Archive for: Blog Posts

Angie Silver writes Silverspoon London, the lifestyle and travel blog which has been ranked as the UK’s number one London Lifestyle blog. Covering the finer things in luxury London, Angie covers retail experiences, restaurant reviews and uncovers hidden gems! We spoke to her about the best places in London, how to run a successful blog and how she likes to work with brands and PRs.

What makes your blog successful?
Even though blogging has changed so much over the years, the key to a good blog has always been content. I work incredibly hard on my content and produce around three blog posts a week. Photography was never my forte but I’ve worked very hard to get it to where it is today and I’m very proud of it.

Another key to blog success is relationships. In the four and half years I’ve been blogging, I’ve forged very strong relationships with brands and PRs who have returned to work with me again and again. My relationships and friendships with other bloggers has been one of the most significant aspects of the development of my blog. Not only do they provide a support network but we share each other’s content and champion each other’s blogs.

Finally, I’ve always kept it real! Stuck to my brand identity and kept my content authentic.

What’s the long-term aim of your blog?
When I started my blog it was a fun hobby but eventually it turned into so much more. It’s given me opportunities that I never dreamed of, I’ve met incredible people and I’ve been able to be my own boss and make my own hours. Honestly, my long-term goal is to keep being happy creating content and exploring beautiful destinations.

Where is the best place in London?
It’s hard to say the best place but the current popular places are the beautiful Instagrammable cafes. Top choices are Peggy Porschen, Saint Aymes and Aubaine in Selfridges.

Where is the best place to eat in London?
It depends what food you like and what atmosphere you’re looking for but here are my top three:

1. For Michelin fine dining, Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester is the absolute best in my opinion.
2. Hakkasan is one of London’s top Chinese restaurants but it also has a buzzy and lively vibe.
3. Bob Bob Ricard is somewhere that will please everyone. The food is hearty and delicious, the décor is beautiful and there’s even a ‘Press for Champagne’ button at every table.

What’s the best attraction?
Well you can’t miss the obvious such as Buckingham Palace, The London Eye and St Paul’s Cathedral but I’d definitely take the time to explore the more hidden side of London. I know a few people who specialise in coffee house tours or chocolate tours, which give a different perspective on the city.

If not London, where would you like to live?
I love London but the busy pace of life can be overwhelming. When my husband and I visited Australia a few years ago, we fell in love with Melbourne and discussed how it would be lovely to live somewhere so laid-back. The food and the coffee scene there is outstanding too!

How do you work with PRs and brands?
I absolutely prefer to meet face-to-face to establish a more personal connection. I also prefer to work on a long-term basis and develop a good working relationship and trust, rather than one-off campaigns or reviews.

I also think it’s very important that the blogger chosen for campaign is the perfect fit for the brand and market – that way everyone will get a return on investment.

What are your favourite campaigns that you’ve worked on?
Last year I worked with the Mayakoba resort in Mexico. They flew me out to stay at the Rosewood Mayakoba, a spectacular luxury hotel, in order to create content for them. It was honestly a dream come true!

I also worked with Classic Collection to promote their trips to Santorini which was a dream destination for me.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator/writer etc)?
I’m first and foremost a blogger because my blog is my main platform. However, I do think the term content creator is becoming more and more applicable to people in the industry.

What other blogs do you read?
So so many! For London recommendations I love Heroine in Heels, The Lifestyle Diaries and Adventures of a London Kiwi. For travel The Travelista, The Londoner and The Travel Hack always have great tips.

Angie Silver and Silverspoon London are both listings on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading journalists, editors, bloggers and outlets. 

London-Unattached is a multi-author blog covering a range of lifestyle topics, with a strong focus on food and travel. Founded by Fiona Maclean, London-Unattached covers topics of interest to Generation X and up. Fiona told us about her best travel experiences, working with PRs and meat fruit.

What makes your blog unique?
London-Unattached is a contributor blog or blogazine – I work with six talented individuals, each with a different focus. So, for example, I have one writer who specialises in theatre reviews – she’s an actress and theatre coach for her day job; another is a university lecturer in music and jazz musician. We are all Generation X upward (over 45) so we address a niche that I believe is under represented but has a high disposable income and wants to explore. We all cover food (restaurant reviews and recipe development) and travel.

