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BLOG ADVICE Archives - Megan Taylor

MY THOUGHTS ON THE NEW INFLUENCER GUIDELINES

Everyone and their mother are currently discussing the latest guidelines that have been released by the government. Everyone should have read it by now or at least skimmed it, yet if you haven’t then click here to have a skim and see what I am about to blabber on about. My own opinion on the latest guidelines, in brief, is that it is quite frankly absurd in some cases. I have already started seeing influencers (when not taking the *****) labelling all their posts as #AD. The problem I see with this is that there is now a lack of transparency to followers with where physical payment has been exchanged. Below is my letter to the government on how I personally think this could be tackled in the simplest form.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE NEW INFLUENCER GUIDELINES | MEGAN TAYLOR

DEAR GOVERNMENT

Dear the UK government, CMA and ASA,
I wanted to write to you and say thank you for trying to bring more clarity to the world of social media and advertisements. I understand it is an incredibly tricky and murky area to try and regulate and to be honest anything you put out there would come under scrutiny. Yet, the latest release of these guidelines which have hit the media with a bang have many flaws which really need to be addressed before it becomes a murkier hole than it ever was before. Below are how I believe you should classify the different terms.

#AD
A paid for collaboration with a brand.
When placing #AD it should be easily visible to the viewers eyes. The term #AD should be used on any content creation that an influencer and/or a media publication creates under a contract with an exchange of monetary gain.
EXAMPLE: A paid collaboration between a brand and influencer where there is a brief to follow and specifics that need to be completed and stated within the posting.

#SPONSORED
No money is exchanged but there is a requirement of content creation.
I know you have said that you don’t like the term sponsored and I get that. The word sponsored would however work well for any posts that an influencer or publication has been asked to create as free work in exchange for a free experience or free gift…BUT the giver has given on the terms of a guarantee of some publication. For example the giver has given the “free” gift but has given editorial direction and asked for some publication in exchange.
EXAMPLE: When a brand or PR sends a product, gives you a free experience but requires you to post some content creation in return for the “freebie”.

#GIFTED
Free goods with no editorial direction or requirements.
When working in the “influencer/journalism” world you are often sent gifts. These gifts are 90% of the time unexpected. We are grateful and if we like a product we may use the products for future posts or very often in a PO unboxing video or post. Although I agree that these should labelled for transparency that you did not pay for said item, yet to place #AD on such products is wrong and misleading.
EXAMPLE: A product or experience given with no expectation or direction given for content creation.

#AFFILIATE
When there is an affiliate link in the hyperlink to a linked product.
We only gain pennies from these affiliate links and is not an advert as such. It is a chance for us to earn a bit of pocket money from an unpaid promotion of a product with a brand that may not even know that we are going to promote their product.
EXAMPLE: When an affiliate link is placed by choice of the influencer not the brand on a website or stories swipe up link or on a social media post where monetary value is gained.

In December 2018 I worked in a paid collaboration with Marks & Spencer for the Holly Willoughby collection. I used the correct hashtag of #AD. I buy clothes and underwear from their store regularly. I have done since I was a child (although my parents obviously spent the money on the items back then). If I buy more items from them within the next year, post a photo on my Instagram and tag them in my post because that is what a follower of a fashion Instagrammer wants to see, does that mean I have to place #AD? I spent my own money in said hypothetical scenario. My followers may well go and spend their own money on these items. Then M&S will be making a profit from my content creation. I will not make a penny. I, a small time freelancer will not be earning money. I, a small time freelancer will be loosing credibility with my followers because they will be seeing #AD on everything I do and in turn think I was paid for the untrue “paid collaboration”. This can also prevent me from other potential work that month with a competitor of said brand.

It is all very tricky and the reason why there has been such an uproar in the last few days is because #AD is not appropriate on all occasions. It is also apparent that traditional press journalists have not adhered to these rules or similar in the past even though they have their own growing following on social platforms. When does a person become an influencer? Is my mum with 100 followers also an influencer because someone asked where her blouse was from? Should she have written #Ad too because she had a friends and family discount token when she bought said blouse?

One last point I would like to put out there is that if we stick with your latest guidelines you will find that influencers only post about products they have paid for. This is going to be harmful for smaller brands that can not afford to place advertisements in magazines or pay for the influencers content creation. This is detrimental to small businesses who can currently get free press through the likes of unboxing videos or unpaid placements in outfit photos or flat-lays.

Thank you for your time,
Megan @itsmegantaylor

AN EXAMPLE

With regards to my featured/header image for this blog post. I also posted this on my Instagram. Please do let me know if you think I should have labelled this as #AD or not?
Image taken:
Taken on a photoshoot for Take A Break magazine, booked through my modelling agent. Yes I was paid for the shoot but no I wasn’t asked to post behind the scenes photos.
Hair and make up:
My hair and make up was done by a lovely make up artist, I tagged her. Is this now #AD because I am promoting her?
Phone case:
Sent to me after the brand reached out to ask for my address. They did not ask me to post a picture of myself with it. They did give me a discount code for my followers in case I did, but I didn’t share it because it wasn’t necessary to this post. Yet, if someone messaged me asking more details I would message back saying, here is a discount code, should I also add #AD in my message response?
The jacket:
Oasis sent me this jacket free of charge. I was not required to post an image in this jacket and was not paid any money to do so at anytime. Should I write #AD because they gave it to me? Over the last two years that I have owned this jacket I rarely take it off and it features in many of my posts, does this mean that every post I put up with this in I should write #AD?
The dress:
This dress I believe is M&S. If I tag it as M&S do I have to place #AD because I did a paid collaboration in December but this isn’t mine and I am wearing it because the stylist put it on me for the photoshoot?

I hope this does not all seem too antagonistic, it is simply to address the issues that have now arisen and I hope that some sort of clarity and compromise can now be reached.

THE BLOGGING BOOKS YOU NEED RIGHT NOW

Back in 2017 I wrote a blog post on ‘Blogging Books‘ and lots of you messaged me saying you bought some of them and learnt loads. I am back with my picks for 2019. I can’t help myself but buy more books, I love them. I especially love them when they are beautifully presented and you can learn more on blogging. These books are all going to help you develop your social platforms and inspire you along the way. One of these books in particular is going to help you an incredible amount so let’s start with that one…

INFLUENCER

When I go running I love to listen to podcasts (check out these great helpful blogger podcasts here). It’s an amazing way to run for longer because you are distracted from your tiredness. My latest podcast obsession is The Influencer Podcast by the supremely knowledgable Julie Solomon. For us British peeps who are seriously restrained with our passions and admiration for others, Julie is wonderfully American and overtly extrovert. I love how she is so passionate about her guests and shares an incredible wealth of knowledge. After listening to a recent episode featuring Brittany Hennessy I immediately bought Brittany’s book. It covers how to build your social community, how to package your brand, how to monetise and ways to plan your future. Influencer is book is a must buy.

THE NEW FASHION RULES

Victoria of In The Frow is incredibly well known by the whole of the blogging community. Victoria knows her stuff about the fashion industry…like, seriously knows her stuff!! Victoria was a lecturer (much like myself , but in a different subject) in fashion marketing. The New Fashion Rules is a great book that covers fashion in the world of social media. There is so much to learn in here and there are lots of great tips on how to grow your following and engagement on social media.

WORLD OF STYLE

I shared Aimee Song’s first book in my last blogger books blog post and was probably the book most of you messaged me about. Everything Aimee does is beautiful, polished and stylish. She is an incredibly accomplished content creator and influencer. This book is a wonderful coffee table book which you can flick through but also a great resource of inspiration and places to go in major cities across the world.

Have you read any of these books? Which one are you most excited about?

PLANNING YOUR BLOG POSTS

We are definitely racing through January at high speed…but not to worry it’s 31 days long!!! By the time the 31st hits it will feel like January was an eternity long. Every year my parent’s friend kindly gives me a diary which you can see how it helps me organise my blog over here. I have always been a pen and paper girl. I love writing lists, I love to visualise my day, week, month and even year. This year I have made my own blog planners. My dad was quick to tell me I could easily have downloaded very similar month planners after I spent a few hours making them…haha. Oh well, these ones have lots more lines to jot notes down on and have the same font I used in my ebook.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PLANNER

Download your monthly planner for 2019 here…
MONTHLY PLANNER | MEGAN TAYLOR.

