Mar 8

Mar 8 Topology Interiors

My home was one of the first homes to feature on their blog, I've watched them go from strength to strength this last 12 months and it is all down to their hard work and determination, plus a really good eye for interiors. Meet Topology Interiors, who offer advice, guidance, workshops with MADE and Habitat, interior design and an award-winning blog.

Topology Interiors started with the concept that what Clients needed was a friendly, affordable interior design service. No consultation fees, no invasive house visits, no pressure to buy something they didn’t want to and most importantly a service that wasn’t going to break the bank. It was here Topology was formed!

You can read the blog here. Go enjoy hearing about their journey.

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Introduction

Amy (23) and Athina (26) met at University in Leeds. Athina lives in South West London, Amy lives in Berlin, so they work remotely but Amy flies back and forth a lot throughout the month

They’ve recently just collaborated with Habitat but only really started putting in a lot of energy into Topology since late last year when they both left full time employment to pursue freelance life!

They are award winning bloggers ‘Best Interior Designer Blog’ and on a mission to show great interior design doesn’t have to come at a cost.

1. You've have an amazing blog so I'm interested in what got you started with Blogging and on Social Media? what drives you to write a blog?

Athina: Thanks! A few years ago, I was in a furniture shop and a woman came up to me and asked me to vote for her blog. I had no idea what the “IBA’s” were at the time but I looked it up and thought it was really interesting and thought it could open up doors into the industry. I literally thought ‘I want to achieve that one day’ so I endeavored to make it a reality by putting in a lot of time and effort. It took a while but I eventually got really into blogging and Topology has grown nicely over the last 18 months, from around 20 page views a day to over 25k a month. I think watching it grow is the driving force behind it. People’s lovely feedback too is really motivational!

2. Do you mix your blogging and social with other jobs, what time is spent on each?

Yes! We do a whole range of stuff aside from blogging. Predominantly we’re interior designers running an online interior design service (designs from £95 per room) but we also host interior based workshops for big brands like Habitat & MADE.COM. And on top of that…(!)…we do other small bits like writing blogs for other companies and acting as a marketing platform for smaller homeware brands who we feature on our website. I guess you could say we’re workaholics and embrace any opportunity that’s interior related.

3. How do you juggle it all?

Making lots of lists and reviewing them frequently! It’s great that we have each other to remind us to complete tasks or to collaborate on ideas to get things done efficiently. Of course we find the time within our busy schedules to blog – and love doing it - but we’ve also got to be smart about structuring our days so that the most important tasks (client work!) are taken care of first. We can’t say it’s easy – there are often times when we get home after a long day of meetings and workshop(s) and we need to continue working on a press piece or design, so being prepared to work some evenings – which is what a lot of bloggers do (!) is definitely something that enables us to get through it all.

4. Do you have any advice on growing a blog readership or Instagram following, what specifically should people look to do?

GET A DECENT CAMERA! I can’t stress this enough. Yes it’s true many interior influencers have large Instagram followings using just a smart phone camera but this is because of their amazing homes that attract the following. If you want to be an actual blogger, you really need your content to look professional if you want to compete in a saturated market. High quality images will attract brands to work with you, make you stand out from the crowd and increase your chance of having your images used / shared which in itself will create interest and therefore traction, following, traffic etc.

5. What Brands have you worked with? Did you seek to monetise your blog or has it been serendipitous? or are you just not interested in that side of things and why?

When we began blogging it was never an intention to make money from it, but now with it taking up so much of our time and getting a lot of traffic, we’d be fools not to monetize it. We’ve worked with brands like Amara, LSA, Arlo and Jacob, Ink Mill Vinyl, Habitat and Dwell to name a few, but these collaborations are not always about making money but establishing relationships and creating interesting content for our readers.

6. If someone was looking to make money this way, without giving away all your trade secrets, do you have any advice for them?

Use affiliate marketing platforms like Awin to turn product links into money making links e.g. create a ‘top 10 sofa’s post’ and make the sofa recommendations affiliate links. If a person decides to buy one, you could make up to around 10% commission. Either that, or once you’ve gained a following contact brands directly to see if they are willing to pay you to promote their content be it on a side bar, or through a blog post etc.

7. What do you find the hardest and the most rewarding?

One of the hardest parts for me (Amy) is keeping blogs to a short length! Often when I’m writing an intro there’s so much I want to say about the topic that I have to force myself to be really selective. The most rewarding part is when people tell us how much they enjoy reading it, it’s given them some really useful tips or it’s inspired them to embark on a project…or even start a blog themselves! Blogging is a creative process after all so it’s great when people appreciate your work.

8. Have you done anything different or new in the last year to increase your social/blog following?

We started to feature other bloggers / Instagrammers, for example our ‘Top 10 Accounts to Follow On Instagram’ series. If you feature others, then they’re more likely to promote your blog on their social accounts so you’ll increase exposure and might gain new followers. It’s also about working together and appreciating great content that others are creating. I guess this blog is also an example of this method!

9. How do you grow your blog readership and most importantly keep people coming back?

By staying relevant. We do have a Topology style – we’re two young renters, we’re designers, we’re often working to a budget and we’re women – so all of our blogs contain elements of these factors. However, we spend time reading our audience and see what they’re interested in then writing blogs that we know will help or interest them in some way. For example, a couple of weeks ago there was a lot of talk on what interior hashtags were the most effective, so we did our research and compiled a blog that was a guide on which ones to use.

10. What has been your biggest or favourite milestone?

Winning ‘Best Interior Designer Blog’ at the Amara IBAs for sure. That was such an achievement for us as we’ve been following the awards since they started and attended in 2016 not knowing anyone and feeling like real amateurs! In 2017 we came back with a vengeance, put those extra hours in and there was truly no better appreciation of our work than winning such a prestigious award.