{"id":55379,"date":"2014-02-05T11:03:31","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T10:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=55379"},"modified":"2014-02-05T11:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T11:03:31","slug":"speedy-spotlight-amber-mcnaughts-forever-amber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/speedy-spotlight-amber-mcnaughts-forever-amber\/","title":{"rendered":"Speedy Spotlight: Amber McNaught\u2019s Forever Amber"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interview with<\/span> Amber McNaught<\/a>, author of fashion blog<\/span> Forever Amber<\/a>. Amber spoke to us about being original when you blog, the problem with PRs running \u2018competitions\u2019 and doubling her traffic.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"ForeverWhy should people read your blog?<\/span>
<\/b>My blog is essentially a diary, so people tend to read it if they relate to one of the topics I write about, or are just looking for a bit of light-hearted escapism.<\/p>\n

What makes your blog different?<\/span>
<\/b>It\u2019s the only one about me!<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog?<\/span>
<\/b>Don\u2019t try to copy other people, or create a carbon copy of your favourite blogs. There are so many ways to blog, and so many things to blog about, that you should be able to come up with something that\u2019s truly \u2018yours\u2019. The blogosphere is so crowded that creating something a little different is really the only way to stand out.<\/p>\n

How does a good PR work with you?<\/span>
<\/b>By taking the time to look at the site and understand what it\u2019s about and what kind of content I publish. I have a page set up with information on the type of brand collaborations I\u2019m willing to consider (and the ones I definitely won\u2019t!) and I really appreciate it when a PR has looked at that, and come to me with a suggestion that\u2019s relevant to my content.<\/p>\n

What do PRs do that’s bad?<\/span>
<\/b>My pet hate at the moment is the constant requests for me (and other bloggers) to create content which is then entered into a competition, in which\u00a0I\u2019ll have a slim chance of being compensated for my work. I get dozens of these requests every week, and they\u2019re very transparent attempts by PRs to get a lot of free publicity for their brand, with absolutely no benefit to the blogger (unless you happen to be the \u2018lucky\u2019 person who wins, and is paid in clothing, lipsticks or similar).<\/p>\n

It feels quite disrespectful to approach someone who blogs professionally and has built up a successful site, and ask them to provide their writing services, plus valuable space on their website, in exchange for the hope of possibly<\/i> winning a competition. I can\u2019t imagine this happening in other industries (i.e. you wouldn\u2019t approach a dozen magazines and ask them to all run a free advertorial on the basis that ONE of them will be paid for it), so it\u2019s a shame that it\u2019s become so prevalent in blogging.<\/p>\n

What was your blogging highlight of 2013?<\/span>
<\/b>Having the opportunity to work with some great brands, and almost doubling my traffic over the course of the year.<\/p>\n

What will be big in your blogosphere in 2014?<\/span>
<\/b>I\u2019m hoping to just keep on doing what I\u2019m doing and see what happens!<\/p>\n

Editorial information on Amber McNaught, Forever Amber and thousands of other media contacts and outlets, can be found in the <\/strong><\/span>CisionPoint<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Media Database<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interview with Amber McNaught, author of fashion blog Forever Amber. Amber spoke to us about being original when you blog, the problem with PRs running \u2018competitions\u2019 and doubling her traffic. Why should people read …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":56454,"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":[248,3722,4038,4209,5336,5572,5741],"tags":[125,357,5938,5939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55379"}],"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\/322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}