ONE BIG TOP TIP

Once you have downloaded your planner, go through the year ahead and write in Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s etc. If you are fitness blogger, put in important sporting events. If you are a food blogger pop in the dates of food program launches, food events and holidays that are centred around food etc. The reason behind all of this is for you to know in advance the dates to start creating content, calling in products and taking photos. I started doing this two years ago and it mean that I didn’t miss out on content which would work well for my audience and for the general SEO of my site. It also prevents me from getting stressed and leaving important posts till the last minute.

I hope my planners help you out. Let me know if you use them.
How do you organise your year? Please do share some organisation tips with us all.

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS

You may have noticed that I wrote an ebook on How To Ace Social Media. Well, I have partnered up with NatWest to share even more gems of information. Do you have a business, a brand, a product or are you trying to make something of yourself and be a personal brand? They have a whole load more tips and tricks for small businesses on this page and this one as well. My tips here and on their site will definitely help you grow and sell. All my tips are completely free to do and relatively easy. You just need a little time and effort. In fact as little as 10 minutes a day will help you. Make sure you check out my past post on how Pinterest can help increase your website page hits and another of my posts on how to grow your Instagram following. In fact I have a whole section on my blog with “Blog Tips”. Read ahead for 3 of my 7 tips that I shared with NatWest for their Tips & Advice page for businesses.

This is a paid partnership with NatWest.

1. BUSINESS ACCOUNT

Before doing anything else, change your Instagram account to a ‘Business Account’. By doing this you will have access to some key information. It is completely free to change to a business account. When you have a business account you are able to find out valuable information about your audience. You can see where in the world your potential customers are, their age, their gender and even what time of the day they are most engaged. There are some rumours that Instagram penalises those with a business account by not showing their content as much but in fact they have categorically stated that this is not true so don’t fret.

2. CHEAPER THAN A WEBSITE WITH MORE REACH

I went to a conference about social media last year and found out that teens are choosing to use Instagram as a search engine over the likes of Google. If your target audience is younger then you need to use this to your advantage. Instagram is free whereas creating a website, although important, is time consuming and can be expensive. Make sure you are staying consistent with your uploads and hash-tagging relevantly to stay at the top of searches. Instagram accounts seem to rank really high on Google search engines so having an account is actually a great SEO tactic for your business.

3. SAVED BOARDS

Make use of the bookmark tool where you can privately save Instagram posts to different boards. To save a post to a specific board you need to hold down on the bookmark icon in the bottom right of a post and press the + button. With this you can create your own boards. I have boards for Instagram content inspiration, company re-grams, follower mentions, collaborations etc. If you are ever lacking inspiration for posts you can refer back to these boards.

Let me know what you think of my top tips on here and on NatWest’s page and if there are any other tips you want to share with everyone that you know works.

HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS | MEGAN TAYLOR

DO YOU NEED A BLOGGING AGENT?

I have always had agents. I have an agent for modelling, MOT. I have an agent for acting, Gilbert & Payne. I have had these agents since I graduated and actually never moved because I’m really “loyal” 😉 . My modelling and acting work (see more here) have always required an agent, it’s just the common way to live out your working life in that environment. That being said, once you have established yourself you can sometimes get direct bookings because you have gained contacts and learnt how much to charge. Even though this is the case, it is always nice to have an agent because they are there to look out for you and make contracts solid and safe. As I moved into a more professional line of blogging I believed that I needed an agent, so I hunted one down and got one. I then got another that was a pretty big company filled with some incredible talent. I was over the moon to be signed by them, especially since they had some huge names I had heard of. Then one day out of the blue, they decided that they were going to stop representing talent. At the time I thought this was the end of the world (I’m rather dramatic you see), but then after a couple of weeks I realised it was the best thing that could happen to me. Read on to see the pros and the cons I have learnt that come with having a blogging agent/managements. From these pros and cons you can see if you do or don’t want to get yourself a manager.

DO YOU NEED A BLOGGING AGENT? | Megan Taylor

THE PROS

After a few years of blogging I was desperate to have a blogging agent. I was getting about 15 emails a week from PR and brands. Some were for paid work and I had no idea how much to pitch my work at. After having an agent for a year I learnt how much to charge for stories, blog posts, videos, social posts etc. This was however, how much to charge at the level of blogger I was at that stage. If I had a surge in followers on my social platforms or like now that my blog site hits have gone through the roof (see how I have increased my site hits here) I actually don’t know the best price to charge my work at. If there was an honest place on the internet for us digital content creators to find out how much to charge or how much everyone is charging then I probably wouldn’t have looked for an agent a few years back.
If you are signed to an agent that has a few other vaguely similar “influencers” on their books to you and they turn down a job then you know that you will be next on the list to book that job. However, after a year with my last agent I only got one job through them, the others were all my own contacts and enquiries that I passed on to them to work out the contracts.
When you have an agent, for whatever field of work you are in, you know that they have your best interest at heart. If you work, they earn money. They can act like your parent at the best of times. The biggest pro to having had an agent was being able to say to the potential client of mine, I will pass you on to my agent to discuss the money. I don’t know if it’s my British-ness or some sort of self worth issue but I hate the part where I have to discuss money. It was so nice having someone else deal with that and negotiate the best price. Now I just have a price list which I email along in a pdf along with my media kit when they ask. If you want to learn how to make your own media kit and how to grow on social media, check out my ebook here. There is also some sort of gravitas to being a signed blogger, it shows that someone else believes in you and your work and so should the brands.

THE CONS

Although I love having an agent for modelling and acting and have indeed had some great moments with blogging agents there are a few cons which I am going to share with you. It has been said by many brands that they are put off by bloggers and content creators that have agents simply because of the time consuming aspects and indirect contact they have with the creator who in turn becomes a thing to be discussed rather than the brand and personality that they are. Yet, does this also mean that we as content creators are being treated in a more professional manner in which we do deserve? After listening to Victoria of In The Frow on Blogosphere’s podcast, I learnt that the way she tackles this issue is by making sure she still has meetings and personal emails and even whatapps with the brands and PR. After two years of being a signed blogger at these agencies I stopped going to quite so many events, I immediately passed on all of my email enquiries to my agents and actually found myself completely out of the loop from my original PR and brand contracts. I don’t think I dealt with this in the best way. I should at the time have gone to as many events as possible and chatted my way in to gaining some personal friendliness with others. Yet, instead I lost lots of contacts who over time had of course gone on to new PR companies without me realising and I found myself back at square one and having to find and make friends all over again.
Another thing I found whilst being with my second agent was that I actually only got one job through their contacts. All of the other jobs I had were my own contacts and enquiries that I just passed their way to deal with the money side. You are essentially giving your money away by getting them to deal with the email back and forth about the fee. If you do have or get an agent then take a leaf out of In The Frow’s book and make sure you keep those meetings happening so you don’t lose your connections.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO

Having experienced life on both sides, I personally think that you should stick it out by yourself until you are too big to deal with your emails. When you are making good money, maybe then it is time to get a part time assistant. Then when you want to move into the realm of larger projects that aren’t just about solely about blogging then you may want to get management to help guide you along the way…but is this actually getting into the land of needing a PR for yourself instead?
When you are just starting out you can use the likes of the Takumi’s and Tribe’s of the world. With platforms like this there are paid opportunities for “micro-influencers” with Instagram followings of 1k+. The payment is very low but there are a mass of working opportunities so if you can work a lot you can earn ok money. This being said you really need to be aware that if you do too many paid jobs you may be seen as “selling out” so do be careful of not irritating your well earned audience. I was looking at a blogger friends Instagram who has a similar following to my own the other day and saw that she had done 12 #AD which I had also seen on the likes of platforms like Takumi. I totted up how much these jobs were and she would have earned approximately £1400. With months like this she could be making £16+ a year just from these platforms. This is amazing and for most people, myself included, is a much more fulfilling life than working in an office for someone else. the only trouble is, that is a lot of “#AD” for a month. If you have an agent or go direct through a PR/brand, then you can charge more for a job and you are able to afford to do less collaborations per month (These collaborations will probably be more time consuming). There are also the likes of ambassadorships which  I could delve into the ins and outs of versus the one off Insta collaborations but I think I should save that for another day as this is getting a little too wordy now.

