Archive for: Blog Posts

Cory and Gergely Varga are the married couple behind You Could Travel, the travel blog that was recently ranked in the Top 10 UK Travel Blogs for the first time. Specialising in soft adventure, You Could Travel presents travels for everyone, no matter what your background or means. We caught up with Cory who told us about the travel blogging communities, adventures around the world and working as marketers with PRs.

What makes your blog unique?
You Could Travel is a soft adventure travel website aimed at couples. We know and understand that not everyone can travel all the time, so we want to help others tailor their travel itinerary to ensure their holiday is perfect. We make mistakes so our audience doesn’t have to. We are honest and transparent and we love recommending ways to help our audience become more eco-friendly.

How has travel blogging changed since you started?
We started blogging two years ago. Blogging hasn’t change much if I’m perfectly honest. Perhaps what happened is, with time, we became more aware of our competition and over time we understood what it is like to have your blog as a business. When we started, there were very few people focusing on our niche, but now, everyone talks about ‘off the beaten track’, for example. As with every industry, it’s important to make the right predictions and stay well ahead.

What’s the community of travel blogs like to be part of?
It depends as with every industry. We are part of some seriously tight blogging communities where we all help each other. We made so many friends all around the world who we continue to meet during our travels. Of course, there are other communities that are driven by rivalry. We prefer to exit those as quickly as possible as we believe there is enough room for everyone in the blogging sphere.

What’s the best travel experience in the world?
Spending a few months in Japan. Our time in Japan changed our lives and drove us to become bloggers. That country is unique and beautiful. We can’t imagine anything better than living in Tokyo and enjoying a never-ending travelling adventure.

What’s the best mode of transport you’ve ever experienced?
We flew, of course, we took the ferry, the bus, the train…I think so far, we love driving the most. It’s easy and convenient and a little more eco-friendly than flying (it might sound unbelievable, but it’s true!). Our dream is to buy a Tesla and travel the world by electric car.

What’s your scariest experience while travelling?
Luckily, we don’t have many scary experiences while travelling. We tend to be overly cautious if anything. I guess the scariest thing was when we got lost in the mountains in Tenerife and we almost missed our last bus back to the city. We had no food or water with us so we weren’t exactly prepared to camp under the stars. Looking back, it was an adventure of a lifetime.

What should PRs know about you?
We take our time to craft the perfect marketing campaign to fit their client. We always deliver the highest quality marketing material on time, no exceptions.

We have a 100% satisfaction rate and positive feedback from all our clients. We are not just bloggers, we are marketers. We worked in the digital industry as creative and technical directors for over ten years. Together, we worked with hundreds of companies in over 20 countries, so we really do know the ins and outs of the industry.

What are the best campaigns you’ve worked on?
We love working with tourism boards as the sky is the limit. Together, we usually come up with some explosive marketing ideas that actually work, especially because we understand how to properly target the right audience. In the past, we loved working with Beauty of Japan, a Japan-based company that specialises in activities for foreigners. It was the time we dressed up as an Oiran and Samurai for a day and it was incredible.

Do bloggers need their own industry association?
We’ve been talking about it for so long. I think it would be great if the industry would be better regulated. I would say yes, we do need an industry association.

You Could Travel, as well as Cory and Gergely, is listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists and opportunities.

Justin Myers writes The Guyliner, the number one LGBT+ blog in the UK. Blogger, writer, columnist and novelist, Justin uses the Guyliner to write about everything from dating advice to LGBT+ issues – and, of course, his famous Guardian Blind Dates reviews. Justin told us about the uphill battle that LGBTQ people face to be accepted in society, the joy of Pride and what it means to have a space to just be you, and why PRs need to be relevant.

What makes your blog unique?
This is a very good question but I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer it – you’d have to ask my readers. I suppose I have built up a loyal following over the years by being consistent. I speak honestly about issues and am not interested in being controversial just for a second under the spotlight.

