type, sector, topic and occasionally even the content creator – access lead time all for features, news and advertising opportunities to stay ahead of schedules. Receive automatic notifications so you can connect with media contacts when they need your story most and don’t miss out on ideal opportunities because features have already been filed.
Stay integrated
Whether you’re looking for niche topics or specific publications, we have all the information you need to plan a successful campaign. Opportunities are fully integrated with the Vuelio Media Database — so you know who, when and how to pitch for maximum resonance.
Online Media, Bloggers and Podcasters
Online Media, Bloggers and Podcasters
With the world’s most powerful Media Database of journalists and online influencers at your fingertips, Vuelio makes it easy to find who is most important to your organisation, campaign and audience.
Broaden your outreach beyond traditional media, as we cover data on bloggers, vloggers, podcasts, TikTok and Facebook groups, helping you further amplify your message across new audiences.
Each contact is authenticated by our research team and ranked using the Vuelio influencer rating. Data points used include audience reach, engagement levels, SEO, recently mentioned topics, and more.
Overview
Discover the most relevant people for your story
We make it easier to build relationships with the most influential voices in your industry. Our database covers journalists alongside online influencers – taste-makers shaping and influencing public opinion in real-time.
With detailed contact information and profiles for journalists, editors, bloggers, vloggers, broadcasters and more, Vuelio gives you everything you need to build lasting relationships with the people that matter.
Get to know them
Once you’ve identified the influencers you’d like to work with, our detailed profiles help you form your pitch based on their professional background, social media and recent activity. We include social networks including X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube, so you can see everything in one place.
Each profile includes personalised pitching tips, contact preferences, visitor data, social demographics and our unique influencer rating, giving you an edge when connecting with your audience. You can keep an easily accessible record of proactive and reactive conversations with our stakeholder relationship management tool, too.
Target effectively
Our proprietary influencer rating calculates the level of influence a specific journalist, influencer or publication carries across traditional and social media. Profiles are rated on a scale from 0 to 99, so you can see at a glance which contacts will have the biggest impact on your campaigns and resonate most with your audience
Our rating looks at data points including content performance, engagement, social presence and following, to determine overall influence.
In-depth influencer profiles
Comprehensive influencer profiles, featuring both online and offline contact details alongside detailed profile information to help you understand their social influence, visitors and social media activity. Our in-depth profiles include contact preferences, topics of interest, personal pet peeves, biographical information and more.
Traditional Media
Traditional Media
Vuelio’s world-leading Media Database lists more than 1.8 million global contacts, outlets and opportunities, spanning nearly 200 countries.
Whatever your brief, reach or planned approach, we’re here to help you succeed in getting the right information to the right contacts, at the right time.
Tailor your comms with know-how on who writes about which topic, how they prefer to be contacted, the publications they’re associated with, and who the top influencers are — no matter how specific your subject.
Overview
Engage the right influencers, in your target industry
Build relationships with the right stakeholders wherever they are in the world. Our in-house research team keeps international influencers and media contacts up to date in the easily-searchable global Media Database.
Our advanced search filters allow you to build media lists and look for new contacts based on topic, location, media type, reach, social influence and much more.
Reach journalists, editors and online influencers the way they prefer to be contacted, as our detailed profiles include pitching tips alongside contact information like email addresses, direct phone numbers and social media handles.
All the information you need, in one place
Our in-depth profiles are designed to ensure that all the information you need is on hand when you need it. Profiles are kept up-to-date by our in-house team of media researchers and they include contact preferences and details, pet hates, topics of interests, biographical information, social media handles and Vuelio influencer ratings.
Our proprietary algorithm, bolstered by partnerships with industry-trusted providers including Kred and Moz, provides insight into how influential and engaged a contact or publication is across social media.
Vuelio’s recent article search function allows you to search for contacts who have recently covered any topic across news sources as well as social media, granting deeper insights into which people to pitch to, as well as their writing style.
Manage your media relations
Creating lists and tracking down all your coverage is time consuming – reduce the stress by combining your media relations, distributions, conversations, and analysis with our media monitoring solution.
Vuelio gives you full visibility of the effectiveness of each campaign – from press release engagement to the publications and contacts who picked up your story.
Keep your team on track and monitor tasks and upcoming deadlines through the reporting and tracking tool. Share notes, lists, projects, campaigns and tasks between team members, no matter where they’re based.
Blogger Outreach
Blogger Outreach
Reach the people that influence your audience with the Vuelio blogger database.
The Vuelio blogger database is an essential tool for blogger outreach, whether supporting your PR efforts, marketing campaigns, community management, SEO – or all of these as part of an integrated communications strategy.