What’s your biggest aim with the blog/what would you ideally achieve with it?
I’d like to get to the stage where we have, say, a quarterly print magazine to complement the online content.

What’s your favourite location in the UK?
The Scilly Isles – I went last year and the islands had a wonderful Enid Blyton feel to them – very unspoilt!

What’s your favourite trip abroad?
As always, it’s my most recent trip! I’m just back from Rodrigues, a tiny island the size of Jersey, 150 miles north of Mauritius. Although it lacked the ‘resort luxury’ of some of the other destinations I’ve visited, it made up for it in a big way by having totally empty beaches, coral reefs, a plethora of wildlife and some fantastic food (French Creole with a seafood bias)

What’s the best thing about blogging about your travels?
Finding places like Rodrigues that I’ve never heard of but which are astonishingly beautiful – and then having the opportunity to share them with other people. Or finding a special feature that I know will be a hook for my readers – in St Lucia for instance, I’d have to highlight the luxury of the resorts as well as the activities, while in Bruges, for me, it was that the food was more than a match for the heritage and architecture.

Best meal you’ve ever eaten?
Last year, at Dinner by Heston (sorry to be so obvious – but I still dream of the Meat Fruit!)

What one thing should PRs know about you?
I’m more cautious on paper than I am in real life. Generally, given a bit of encouragement, I’ll have a go at things I’d say no to if you asked me ahead of time.

What are the best PR/brand collaborations you’ve worked on?
I love doing recipe development projects. I really enjoy being given a challenge and creating something to use a specific ingredient or to pair with a specific wine. I’ve done one recently with Spanish Sherry and a couple with Grana Padano and Prosciutto di San Daniele including this set of festive canapes.

I also like working with a country destination on a long-term basis. One of my first press trips was to Portugal and I’ve subsequently been back every year and now have a wealth of content about a country I love. Last year, I worked with the Czech Republic for the first time, went on two trips to Prague, Pardubice and Brno, produced six blog posts and won their ‘Blogger of the Year award’.  I think it takes time to get to know a destination well – so being given the opportunity to go back really helps.

What do you call yourself (Blogger/influencer/content creator)?
Freelance writer (I do work on a number of other writing projects, from website development through to writing newsletters and blogging for other people).

What other blogs do you read?
Too many to list. For quirky blogs I wouldn’t normally come across, I love the ‘Big up Your Blog’ group. It’s full of passionate and lovely people like Jill Creighton who writes Midlifesmarts and Suzanne Vickery who writes about her experience travelling the world as a House Sitter.

Fiona and her blog are both listings on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets. 

Craig Landale is the founder and editor-in-chief of Menswear Style, which won the Best Men’s Lifestyle Blog and Best UK Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. We caught up with Craig to find out what it takes to make the UK’s best blog, what you need to be a full-time blogger and the best advice he has for PRs and brands.

We also put Craig on the spot with five quickfire questions – full video below!

Tell us about Menswear Style
Menswear Style started as a hobby. I left my job in Leeds as a digital marketing manager for a big clothing company and I wanted to keep writing content. I quickly started receiving emails from PRs and brands asking me to review their clothing. At first, they were just asking me to review and there was no talk of money but then the blog started to get more hits and traffic. I started to give the blog more consistency and was updating it every other day. I’d say six months into its existence I started to get good traffic, and good partnerships were coming through.

How do you feel about going from a hobby blog to a successful professional blog in such a short time?
I think today it wouldn’t happen because the industry is saturated – there’s too many influencers and too many bloggers. In 2012, I think I was just in time to enter when the market wasn’t so crowded. Even when I was working in men’s fashion I would only look at a handful of reputable menswear blogs – sites like FashionBeans, Highsnobiety, HYPEBEAST – I couldn’t have counted more than 10 really. So, I was able to get a good share of voice and get my name out there quite easily.

After a year, I quit doing the consultancy completely and the blog became my full-time job.

What was it like going full time?
It was rapid growth at the time. I used to be amazed at the analytics, I would watch the real-time traffic and see articles go viral with thousands on the site. I had studied at the Chartered Institute of Marketing and my experience working in digital marketing meant I could put everything into the blog. That was an advantage I had over some other bloggers, because not many had any SEO or digital marketing experience at the time.

Now the industry has been here for a short while, there’s some rules and guidelines you can follow, but at the time it was unknown territory and giving up my full-time job to leap into the unknown was a bit scary.