The issues I write about resonate with people but I also vary my tone – I am lucky in that I can write about very emotive or serious subjects, and also write comic or satirical pieces, and can find an audience for both. I can’t speak for anybody else, or to a particular uniqueness, but light and shade can be hard to pull off, especially in the world we live in right now, which is one of extremes.

What’s the LGBT+ blogging community like to be part of?
I’m proud to be recognised as an LGBTQ blogger and journalist, and there are some fantastic writers and commentators out there. I like to think we are generally supportive. Journalism can be filled with people pulling the ladder up after them but I prefer to pay it forward – I know lots of others are the same.

What’s the biggest issue facing the LGBT+ community today?
We are still oppressed. Homophobia and transphobia are still rife; it hasn’t just fallen away thanks to marriage equality. Trans people are taking a battering from the press and this is a concern, as we all know this kind of resentment filters down.

Racism toward LGBTQ people is a problem, both within and outside the LGBTQ community. Intersectionality is often dismissed by those on the outside but the fact is, being an LGBTQ person in the UK today is never just about being ‘gay’ or ‘trans’ – there are other factors affecting your life too, and most of these are about changing others’ perceptions of you, which can be fruitless and exhausting.

Youth homelessness, too: the Albert Kennedy Trust says 22% of young homeless people identify as LGBTQ and an astonishing 77 percent of them found themselves in that situation because of coming out to their parents. Again, this is about changing how other people treat us for just being, not something we have actually done wrong. The battle is all uphill but we can’t stop.

Where is the best Pride event?
I went to Stockholm Pride once and that was fun. Obviously, I live in London and that is a huge event, as is Manchester. But I think I’d like to give a shout out to the smaller UK cities who don’t have huge corporate sponsors and have a community with more diverse needs and less of a ‘scene’: Pride in Hull seems to be doing some great work, as does Edinburgh, Leeds and Bradford.

Pride can seem like a huge party in some cities – and that’s no bad thing – but in smaller towns and cities with less access to LGBTQ services, venues and general support, they can be a huge lifeline, a chance to truly be! But I couldn’t really pick between any of them – they’re all generally a force for good.

What do you make of Theresa May’s LGBT Action Plan?
Any publicity for LGBTQ issues is obviously a good thing, but some of these action points are just previous pledges rehashed. The proposed ban on ‘gay conversion’ therapy made a lot of headlines, but what about the more insidious forms of conversion therapy, through religion, peer or parental pressure, or even societal norms? Society as a whole must see that all forms of coercion and conversion are unacceptable if we are to live free, happy lives.

What one thing should PRs know about you?
I only talk or write about issues that I feel my readers would generally be interested in, are relevant to my or their experience, and would make sense to them. The last thing I want someone to say is, ‘Why the hell is Justin talking about this?!’ I say no to much more than I say yes. I want to talk about things that matter, or entertain, or that people will love.

Jamie Beaglehole and his partner Tom write Daddy & Dad, which was recently ranked in the UK’s Top 10 LGBT+ Blogs. Covering life as a two-dad family, with adopted boys Lyall and Richard, Daddy & Dad features everything from the adoption process and the realities of parenthood to days out with the kids. We caught up with Jamie to find out more about the LGBT+ blogging community, why Leicester has the best Pride and how the blog works with PRs.

What makes your blog unique?
I started producing the Daddy & Dad blog back in 2014 when Tom and I adopted our boys, Lyall and Richard. Back then, there was very little first-hand information from same-sex adopters online.

I set out to plug the gap with stories about the reality of adoption with an honest, unfiltered approach. There are already hundreds of ‘Pinteresty’, pastel-coloured parent blogs which omit the difficult bits, so I include all the ‘bad’ bits too – sibling rivalry, soft play centres, school run tantrums, supermarket squabbles but, equally, the cuddles, fun and games we have together.

The blog’s unique because Tom, the kids and I all get involved in Daddy & Dad features and collaborations; it’s a team effort!

What’s the LGBT+ blogging community like to be part of?
I’ve been lucky enough to meet several like-minded bloggers through events and awards ceremonies, not least The Dad Network (of which I’m an active member) and their network of lovely dads. I’m also a member of a regional blogging group who meet up at PR events in the local area.

