Andrew Girdwood founded Edinburgh Reviews as a hobby blog back in 2005. In 2023, Bronwen Winter Phoenix rocked up to the joint and instantly elevated the tone, bringing her years of professional journalism, interview experience, and excellent artistic skills.
Since the beginning, the ethos of Edinburgh Reviews has been about being helpful to people, which includes business owners in Edinburgh. Edinburgh Reviews is now part of a wee family of blogs, a company, and not just a hobby. We have never charged for a review. If we need to accept a freebie to attend an event or have something we couldn’t otherwise afford, we’ll mention this in the review.
Andrew has refused the word “influencer”, suggesting that even “creator” is too far since all he does is write up things. Bronwen, now that she’s onboard, has a greater claim to the title, given that she’s an artist who actually creates things. Our parent company, Zebra Eclipse, is an independent publisher.
You can also sponsor the blog or sponsor us at an Edinburgh event to make your business visible to our audiences.
How does Edinburgh Reviews make money?
Businesses can sponsor the blog and socials to secure a Spotlight, get thanked on social media and have an advert banner appear on the site.
There are ads on the site and automated technology to turn links into affiliate links where possible. In other words, if a blog post links to Lastminute.com’s Edinburgh hotels page and you book a hotel from that page, then we might get a small percentage of that deal.
You can also tip Bronwen (AKA ‘Birdy’) or Girdy directly. Better still, buy some Bronwen Winter Phoenix Art.
We’ve already mentioned that we don’t charge for stuff, but we can and will accept freebies. The rule of thumb is this; if it’s something we’d do anyway – and can afford to do – we’ll take any request as a nudge, and it’s free. We won’t tell you when we turn up because we don’t need special treatment. No divas here.
If it’s something we couldn’t do without help, we’ll say so, which might mean access to someone for an interview, getting tickets for a special preview event, or reviewing something we weren’t going to buy. Any deals are fully disclosed in the review.
Edinburgh Reviews is older than ‘influencer culture’. Both Andrew and Bronwen are marketing pros, know the business and know how rare true influence is. We are not anti-influencer. We are against the idea of asking a small business to find £150 or more for a 10-second video in which we tell the city that ‘x food stuff is tasty, y business says x food stuff, and, gee, it’s good, and viewers should go eat x at y’. There’s no value in that, and you can’t buy a good review from us.
Ultimately, the site has to pay bills. Please do consider tipping or buying stuff through us.
PR / Media friendly
We want to consider ourselves to be PR or Media friendly, and you can get in touch through this form.
That said, we don’t sell links, swap content for links, etc. If that’s your game, then we’ve learnt the best thing to do is offer an alternative like Get Blogged without recommendation.
Who are we?
- Andrew Girdwood, the not-an-influencer who started this. AKA Girdy.
Bronwen says Andrew is;
Terrible. A disaster alpaca of the highest order.
- Bronwen Winter Phoenix, senior editor and She Who Knows What She’s Doing (allegedly). AKA Birdy.
Girdy says Bronwen is;
A despicable excuse of a problem llama.