Do you have blogging management? If not, do you want it?

DO YOU NEED A BLOGGING AGENT? | Megan Taylor

HOW I GREW MY PINTEREST MONTHLY VISITORS BY 20k IN A MONTH

I started my Pinterest account when it first launched in 2010. I was immediately hooked. My friend who works in advertising knew which social platforms were new and emerging and sent me a link to sign up. Back in those days you had to be invited to join. The 24 hours or so wait was tiresome but as soon as I joined I was in love. It was like my creative brain had exploded and there were other people that loved what I loved.

Eight years later and I have come to realise is an incredible marketing platform. I don’t have to be too “business” about it. I can be a bit “business” whilst still having fun and creating mood board filled with my loves and wishes. For a long time now I have read about bloggers saying their main source of traffic was Pinterest and I was so confused. I barely had more than one click through to my site a month. With a little bit of research and trial and error I now have about 50 people click through from Pinterest to my site everyday and I intend on growing that. These supremely easy 5 top tips are the ways I have been growing that traffic and my Pinterest monthly visitors.

Pinterest is no longer about how many followers you have, it is basically a search engine for you to use to your advantage, so wait no further and use these tricks to help boost your websites traffic. This is applicable for bloggers, brands and businesses alike.

FOR MORE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS, CHECK OUT MY EBOOK

SUMMER PREP BEAUTY MUST HAVES | MEGAN TAYLOR

BUSINESS ACCOUNT

Your first step is to change your Pinterest account to a business account. This will allow you to see your stats and audience insights and is completely free. Without this account change you aren’t going to be able to follow the next few steps. To change to a business account, log in to your Pinterest account on your desktop, click the three dots in the top right and in the drop down menu it will tell you to change to a business account.

ANALYTICS – AUDIENCE INSIGHTS

Now you have a business account you are able to see your stats. However, it may take about 24hours to have the stats show. Now I want you to click the top left button which says ‘Analytics’ then click the drop down menu which says ‘Audience Insights, Early Access’. This section is your ticket to Pinterest fame as such. It is a page of statistics of all of the users from across the globe that use Pinterest. You can inspect the ‘Categories and Interests’  section and click on the categories which you tend to pin for yourself and in the category that you blog about or show on your personal website. An example being that on my site I write mostly about beauty. So once I click on Beauty at this moment the top three most popular beauty pins are to do with Hair Care, Make Up and Personal Care. With this golden insight I can now go and pin pins which are in these categories and expect to very easily gain audience and re-pins from a wider range of people. Another great idea would be to pin blog posts I have written in these topics.

PIN LITTLE AND OFTEN

However much you get sucked into a pinning hole it is a good idea to pin little and often rather than in one single block of time in the day. I like to do 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes at lunch and 5 minutes in the evening. This means your pins will regularly at the top of search feeds.

PIN EVERY IMAGE FROM YOUR WEBSITE

This can be awfully time consuming if you have been blogging for a long time. You don’t want to pin every blog post in one day. As I said in the last tip, you want to pin little and often. I would suggest pinning your blog post on the day you are setting it live and make this pinning time part of your marketing plan for your blog post release. Your aim would be to have all of your content linked on Pinterest but unless you are only just starting blogging this may be something that will take a long time.

PLACE YOUR PINS ON DIFFERENT BOARDS

Pinterest now allows you to have an infinite amount of boards but you can also have sections within these boards to help you organise your creative mind. For example I have a BAKING board which has sections which include ‘Birthday Cakes’, ‘Easter’, ‘Christmas’ etc. Another tip I wanted to share about placing your pins on different boards is to share your own personal pins from your website to different boards to help increase their reach.

For more in depth helpful tips on social media and a print out illustrated timetable check out my ebook on ‘How To Ace Social Media’.

AN INTERVIEW WITH A PR THAT CAN TEACH YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

I met Siobhan (now with B The Communications Agency) last December when she kindly invited me to have my hair done at one of her clients salons. It was my model agents Christmas party and it was full of models, model bookers and casting directors. The salon made my hair look super glossy and extra bouncy. The only thing that made the experience even better was having an epic hot chocolate with the lovely Siobhan whilst discussing all the cool brands that she looks after. The last 10 months have been amazing, there have been some fantastic events and Siobhan has booked me on some fantastic jobs for True North and Aquis. I put out a question on my Instagram stories asking you all what I should ask a PR and your questions came flooding in. I managed to interview Siobhan during her amazing busy working life and ask all of those burning questions about PR, journalism and blogging.

HOW TO WORK IN PR

WHAT 3 THINGS DOES SOMEONE WANTING TO WORK IN PR NEED TO KNOW?
Firstly, you will likely need to intern. I don’t know many people that have entered the industry without having done at least one. While not the most glamorous of roles, this is a great opportunity to learn the ropes and develop your skills. I’d say also to choose an area of PR that you are passionate about, as it will make your job easier (and far more enjoyable!) if you are pitching a product/brand you genuinely believe in.  Thirdly, be prepared to work really hard. The hours can sometimes be long and tiring but it’s a really rewarding career choice and there are plenty of perks too.

DO YOU NED A DEGREE IN PR & MARKETING TO WORK IN PR?
No you don’t, although it would obviously be useful. It’s very much a ‘learn on the job’ kind of industry as it’s so fast-paced. I don’t have a uni degree – I did a short course at the London College of Fashion (in Buying & Merchandising) before moving into a career in merchandising. After four years I decided to make the switch to PR so I did an internship at a fashion agency before landing a role at my current agency, where I’ve worked up to the position of Account Manager.  I would say if you’ve got the opportunity to do a course/module covering social media/digital marketing then that would be really beneficial, as it’s becoming a bigger and bigger component to PR.

WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PR LOOK LIKE?
No two days are ever the same in PR! While there are some tasks I repeat on a daily/weekly basis like compiling reports for clients and writing and designing press releases, a lot of my time will be taken up by responding to press/influencer requests, plotting strategies for new launches, planning events, pitching stories to press and reaching out to new influencers. I’ll also try and hold breakfast meetings twice a week, meeting journalists, influencers, brands or industry contacts. 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE AN EVENT FOR A BRAND?
It will vary depending on the scale and format of the event but I’d normally require an absolute minimum of six weeks notice. For trips abroad, at least three. If a client has a big new launch or focus, I’d put together a PR Plan for it, outlining proposed strategy, which will often include an event. I’d normally suggest 2-3 venues for the client to select from. Once the budget has been signed off, planning can begin in earnest. For most events, I would aim to get the invite out a month in advance but for trips involving travel, more notice is required. There’s often a lot of logistical elements to events, which can be quite time-consuming, for example thinking about catering, lighting, furniture, props, artwork, printing, goodie bags, transport, photography, additional staffing, models, music and so on. Depending on the venue, you can sometimes need to coordinate all of the above.

TRADITIONAL PRESS

DO YOU PREFER TO FOLLOW INFLUENCERS OR TRADITIONAL PRESS?
I think both play an important role in generating PR. Both ultimately create an aspirational lifestyle for followers/readers to buy into, just on different mediums. The print landscape is really changing and it’s interesting to see how magazines are adapting to compete with the impulsive nature of social media.

ARE THERE SOME EVENTS WHERE YOU ONLY INVITE PRESS?
Not often, most brands and agencies recognise the importance of having both at events. The exceptions would be if we were previewing a new launch to longlead (monthly) print titles, who are often working 3/4 months ahead, and holding a separate event closer to the launch for shortlead press and influencers. Or, if the brief from the client is to increase print presence or target specific publications then we may stick to print titles only. As many influencers tend to work other jobs I find that influencer attendance isn’t as high for day-time events.