Thinking about the LGBT+ blogging community, the LGBT+ parenting niche is still fairly small so I tend to find myself rubbing shoulders with the wider blogging crowd. That said, we do get involved with the local LGBT+ community through trips to pride and the gay pub in town – the locals absolutely love Lyall and Rich!

What’s the biggest issue facing the LGBT+ community today?
There is a prevailing masculine culture that tells children that boys and girls are supposed to behave in a particular way. It leads to LGBT+ children hiding their true feelings from their friends and families. It ultimately contributes to mental health problems and suicide among LGBT+ kids.

As a gay little boy back in the 1980s myself (a dark time for gay people), I’ve experienced how insidious homophobia creeps into the classroom, usually unchallenged by teachers. Lyall and Rich are eight and nine and neither of them are aware of a single LGBT+ pupil in their whole school of 400 kids. For me, alarm bells are ringing. Why are LGBT+ kids still hiding in plain sight in 2018 when they can look forward to a happy life of marriage and kids of their own? It’s very worrying.

Where is the best Pride event?
We love local Pride events. Our favourite Pride is Leicester Pride. We take the boys along every year. Lyall and Rich love the rainbow flags, the fairground rides and the colourful people. We sing and dance to the pop groups and drag queens on the big stage and wave our flags around all afternoon.

Leicester Pride’s grown from quite a humble event into an enormous festival; this year we’re expecting around 3,000 people in the parade and over 10,000 at the festival in Victoria Park. It’s on 1 September – fingers crossed for sunshine!

What do you make of Theresa May’s LGBT Action Plan? 
When Tom and I watched Justin Trudeau’s tearful apology for the wrong-doings by Canada towards its LGBTQ2 community, we wanted to swap him for Theresa May immediately. But, to be fair, she has

spoken on behalf of LGBT+ people in this action plan. So-called gay cure therapy should have been outlawed years ago – it’s torture – to be honest I’m always stunned that it exists. The PM needs to push this through quickly and enforce legal action against anybody who continues to try to cure gay people.

Tackling bullying in school? Blimey. Mrs May is going to need a lot of help. This is an issue for society as a whole. It requires full cooperation and no ambiguity, with a loud, clear, public message from politicians, influential celebrities, the media, school teachers, faith school leaders, religious leaders, parents, local councillors, everybody. I honestly don’t know how she’ll manage it, but I’ll be watching closely and doing everything I can to help.

What one thing should PRs know about you?
One thing? Oh crikey. We’re established, we have an engaged audience and we’re ready to work with you!

As a family, we throw ourselves into PR and brand collaborations enthusiastically (literally if it’s a new waterpark). The whole family gets involved – our boys had a very turbulent start to their little lives so we like to make up for lost time by enjoying all these amazing new experiences together.

What are the best campaigns or collaborations you’ve been part of?
We’ve been very lucky to attract the attention of some prestigious household brands.

So far this year, we played ‘Never have I ever’ with Pizza Express dough-balls in an unscripted TV advert – that was fantastic fun although we were more than a little nervous about what the boys might say on camera! Tom and I also appeared in the 2018 Birds Eye #Solidaritea film alongside some of the UK’s favourite parenting influencers.

We reviewed a monthly board game for Asmodee, promoted a ‘Hobbit Hole’ holiday for Campsites.co.uk in a Lake District travel feature, launched a new Lazer Quest toy, starred in our own My Magic Story books and last weekend we reviewed a beautiful penthouse apartment in Canary Wharf. And that’s just the highlights!

Do bloggers need their own industry association?
I don’t know much about this, to be honest. But, I do have experience with PR work and blogging as a business. The blogging industry is unregulated and compensation for similar jobs can fluctuate drastically. I know some people expect fledgling bloggers to work for free or for the promise of exposure. I can’t think of any other industry where that kind of transaction could legally work.

