Blog
Café Remarkable catch-up with Beth, BabyMac
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Beth Macdonald at BabyMac.
My café order is…skim FW and anything with bacon in or on it.
I started my blog because…I wanted a way to stay in contact with my sisters who were living in the UK and Melbourne at the time. There was no Facebook so a blog seemed like a good solution.
My favourite blog post ever was…http://www.baby-mac.com/2010/07/to-left-to-left.html
I think my readership is growing because…of the changing nature of blogging in Australia. It’s popularity is growing and I’m along for the ride.
My blog in three words would be…country home life
The best thing about being a blogger is…the freedom to discuss whatever it is that takes my fancy. The ability to work with brands, in a unique way to produce user generated content and being able to work from … Read More »
Please welcome our three new Remarkables!
We’re very happy to announce three new Remarkables this morning, bringing our group of talent to 15 blogs.
The fresh faces are:
- Carly Jacobs – Smaggle
- Matthew Ross – Dad Down Under
- Laura McWhinnie – This Island Life
Carly Jacobs has been blogging for six years and has built a large following on her blog, where she shares health, beauty, fashion and lifestyle advice. As a freelance writer, her work has appeared in Cleo, Cosmopolitan, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Newer to blogging is Matthew Ross, having only taken his first online steps in early 2012 to document his experiences as a stay-at-home father. He defines himself as a Modern Man, and his community has already grown rapidly to the point that he is receiving numerous brand approaches each week.
Laura McWhinnie … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Lorraine, Not Quite Nigella
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Lorraine Elliot at Not Quite Nigella.
My café order is… A cup of Earl Grey tea
I started my blog because… I wanted a creative outlet as I was bored with my corporate job.
My favourite blog post ever was… The Oceanic Cafe, Surry Hills. I spent quite a bit of time researching it and the comments that came at the end of it were so heart warming: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/01/13/oceanic-cafe-surry-hills-sydney-a-step-back-in-time/
I think my readership is growing because… I really work hard to keep the blog interesting for readers.
My blog in three words would be… Humourous, fun and hopefully tasty! That’s four technically…
The best thing about being a blogger is… having editorial freedom to write about and explore whatever interests you.
The worst thing about being a blogger is… the hours. They’re long!
The biggest highlight of my … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Caz & Craig, Y Travel Blog
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today are Caz & Craig Makepeace at Y Travel Blog.
Our café order is… a large soy flat white (We lived in the US for 4 years and can’t stand the small sizes of coffee in Australia. We like it BIG!)
We started our blog because… after 15 years of experiences living and travelling around the world, we felt we had too much to share and we weren’t doing anything with all we had learned. We really want to inspire people to get more travel in their life and to show them how they can do it.
My favourite blog post ever was… 31 things we’ve never told you
Craig wrote that post on our 1 year blogiversary. It was a fun post that our readers loved. They really enjoyed learning more about us, I often … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Stacey, Veggie Mama
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Stacey Roberts at Veggie Mama.
My café order is… A pot of English Breakfast
I started my blog because… I wanted to make a career of writing online, and the blog would serve as a portfolio.
My favourite blog post ever was… When I announced my second pregnancy – I had misdiagnosed myself thanks to Dr Google!
I think my readership is growing because… So many more people are making more conscious decisions with their lives and they sometimes need a little help along the way. They can see I’m just a regular kid like them doing my best and sharing what I learn.
My blog in three words would be… Dude, it’s rad.
The best thing about being a blogger is… the network of inspiring bloggers.
The worst thing about being a blogger is… … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Andrea, Fox in Flats
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Andrea Zanetich at Fox in Flats.
My café order is… Skim flat white. Sometimes an extra shot depending on what the kids got up to the night before.
I started my blog because… I fell into a motherhood-induced style rut after having my boys and wanted to find a way to dig my way out of it. My usual go-to-fashion resource, ie. magazines, were serving up images of 17 year old giraffes wearing clothes that simply weren’t applicable to my lifestyle, so I decided to create a fun, friendly place to share tips and ideas to make it easier to navigate motherhood in style.
My favourite blog post ever was… ‘The Red Lipstick Dare’
Challenging my readers (and myself) to wear red lipstick every day for a week was a really fun way to motivate all … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Chantelle, Fat Mum Slim
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Chantelle Ellem at Fat Mum Slim.
My café order is… Green tea
I started my blog because… I was crazy. I had a wee baby on my hands, was breastfeeding on the hour, every hour and that was through the night too. I was sleep deprived but craved something for me. My blog became my outlet.
My favourite blog post ever was… Oh gosh. How do I pick? I wrote one recently titled, “I don’t care” that I almost didn’t publish – but I truly love it.
I think my readership is growing because… people love connecting, relating and being part of a community.
My blog in three words would be… Creative, Readable, Fun.