INFLUENCERS

DO INFLUENCERS NEED A MEDIA KIT/PACK AND IF SO, WHAT SHOULD IT INCLUDE?
I don’t think it’s essential but they are a good tool to give an overview of your style in a concise way. They can be a great portfolio of your work and can help PR quickly identify if you’re right for a particular project. When a PR gives you an initial brief for a project, it’s a great opportunity to customise your media kit to show similar work you’ve done in the past and the engagement you received. As a minimum, when having your first conversation with a new PR contact always send links to all of your channels and the most up to date stats on followers and engagement.
In terms of what to include if you are creating a media kit – a short bio on who you are and what your page is all about, links to your blog (if you have one) and social channels with the most up to date stats for number of followers, average engagement and demographic. This one’s important as PR won’t be privy to this information and it can really help to decide if you’re right for the project in mind. If, for example, most of your followers are based in Australia, it’s probably not the best partnership to highlight a UK launch. You may choose to omit your rates from the kit as they may vary depending on the amount of work you’ll need to produce for each project. 

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH INFLUENCERS TO INVITE TO EVENTS?
It will depend on what the event is for. PR keep mailing lists, which will often be split into a number of categories, for example curly-haired influencers, vegan, 40+ etc, as well as general beauty and fashion. So we will look at who is the core target for the event and start seeding out from there. If it’s a really small event, such as an afternoon tea or an intimate dinner, we will draw up a ‘key targets’ list, who will get the invite first. If anyone on that list can’t make it for whatever reason, we will then extend the list until we’re at capacity. 

WHAT ARE THE KEY METRICS YOU LOOK FOR WHEN SEARCHING FOR INFLUENCERS ON EACH SOCIAL PLATFORM?
Engagement. While number of followers looks great on a report, engagement is key for brands ROI. If, for example, someone has 100k followers but is only averaging 5 likes per post and 2 comments, your money (and samples) are going to be better utilised on someone who has 20k followers but regularly receives 600 likes and 30 comments per post.  As a general rule of thumb, an engagement of more than 3% is deemed credible so if you have 20k followers and you’re getting an average of 600 likes and 30 comments per post, your engagement would be 3.15%. Having said all that, I don’t exactly grab my calculator every time an influencer gets in touch – if you’re a good fit for a brand, I’ll happily explore options.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHICH INFLUENCERS TO WORK WITH ON BRAND COLLABORATIONS?
It will depend on the brief from the client as they may be looking to target a particular demographic but usually I’ll start with influencers I have already established relationships with and who are existing fans of the product/brand in question. I’d never reach out to an influencer and outright ask them if they want to do a sponsored project on something I don’t know if they’ve even tried. In those instances I’d open by saying there’s a potential project I think could appeal to your followers but I’d firstly like to get your thoughts on the proposal and secondly send you a sample to try before you make a decision. There’s no point in securing sponsored content from someone who isn’t interested in the product as most followers are savvy enough to tell when an influencer is just taking the fee (*cough* tea ‘detoxes’ and teeth-pulling kits). For the project we recently worked on together, for a haircare brand, your name instantly popped into my head as I know how much of a fan you are of the brand (and you have great hair!).

WHICH SOCIAL PLATFORM DO THE MAJORITY OF YOUR CLIENTS LIKE TO COLLABORATE ON?
Definitely Instagram, for a number of reasons – it’s visual, you can shop directly from the post (if you have a business profile) and it’s easy to track feedback from followers.

CAN YOU INDICATE HOW MUCH INFLUENCERS SHOULD CHARGE?
It will really depend on a number of factors but for a ‘micro-influencer’ (roughly between 5-30k followers) £150 is usually a good starting point. You could also think about offering a package to include more than one platform. When deciding on your fee, you’ll need to think about how much time it will take to create the content, as this should be reflected in your fee. Obviously editing and filming for YouTube is going to take a lot more of your time than taking one photo for Instagram.

DO YOUR CLIENTS PREFER TO WORK WITH INFLUENCERS OR NATIONAL PRESS?
A real mixture of both. Clients get a huge buzz seeing their product in print, and it’s great for brand awareness. Influencers on the other hand, create an aspirational lifestyle and an endorsement can often lead to a huge sales spike. Digital is also easier for brands to track follow-through sales, especially if affiliate links are in place.  

DO YOU THINK INFLUENCERS AND CONTENT CREATORS WILL STILL BE AROUND IN 10 YEARS TIME?
Yes, absolutely. The industry is growing rapidly and I can’t see that changing anytime soon.

Let me know if there are any more questions about PR that you would like answered.
Find B The Communication Agency on Instagram here.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN AND THE FUTURE OF MY BLOG

Some of my more keen eyed readers may have noticed I have been absent on my blog for almost two months now. There are many reasons to this, not at all ominous but I wanted to share them with you. I was just going to share my latest ventures and updates through a couple of Instagram Stories but realised I actually wanted to explain myself and tell you some exciting news in a little more depth. I have been blogging (in the more business minded sense) for four years now. I have had many blog layouts. I have been a finalist for eight awards. I have won two awards. I have grown an amazing readership. I have loved every second but blogging has become such a saturated market and I wanted to work out a way to stand out from the ever growing crowd. This meant that I needed to take a step back and think about how and what I should do next.

I AM

I have long struggled with the fact that I have so many parts to my working life. I have agents for many aspects of that and I love that, yet I am constantly juggling between each of them. It is from this moment that I now only have an agent for acting and another for modelling. For the time being I am going to manage my blog myself. I have learnt along the way that although having management for your blog is at times wonderful, I have actually learnt how much to charge and know how to work as a freelancer so I can, for now, wing it myself. With regards to what work I actually do, it is still a rather extensive list and I freaking love that. I am never going to get bored that is for sure.

I am an actress
I am a model
I am a writer
I am a blogger
I am a content creator
I am a podcaster
I am a lecturer
As from today…
I am an ebook author!
I am a blogging judge!

MY LATEST VENTURES

My two latest ventures of writing an ebook and becoming a blogging judge are both things that I am incredibly proud of. I have been writing my ebook for the best part of a year now. I became a lecturer in blogging and social media last year and learnt a lot along the way.In the same way I struggle with the simplest of maths, I realised that what I found easy in the techie sense didn’t come easy to others. I receive numerous messages across my social platforms, especially in my Instagram DMs on how to do things on social media and although I can answer all of these questions, I struggle to take the time out and answer with the attention that it needs. I wrote down every question I have ever been asked by readers, followers and students alike and compiled it into an ebook full of all of the advice that you would need. I have kept the price super low and hope that you will learn everything that you want to learn in the book.
My other new venture is that of being a JUDGE!! Wahhh, I was so excited when the lovely Lauren of the UK Blog Awards asked me to be a judge of the Social Influencer category this year. I have won highly commended in both the Social Influencer and Fashion & Beauty categories over the last two years and am definitely ready to take a step in the other direction and help judge the awards. It has also come along at the most perfect time alongside my second year in lecturing in social media and releasing my first ebook in social media.

THE FUTURE OF BLOGGING

Readers of blogs are decreasing and that is widely known. The biggest audience for many bloggers lies on Instagram. Instagram is an amazing platform for immediate connection. It is easy to scroll through mindlessly and pretty much everyone has the app on their phones. I still believe there is a place is the world of social media for long form content and for that reason and the fact that I adore writing and creating blogs I am definitely sticking around. I will however stop beating myself up to produce 3 blogs minimum a week. There are just far too many platforms for me to create content for each and every day and I will not let my content sacrifice in its quality to create a higher quantity. I want you to click through to my latest blog posts because I can teach you, inspire you, put a smile on your face and help transport you to a happy place for the 3 or so minutes you spend perusing my content between tube stops. I will also be regularly updating my SHOP with only products which I have bought. As a reader of blogs I don’t particularly like it when bloggers just stick up products which they have never actually used or bought and seem to be trying to earn affiliate money. All items you find in my shop will have actually have been used by me. I also want to improve the quality of my photos after having so much information taught to me by Olympus. Although I want my photos to look gorgeous, I also want to include more behind the scenes/raw images as I have in this blog post where you gain more of a sense of what I have been up to and less “edited”. Let me know your thoughts on this.