As a copywriter, I tend to apply my writing rates to blogging work. Generally speaking, every collaboration or sponsored feature can be broken down into chargeable segments. Like any other business, a blogger should at least charge for the parts and labour (travel expenses, time and effort).

If everyone collectively said no to free work, or work in lieu of exposure, businesses would sit up and listen.

What other blogs do you read?
My favourite blogs tend to be relatively small and beautifully written. I love travel blog Birkenstocks and Backpacks, aspiring writer Rachel Horne’s blog Let’s Get Real, freelancing blog Michelle Abrahall, and Mush & Bean Daddies, which follows young couple Joe & Craig in the early stages of their adoption process – they’re just starting out on their own Daddy & Dad adventure!

Daddy & Dad is listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists and opportunities.

Jasmine Stewart writes Jasmine Talks Beauty, the beauty blog that was recently ranked in the Top 10. Covering beauty for all budgets, Jasmine Talks Beauty is not a tutorial site but an outlet for Jasmine to share her love of all things beauty.

Jasmine told us about Instagram’s influence on beauty trends, the development of her blog and working in the right way with PRs for long term success.

What makes your blog unique?
I’m not sure that there’s such a thing as uniqueness in a blog any more, but that doesn’t bother me as such, I just try to give my honest, in-depth thoughts on the products I’ve tried in a chatty and engaging way. If that connects with people then amazing!

How has your blog changed from when you first started to now?
When I started, my design and photography definitely wasn’t good! These are both things I’ve really invested in, both in terms of getting better equipment and in terms of time to hone my skills. Content-wise I still think I do a mixture of single-product reviews and more general posts. I’m just lucky enough to receive products to review now, meaning I can create more content that people are interested in.

What is the biggest trend in the beauty world right now?
Instagram makeup is huge at the moment: the bold brows, overlight nude lips, lots of highlighter and flawless full coverage base.

What will the next big thing in beauty be?
You also have the response to the Instagram look with brands like Milk Makeup and Glossier, which have a very minimalist makeup vibe; that is definitely more my sort of thing. I see more and more brands bringing out natural, fresh makeup-skincare hybrid products.

What’s your favourite beauty brand?
I really love ColourPop at the moment – they bring out such exciting, high-quality, low-cost products. I’m also loving independent makeup brands.

What should PRs know about you?
I often think PRs don’t realise just how many products bloggers receive! We physically can’t review every single one but, unless the product was sent without asking, I will always let my contact know if I liked something, if I didn’t and what content I’ve made on it or if I’ve decided not to feature it.

I know some are willing to post ‘reviews’ after short periods of time, however I really test out a product and share my honest thoughts on them. Most do appreciate it, though there are a few out there who either get annoyed if you don’t sing a product’s praises or chase you for reviews.

My aim here is to: a) try the product properly and b) include it on my blog in a way I think people will enjoy. The vast majority can appreciate this and these are the people I develop long-term relationships with, but if PRs are funny about me not liking one product in a box of five, just send out blanket press release emails or hassle me a lot about something I’ve literally just received, then I just don’t think that’s compatible with how I work, so I don’t choose to work with them again.

What are the best campaigns you’ve been part of?
I’m pretty selective about the campaigns I’ve been included in so all of the work I’ve done has resonated with me and I’ve been excited to create and post the content. I really enjoy doing campaigns where I get to talk more about my personal experiences – I recently did one for a classic summer product so got to talk about some of my holiday memories and earlier in the year I was part of a skincare campaign, so got to discuss my skin journey over the years and the routine I’ve found that works for me.

What other blogs do you read?
There are so many! I love the photography and aesthetic of Pint Sized Beauty, Beauty By Kelsey and Gemma Louise. I read pretty much every post on Beauty Drama Queen, Laurzrah and LPage Beauty because they’re always posting on topics and products I’m interested in.

Jasmine and her blog are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists and opportunities.

Two Monkeys Travel is one of the world’s biggest travel blogs, created by Kach and Jonathan. Now leading a travel group, the pair have been sharing their incredible travel experiences for five years and have once again ranked in the Top 10 UK Travel Blogs. We caught up with the pair to find out what makes their travel style unique and talk about the joys (and perils) of sailing and the best way to get creative with brands.  