I don’t think I could do it today; I’m a father, I have a mortgage – I feel like the battle of the mind would weigh towards a secure paying job.

You said you were making the rules, what do you wish you hadn’t done and what are you glad you did do?
I used to spend a lot of time on affiliate marketing, which didn’t really go anywhere – it’s really difficult to make money from it (especially nowadays) so I feel like I wasted a lot of time on that.

I also put a lot of emphasis on banners because back then they made a lot of money, but now there are pop-up blockers and ad blockers, and it’s not something that makes as much money anymore. Even with sponsored content, I didn’t know what to charge – I would pluck a figure out of thin air!

Because I didn’t really know what I should be charging, I massively undervalued myself. I didn’t update my media kit for a few years, but a lot of brands were really honest and would say my prices were way too low.

I thought that until demand was more than I could keep up with, I would keep it low. But I have realised that the perception of having a high price can be higher quality as well – if a brand sees that a price for a sponsored article is a higher price, they feel the value they’re going to get back is good traffic, good engagement and good exposure. Low prices would make them feel like you didn’t have the traffic or engagement.

Now I’m not so cheap but I still give good value.

Well you have the Best UK Blog and you can’t beat that! How do you feel about winning twice at the Vuelio Blog Awards?
It was amazing. I’ve been going to the Vuelio Blog Awards since the first year and I’ve always been up against women’s fashion bloggers. At times I think I was the only man in the category. I knew I wouldn’t win that award – the womenswear industry is like the Champions League and menswear is the Championship. That’s just because of the size of the industry – the millions spent by women compared to men, it’s much higher and even though menswear is growing at a rapid rate, it’s still nowhere near.

Luckily for 2017, you brought in the men’s lifestyle category and I thought, I’ve got a really good chance. I was hoping I would win it – I had a feeling Ape to Gentleman could take it because that’s a website I use for inspiration and I know they’re good and reputable. And then I won – and it was a huge relief! Finally, I had won an Award at the Vuelio Blog Awards!

When it came to the final award, Best UK Blog, usually my wife and I try to sneak off just after it’s announced because we’re not night owls (we like to sleep). We were getting ready to sneak out and then it was announced.

It was a massive shock.

I thought it would be a women’s fashion blogger, or interiors or politics – I did not expect it to be menswear. My menswear friends and other nominees were amazed as well and so supportive. We’re a close-knit group – we’re always at the same events and know each other – they thought it was amazing for menswear blogging and the industry. The highest accolade has gone to a menswear blogger, so it’s a victory for all of us.

What’s the menswear blogging community like?
When you go to events and on press trips, you bump into the same people and everyone’s friendly. I’ve been doing this since 2012, so I’m one of the older guys. Now I don’t go to as many events as the other guys but when I first started, I went to everything. I was at an event every night of the week with my wife. We used it as our way of socialising in this new city we’d just move to, for free. But now I’m a father, I handpick the events I go to because it can be overbearing. I have a team of freelance writers as well, so I usually pass it down to them.

What’s your day to day?
I’m writing content, doing social media, I edit every article that comes in from the team and I take care of the commercial side. I deal with all the brand and PR emails – some have great budgets and I’m happy, some aren’t a good fit so I turn them down. There are some who don’t have a good budget but they’re doing work I admire so I do work for free, but it has to be a brand I really really like. If it’s an up-and-coming brand I might be interested in featuring them.

Who is the competition?
Other bloggers are definitely competition. When a brand pitches a brief, they’re going to bloggers and publications. I always want to make sure we get a look in, the engagement we get on social media is fantastic and I want to make sure the brands know about that. I also put the last three months of google analytics performance on the blog so it’s clear for PRs to see what we can achieve. I’m not taking it for granted that anyone would know who Menswear Style is, you can spend a long time getting to know PRs and then they could leave the industry and a new wave of PRs could come in who don’t know you anymore. Especially as I’m going to events a lot less – out of sight, out of mind.

What are your dos and don’ts for PRs?
The big don’t is when a brand just sends out a blanket email to everyone and you can tell. The worst is when they forget to BCC and then someone replies and you end up getting hundreds of emails.