WHERE YOU WILL FIND ME

I am going to be creating an equal amount of content across my social platforms and not treat any as more important that the other. With that in mind I am hoping that you will be able to find some form of me on your personal favourite social platform and not feel like you are missing out because I am only on a platform that you don’t particularly like using (oh, wow, I kind of sound a bit like I think you are obsessed with me pahaha, I know you’re not, but it would be great if you were haha). I am going to be producing more video content over on YouTube, I am still pinning away over on Pinterest as I always have since it’s launch because it is my favourite place to be and an amazing form of escapism. I am going to be here on my blog writing informative posts for you on all aspects of life. I will not be writing throw away tosh! I am going to be sharing the prettiest moments of my life over on Instagram. I will still be sharing less filtered moments on my Instagram Stories. I will also be writing short form content over on Twitter…mostly about my favourite TV shows. I will also be on Facebook, mostly sharing links to my latest blog posts, my latest Instagram photos and behind the scenes of acting and modelling jobs. Facebook is in fact probably my least used social platform and would love to know what you would like to see there if you do use it.

OVER AND ‘AB’OUT

So, basically, even though I have been missing for almost two months I am actually still here but hopefully bigger and better than before. I have such a passion for this industry and want to stick around whether I have 1 follower or 1 million followers. I started blogging as a creative outlet and will keep it that way and hopefully you will enjoy it. Megan x

WHERE HAVE I BEEN AND THE FUTURE OF MY BLOG | Megan Taylor

THE EASIEST WAY TO CODE A BLOG POST

For many, one of the biggest hurdles to creating a blog post can be the technical hurdle. I am dreadful at maths but techie stuff has always come quite naturally to me and I actually enjoy it. I have been learning to code for a long time. In 2015 I downloaded the free app Lrn (this isn’t an ad). This app teaches you the basics and helps you read coding. You don’t have to be an absolute whizz at coding to get by, but it is great to be able to pick out little sections to help you understand why something is sitting somewhere on your webpage and how to move it. I am here to teach you a super basic thing that you can copy and paste to work on like a kids work book on each of your blog posts. This coding will increase your SEO rating by including subheadings and improve your blogging productivity in general as it gives you a guide of what to write for a easy to read piece of copy. Why not give it a go…don’t be scared, I promise it is wonderfully simple.

(Did you know that I have a whole ‘Blogger Advice’ section on my site?)

TEXT

With the below coding you just need to copy and paste it and stick in in your computers notes so you can always come back to it and squirt it into the ‘text’ section of your blog draft whenever you are writing a new post. When you are typing away on a blog post when using WordPress for example you will see in the top right (below your blog title) it will say ‘Visual’ and ‘Text’. Click on ‘Text’ and paste the coding I have given you below into this section.
I personally like to write my blog posts in the ‘Text’ area among my coding but you can do it in the ‘Visual’ section for now whilst you are learning what’s what.

THE ONLY CODING YOU NEED TO KNOW

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Intro paragraph</p>

<h2 style=”text-align: center;”>FIRST SUB-TITLE</h2>

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Writing</p>

<h2 style=”text-align: center;”>SECOND SUB-TITLE</h2>

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Writing</p>

<h2 style=”text-align: center;”>THIRD SUB-TITLE</h2>

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Writing</p>

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Ask a question to gain some chat</p>

WHAT DOES THIS CODING MEAN?

HOW TO CODE A BLOG | MEGAN TAYLOR

Do you like coding or know anything about it? What coding should I learn next?

WHY I STOPPED GOING TO BLOGGER/PRESS EVENTS

Blogger and press events have such an allure when you are first starting out. You follow bloggers on Instagram to see them swanning around drinking champagne and heading home with a goodie bag full of exciting gifts. I spent over a year to going to pretty much every one I was invited to when I first started but last August that all changed.

TIME & MONEY

Last August I started earning enough money from blogging to leave one of my regular fittings clients. If you don’t know what I am on about here, have a read of this blog post where I describe my other random job. This particular client was based in central London right by Liberty so I spent a lot of time in town and being paid to spend the morning there at least two days a week. When I left this job I was no longer being paid to be in central London so to go to launches and events I needed to justify paying for a travel card from zone 6 where I live. Even though I am on a fast line, it was still a good 1-2 hours out of my day where I wasn’t creating content at home.

FOMO

When I stopped going to the events I continued seeing all of my blogger friend going to them on their Instagram stories and I felt some serious pangs of FOMO…not always, but a lot of the time. Yet, I was spending this time (apart from when being in an Instagram vortex) working and getting so much done that I felt a whole lot more accomplished. I managed to keep up some of the relationships I had gained with the brands and PR’s through emails.

NETWORKING

The major thing I was finding was that I wasn’t as well connected as I was before and started feeling out of the loop. Before I had essentially quit event-ing I was really good friends with a lot of PRs and I was getting first pick of new products and my stories looked a whole lot more interesting back then because I wasn’t spending 24/7 typing away at my desk. After 7 months of being essentially off the grid 90% of the time I have decided to get back to the real “blogging” lifestyle and start going to more events. I have begun to be a little bit more picky with which I go to but when I do go to the events I come away feeling “involved” and inspired, so it is definitely worth getting out there.

EVENT ADVICE FOR NEWBIES

Events can be scary for newbies because you don’t know anyone. I remember my first big event that I attended which was on the rooftop of Ham Yard Hotel. I didn’t know a single soul there and had no idea what to do, so I picked up a cocktail and spent a good half an hour drinking that and taking the same picture of a product so I looked busy. Now I tend to know someone or at least know the PR so it is far less intimidating. If you are scared to go to an event, just head in and pick up a glass of something and poodle about taking snaps and soak in the atmosphere and see how the others do it. There will always be someone to talk to that’s in the same boat as you.

What do you think? Do you go to blogger and press events? Do you think they are worth your time?

HOW TO PLAN YOUR BLOG CONTENT

This post seems a little conflicting considering that I spent a week off blogging. I have had a seriously busy couple of weeks with planning our house move. We have only just put it on the market but, oh boy, we interviewed those estate agents with no shame haha. Anyway, until we sell I have a little more time on my hands and I am back to blogging 3 times a week…fingers crossed. I am often asked how I plan my blogging content, so I am here to help you in any way I possibly can. Feel free to comment below with any extra questions and I will get back to you as quick as possible.

BLOGGING DIARY

Even though most of my work is online and inputted through a computer/phone I am a huge fan of pen and paper. Even to this day I always buy a paper yearly diary and if you read my working from home tips with Paperchase you will already know that I am a huge fan of notebooks. In the last couple of years, since I began being more professional with my blogging approach I started using a blogging diary as well as my day to day work diary. This diary, as you can see in the images at the bottom of my post, is a month view. This layout enables me to see every day and write in what I am going to blog about. I write down the potential blog title and which category it will sit in. I can then workout if I have concentrated too heavily on one category that month and try to plan more content in other categories, although I don’t push myself to do this as I always want to write about what I am passionate about.

SPECIAL DAYS

At the beginning of each year (sometimes at the beginning of each month if I am being a little less organised) I will sit down with my blogging diary and write in the dates of special occasions which can help stimulate my creative brain into producing time relevant content. For example Valentines Day, Easter, Christmas, Mother’s/Father’s Day, National Women’s Day etc. Then I will jot this down in the correct day and write a note in the diary about a month in advance to start planning the content. For any national popular occasion you want to release your content in advance otherwise it can be obsolete. For example, with my Mother’s Day Gift Guide, I released it two weeks before the actual date to give my readers time to possibly buy what I am suggesting. I start collecting a list products, events and calling in samples about a month in advance to give me time to take the pictures and write my post.