What makes your blog unique?
Maybe it’s our constantly changing travel style. We started out as low-budget backpackers, became English teachers, then yoga teachers, before starting to experience luxury adventure travel and now we live on a sailboat and ride a motorbike around the Dominican Republic. We never truly know what we’re going to do next!

How has travel blogging changed since you started?
There are certainly a lot more travel blogs out there, thousands in fact! The best change has been the travel industry’s approach to blogs and social media; they have been increasingly recognising the benefits but also demanding more in terms of quality and new ideas. All of this pushes blogs to grow and improve if they want to have any success – the market is starting to drive quality control.

What’s the community of travel blogs like to be part of?
Like any community it has its good and bad points, but most of the time it is a very positive one that shares ideas and experiences, partnering with each other on posts and campaigns to help each other make a go of it. Of course, if you hang around in a Facebook group for long enough you’ll see some mud-slinging-gossip-drama going on, but that happens in any large group!

What’s the best travel experience in the world?
For us it is still hitchhiking the Carretera Austral down the length of Chilean Patagonia. We have done a huge amount since then, but that place is just so beautifully raw that nothing has captured us in the same way since.

What’s the best mode of transport you’ve ever experienced?
This is a tie between our sailboat, SV Empress, and motorbikes! The boat gives us the slow-paced freedom and peace on the water, while the motorbike lets us explore inland on our own time. I also get to let off some steam on the dirt tracks after being on a roly-poly boat for a few days!

What’s your scariest experience while travelling?
A few hours into our first real sailing trip, crossing the Gulf Stream from Florida to the Bahamas, we got bashed around pretty badly and shredded the mainsail – all my fault, beginner’s mistakes! The scary part was climbing inside to find the floor covered in cold salt water. It turned out to be a small problem I could fix in 30 seconds, but my first thought at the time was, ‘We’re in the middle of the ocean and we’re sinking!’ I think that one’s going to stay with me.

What should PRs know about you?
We have worked on a wide variety of campaigns including consumer gadgets, luxury hotels, destination marketing, airlines, travel operators and car manufacturers, plus all the rest. The most important thing that we have learnt across all these campaigns is that as long as we start by understanding the goals of the client and how our own brand can satisfy those, then everything else will follow. That’s when we can start getting creative and having fun!

What are the best campaigns you’ve worked on?
One of our favourites was Mazda USA, which was essentially a big road trip through the Californian desert to show the new range of cars off in incredible settings. We camped out around campfires by night and drove fast cars by day! The pinnacle though was working with Hurtigruten to promote their Expedition cruises to Antarctica on a 13-day cruise from Patagonia, across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. We’ve since worked with them again on a Norwegian coastal adventure!

Do bloggers need their own industry association?
Please no! Blogging is not its own industry; it’s simply another form of online media and marketing. We are already covered and very well protected by very clear regulations and guidelines that are easy enough to follow. I’m sure someone must be planning to set one up though, some people just love making more work for the sake of it!

What other blogs do you read?
I can honestly say that we have not read another blog in at least a couple of years! If we’re not working on our own then we’re out doing something, or fixing something that broke on the boat (again), or sailing. Occasionally we sleep.

Kach, Jonathan and Two Monkeys Travel are all listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists and opportunities.

Hand Luggage Only is written by Yaya Onalaja-Aliu and Lloyd Griffiths, two travel lovers who met at university. In under four years, the two have become giants of the travel blogging world, winning Best Travel Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017 and now topping the world-famous Top 10 UK Travel Blogs. Oozing the writers’ charming and fun-loving personalities, Hand Luggage Only has wowed audiences with its stunning photography and real-life travel reviews.

We caught up Yaya and Lloyd to chat about the travel blogging community, ‘leaning in’ to the destination you’re visiting and working with brands and PRs. 

