LLG FAQ

EMAIL
If you would like to get in touch, my email is libertylondongirl [at] gmail.com and I always welcome messages & feedback, (especially from the readers who love dachshunds too.) Being part of a community is what blogging is all about, & receiving emails from you all makes my day. Really.

However, my brain has started to buckle under the pressure of trying to reply to the astonishing number of emails I receive each each week. I’ve now come to the realisation that I just cannot physically reply to each email individually. I read absolutely everything, but I cannot promise to acknowledge each email I receive.

WHAT’S YOUR DAY JOB?
I’m a hyphenate kind of person. Writer-blogger-journalist-broadcaster-editor-stylist. I’ve earned my living from all of these roles since 1996, when I started my career at Condé Nast. At the moment, LLG & freelance journalism take up most of my time.

CAN I HIRE YOU?
If it’s legal…email me at libertylondongirl [at]gmail.com

ADVERTISING
My display & banner advertising is handled by an external agency, Tailsweep.
I handle paid sidebar links & mini display boxes myself.
Please email me at libertylondongirl [at] gmail.com for more information.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING?
I started blogging back in 2006, but didn’t take it up daily until March 2007 when I moved to New York from London. I stopped for most of 2008 when I went off to run the fashion, beauty & jewellery departments on The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ magazine as their executive style editor. I took LLG out of cold storage in January 2009 and have blogged daily, or nearasdamnit since then.

IS IT JUST YOU?
Yup. It’s all me. I built the new site, &  write, picture edit and post everything on LLG. I do occasionally run guest posts from other writers, bloggers & editors, but it’s at my discretion, & they are always clearly marked.

PHOTOGRAPHY
I shoot approximately 90% of the photography on LLG using a little digital point & shoot Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS5 with a Leica lens. (I’m saving up for a Canon 5D). Would I recommend the Panasonic? No, not particularly, but it’s fine for now. The other 10% are usually images from publicists, retailers or stock. If you believe I have used an image in error please contact me & I will remove it immediately.

MY WEBSITE
I started Libertylondongirl using a blogspot domain on Blogger. Eventually I bought my domain name, and then switched to a self-hosted blog when my traffic exploded.

I use Go Daddy to host my blog. I built it myself using the Thesis template on a WordPress.org platform.
My header was designed by the utterly excellent, calm & collected digital designer Tim Dillon who took my inchoate ideas and made them brilliant.

COMMENTS
Oooh yes please. I love to hear what you all have to say. Feedback, agreement, disagreement: bring it on I say. Without comments I’d just be wittering away into a vacuum. Two way communication is what social media is all about: conversation not a broadcast.

BUT. The comments section is not the place to shamelessly plug a different website, blog or place. Three word comments with a big bold link in the comment body?  Off to spam you go.
Likewise pasting your blog address into the comment body is just spam by a different route. The comments form layout is specifically set up to allow your usename to auto-link to your URL. Leaving it again just looks like shameless pluggery. As it happens, my comments section is auto set up to refer all comments containing URLs to spam where they will stay unless the URL is pertinent to the comment.

Likewise, trolls. I believe strongly that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. By that I don’t mean that everyone has to agree with all that I say but, if you wish to have a difference of opinion with me, it would be splendid if you could avoid slander, insults, obscenity and general nastiness. The karma police WILL get you. (If Posetta Baddog doesn’t get there first.)

FASHION & JOURNALISM STUDENTS
Since I started LLG, I’ve received regular mail from students who want career advice, to interview me or to get my ticks on survey boxes. Up until now, I have replied to them all, as I like to help, but I can no longer promise to do so due to the rather staggering volume of requests I now receive. (Often simultaneously from lots of students on the same course at the same university!)

In particular, I can no longer provide written answers to interview questions for term papers, reports or theses, or fill out surveys, especially those which require personal information.
Bulk impersonal requests via Twitter to hundreds of bloggers & journalists are rude & I don’t respond to them