The best thing about being a blogger is… being able to connect with people from all corners of the … Read More »
Baby Mac Releases Issue 2 of Beverley Magazine
We are so proud of Beth for releasing the second issue of Beverley Magazine! Here is her press release.
-
Blogger Beth Macdonald of Baby-Mac.com released last Friday the second issue of her new magazine for iPad entitled BEVERLEY. The second issue focuses on the theme of “Harvest” this autumn and Easter. Beth has taken some of the most popular elements of her blog and developed magazine-style content around those themes for the interactive environment of the iPad.
After the success of the first abridged Christmas version released in November 2012, Beth is excited to release the full quarterly magazine which focuses on all aspects of entertaining in the home: including drinks, cooking tips, recipes and decorating. There is also a focus on local producers and artisans from Beth’s region of the Southern Highlands. Beth is looking forward to … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Nikki Y, Bellamumma
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Nikki Yazxhi at Bellamumma.
My café order is… Latte {with biscotti, a sweet treat or avocado on toast}
I started my blog because… as a way to stay in touch with the beauty world and to keep creative! And as a way to use left-over information from my freelance stories. As the freelance writing world started to dwindle, I put more into the blog and it helped me to get me writing work and a few endorsement deals.
My favourite blog post ever was… ‘100 ways to uncomplicate your life‘ - it was the post that really ‘launched’ bellaMUMMA to the world. It has been VIEWED over 1,647,396 times AND ‘LIKED’ 10K times – when it was first posted in April last year traffic was out of control {PAGE … Read More »
The Evolution of the Blogger
Café Remarkable catch-up with Corrie, Retromummy
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Corrie Sebire at Retromummy.
My café order is… skinny cap
I started my blog because… I was about to have my first baby and become a stay at home mum.
My favourite blog post ever was… the birth of Elodie – the only time I ever went into labour despite having 5 babies!
I think my readership is growing because… my family is growing and people are fascinated with my large family and how I get so much done
My blog in three words would be… family, craft, baking
The best thing about being a blogger is… never feeling lonely because my readers are my friends and there is always someone on facebook, pinterest or twitter to talk to.
The worst thing about being a blogger is… when you can’t please … Read More »
A hello and a goodbye
We’ve got a mixed bag of emotions here at The Remarkables Group HQ as we’re waving goodbye to a dear Remarkable friend and welcoming a new one into our stable.
Eden Riley at Edenland has decided to leave the group to focus on her other writing. Eden won the Sydney Writer’s Centre Best Blog in 2012, so we can’t wait to see what she goes on to achieve this year.
Eden was one of our founding Remarkables when we opened our doors for the first time in May last year, and she has been a constant source of inspiration and fun (have you SEEN her “I am Mummy Blogger” post?) in the last nine months. We will miss her.
Eden’s leaving has however presented us with an opportunity to introduce a new Remarkable into the group.
We’re thrilled … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Christina, Hair Romance
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Christina Butcher at Hair Romance.
My café order is… skim flat white, or a macchiato in the afternoon.
I started my blog because… everyone asked me how I did my hair, so I thought I should share my years of trial and error in one place.
My favourite blog post ever was… My 30 Hairstyles in 30 Days launch – a huge achievement both creatively and technically for me. Though I loved sharing how many uses there are for your hairdryer too.
I think my readership is growing because… I’m sharing new hairstyle ideas and making them achievable in your own hair.
My blog in three words would be… creative, fun, hair-spirational (is that a word?)
The best thing about being a blogger is… being able … Read More »
A very bloggy wedding
Lorraine here. This is a very tardy post, but it’s better late than never to share how some very special bloggers made our wedding day in November the most wonderful day of our lives.
The story started in July, when Wade proposed on the cliffs at Dover Heights. We had chatted about how we would like our wedding to go before that, and so a secret engagement and wedding it was!
The week afterwards, I flew to NYC to attend the BlogHer conference with the original five Remarkables – Beth at BabyMac, Nikki at Styling You, Mrs Woog at Woogsworld, Eden at Edenland and Sarah at A Beach Cottage.
The day before the conference, the six of us had a gorgeous lunch at Balthazar – the first time we’d all been together since … Read More »
Food, travel and a new team member…
We’re very excited to announce two (or should that be three?) new Remarkables, bringing our stable of talent to 12 blogs.
The new faces are:
- Lorraine Elliott, Not Quite Nigella
- Caz & Craig Makepeace, Y Travel Blog
Lorraine Elliott is currently the No.2 female blogger in Australia (all categories) and has consistently been ranked the top food blogger in Australia. Her much-anticipated book with Penguin will be published in 2013.
Husband and wife team Caz and Craig Makepeace’s passion for travel and social media know-how has placed Y Travel Blog as the biggest independent travel blog in Australia, and also built large communities across multiple platforms – including 3.5m followers on Pinterest.