BOOK OF IDEAS

The way that I never run out of blog content ideas is by having a long list of blog title ideas in my notes section of my phone and a notebook. My phone is an easy place to quickly jot down ideas when I am out and about and getting inspired by my surrounding. My notebook of ideas is split into the categories of my blog. I get inspired by so many things, reading magazines, reading blogs, reading newspapers and often the questions I get asked by readers. A really great way I find to fill up my blog ideas notebook is when big influencers like Zoella or Tanya Burr put out an Instagram or Twitter post asking their followers to ask them questions for their Q&A YouTube videos. I then jot down all the interesting ideas that I think I could write about.

I hope this blog can has helped you a little bit. Do you have already have a blogging diary? How do you organise your blogging schedule?

HOW TO PLAN YOUR BLOG CONTENT | Megan Taylor

5 TOP TIPS TO SUCCESSFULLY WORKING FROM HOME

I am assuming that you are here because you currently work from home or possibly have dreams to do so, or maybe you are younger and just aspire to having a lovely sanctuary to do your homework. Whatever your stage in life is, working from home can be tricky. There can be many distractions, you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off, you can’t always get out of the office for lunch and you don’t have a boss above you to keep you on track. I have been freelance for my whole working career but since becoming a blogger and having to graft for myself and occasionally have very important deadlines I have had to work out the best way to work from home. I personally prefer working from home than in my local cafe because I need my self made environment around me…that being said, I do write some of my best work in a notepad on the train whilst commuting. I have been a long time lover of all things stationary and have always had a desk in my room from a very young age, wether that was to do colouring in, my homework, my dissertation or later on in life my tax return. I have fond memories of new term time and buying new pencil cases, pens, pencils and covering my exercise books in stickers of the coolest pop stars in Smash Hits. Flash forward a few years and I am still obsessed but would rather spray everything white and gold a la Pinterest 🙂 .

My 5 top tips to successfully working from home below will hopefully help prepare you for working from home and inspire you to add a little beauty to your working environment. If you don’t have a home office, then why not buy a cute small desk from your local charity shop and paint it with a fresh lick of white paint, or even simpler you can buy fold away desks which you attach to a wall and fold up to keep any mess out of site. Whatever your situation, try your hardest to find a spot to work from that isn’t the sofa or your kitchen table, both for your sanity and the comfort of your back and neck muscles.

Read my interview with Paperchase here.
This post is in collaboration with Paperchase [AD].

1.BEAUTIFY YOUR ENVIRONMENT

You have to like where you are working from to produce good work. You need to feel inspired and excited to work and you will then thrive and be the best you can possibly be. My top tip is to make a mood board on Pinterest, much like mine here and head off to the shops to replicate it. Try and make every moment a Pinterest worthy photo and you will be proud of where you are working and most likely want to show it off 😉

2.ORGANISATION IS KEY

Keep all of your documents, papers and notepads in obvious places. Clearly label your files for admin and each aspect of your working life. Keep on top of your filing regularly so you don’t have an ever increasing to do list piling up besides you. I love having a To-Do list by me at all times which I will either write the night before or first thing in the morning. Make these jobs small and bitesized so you can tick them off regularly. It is the mini accomplishments which build up and make you feel as if you can accomplish anything.

(Gorgeous gold scissors, ruler and envelope paperclips are part of a set from Paperchase)

3.MINIMISE DISTRACTION

Distractions when working from home are ten times worse than in a standard office and you need to be prepared for these distractions and either know you are going to allow them or prevent them from actually happening. If you find often find yourself getting distracted and lacklustre, pop out of the house for 10-20 minutes, take the dog for a walk, water the plants in the garden or go and get a takeaway coffee from your nearest shop.
If it is your phone which is constantly getting in your way…anyone else click on social media apps every few minutes without even realising they are doing it? Turn off your phone or even stick it on ‘do not disturb’ mode where only those in your favourites list can actually contact you incase of an emergency.  I have even heard about a tree app of some sort which grows trees as you work, to only stop growing as soon as you touch your phone…I’m pretty sure I would end up with a forest of dead trees, but I am intrigued and need to seek this app out.
Why not find some music which suits you and your way of working? Spotify has a playlist for every mood. I personally need music without words when I am composing an email, blog post, article etc. Yet when I am tidying or being hands on creative I love listening to the top 50 pop songs to sing along to.

4.TIDY DESK, TIDY MIND

Each night when you finish working, tidy up your working area. Don’t go to bed leaving your house messy and dirty. If you leave mess over night you are likely going to wake up in the morning and have to wash the dishes and put on a load of laundry further delaying the start to your productive day ahead. Keep your desk nicely filed away and be excited to get back to your desk the following morning.

5.KEEP THE BOOKS UP TO DATE

I am assuming that at least 75% of you that work from home are freelance. If you are, a huge point I must add is to keep your accounts in order. I actually have a few side note, extra points to add. Actually, I could probably do a whole extra post on this though, so here are my absolute must have tips for this. Get a ring binder, put in 12 plastic sheets and separate them into months. These months will signify a full tax year. In front of each of your plastic wallet, pop in your bank statement. The plastic wallets are for you to store the months receipts in. If you have different receipts then add in a couple more plastic wallets (I personally split mine in two, expenses and travel receipts). The benefit to having your bank statements printed out means that you can go through it and highlight in different colours all of the different incoming and outgoing payments to help make your tax run smoothly. You have probably just submitted your tax so why not get ahead of the game and set this up for the following tax year.

5 TOP TIPS TO SUCCESSFULLY WORKING FROM HOME | Megan Taylor

(I use the gold letter rack and gold book stand to store my most used note books)

I hope my tips can help you as you work from home. Is there anything you do that keeps your home the perfect working environment.

5 WAYS TO CREATE THE PERFECT FLAT LAY

Flat lays are a fabulous way to show off a product. They can be incredibly eye catching. I regularly use them for blog posts. I used to use them for Instagram a lot but my Instagram has become a bit more “fashion” lately. I find that flat lays are especially wonderful to show off beauty products. Over my years of blogging I have learnt a lot and these are my top tips for how you too can create a lovely flat lay. I either use my phone or my Olympus Pen to take my flat lay and product shots. The bonus that the Olympus Pen has over the phone is that it has the back screen which you tilt towards you where ever you are standing and still be able to shoot a product from high up (I’m not certain if that makes sense…but if you know, you know hehe).

RELEVANT PROPS

Think about what you want you aiming to show off and think of ideas which relate to this. For example, below, I was showing off a beauty product made with coconut so I sprinkled coconut flakes on the surface to enhance what I was trying to show and adding a further prettiness to my background (excuse the tags int the bottom left corners, I pulled them from collaborations I have done on Instagram). The image on the bottom right is from a collaboration I did with Gillette. The aim of the campaign was to show how great the razor is for an active lifestyle and taking the compact razor to the gym for example. So, I added my sports bra, running arm band and some headphones to the shot. The tulips were possibly a random addition but I wanted to add another colour to the shot. It did really well and was shared by many Gillette accounts.

CURRENT PROPS

The flat lay further down this post with my legs in pink PJs was taken very awkwardly by myself but with the help of the adjustable screen of the Olympus Pen. The current and eye catching props I added to this campaign for Isey Skyr was my old gorgeous Olympus Pen camera, my personalised phone case and the hot blogger book of the moment. All of these items are vaguely common of Instagram and Pinterest right now therefore are well searched and lusted after. Even though this shot was an advert I felt like it wasn’t too “add-y” and gave a bit more to the viewers enjoyment. Have you got the latest object of desire? A marble water bottle? An initialled personalised phone case? Or some glistening rose gold jewellery? Stick that in the shot to guarantee a double take from your followers.

BACKGROUND

Backgrounds are the starting point to creating any flat lay. You can go dark or light but the key is to be plain. Plain white backgrounds allow you to fill the area with props without looking too busy. In the image at the bottom of this post you can see I used a soft white blanket which immediately added a cosy factor. I made it for My Top 5 Sleeping Aids blog post. I wanted a plain background the blanket reflected the vibe of the post and wasn’t too busy. A great affordable way to create a lust-worthy background is to buy sheets of wrapping paper from Paperchase for example. There are so many beautiful sheets of paper which can immediately add a fabulous background. Buy a sheet of paper in a block colour or maybe a large pattern of banana leaves, very current! You could add the paper at an angle on a white table adding a small block of colour for a cool original background.

