{"id":109541,"date":"2017-11-03T12:59:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T12:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=109541"},"modified":"2018-01-08T12:49:19","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T12:49:19","slug":"blogger-spotlight-rachel-spencer-the-paw-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/blogger-spotlight-rachel-spencer-the-paw-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Spotlight: Rachel Spencer, The Paw Post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThePawPostUk\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Spencer<\/a> is the author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepawpost.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Paw Post<\/a>, which recently ranked in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/social-media-index\/pet-blogs-uk-top-10\/\" target=\"_blank\">Top 10 UK Pet Blogs<\/a>. Rachel is a freelance journalist and content writer who started The Paw Post in 2017 after taking her friend\u2019s dog Daisy in. In this Spotlight, we speak to Rachel about her lovely dog Daisy, working on charitable campaigns and her favourite pet tech.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>How would you describe your blog?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s a mix of news, human interest stories about animals and people making a difference in the pet world, travel and reviews. My dog Daisy and her adventures feature lots, and I try to create content that\u2019s helpful, interesting and informative.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Why did you start your blog?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I work as a freelance journalist writing pet stories for newspapers and magazines, but there would always be stories I wanted to tell in my own way and that\u2019s where the idea for the blog came from.<br \/>\nI\u2019ve worked with pet businesses writing content and thought a blog would be a way to showcase my writing too.<\/p>\n<p>The more I wrote about pets, the more people approached me with stories and interesting pet brands, and I thought it would be a good idea to create my own platform to share them.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What\u2019s it like having a famous pet?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Oh my gosh, I still don\u2019t see Daisy as famous, she\u2019s a little scruff from Manchester Dog\u2019s Home but she has featured in lots of articles now so I guess she is! It\u2019s lovely.<\/p>\n<p>She has a fun life and still is like a regular dog who loves chasing her ball and rolling in fox poo, but she also has some lovely opportunities come her way too.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How does your pet cope with the pressure?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t faze her. She\u2019s very good when it comes to having her photo taken and has done shoots from when she first came to live with me and my photographer friends used to take photos of her.<\/p>\n<p>I think she\u2019s oblivious to it. No one day is the same for her and she relishes her adventures.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What\u2019s your favourite pet product?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I think it would be the PitPatPet activity tracker. It was the first \u2018techy\u2019 item we reviewed, and it\u2019s a UK based product that has been picked up worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re thrilled to have been able to review it at the start of their journey back in January 2016.<\/p>\n<p>They went on to appear on Dragon\u2019s Den and now work with insurance companies helping dogs stay healthy.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-109545\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-paw-post-2.jpg\" alt=\"Rachel and Daisy\" width=\"400\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-paw-post-2.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-paw-post-2-218x300.jpg 218w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/>What\u2019s your favourite post?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I did a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepawpost.co.uk\/can-help-liz-find-english-bull-terriers-new-home\/\" target=\"_blank\">post for a contact of mine<\/a>, Liz Haslam of Beds For Bullies rescue. I\u2019ve known her for many years and she was going through a tough time, struggling with bills and was worried she might have to close her rescue.<\/p>\n<p>I set up a JustGiving page and told the story of all 16 of her dogs, many of which I had written about individually, but when I put them all together, I realised just how remarkable she was and readers did too.<\/p>\n<p>The response was overwhelming, it was shared worldwide and people donated \u00a32,000. It was amazing to be able to help her and her dogs. I spent most of that weekend crying happy tears!<\/p>\n<h3><strong>How do you like to work with PRs?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ideally send a pitch via e mail first, then I\u2019m always happy to chat on the phone if I feel it suits the blog.<\/p>\n<p>I look for human interest stories, usually case study led, and I\u2019m interested in trends, products and technology.<\/p>\n<p>The blog is an extension of my work as a journalist and I try to ensure each post either makes people laugh or cry, think \u2018Aw that\u2019s cute\u2019, \u2018Ooh that\u2019s interesting\/helpful\u2019 or \u2018Wow, that\u2019s someone doing something really out of the ordinary.\u2019<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What one thing should PRs know about you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019ve always worked with PRs as a journalist so I\u2019m completely new to doing it as a blogger. One thing that has come up is people saying: \u2018can you just put something up on your blog for me?\u2019 and I\u2019d like people to realise that it takes a lot of time for me to do a post and I have bills to pay!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m very open to ideas and I like people to be clear about what is expected of me, treat me fairly and understand that I try to make my posts newsworthy because of my background.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What\u2019s a memorable campaign you\u2019ve worked on?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This week <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepawpost.co.uk\/jade-sam-streetvet-team-helping-londons-homeless-dogs\/\" target=\"_blank\">I worked with Jade Statt of StreetVet<\/a> who launched her new website on #worldhomelessday and she approached me as a blogger rather than as a journalist.<\/p>\n<p>I was totally thrilled and spent a day shadowing her as she helped homeless dogs and their owners.<\/p>\n<p>She is such an inspiration and being able to tell stories like hers without having a word limit and having my work edited is what my blog is all about.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>What other blogs do you read?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I love <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rockythetraveller.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rocky the Traveller<\/a>, he\u2019s an English Bull Terrier who has travelled the world, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.phileasdogg.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Philleas Dogg<\/a>, as Atlee is a rescue dog like Daisy and it\u2019s lovely seeing them both on their adventures and having fantastic lives.<\/p>\n<p>I enjoy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twilightbarkuk.com\" target=\"_blank\">Twilight<\/a> Bark UK too, her Instagram photos of her lovely Sausage dogs Ted and Millie are brilliant!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rachel and The Paw post are just two entries on the\u00a0<a style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/pr-software\/media-database\/?clid=blog\">Vuelio Influencer Database<\/a>, which is the UK\u2019s leading influencer database available to the PR and communications industries.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel Spencer is the author of The Paw Post, which recently ranked in the Top 10 UK Pet Blogs. Rachel is a freelance journalist and content writer who started The Paw Post in 2009 after taking her friend\u2019s dog Daisy in. In this Spotlight, we speak to Rachel about her lovely dog Daisy, working on charitable campaigns and her favourite pet tech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":109544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7272,4038,6980],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111361,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109541\/revisions\/111361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}