You can read today’s Mumbrella coverage here, Not Quite Nigella’s announcement to her readers here and Y Travel Blog’s post here.
Lorraine Murphy says: “We’re hugely excited about … Read More »
Meet our new Remarkables!
We are thrilled to announce another five Remarkables this morning. Just as in May, we are pinching ourselves at the incredible bloggers we have onboard and look forward to sharing their stories with you in Café Remarkable very soon.
The story featured on Mumbrella and Influencing today. You can read on for our media release, or say hello to the new Remarkables here.
You can also read the new Remarkables’ announcements to their readers:
Double the Remarkables for blogger talent agency
The Remarkables Group today announced five new Remarkables, taking its stable of blogger talent to ten.
The agency launched in May this year with founding Remarkables Styling You, Woogsworld, Edenland, BabyMac and A Beach Cottage. Joining them today are:
Chantelle Ellem … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Nikki, Styling You
Taking a seat at Café Remarkable today is Nikki Parkinson at Styling You.
My café order is… a long black. Has to be good coffee.
I started my blog because… it was a way to market my new personal styling business. The blog kind of took over and fully became the business late last year.
My favourite blog post ever was… the time I was set a style challenge by Mrs Woog. She’d bought a tube maxi dress at Seed, promptly called it the “condom” dress and asked me how to style it. We published our posts at the same time that morning and crashed the Seed website. So many of our readers continued to buy the dress – I bought four! Then I compiled this post with readers sending in their photos showing how they styled their condom dress. … Read More »
Café Remarkable catch-up with Sarah, abeachcottage
We’ll be inviting you to Café Remarkable in the coming weeks, to get to know our wonderful Remarkables over a cuppa.
First customer in the door is Sarah who has stopped by from abeachcottage…
My café order is… if I need a quick hit an Espresso all the way…morning coffee is a cappuccino
I started my blog because… I wanted to document our move from London to the beaches of Sydney and our old cottage that was in dire need of some love!
My favourite blog post ever was… a toughie…I love most the blog posts on vintage furniture and homeware finds I score…
I think my readership is growing because… abeachcottage is a happy place and inspiring that you can have a nice home / lifestyle whatever your means and budget
My blog in three words would be… vintage lifestyle decor
The best … Read More »
Monday Masterclass: SEO strategies to make your business as big as King Kong
The Monday Masterclass is brought to you today by guest poster Sabri Suby, who is sharing his insider tips on SEO – in simple language!
Sabri is a serial tech entrepreneur and SEO professional, based in Melbourne, Australia. He has founded a handful of high-profile businesses, including sports group-buying site GameTime, which has partnered with several AFL Football clubs. He leads digital agency The Click Factory, which has consulted with some of Australia’s biggest brands including: The Good Guys, Aussie Home Loans, Real Insurance, HBF, Guardian Insurance, VIP Home Services, Liberty Financial and many more. He owns, operates or sits on the board for a number of leading online portals and e-commerce websites.
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the process of increasing a website’s rankings in search engines. Contrary to popular belief, achieving high rankings in … Read More »
Nikki, Eden, Sarah, Beth, Mrs Woog & Lorraine take New York
Hello - Lorraine here!
From Wednesday next week, all of the Remarkables (as well as a number of other Australian bloggers) will gradually be decamping to New York New York for BlogHer ’12 – and in true blogger-groupie style, I’m going too.
So what is BlogHer? It’s the biggest conference for female bloggers in the world – 3,000+ international bloggers will be descending on Manhattan for two days of intensive seminars, workshops… and parties. It runs over two days and is held at the Hilton.
Brands will also be in abundant attendance, with an enormous expo hall for attendees to meet brands face-to-face, brands sponsoring different elements of the conference and throwing what are apparently THE most incredible parties.
BlogHer is a remarkable opportunity to observe how brands and bloggers are interacting in the States. The US market is generally seen as being two … Read More »
8 remarkable things
It’s been 40 days since The Remarkables Group launched.
They’ve been hectic, exciting, thrilling, fun, hugely rewarding, scary and well… remarkable.
Here are some of our highlights, eight of them. Thanks so much for sharing the journey with us – it’s great to have you.
1. We had a tonne of traditional media coverage, including Beth and Lorraine appearing on The Project:
Mumbrella
Influencing
SMH
The Australian
The Age
WA Today
Brisbane Times
Courier-Mail
2. The launch sparked lots of discussion on social media.
3. Eden and Mrs Woog were invited to Kirribilli House for tea with the Prime Minister, along with other blogging/digital luminary ladies.
Photo from Woogsworld
4. One of Nikki’s Nina Proudman posts resulted in Hug Me Harry completely selling out … Read More »
Why scarves sell out
We had a very happy email from the lovely team at Hug Me Harry this week, telling us that Nikki’s inclusion of their scarves last Thursday in her weekly Nina Proudman post resulted in an immediate sell-out of every style!
