Why did you start blogging?

I’ve always enjoyed writing and reading many books when I was a teenager and since living away from all my friends and family when I moved over to the UK, they were always interested in what I was getting up to with all my adventures.

Instead of constantly writing posts and uploading pictures to Facebook I decided that the best way to keep everyone updated and write about my passions was through a blog.

I’m all about enjoying what life has to offer and just having fun with it so hopefully I can inspire others with my writing along the way.

What made you focus on the fashion & lifestyle market?

My blog is based around my outgoing personality and sense of adventure thus being the reason why I wanted to create it around my lifestyle.

I typically live a fast paced life (as my friends like to call it - crazy) and by incorporating my love of travel, food, music, fitness and fashion I decided that having a lifestyle blog would be perfect.

How influential do you think bloggers are within the industry? Will their influence increase or diminish over the next 5 years?

Very. People are more likely to reading about what’s real and generally can relate to a blog rather than just through the media and advertising.

The blogging world has certainly grown over the last 4-5 years and a lot has changed for the better I think. I really don’t believe that it will diminish just yet in fact I think this market will continue to grow and stay strong for a number of years to come.

What approaches from brands and PR/Search marketing agencies annoy you and what makes you want to work with a brand or product?

As I am still fairly new to the blogging world I am yet to experience so called ‘pestering’ from brand and marketing agencies!

I think if anything spam emails can be a bit of a nightmare to deal with but ideally if a brand approached me that I felt related to my blog and incorporate with my message to my audience, then I would be more than happy to work alongside with them.

What advice would you offer to brands and agencies approaching you?

I guess if they are wanting to approach me to just think about whether it would benefit the both of us . E.g. what would we both get out of this and achieve by working together.

Would you review any product or do you pick and choose?

At this stage as long as it related to me and my audience then I’m more than happy to review their products. I don’t want to confuse people by blogging about things that I don’t really care for, it just doesn’t make any sense. I write what I am passionate about.

If it’s a restaurant I’m reviewing or a new skin care range, I’d like to think that firstly I believe in the product before broadcasting this to my audience.

Do you use a variety of media on your blog (e.g. video, images)?

Mostly images - people are visual they want to see pictures more than anything. The occasional videos which I would definitely like to be using more of. YouTube is huge at the moment and definitely the way forward for bloggers.

What posts, or types of posts, have been most effective for you?

My most effective posts believe it or not been about my travels. I also recently completed 100 happy days challenge which basically told a little life story or reviewing about all the things I love and that make me happy on a daily basis.

Anything from a new pair of shoes, going to my favourite gig, finding an amazing ice cream flavour to coming across a perfect lipstick. I found a lot of people could relate to it as well as getting some good advice about some products that I had discovered along the way.

As social is a must for any blogger, what channels work best for you and do you plan to change your activity in the future?

Twitter and Instagram are my biggest social channels. I am on Instagram a lot, constantly updating it with images to get my follower’s attention and tweeting on Twitter at least twice a day.

You need to keep the momentum going to gain more followers and keep the interest there. Facebook I don’t use quite as much although I have created a page to link through my blog which receives posts automatically. As mentioned above YouTube is something I am looking into working with more often.

If you could offer any advice to young up and coming bloggers, what would it be?

Choose something you believe in and are passionate about. Read other blogs that are out there and do your research.

When you are first starting out it is hard to gauge what your audience wants to read about so keep your website clean and readable for them. The common goal is to keep them engaged and wanting to return.