This month we’re talking to David Ludlow, Editor of Expert Reviews about mobiles and gadgets and why spending more isn’t always a guarantee of a better product.

1. Describe your typical working day

Expert Reviews has a huge remit and we cover loads of different product sections, so it’s a matter of making sure that each one is serviced. In the morning that’s making sure we’re covering the right products and we’ve not missed any major news. I also work closely with the sales team, helping them with campaigns and responding to advertisers. On top of that, if there’s time, there are always more products to review, although as Editor, I at least get the pick of the bunch. Of course, there’s keeping up with contacts and making sure that the team and myself are talking to companies that we deal with every day. Relationship building is one of the key parts of the job.

2. What’s the best story you’ve ever written?

I think one of the best things we’ve ever done on Expert Reviews is proving that expensive HDMI cables don’t make a difference to quality. With a lot of online news focused on hitting the big products (iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S4, etc), getting to do this kind of article is really good. Essentially, we compared the output of loads of different HDMI cables from £1 to £150 and found that the quality was the same. Not only did we get to do some proper testing, but we’ve also stopped people getting ripped off after reading reviews that say a really expensive cable’s better than a cheap one.

3. What’s the next big news for tech? What will be big in 2013?

More mobile and more tablets. It’s incredible how much people care about their phones and tablets and with big products this year from Apple, Samsung, HTC and Sony, demand and interest is only going to increase. It’s clear to see why, as mobile devices are in every part of our lives and are so useful on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s checking emails, checking the weather, sending a destination to car’s sat-nav or remote-recording something you want to watch later. We should see more 4G this year, too, so mobile is going to be even more massive than it already is.

4. How important is social media in sourcing stories?

Social media is a useful way to keep track of what’s going on and can highlight something that you’ve missed. However, Twitter is rather immediate and, if you’re away from it for a bit, it’s hard to catch-up and see what you’ve missed. Traditional methods of getting the latest releases (email and phone) are best generally.

5. What’s next for Expert Reviews?

I always wanted Expert Reviews to go into different product categories that our competitors aren’t in, so we’ve expanded and now cover home appliances. So far, we’ve just done washing machines but we’ll soon be expanding to cover fridges, vacuum cleaners and smaller appliances. It’s going well so far, with great feedback from readers and manufacturers, plus we’re ranking well in Google. It’s a matter of building that part of the site and making Expert Reviews different from the competition.