How to get a food blog read and noticed
Our daughter is living in Madrid and has started a food blog about her culinary adventures. Any suggestions about how to get it out there for people to read? Check it out at: http://allkindsofdelicious.blogspot.com/
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
23 Comments:
Well, what you're doing right now is a start. She (and you, if you're helping her out with this...and it looks like you are) should also start commenting vociferously on other food blogs and/or forums. Get involved in the community, so to speak. Word of mouth then spreads fast.
The photography on her site (and I'm a little partial to photography, as I photo blog myself) is excellent, by the way. That alone will carry a lot of weight when people visit the site. Especially with the visual element that successful food blogging can entail. I also like the nice simple design/template she's using, but it could be punched up and personalized just a bit (just my two cents worth).
Chaoss at 8:49AM on 10/30/07
Agree with Chaoss that her photographs are quite good-- this really helps, and is something my own blog is sorely lacking. Her narrative is nice, too.
Chaoss is also right about commenting on other blogs and forums (here, foodcandy.com, eGullet, etc.). It's a great way to become known and to make friends.
Linking to interesting posts in other blogs is always appreciated and will certainly cause the owner to check her out when they see recent referrers.
Ann Fisher at 9:45AM on 10/30/07
I meant to add that her blog settings are such that they assume the commenter has a blogger account or asks them to login using a gmail account. Blogger does allow for "other account" commenting, which will let people use any link they like as part of their signature. I suspect she will get more comments if people are not feeling forced to use a gmail or blogger ID.
Ann Fisher at 9:50AM on 10/30/07
Considering she's only been going since September, it looks like she's been doing it for years.
I've put a link to 'Let's Eat!' on my own Blog.
http://bloodsugargto.blogspot.com/
GTO at 10:59AM on 10/30/07
Not to shamelessly advertise our blog (which I guess I'm doing, anyway) we have a company blog that has some amazing pictures right now from the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium over the weekend. The link is http://greenolivemedia.blogspot.com . We love visitors!
sawyerriley at 11:51AM on 10/30/07
She's doing a very nice job with her blog. Just some suggestions:
1. Comment in a complimentary way on other people's blogs, especially those with overlapping interests who might be more likely to visit again or add your blog to their RSS reader.
2. Register with blog aggregators such as Food Porn Watch.
3. Join Food Candy and other food blogging communities, and participate often.
Good luck with it!
These are my blogs, please let me know what you think.
Here and There
Altered Plates
hereandthe at 3:23PM on 10/30/07
I just started one, and I would love some feedback. Even bad feedback is feedback. :)
http://www.threepotato.blogspot.com
I will be looking closely at this column for advice . . . .
KarynMC at 5:25PM on 10/30/07
Karyn, do you not have comments enabled on your blog? I was all set to leave one... but there doesn't seem to be any way of doing so.
Ann Fisher at 7:53PM on 10/30/07
The hits on my blog at http://www.blogsmonroe.com/food/ have gone up quite a bit since I began participating here on Serious Eats. One thing I've been focusing on in the past few months is not only just food photography, but also using Photoshop CS2 to punch them up as much as possible. I've found that in itself is a great way to get people to come back. They just want to see what I've shot next. Of course, I blame Steamy Kitchen for sparking that interest.
LunaPierCook at 4:49AM on 10/31/07
Hmmm, I thought I did . . . but no, I hid them. It should be fixed now . . . .
Thanks!
KarynMC at 6:15AM on 10/31/07
It works, Karyn! One last piece of advice to you (and to the OP's daughter): as you find other food blogs you like and comment on often, add them as links to your sidebar. You may find that they return the favor. :-)
Ann Fisher at 6:38AM on 10/31/07
It's been a lot of fun seeing the blogs mentioned here and I was just inspired to add a post to redacted recipes itemizing all you with blogs that are "new" (less than six months old).
Ann Fisher at 7:34AM on 10/31/07
There's actually an article in the LA Times today about starting up food blogs . . . for us food blooging newbies, it's probably worth checking out.
I'm definitly going to start a blog list on my page - I've been meaning to, but the sites I check are, well, extensive . . . I'm going to have add blogs a little at a time!
KarynMC at 1:08PM on 10/31/07
I have wanted to have a blog for some time now. Yet I lurk. Maybe it is because there are so many good food blogs I read everyday. I do not feel quite worthy yet to go out on my own. Here at SE I feel like part of something important and large. I also know from reading my many baking blogs that some folks do not post every week and fall behind and you love their blog and want more but the vagaries of life take over and poof they lose track of it.