COMPOSITION

Before you start shooting, think about the aspect that you want to achieve. Do you want a landscape shot for your blog or a square for your Instagram feed? You can pre-program this on your phone and even on the Olympus Pen camera. It is really important that you work this out before you start shooting as it will determine where the items are placed. It is great to fill your area with items but do not overfill it and make it too busy. Maybe allow some things to only be partially in shot for a more interest perspective.
You also need to think about your lighting before you set up. Make sure you are outside or working near a window for some natural light. Even lighting helps, you don’t want to create a big shadow over the items when you hold your phone or camera over the top to take the shot.

GRAB A FRIEND

A great way to make your picture more enticing is to be more involved within the picture. If you can get a friend to take the shot you can involve your hands in the picture. If you show your hands using or holding the product you are able to show the viewer the relative size of the product. The image becomes a touch more candid and makes it more personal.

MY TOP 5 SLEEPING AIDS | MEGAN TAYLOR

Have you got any more top tips to share with everyone?

BLOGGER PODCASTS THAT WILL TEACH YOU A LOT

Apart from listening to The Greatest Showman on repeat since boxing day I have branched out into podcasts. I have been a long time listener to Emma Gannon’s Ctrl Alt Delete podcast series, yet there are now so many more coming onto the airwaves which you need to listen to. I really love listening to music whilst travelling from job to job or whilst writing, yet sometimes listening to a podcast can be exactly what the doctor ordered. In fact, when I am off out for a long distance run I quite like to pop on a podcast and completely take my mind off the long distance I am travelling. I especially like a podcast where I can take something from it and learn more about the trade that is blogging. These three which I have picked are the best introductory guide for you to get started with. Also, podcasts are free to listen to…bonus!

CTRL ALT DELETE

Emma Gannon is hot stuff right now, in fact I feel like she was super hot last year and become a super star. I adore her bubbly personality and definitely think she has the best voice and personality out of all the podcasters out there. Ctrl Alt Delete was the first ever podcast I listened to and was hooked and downloaded all of them. I found the best episode was the one where Emma interviewed Lendrem from power house Gleam. It was really interesting learning about the ins and out of influencer management. I also really loved her interviews with Zoe of Zoella and Liv Purvis. I believe there are currently about 106 podcast to listen to so go and get started.

BLOGGER PODCASTS THAT WILL TEACH YOU A LOT | Megan Taylor

KEEPING IT CANDID

Keeping It Candid is a completely new podcast to me but I found it through Instagram and found it really interesting. I love how insanely open Sophie and Millie are. This particular episode is all about how much bloggers and Instagrammers make. Literally no one discusses this topic and that sucks! If no one talks about it we could be really underselling ourselves. I wish I had heard this post back when I first started blogging, it is incredibly honest and helpful. It wasn’t until I signed with WaR management last year that I knew what I was really worth, I was completely underestimating my worth. Content creators are actually insanely cheap compared to a normal 30 strong team that it can take to make similar, far less personal content. Go and listen now to be inspired and taught a lot.

BLOGGER PODCASTS THAT WILL TEACH YOU A LOT | Megan Taylor

MADE ONLINE

I first came across Hayley Carr when she pipped me to the finishing line to win the Beauty influencers Award last year…rightly so though, she is a great beauty blogger. Yet, what I was most excited to see was that she had a podcast which teaches you a lot, called Made Online. The first podcast I listened to and which has been my favourite was the one where Hayley chatted to Albertine Brandon from Blogosphere magazine. I found it so interesting to hear what Albertine had to say about how she picks her content creators that she is going to feature to the future of print and social media. Another episode which I found really interesting was her interview with Jay MacLaughlin, blogger photographer who gave great tips such as using your bath for the perfect white backdrop!

BLOGGER PODCASTS THAT WILL TEACH YOU A LOT | Megan Taylor
Do you currently listen to any podcasts? Are there any that I have missed which you think I should listen to?

BLOGGERS YOU NEED TO READ THIS

Sooo…first and foremost we really need to start supporting each other. The algorithms are out to get us and I have noticed a lot of us are not helping matters. That is why I am here to get a few things off my chest and to try and influence a new breed of bloggers who are all about the love. My following rambles are actually valuable to everyone not just bloggers so stick around whether you are a blogger or not.

PRAISE

Many moons ago I met a gorgeous human in the form of fellow model Tess Dimos as we have the same modelling agent and she changed me in ways that she won’t know until she reads this. I had grown up in my teens and early twenties in a dancing world which was definitely a dog eat dog world. Everyone was out to get what they wanted and would do whatever they could do to get there. I am all for the attitude of getting what you want out of life but let’s not slam or hate on others in the process. Now, back to what Tess taught me… When Tess and I friended each other on Instagram and Facebook she would comment on my pictures with the most complimentary uplifting messages such as “what a babe”, “You look amazing”, “Congratulations” and “You’re amazing, well deserved” etc etc…apart from members of my family and my absolute besties I had never had people speak publicly like this. It was a breath of fresh air and something to really learn from. I then subconsciously started behaving in this way online to others, not in a fake way, but if I thought something nice, I wrote it down for the recipient to see. Your one tiny comment that took one second to write may be something that turns their frown upside down. Don’t forget that wonderful saying by Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” So, go forth and do something nice today.

“People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”

ENGAGE

Engagement in the social media world is key, more so than ever. For non-bloggers who may be reading this, I want you to know that bloggers/content creators/influencers/YouTubers really need a good engagement and when you do it doesn’t go un-noticed. It may seem silly but it really is make or break to some of us booking a fabulous job and allowing us to continue making the content which makes you and ourselves happy. I actually stopped putting up flatlay and foodie style pictures because the engagement was half of those that I was actually in. I guess this is flattering but it also stunted my creativity, through no fault of my own…yes, I shouldn’t be so preoccupied by likes but if you read on you will see why.
I recently put out a poll on my Instagram stories because I saw others talking about it saying, “Do you see my Instagram photos pop up in your feed”. I have 20k followers on Instagram, I average 300 likes per Instagram photo, my Instagram photos reach 3000+ people, I average 600 people viewing my stories and I haven’t bought any followers. The maths just doesn’t add up does it?! The poll came to the conclusion that 73% did see my photos. So, I’m going to assume you like what I do as you follow me but does this mean you don’t fancy liking my photos or that you just don’t like peoples photos in general? So many of my other Instagramming buddies are having the exact same problem. We all stick a quick story up saying that we have a new picture on our feed but not many head on over and click like…it takes 2 seconds, why not? For us that care to get around the problem, we really need to start supporting each other by engaging with each other. Whether it is just a quick like because you are tight for time or if you have a few seconds more why not pop in a nice comment? If you can tell it is an #Ad #Spon post then put in the extra love to engage. Let’s do it x

“I average 300 likes per photo yet they reach 3000+ people. The maths just doesn’t add up does it?!”

COMPARISON VS INSPIRATION

Stop comparing yourselves in a negative light. I am always someone who gets caught up in a comparison rut and struggle to get out of it, but rather than letting it eat you up inside, why not just use it as inspiration? Let other people be them and let you be you. I personally think it’s wonderful to keep an eye on the “competition”, it helps you grow and in my opinion can be incredibly motivating. Yet, you really need to start treating it as motivation rather than competition. You can only be you and once you start sticking to what you do best you will grow and improve your own work. There are an insane amount of content creators in this ever increasingly saturated market and even the likes of Zoella and Tanya Burr would be struggling if they started today, but with a little determination and less wasted time on bad comparisons you will thrive to be where you want to be.

“Let other people be them and let you be you.”

What is everyone elses opinion on this matter? Let me know your thoughts in the comments xx

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS ON A ROOFTOP IN CENTRAL LONDON | Megan Taylor

Here’s a photo of some typical blogger stuff 😉

HOW TO GET MORE INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS

Let me just declare that I am no Instagram super-star and am just about in the micro-influencer category but over the last few years I feel I have learnt a lot. Since starting blogging I have been actively trying to boost my Instagram following over anything else because sadly followers = money and attention from brands in the blogging world. Therefore also leading to a possible creative and flexible job which for me works very well alongside my acting and modelling career.