Also, if the email is too long. It sounds bad, but when you have lots of email pitches to get through, you want to read one paragraph to find out what they’re after. Some brands come through and they know exactly what they want, and they’re up-front about budget – making it clear if they’re willing to pay or not. I always ask about budget to make sure we both know how to work together.

I have a lot of brands coming back year on year. The majority I’m working with now, I’ve worked with before. The competitions we host are really successful; some brands will come back every year or season to do a competition. The entry method also has opt-in forms, so it’s good for their email marketing, and brands keep coming back for those.

The competition from influencers is also strong, but I’m not so worried about them because what I do and where I make my money is through the blog. They’re making money on social, like Instagram. For me, social is not a commercial stream, it’s a chance for people to see ‘behind the scenes’ at Menswear Style and to share our blogs. I add it on as a sweetener, if a brand books a brand-focused article, which means we write about their brand, we add it on but we don’t do Instagram posting for money. I’m not personally an influencer.

What’s an influencer?
An individual that’s living the lifestyle that people like to watch. It’s usually on Instagram, the insta-influencer is rising rapidly. They’re the new celebrity, kids nowadays don’t know traditional celebrities, but they know who influencers are.

I call myself a blogger and digital content creator, when I’m trying to explain my job to people. I think the average guy our age, would probably not realise blogging is a full-time job, and think it’s just a hobby. They probably know you can make money but not enough to replace a salary. But I think teenagers today know this is the career they want. You could probably ask a class of 12-year-olds and half would say they want to be a vlogger, blogger or an insta-influencer. They’ve grown up with technology and they’ve seen it work.

What’s next for Menswear Style?
People ask me this and I always say I want to continue – when things are going good, don’t fix it. I’m always tweaking the website, but no drastic changes; the categories are great, the streetstyle is great, it’s all just going great. I might get ‘radical’ ideas, but I they’re always little things being added on, nothing major.

I do want the articles to be a bit longer though. When I first started it was about shorter articles (300 words), but I know longform is coming back and they please Google too. I want stories to be a bit more interesting, not just about a new collection but about the person who made the clothes, the area they were made in or the traditions in manufacturing. Just something more engaging than the bare facts.

Quickfire Five – VIDEO

Craig Landale and Menswear Style are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets. 

DriveWrite Automotive is a leading auto blog written by Geoff Maxted. Including car reviews and features about the driving life, DriveWrite Automotive recently featured on the Top 10 UK Automotive Blogs. We spoke to Geoff about branching out his writing, issues facing the automotive industry and working with brands.

What makes your blog unique?
I don’t follow the motoring journalist herd, avoiding endless car reviews of vehicles that everyone else is reviewing. I am less concerned with the very latest thing. I am very much trying to present things in an original and varied format that responds to the broad topic of ‘automotive’ and always taking care with grammar and spelling. You won’t find any profanity on my blog.

How and why are you now branching out as a writer?
I am certainly broadening the scope of DriveWrite, although non-automotive work will be on separate blogs in due course. My experience of writing has led me to other avenues and I am now very experienced in writing to order and to a brief, regardless of the topic. I welcome commissions.

What’s your favourite car?
Audi R8 V10. That’s me in the mugshot, driving one.

How important is photography to automotive blogging?
Very important. I am a former lecturer in photography so always strive to make my images as good as possible. I have recently upgraded my cameras and this year will be shooting video for the first time. Video is the way to go now for almost any blogger.

How difficult do you find it to convey an experience in a blog post?
I like to write creatively and don’t find conveying a mood or feeling or experience difficult.

What’s the biggest issue facing the automotive industry?
Convincing the public to move with the times. The attempt to persuade people into electric cars for example has been half-hearted in my opinion. They really are good vehicles.

We’ve discovered that for many bloggers, social media has become the new comments section. How important is social media to your blog?
Very. There’s a lot of garbage on social media and it is important to rise above it. The popular mediums are vital to getting the good word out there. Word of mouth still has its place too. You need readers talking to others.

What are the best PR/brand collaborations you’ve worked on?
I can’t really name one. It’s always best to be on great terms with collaborators.

What do you call yourself (Blogger/influencer/content creator)?
It’s what other people call me that’s important. I want to be known as a writer of quality first and foremost.

What other blogs do you read?
Leisure time? What’s that?

Geoff Maxted and DriveWrite Automotive are listed on the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other leading bloggers, journalists, editors and outlets.