How A Blogger makes Millions

She's the food blogging phenomenon who made history as having the fastest selling debut cookbook since records began.

So, when author and health guru Ella Woodward, known by her blogging pseudonym, Deliciously Ella, imparts her wisdom on what it takes to build a successful digital brand, we're all ears. 

Speaking at a new series of debates hosted by ad agency, Havas London, the blogging sensation, who has over 6m unique users to her site a month, spoke about how she's made a business from what started out as a life-altering dietary change.

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Ella Woodward, 23, embraced a fully vegan lifestyle to beat her POTS syndrome. She started blogging about her healthy living journey at Deliciouslyella.com, which has lead to the release of her debut recipe book documenting her story and sharing her healthy living tips

After being diagnosed with a chronic illness, Ella chose to reassess the way she ate; she now teaches cooking lessons, released an app, which has nearing 100,000 downloads, and wrote the fastest-selling debut cookbook since records began.

A self-confessed 'sugar monster', who was struck down with a rare illness that attacked her nervous system and left her bed-bound, Ella cured herself through healthy eating - and now she's cashing in. 

In an effort to turn her life around, Ella embraced a fully vegan lifestyle and managed to beat her illness and launch her own successful business along the way.

So, what are her secrets to success? Speaking to FEMAIL about her blog, which started 'by accident', Ella said: 'Stay true to yourself, engage with your followers and ignore the critics.

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Ella, who is the eldest daughter of Camilla Sainsbury, the supermarket heiress, and Labour MP and former Cabinet minister Shaun Woodward, blames her diet for a multitude of problems but her has fully recovered ever since overhauling her sugar-filled lifestyle 

Behind the scenes at a Deliciously Ella cooking class

'When I first started blogging, I kept it a secret from my friends and then started to show a few people and it snowballed from there. I'd say my golden rule is stay true to your own self and voice. People criticised me for using too many explanation marks and the word "awesome" too much, but that's just me. Authenticity is huge, it's important to make people feel apart of the journey.' 

Unlike some bloggers, Ella is extremely strict with who she works with and won't represent a product that she wouldn’t have in her own kitchen and use regularly.

I want people to be excited about good food and want my blog to be the go-to for healthy food 

This sincerity runs through her whole ethos. When Ella started out she contacted heath bloggers but received no response, so she now makes it a priority to reply to every email she receives from her website and has a personal connection with her readership.

'I think it's essential to engage with your followers,' she said. 'I always used to email bloggers and no one ever replied so I try to reply to every comment and question and although sometimes I regret it when I'm sat on Instagram til 3am, it's worth it.'

Ella, who has followers all over the world (including in Pacific Islands she's never heard of so has to Google), believes it's important not to localise too much.

'I don't alienate anyone by making it too London-centric,' she said.

She's already accomplished so much for someone so young, but she's already starting to look to the future.

'I am going to concentrate on my website – I want my blog to be the go-to for healthy food,' she said. 

'I would like to go down the [Jamie Oliver] route and help educate people. Educating people is so important and that’s why I am not worried about other health food bloggers. 

'Whilst everyone is still learning about good food, I think there’s plenty of space online for everyone, I want people to be excited about good food.' 

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Brimming with tantalising photography of Ella's fresh, simple recipes, this book is sure to inspire readers to embrace a new mind-set that celebrates food and lets natural ingredients shine

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Ella gave up refined sugar, gluten, dairy, anything processed or refined and meat - and noticed the difference within two weeks

ELLA WOODWARD'S STORY  

Ella was a self-confessed 'sugar monster', who was struck down with a rare illness that attacked her nervous system and left her bed-bound, and cured herself through healthy eating.

In an effort to turn her life around, Ella Woodward, 23, embraced a fully vegan lifestyle and managed to beat her illness and launch her own successful business, which has lead to the release of her debut recipe book documenting her story and sharing her healthy living tips.

Ella, who is the eldest daughter of Camilla Sainsbury, the supermarket heiress, and Labour MP and former Cabinet minister Shaun Woodward, blames her former diet for a multitude of problems.

Her childhood was extraordinarily privileged but her diet, by her own account, was appalling and she blames it for her poor health.

In 2011 Ella was diagnosed with a relatively rare illness called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.

The syndrome effectively breaks down your autonomic nervous system: the system that controls everything that is meant to happen automatically in the body - so your heart beat, digestion, circulation and immune system.

Speaking to MailOnline, Ella said: 'As you can imagine this had a pretty devastating effect on my life. I literally couldn’t walk down the street, I slept for 16 hours a day, was in chronic pain, had blackouts, never-ending heart palpitations, unbearable stomach issues, constant headaches - the list goes on.'

Ella, who lives in London, was bed-ridden 95 per cent of the time and prescribed conventional medication and steroids for about six months but they didn’t make much difference so she decided to make a change herself.

