vlogger’s view
It’s not like TV. I’m real. My family’s real. And my followers are real
After years working in nurseries and as a childminder, Amy Simpson, from Aberdeenshire, discovered the world of digital blogging – and a new career path.
“When I was pregnant with Elle and was thinking about what baby products to buy, I would look at videos on YouTube created by vloggers for recommendations and tips,” said Amy. “After she was born, I suffered from postnatal depression. I was getting better after seeing the doctor and I started blogging.
“It was something I found helped me on my recovery. Writing and sharing experiences really helped me grow my confidence. It was also good to be part of a community where everyone was sort of helping each other.”
Amy moved on from written blogs to posting videos about parenting on her YouTube channel, Amy Being Mum. She was then contacted by Channel Mum, a company that acts as an agent for mummy vloggers.
“They signed me up and I started being asked if I would mind trying out products and making video blogs about them,” said Amy. “I enjoyed it, so kept going. And, after a while, I had enough followers to turn it into a job.”
Mum-of-three Amy now has more than 20,000 followers on her YouTube channel, 9,000 on Instagram and a further few thousand on Facebook and Twitter. And her channel has had more than a million views.
“I get approached every other day by brands wanting me to promote their stuff, but I’m quite choosy about it and will only share with my audience the things I enjoyed or found useful,” she said.
“I’ve worked with big-name brands like Hasbro toys through Channel Mum. But we do have to declare everything, even free gifts, to the tax man.
“For vloggers, though, gifts aren’t really free. Most cost less than the fee we would be paid to promote a product, so giving ‘freebies’ coverage costs us money! It has taken a while, but I am now earning a salary comparable with what I earned before I started vlogging for a living.
“The benefits are I’m doing a job that I can manage from home and fit around child care, which is great. But it can be a double-edged sword as there are drawbacks too. I end up working early mornings before everyone else is up or late nights – and trying to film something at the kitchen table with everyone coming in and out can be tricky. “
Amy, 35, added: “Vlogging works because people see a real, honest recommendation with a real person, rather than it being orchestrated on TV. To be honest, in the beginning, I didn’t give it a second thought that I was opening up my life and my family to the public.
“But then hardly anyone was watching. Now I am very conscious and careful about my kids and their privacy. It does leave you open to trolling, and I have been a victim of that but thankfully most people watch my channel because they like it.”