BE SOCIAL

It is called social media for a reason. What goes around, comes around. If you are not social you are very unlikely to be seen by anyone. You need to like, comment and follow people to let them know you are there, otherways you are just living in a box that no one can see. Same goes with having a private account. If you hide your account no one can see what you are up to and those hashtags will mean nothing.

GUEST BLOGGING

Guest blogging can open you up to a huge new audience if you choose the right people to blog for. I guest blogged for my friends blog for a full month and I am sure I gained some new followers, maybe not loads because we have very similar audiences but it definitely helped and gave me an opportunity to be seen on another corner of the internet. Another great way to gain exposure and earn an extra income in the process is writing for popular publications. I have written for The Daily Mail Online and The Huffington Post which always directly link back to either my blog or my social accounts. On days that my posts go out on these site the click throughs and followers gain is astronomical.

INSTAGRAM TAKEOVER

This is another way to be seen by a bigger audience. I would suggest guest blogging for an account with more followers than your own but if you only have a few followers you are unlikely to have this privilege. Instagram takeovers for brands or agencies can be incredibly beneficial to your own account or to something that you are selling. You are being given the opportunity to show off your talents and whole vibe as a person to a brand new audience. In this process you are likely to gain a lot of new followers. If you are lucky enough to have a good social following of your own you can command a nice fee for a brand Instagram Takeover but whilst you are making your way up the ranks of social stardom I would say this task would be amazing for you even if you aren’t being paid.

TAG COMPANIES

If you post pictures of fashion, beauty, food, art, furniture, in fact anything that you bought from a shop then tag them. Pretty much every company has an Instagram account these days and they are always looking for pictures to repost (with the exception of a few that have a theme I could only ever dream of). The photos that are more likely to be reposted are those which you are heavily featuring a brands product in and not showing any other brands. It also helps if the image is well lit, well styled and has the same vibe as the brands current Instagram grid.

CONSISTENCY

Consistency is key and helps build a good engagement with true followers. If you are serious about the Insta game then I suggest you turn your account into a business account ASAP. Once you have a business account you can analyse the data and find out more about your audience. You can see who your key audience is, where your audience live (Country, not road name…not too stalkery) and at what times your audience is most active on Instagram. With this knowledge you can work out what times to post your pictures. I try my hardest to post at least one photo a day and at a similar time each day and my audience have come to expect this from me. Consistency with a theme, however small also helps a lot. I post mainly fashion and lifestyle, along with beauty. I absolutely love flatlays, I love the process of photographing them and I love looking at them yet my audience do not tend to engage with these images. Therefore, I know my engagement on these particular images will be about a third less than a fashion shot.

I hope you have enjoyed my Top 5 ways to get more Instagram followers. Have you got any tips for me that I may have missed? Share your tips in my comments section to help other readers.

HOW TO GET MORE INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS | Megan Taylor

40 THINGS EVERY BLOGGER HAS DONE

Everyone and their aunt seems to have a blog at the moment. Wherever you are in your blogging “journey” you are sure to have experienced or witnessed a fair few of these things I have listed. None of these are meant in a malicious way, I am certainly guilty of 99% of these 😛

I AM SURE YOU HAVE BOUGHT SOME OF THESE THINGS

1. Bought a copy of Blogosphere magazine

2. Bought flowers simply for a flatlay or for the background of your YouTube video

3. Bought fairy lights for your YouTube background

4. Bought an LED alphabet light for your YouTube background

5. Bought a Starbucks coffee only for the Instagram photo

6. Bought an Olympus Pen camera

7. Bought a huge load of clothes, photographed them and sent them back

8. Bought a Cannon G7X-Mark2 for those vlogs you’ve filmed only a handful of times

9. Bought fancy filming lights and ring lights to only discover natural light is way better

10. …but then realising you’re in England so you obvs need those lights

11. Bought a f1.8 lens to finally get that blurred background in your photos

APP ESSENTIALS

12. Downloaded the FaceTune app

13. Downloaded VSCO

14. Downloaded the followers app

15. Downloaded a PipDig template

16. Downloaded Takumi

17. Filmed a vlog but never uploaded it because you realise how awful it is

18. Filmed a video of your natural make up routine

19. Filmed a “blogger mail” haul on Instagram Stories

40 THINGS EVERY BLOGGER HAS DONE | Megan Taylor{Hubby @elevatesport and I at an event trying to be the older Zalfie • Photo credit: Elouisa Georgiou}

BLOGGERS LIFESTYLE

20. Watched the clouds intensely waiting to take that perfect shot

21. Talked about Golden Hour to people who simply don’t care

22. Done a collaboration with Daniel Wellington watches (oh yes, and by the way I have a 15% discount code ‘itsmegantaylor’ which you can use until the 15th October xx)

23. Taken part in a Twitter blogger chat

24. Gone to an event simply for the goodie bag

25. Gifted unwanted goodie bag treats as presents for your friends

26. Had a serious case of FOMO when your friends were invited to the swankiest of events and you weren’t

27. Made your friends eat cold food because you spent 10 minutes trying to get the perfect food shot

28. Described yourself as a “micro-Influencer”

29. Stopped using Snapchat the second Instagram Stories was announced

30. Asked your Instagram followers to “swipe up” but forgot to include the link

31. Written “link in bio”

MONIES

32. Got super excited when you got paid your first £7 from Skimlinks or even more excited when Shop Style Collective paid you your first £100!

33. Applied and failed to be accepted to Reward Style…or possibly not even heard back.

34. Been super frustrated that most of your wardrobe is from Zara but they don’t have an affiliate scheme

35. Applied and failed to be accepted into #TeamGleam

36. Blamed your Instagram engagement on the Shadow Ban

37. Started an Instagram theme but then realised you don’t have time for that

38. Dreamed of being the next Zoella so you can afford her dreamy home

39. Wondered how you to can afford a Chanel, Mulberry and Gucci like the big fashion bloggers

40. Wondered how little food you can live on so that you can afford the Gucci Soho Disco “blogger” bag

How many are you guilty of? 😉

Blogging Books You Need To Own

I recently bought these three books to do with blogging and brand style and I am desperate to tell you about them. If you are starting your own business then you need the book, How To Style Your Brand. If you are a social media “influencer”/ “Instagrammer” then you need Capture Your Style in your life right now. If you want to become a money making blogging machine then I suggest you get The Million Dollar Blog. All of these books are incredible and I have learnt so much. I am so excited to put everything I have learnt into action. I really believe you can up your blogging game with these books. Have a read below to find out a little bit more about the books and a few tips that I learnt whilst reading them.

How To Style Your Brand

This book should be called How To Pinterest Your Brand because everything is so pretty and aspirational. I feel this book is the one that I have learnt most from out of the three books. I wish I had read this book before I had started blogging though because if you treat your blog as a brand then there are so many branding things that you can learn from this book. I am looking to turn my dull branding into a logo and this book has inspired me no end. Every aspect of this book is very professionally presented, much like what you would receive from a designer if you were working with one.

Blogging Books You Need To Own | Megan Taylor

The Million Dollar Blog

This book is far more wordy than the other two, so if you want something to read on the train or before bed and really get your teeth into, this is the book for you. I haven’t yet finished this book but I have already learnt so much. I am loving that I can relate to so much in this book. Some people like a book as an escapist fantasy whereas I quite like to relate myself to what I am reading or to learn something new, this book is perfect for that. If you dream of being a blogger or want to know more about the potential blogger lifestyle then you will love this book.

Blogging Books You Need To Own | Megan Taylor

Capture Your Style

‘Capture Your Style’ is written by Aimee Song who is a megastar blogger and Instagrammer. Aimee has a beautiful Instagram and blog so you know her advice is going to be helpful. This book touches on many things but most interesting to new bloggers would be the chapter on how to find and grow your audience.

Blogging Books You Need To Own | Megan Taylor

Are there any more books that I need to buy to help me to take my blogging to the next level?

Blogging Books You Need To Own | Megan Taylor