Readers often tell the Remarkables they feel like they know them – they’re a trusted friend rather than a media outlet. Here’s an excellent infographic from mashable.com examining how the consumer purchase decision is influenced.
It offers some enlightening statistics on just why bloggers are such key partners for brands. For example, 94% of people trust recommendations from someone they know, the highest of all other sources of information. TV ads sat at 47% and editorial in traditional media was at 58%.
So now we know the science behind the scarf sell-out.
Monday Masterclass: how bloggers make money
Over dinner, on the bus, at conferences. From clients, media and our grannies. This is the question we get asked the most.
The first part of the answer is that not all bloggers make money. Some bloggers decide not to monetise their blogs, and maintain them solely as a means of creative expression. These are known as “pure bloggers”.
Other bloggers choose to make an income from working on what they love – their blogs. Despite some recent media claims, the income Australian “mummy bloggers” secure from their blogs won’t be landing them on the BRW Rich List anytime soon. Instead, they make enough money to allow them to stay at home with their families, and not go back to full-time/part-time jobs.
The blogger can focus fully on their blogs, their readers get the content they know and love, and brands have an … Read More »
Monday Masterclass – building traffic & working with brands
A Monday Masterclass for the bloggers amongst us today – and who better to host than blogging veterans Nikki at Styling You and Sarah at A Beach Cottage.
Both Remarkables posted super-helpful tips for bloggers seeking to improve their sites over the weekend, which we’re adding into the Monday Masterclass library.
Up first, Sarah with seven simple steps to building traffic to your blog.
And then Nikki on working with PRs (and their brands). Nikki regularly posts bloggy tips on a Saturday, handy to know if you’re keen to learn the secrets of her success…
Questions we get asked
Happy Friday one and all!
It’s been a very, very busy week at Remarkable HQ. We’ve been out and about sharing The Remarkables Group story with lots of interesting people, who’ve been asking interesting questions. We thought we’d answer a few here – a little FAQ Friday fun if you will…. Don’t say we don’t know how to have a good time.
Question 1: How do bloggers receive an income for their blogs?
Traditionally, bloggers who have chosen to monetise their blogs have had paid advertising to gain an income from them. Increasingly, brands are working with bloggers to create advertorial content on their blogs – so sponsored posts. Some forward-thinking Australian brands have seen the success of campaigns in the US, where bloggers become ambassadors for brands over a set period of time, and created similar partnerships in Australia.
Question 2: Do readers … Read More »
Monday Masterclass: meet the wedger
Today’s Monday Masterclass is taken from a Sun-Herald feature on the 13th May, which provides an excellent insight into the lifestyles of so-called “wedgers”.
So… what’s a wedger?
The article describes them as the “in-betweeners” – women of 45 and over who are doing things all over again – careers, relationships and education.
They have teenage kids and ageing parents, their attitudes are closer to those of Gen Y than Gen X… and there are 2.2 million of them in Australia.
A Roy Morgan survey quoted in the article found that 5.7 million of Australian women aged 18-54 went online last month and 48% of them made purchases while they were there.
26% of their time online was spent researching purchases and an equal amount of time was spent social networking.
Kate Waterhouse at The Hoopla commented:
“Traditionally in buying cars or computers or white goods, … Read More »
Our launch – read all about it
After months of preparation, we are thrilled to announce that The Remarkables Group has opened its doors! Here’s our launch media release, if you’d like to have a read…
First blogger talent agency for Australia launches with five leading mummy bloggers
The Remarkables Group – a dedicated talent agency for bloggers – launched today, heralding a first for the Australian marketing and social media landscapes.
The Remarkables Group opened its doors with five Remarkables – bloggers who are leading the way in Australian blogging. The agency will manage brand partnerships from start to finish to deliver remarkable results for both brands and the bloggers it represents. The team will coordinate briefing, approvals, payment and also evaluation, which is a key priority. There is no cost to brands to work with The Remarkables Group.
The first five Remarkables are: … Read More »
Monday Masterclass – blog statistics explained
Understanding blog statistics can be tricky – sometimes even bloggers get baffled!
It’s vital that brands ask bloggers for the right stats, and understand the stats they’re getting. If you’re a brand and are considering working with a blogger, taking the correct stats into account will help set your KPIs for your campaign. It will also help you evaluate it afterwards and be confident that you’re sharing success accurately.
For the first Monday Masterclass, we’ve put together a quick ‘n’ easy guide to help you navigate blog stats. Let’s go…
We start with the unique user – that’s you, reading this blog post right now. Hi there!
Unique users are the total number of individuals who visit the blog within a set time period.
Right now, you’re having a visit to this blog post. You might go off and check your email, have … Read More »
Get connected