What makes your blog unique?
Ironically, we think that the thing that makes Hand Luggage Only unique is actually the thing that makes it quite ‘normal’. For us, travel has been always about the experiences and focusing on what the destination has to offer so, rather than attempting to define a niche topic to focus on, our blog is unique as it cuts across several different ways to travel. We allow the destination to be exactly what it is, not what we’d want it to be – whether that involves active hiking to see amazing sights or just relaxing on a picturesque sandy beach.

That’s always been the most important thing for us (when we travel), to really savour and relish the beauty of new and exciting places.

We try to never have any preconceptions on places we visit. We keep an open mind, which always allows us to lean into the destination and that’s the most important thing to us.

How has travel blogging changed since you started?
Gosh, travel blogging has changed considerably over the last few years. I mean, the principles are the same but the methods in which we share our experiences is constantly changing. With the advent of new platforms and offerings like IGTV, there’s always something new to learn and new ways of sharing our experiences.

That being said, we’ve also noticed lots of new travel bloggers in recent years emerging with lots of different backgrounds, cultures and insights. One of our favourite things about blogging is how it democratises travel and having a more diverse mix of people being part of the conversation is fantastic. It really does help provide a more balanced view of the world and helps provide new and interesting insights on travel as a whole.

What’s the community of travel blogs like to be part of?
It’s very fun and very open-minded. I think the general nature of travel means that the community is filled with fun-seekers who are curious about the world around them and absolutely open to learn about everything available to them.

The thing that’s really lovely about travel blogging is that pretty much everyone is in it because they’re passionate about travel. There’s this innate curiosity in the community that means that everyone is excited to read each other’s posts, to share their own experiences and essentially help each other see more of the world.

What’s the best travel experience in the world?
I don’t actually think there’s one ‘best’ travel experience in the world. Travel experiences are so relative. Some people like switching destinations constantly while others like returning to the same place; some people like it hot while some like it cold; some people want to chill while others want active adventures – sometimes the same person wants all of this, just at different times of the year.

My point is, the goalpost for ‘best’ keeps changing so it’s hard to define one specific type of travel experience that is best. What perhaps is common with some of our fondest travel experiences is back to our point of setting no expectations for a destination and just leaning into what it is. You could return to the same destination 10 times in a row and have different experiences every single time (like we have in Amsterdam) and so it’s important to shake off any pre-conceived notions and find your own path to fun every time you travel.

What’s the best mode of transport you’ve ever experienced?
Probably paragliding into Switzerland. While in France, we headed up to the hills and ran off the cliff with an instructor who guided us over to Switzerland. It was so much fun!

What’s your scariest experience while travelling?
Probably snakes! Lloyd really doesn’t like snakes and while we were in Sri Lanka I was playing about on his phone and nearly walked onto a snake that was bathing on the road. He still shakes thinking about it. Ha!

What should PRs know about you?
I’m not sure. I guess that we are pretty open minded and always flexible in how we work with people. No two destinations or brands are exactly the same, no two people are and so it would be unrealistic to expect two projects to be.

We always see collaborations as a two-way conversation (not just one party telling the what to do or not do), which always helps when working with brands.

What are the best campaigns you’ve worked on?
There are so many amazing campaigns we’ve worked on, especially with a destination focus. We love our long-term partnership with KLM, Germany, Canada and with Visit England as ambassadors.

That being said, we also love our campaign with Apple where we are able to share not just out love of travel but also photography tips and tools we use with other like-minded travellers.

Do bloggers need their own industry association?
There would be a real benefit to this. An industry association or some sort of body would certainly be welcomed in a very new and often changing industry as it can really be of a lot of value to help standardise practices in what can be a pretty fragmented environment.

What other blogs do you read? 
That’s difficult to answer because I’m a big link clicker from other channels such as Twitter or Instagram, so I can find myself on some really obscure blogs. I veer away from the ones that don’t give any real opinion or always love everything… they’re just not that useful or authoritative without a point of view.

Lloyd, Yaya and Hand Luggage Only are all listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other bloggers, vloggers, journalists and opportunities.