New advice site launches to tap into Australia’s reno addiction

Reno Addict, a sister site to leading blog Interiors Addict has launched with celebrity designers and resident renovation experts on hand to inspire and help the millions of Australians hooked on renos.

Print journalist turned blogger Jen Bishop has launched her second website and taken on her first full-time employee two years after going out on her own.

Bishop turned her hobby blog, Interiors Addict, into a full-time job after leaving her role as editor and publisher of Dynamic Business magazine in 2013. The interior design blog has seen steady growth, with Bishop now represented by two agencies selling advertising and sponsored content.

Now she launches Reno Addict www.renoaddict.com, with some high profile resident experts including Charlie Albone from Selling Houses Australia, Baz Du Bois from Channel Ten's The Living Room, Alisa and Lysandra (The Twins) from The Block, House Rules judge and architect Joe Snell and renovator Naomi Findlay of The International Institute of Home Staging.

Reno Addict will be much like Interiors Addict theinteriorsaddict.com in that it will feature regular news, interviews and real life projects to inspire, with all advice being shared in an accessible way.

“I'm really passionate about showing that blogging can be professional, ethical and commercially successful and I'm certain my background in publishing has been a huge advantage in teaching me the skills I've applied to Interiors Addict. With the massive interest in renovating and the growing number of TV shows on the topic, Aussies' appetite for this is clear and it seemed a natural extension to the brand,” said Bishop, founder of Reno Addict and Interiors Addict.

Thanks to the growth of the business, UTS journalism graduate Olivia Shead has been brought on board as a writer, Bishop's first full-time employee. She has been working for Interiors Addict part-time as editorial assistant for the past year. At a time when many graduates struggle to find work in the changing media landscape, Bishop is delighted to be able to offer a promising young journalist this opportunity.

Reno Addict will go live with the support of Freedom Kitchens and Feast Watson for the launch phase, two of the most respected brands in the industry. Reno Addict’s sister site, Interiors Addict, attracts close to 100,000 unique readers and almost a quarter of a million page impressions per month.

Aside from her 15 years' experience as a journalist, editor and publisher on newspapers and magazines, and a genuine love of her genre, Bishop attributes her success to a business model that is different to many bloggers'.

“We have the audience numbers to make most of our revenue from selling banner advertising rather than sponsored content. In this respect, we probably operate more like traditional media,” Bishop added. “Having spent the majority of my career in print, it is now fascinating to be in the digital game, with the ability it gives us to see what our readers like most and to show our advertisers how well their campaigns perform.”

Renovating is experiencing a boom in Australia with the number of home renovations increasing by 147% since 2010, and Australian home owners spending $1,772.5m in the September 2014 quarter on renovating their homes[1]. With the recent launch of the latest season of The Block, and popularity of other top renovating TV shows (the top six renovating TV shows for 2014 had a total of 13,328,277 viewers), Reno Addict meets a growing interest in renovations.

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Interviews and high-res images (including of celebrity designers) are available upon request.

Media contact:

Phoebe Netto, Good Business Consulting

phoebe@goodbusiness.net.au

0401-036-610, twitter: @Phoebe_Netto

About Jen Bishop, founder of Reno Addict and Interiors Addict:

Publisher and editor Jen Bishop is a journalist of 15 years with a passion for all things interiors and real estate. She started Interiors Addict as a hobby but left her job as editor and publisher of a successful business magazine and became a full-time blogger more than two years ago. In April, Interiors Addict will celebrate its fourth birthday. It attracts close to 100,000 unique readers and close to quarter of a million page impressions per month, and blog has been featured in Belle, Real Living, Marie Claire, Cleo and Home Beautiful magazines, The Sydney Morning Herald’s Sunday Life and The Age.

Now she is launching the much anticipated Reno Addict www.renoaddict.com as a sister site. Bishop is also the founder of the hugely popular #7Vignettes monthly photo challenge which has seen her readers share more than 50,000 images between them on Instagram.

She is in demand as a commentator on blogging as a business and interior design for the everyday Aussie and is regularly interviewed by leading national newspapers and magazines.

[1]Source: Westpac Renovation Report: November 2014