'I began researching natural healing which is how I came to change my diet. Overnight I gave up refined sugar, gluten, dairy, anything processed or refined and meat,' she said. 

'It was a huge change from someone that lived off a delicious mixture of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream; mountains of Cadbury’s caramel chocolate, lots of fizzy pick-n-mix and millions of jars of peanut butter and strawberry jam eaten with a spoon.

'I noticed a difference after just a few weeks of eating well though and 18 months later I was able to come off all the medication - which I should have been on for life - and now feel absolutely amazing.'

Ella tracked her progress and shared all her favourite recipes via an online blog, Deliciously Ella. 

Ella, who studied History of Art at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's University, St. Andrews, was so inundated with recipe requests that she decided to launch an app and runs regular cookery classes and supper clubs.

While Ella starts the day with a green smoothie and follows with salad bowls, hearty soups, kale chips and homemade houmous, we don't all have the time or taste for that.

The lifestyle guru advises: 'I think just making one small change a day is amazing, just adding in one new serving of fruit or vegetables a day is fantastic, some sweet potato wedges or guacamole make an insanely delicious addition to any meal and they’re such an easy place to start.'  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-3064116/Deliciously-Ella-build-global-blogging-brand-bedroom.html

Best Infographics for Healthcare

In the run-up to Christmas I went into my favorite used book store in Philly and treated myself to a book on graphic art used in Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper The World from 1898-1911. One thing that struck me about the New York paper was the pervasive use of infographics to help its readers get some perspective on their city. A quick Google search helped me find what’s commonly referred to as the first use of an infographic in healthcare. Florence Nightingale produced one to demonstrate the causes of death in the Crimean War. It highlighted that the number of British soldiers who died from preventable diseases acquired in hospitals far exceeded those who died from their wounds and other causes.

This year, companies and organizations used infographics to communicate the shifting list of healthcare CIOs’ responsibilities to putting price transparency into practice and ways hospitals and employers are using digital health to try to rein in healthcare costs. Here’s a roundup of seven infographics produced this year that draw attention to trends in digital health and a hint of what’s to come in 2015.

Hospitals innovation priorities and challenges As hospitals continue to explore the potential of digital health tools, it’s worthwhile highlighting what their priorities are and the challenges they face in meeting them. A report by HIMSS and Avia, punctuated with an inforgraphic, found that clinical decision support, disease management, care coordination, patient follow-up and shared decision making have been the top innovation priorities for providers. Cost reduction, patient satisfaction, knowledge sharing and reducing medical errors are on the to do list. But the survey of 92 respondents noted that the number of staff to implement these changes, the limits of EMR systems to provide the level of data needed and the costs of implementing these changes are significant barriers for many hospitals.

Power of the periodic table CB Insights took a cool approach to healthcare deal flow by using periodic tables to spotlight the key players in pharma, biotech and medical device deals such as venture capital and angel investors. It did something similar with the Internet of Things and flagged up wearables, accelerators for digital health and investors in the space, among other things.Price transparency In a year where price transparency continued to grow as a talking point, an infographic illustrating Change Healthcare’s “Health  Transparency Index” offered an illustrated analysis of more than 180 million claims from the fourth quarter of 2013. It highlights the biggest healthcare price discrepancies between providers in imaging services like CT scans, ultrasounds and mammograms, and office visits with diabetes screenings.

Changing role of CIOs A report from executive search firm SSi Search calls attention to the shifting role of CIOs in healthcare. The infographic highlights their wide-ranging responsibilities in the new order of healthcare assisting in defining and supporting new patient care models, new reimbursement models and supporting numerous regulatory mandates. Their roles will include analytics initiatives, building the clinical skill sets of their teams and seeking greater strategic involvement in their health systems.

Digital health to control costs A Towers Watson survey of 597 employees looked at how employers are using and could use digital health to control healthcare costs. It noted that more than half are tweaking their employer plans to reduce healthcare costs, particularly with telemedicine. About 37 percent of employers said they plan to offer telemedicine by 2015 and another 34 percent said they are considering adopting it by 2016 or 2017, according to the report.

Emerging technology The “Technology Roadmap” from Barkley’s Innovation Lab isn’t so concerned with healthcare trends so much as the future of technology. It does highlight areas that healthcare is only beginning to explore more widely, such as 3D scanning, biometrics, and augmented reality.

Hand hygiene Remote monitoring was a hot discussion topic this year as was the subject of reducing hospital acquired infections. An infographic from Debmed combined them as part of a survey of hospitals. About one third of hospitals said they were considering a monitoring system purchase to confirm whether employees were washing their hands properly.

http://medcitynews.com/2014/12/best-2014-price-transparency-internet-things-8-digital-health-infographics/