So much talent is here and on the food blogs, I feel so lucky to be a part of it even as a lurker.
JerzeeTomato at 1:17PM on 10/31/07
Karyn, do you have the URL to that article? I'm not finding it.
Ann Fisher at 1:39PM on 10/31/07
It's under "media dish" - the url's so long I hoped to avoid posting it. But here it is:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-dish31oct31,1,7588421.story?coll=la-headlines-food&ctrack=9&cset=true
Hope that helps!
JerzeeTomato - I felt the same way. And then, Heidi Swanson, food goddess, posted about two things that I have been doing for years, and I thought - hey, I'm not so unworthy. (That being said, I "practiced" posting and taking food photos. I have some recipe articles that I love - but the photos are too ugly to post!)
KarynMC at 1:55PM on 10/31/07
What really works about All Kinds of Delicious is that as an expat in a fantastic place for food, it has a built-in hook. It's not for nothing that most very successful food blogs are Americans in Paris or English-speakers Parisiennes (sp?) or Brits in San Fran or experts in a vast and generally little-known cuisine (say, Malaysian) or celiacs!
And now for the self-promotion: I'm interested in culinary traditions and the intersection of food & history (my hook: "a time-traveling year in the American kitchen"). And I'd like to find other bloggers interested in the same, perhaps for an early-American recipe potluck in Brooklyn?!
http://greatamericancookingproject.blogspot.com/
noraleah at 2:37PM on 10/31/07
My bit of advice is to have some sort of "about" section that a new reader can easily find. When visiting a food blog that's new to me, I first want to know who the blogger is, why he/she is blogging, maybe some personal background. That's what makes the blog come alive for me.
Also, I think it helps to have a blog theme or a hook. There are so many food blogs with great photos and recipes, but nothing that really sets the blog apart from dozens of others with great photos and recipes (everyone is a food photographer these days).
A theme helps distinguish one blog from another--e.g. Fat Free Vegan, healthy vegan recipes; the Wednesday Chef, reviews of recipes from major papers; Gluten-Free Girl, living the good life, gluten-free; Chocolate & Zucchini, eating and cooking in Paris; Beyond Salmon, cooking fish, etc.
Of course, there are plenty of successful all-purpose blogs, but those bloggers have all developed a 'personality.' It's harder for a newbie.
Oh, and I don't follow my own advice here: yulinkacooks.blogspot.com
yulinka at 3:45PM on 10/31/07
Being local is a great hook as well-- I've been blogging for only a few months but have already found myself part of a food blogging community here in Philly. (I'm at http://therealpotato.wordpress.com.) Thanks for the advice, all!
therealpotato at 6:33PM on 10/31/07
Become involved in the food blogging community! And like so many already said, visiting Serious Eats is a great start!
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 6:46PM on 10/31/07
My blog has food items in it, but I guess mine suffers from being also about my personal life, the humanitarian/charity work I do, and personal struggles along the way...food works in that but its not the only focus.
BUT it is all from my food driven perspective...I lost some of my older posts (pre-2004) and a .com site to merciless advertising 'squatters'...I let the address go temporarily and somebody else is benefitting from that traffic...(so spend the extra few dollars a year to hold a domain name, just in case you are really not ready to let it go - Here was the article I wrote on it).
Great sites you guys...I have been checking them out.
My pics are as good as I can take or acquire them so I know I could probably use some improvement on that. But hey, I'm not a photographer...
AND if your really not making any money...drop the ADS please. Or use widgets to control the adds for people who are regulars that do not want to keep be attacked by pop-ups or other 'loud/bright' ads...because if your really serious you can find bits of programming/widgets to recognize your faithful readers and lessen the barrage.
I guess I could share more, but this is long for a comment (yeah, keep comments short and precise too when visiting others sites/blogs or email them).
...cook, chef, culinary sponge, traveler, volunteer, missionary.
tyronebcookin
tyronebcookin at 6:55PM on 10/31/07
The Serious Eats community is amazing! Many thanks for the great comments, suggestions and links. I will pass them along to my daughter. She is returning to the US in mid-December start grad school in January. I will look forward to the next incarnation of her blog.
Again, thanks to everyone!
Scottzel at 8:55AM on 11/07/07
Excellent advice for novice food bloggers. Thanks for sharing the tips.
madhuram at 11:38PM on 04/06/08