So you have a question, young one?
Does your site use cookies?
Is it one of these?
Where are you from?
Good question.
I may be a very happy little Londoner now, but I'm not actually from here.
I was born in Wales, grew up in between the West Country and the south of Spain. (I'm a little Euro gypsy basically!)
Now I live in SW London, and I love it here.
Who takes the photographs on The Londoner?
Well... me. Mostly.
Unless I'm in them of course, in which case it's usually a friend, date, family member, casual passer by, self timer, dog.
You get the idea.
What camera do you use?
I use a Lumix GF5 which I can't recommend enough. It's small enough to go anywhere, inconspicuous in restaurants, light & takes fabulous pictures. It has detachable lenses & I use a pancake one.
I also use a Canon DSLR & my iPhone (you can follow me on Instagram here).
What do you do?
I'm a social media/digital marketing consultant.
That means I tell brands & companies how to do stuff online and make customers feel more like friends than strangers. Y'know, nerdy etiquette I guess!
I particularly like doing it for big luxury brands & tiny little startups.
Mostly I work from home, but sometimes have to get all serious for meetings etc. It's one of those jobs where you end up working until midnight most nights & weekends don't really exist in the same way.
How did you get into it? What can I do to do the same?
I sort of fell into social media.
I ran student events at university, Facebook was much smaller than it is now and social advertising didn't really exist at all. We promoted our events via Facebook because it just seemed like common sense.
My friends (and frenemies) used to call me Rose The Badger because I was always badgering away, and never stopped working!
When I left university I sold my Facebook groups to my competitors and went to work in a very boring, old fashioned advertising agency. I went in right at the bottom and spent day after day compiling spreadsheets. One day I questioned why we didn't have a Facebook page, so my boss said "dunno, make one if you want". I leapt on the opportunity and was quickly given the role of head of social media.
People started to look at me differently and ask my advice on things.
Unfortunately I very quickly outgrew the outdated agency & quit. After a couple months of soul searching I moved to a great digital agency in East London where I joined the social team.
Here I got to work with some great brands, giants compared to what I was used to. I never thought they'd hire me, but they were impressed with my work at university and gave me a shot.
Next I joined a tech startup as their head of marketing. In a startup there are no set parameters, so one day you'll be writing press releases, the next you'll be working with a designer on the psychology of colour and what a new button should say.
Since then I've been working as a freelancer with various brands, startups & agencies & couldn't be happier!
Freelancing isn't for everyone. Life can be very uncertain, and you do need to be very self motivated.
My advice is to leap at every opportunity, even if it seems like you'll be out of your depth. You'll learn faster that way.
If you're just heading off to university, read my post here for more advice.
Do you make money from your blog?
Yes.
I'm signed up with a couple affiliate companies, places like "Skimlinks" which pay you a very small percentage every time someone buys something, via a link they found on your website.
It doesn't work with all links, only companies who have signed up to the scheme.
While I do make money from some of my blog posts, I would never, ever write something I didn't truly believe. Trust me, I've turned down a lot of money to do just that!
Otherwise I think The Londoner would get very spammy and very boring pretty quickly.
I've just started allowing advertising. You don't have to click on it or anything, it just chills out in the background & means I can afford to spend so much time on here.
Yes, it does. Not the delicious kind though, I keep those for myself.
How did you design your blog?
I started with the most basic blogger layout and built on that.
Every time I've needed to write code for it it, I've read tutorials on how it should be done & just worked it out.
Really it's just a process of trial and error!
When did you start blogging?
I started writing in April 2011.
I'm not sure if I'll ever stop!
What breed of dog is Custard?
He's a "Morkie" or a Maltese cross Yorkie.
How do you say so slim when you eat all this food?
I wasn't always great at this!
I was much, much heavier when I first left university.
Now I live by The Anti-Diet, which you can find here.
I want to start a blog, do you have any advice?
Yes, lots!
I wrote a post about how to start a blog right here.
I'm a company & I'd like to get in touch. How can I contact you?
If you're involved in something you think me & my readers can't live without you can email me at contactthelondoner@gmail.com
If you're more media based & want me involved in something you're concocting, you can buzz my agent (I can't believe I have an agent!) at HThornton@unitedagents.co.uk
Unfortunatly I can't respond to emails of a personal nature, as I'd be at it all day...
If you need to tell me something, or have a burning question please get in touch via Twitter or Facebook or you can always ask anonymously in the comment section if it's a secret.
What's your policy on moderating comments?
Please don't be rude to me, my friends & family. This is a personal blog, I'm very happy to share my life with you but if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!
Not everyone will like me or my blog & I'm ok with that. I don't advertise, I don't shove it in anyone's face. If you don't like it, don't read it.
I don't allow comments that are needlessly horrible, give out my school/uni/full name/address for obvious safety reasons.
