Making Hobbies a successful venture…
Since I spoke about my website The Phoenix Remix last time, I thought I would again this time but more in depth.
Hello, my name is Holly and I am a Video Editor and Motion Graphics Designer.I have written nearly 8,000 articles in ten years all as a hobby.
I started The Phoenix Remix as an outlet for my writing - I have already explained how I wanted to be a journalist early on in my career - well I still loved delving into this world and keeping up my skills that this was going to be a place to do this. I have spent the previous years writing random articles for a friends website but now I felt that it was time to venture out on my own.
Initially, it was just a blog where I could write about my favourite topics - music, travel and comedy. Over time I started to think to myself, why can’t it be more and actually be something people can read.
The word ‘blog’ irritated me from very early on, I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously as a website. So I did a bit of a rethink and rebrand. I paid for a real website name, started to take a chance and reach out to acts to see if they were interested to be interviewed and became a platform for acts, initially improv groups to have a podium to promote their shows that were not getting the promotion that they needed.
As the reading figures of my website grew, so did the amount of interviews that I was doing. I even had music and comedy PR agencies start to reach out to me and want to use my platform to promote their acts.
Since starting the website ten years ago, I have written nearly 8,000 articles, interviewed well over 1000 acts worldwide and have strong relationships with PR companies to help promote acts, especially on the run up to Edinburgh Fringe. Established acts even use my reviews on their posters at Fringe to try and entice the public to come in and see the show (some of them are incredibly huge billboard type posters and that is such a compliment to see).
Throughout writing this website, there have been highlights that have really stood out to me:
Interviewing one of my music heroes, Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench, to have a conversation with a musician who is so talented both as a writer and a producer was fascinating. He also was behind Carly Rae-Jepsons hit Call Me Maybe so it was really fascinating talking about the construction of that song.
One of the most successful themed months on the site was when I interviewed loads of female improvisers and spoke about their experiences on stage, both positive and negative. It was a real eye opener and it got a lot of praise from readers.
One of the most viewed articles on the website is focussed on a snack that is now discontinued in the USA. Taste of States started because I have a huge fascination with American snacks and it has gone on to be a themed article that has opened peoples eyes to unique treats that have been available in the past.
Producing and hosting two sold out charity comedy shows in London to raise money for Arts For Dementia and the Douglas Bader Foundation.
Creating a mini documentary with Improbotics Ltd to put the world of AI and Improv into the limelight
Interviewing nearly 300 acts every year in a month to help promote acts at Edinburgh Fringe and Camden Fringe.
One thing I have learnt about starting The Phoenix Remix is that a hobby can be so much more than something that you do in your spare time. It can be a place you can develop core skills that you can use in your career, develop new ideas and maybe even change your life completely.
At times running the website by myself can be stressful, sometimes monotonous and sometimes a struggle to meet deadlines.There have been times where I have wondered if I should give it up and retire it. Then I think about the readers. I find it amazing I get 60,000 readers annually and 8,000 minimum in the month of July alone. Whether it is only one person that reads an article or even a thousand, the fact that someone has sat there and spent the time to read something I have written powers me to keep pushing through the hard times.