Let us help you improve your influencer outreach and easily find and contact the bloggers that matter to you, by giving you access to the UK’s largest database of over 11,000 bloggers.
Overview
11,000 UK blogger profiles
11,000 UK blogger profiles, sorted by particular topics such as beauty, fashion, travel, lifestyle, technology and many others. We ensure that every single one of the blogs on our database is validated by our team of expert researchers, giving you peace of mind that you are reaching the right influencers.
In-depth influencer profiles
Comprehensive influencer profiles, featuring both online and offline contact details alongside detailed profile information to help you understand their social influence, visitors and social media activity. In-depth profiles include contact preferences, topics of interest, personal pet peeves, biographical information and more—everything you need to build relationships with the people who matter.
Proprietary ranking algorithm
Our unique influencer rating calculates how influential each blog on our database is, helping you find the bloggers that will have the biggest impact on your campaigns and resonate most with your audience. Using our proprietary ranking algorithm, our software evaluates dozens of data points ranging from number of followers, posting activity, comments, audience engagement and many other metrics, making it easy for you to identify the top influencers in your sector.
With the world’s biggest collection of online influencers at your fingertips, alongside all the information you need to understand their world and how best to be part of it, our software takes the hard work out of influence marketing, giving you time to focus on other tasks.
How to get your blogger outreach pitch right
Getting big names like Calvin Harris, Rita Ora, Zayn Malik or Brooklyn Beckham to endorse your product is a dream come true for most PRs. The latest research says bloggers are way more influential than celebrities when it comes to promoting products and services. So how exactly do you get through to them?
Our essential tip sheet lays down the law on successful blogger outreach. From negotiating payment to researching the right contacts and giving bloggers the credit they deserve, 5 Steps to Successful Blogger Outreach explains how to get it right.
How using a Blogger Database can help stay on top of influencers
Tomorrow’s key influencer may not be the same as today’s. A blogger with influence within one sector may not resonate with another, while newcomers join the online community every day. Bloggers and vloggers have become key players in outreach campaigns, but making sense of influence across the social sphere is far from easy.
The foundation to building meaningful relationships starts by identifying the key influencers for your campaign. Generating lists of bloggers isn’t a simple process. It involves understanding who they are, what they write about and who their audience is. Statistical information is only one aspect to keep in mind, as a blogger with a small audience may have great influence, say one of their followers happens to be a top influencer.
With dozens of social media channels to research and thousands of influencers to compare, using standalone platforms to analyse social influence becomes a necessity. Vuelio’s integrated solution combines Kred, Klout and Moz – three of the biggest social influence scoring platforms with the Vuelio Blogger Database of over 11,000 UK bloggers.
Once you have determined who you need to reach out to, finding bloggers’ contact information is the next challenge in your outreach campaign plan. Many do not list their personal contact details on their website and sourcing the information can take up a lot of time and resources.
The Vuelio collection of bloggers, vloggers and media contacts is updated regularly by our expert team of media researchers as we understand that the media industry is constantly evolving.
Having contact information, social influence scores and the Vuelio weekly top 10 blogger rankings at your fingertips helps you lay the foundation for strong blogger relations.
Cut down the time it takes to collate contact details and profile information by having a demonstration of our Blogger Database today.
Blogger Outreach: Converting Influence to Sales
Want to know what is the best way to reach bloggers and build lasting relationships with influencers?
Get our essential whitepaper and discover how you can identify the right bloggers for your brand, understand bloggers better and engage with influencers to create and sustain mutually beneficial relationships.
We’ve collated the intelligence gathered from our blogger Spotlight interviews and broken it down into five simple steps you need to take to improve your blogger outreach strategy.
Get our whitepaper to find out how you can improve your blogger outreach.
Fill out the form to download it now.
Third Sector Best Practice Communications
Want to learn the secret to the success of campaigns like Cancer Research’s Race for Life and the ALS Ice Bucket challenge? Better yet, do you want to replicate their success in your campaigns? Get our new guide and discover the best practice communications third sector organisations are using to increase their reach, enhance their reputation and improve their ROI
We’ve collected all the best practices used by charities and non-for-profits to build brand, drive campaign awareness and harness the power of communities to extend their reach.
Get our new guide now and find out how your organisation can improve its comms.
Fill out the form to download it now.
UK Blogger Survey 2016
Blogger outreach and influence marketing lessons from the largest ever survey of UK bloggers!
Thirty-five per cent of UK bloggers are pitched to by brands six or more times a week.
The same amount NEVER produce coverage as a result.
We conducted the biggest ever survey of UK bloggers to help you identify the obstacles to successful brand-blogger relationships and understand how to overcome them – so that you can make the most of every blogger engagement.
Download the survey now to find out how you can get more from UK bloggers.
