Why? Because you want to. And the next answer is no, you can’t make money out of a food blog, or to be more precise, you can’t make a living directly. Not as things are, whether it will change or not, that I don’t know.
I’ve been blogging for just over 2 years and in food blogging terms I’m at the young adult stage in its lifespan, that’s if I take old daddies into account, likes of David Labovitz, Molly Wizenberg, Elise Bauer who’ve been around 8 years or so. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve seen plenty of newbies come into the food blogger’s sphere, it’s an ever-expanding universe. How many food blogs are out there? Who knows? Plenty. Have a look at the front page of my Portuguese friend Manuela’s blog, Tertúlia de Sabores and see how long her blog roll is, I’m sure like me you’ve seen many more.
Today if you google for a recipe or an ingredient you’ll have at least one but usually more blogs come up on the front page of the search. The net is thick with food bloggers, abundant with opinions on restaurant meals, cookery books and overflowing with recipes for all levels. Doesn’t seem to be a food subject not covered by a blogger somewhere. I’ve seen weird things done to food and weird things made into food, like charcoal used to make black bread. The good, the bad and the ugly are out there, all waiting to be virtually devoured.
Why Start A Food Blog?
If you’re sitting there with itchy fingers thinking of starting a food blog, you have some foodie knowledge to share, do it. It will be one of the best experiences you’ll have.
So what are you waiting for? Worried about how good your blog will be? Don’t.
The one thing about being out there in the public domain is; there will always be someone better than you. And for that reason there’s no point worrying about it.
Create a blog that’s about what you love to make, share, write, photograph. Do it for the love of it. If you lack the passion, the love or interest for what you’re blogging you’ll run out of steam eventually, the blog will become shackles around your wrists. And who needs another chore in their life?
I’m doing it because I enjoy it, and without that enjoyment I wouldn’t last through the lows when I’m so exhausted I can’t be bothered with it.
Where To Start
If you’re a food obsessed person, there will be something you’ll want to share with other like-minded people. Don’t worry about how professional your blog looks or how pretty the photographs are, simply start at the beginning. It’s not until you embark on it do you eventually evolve into the blogger you wanted to be.
There are plenty of readers out there who are not interested in reading sleek, professional looking blogs which lack the cosy, warmth of what some prefer. Sometimes the professional look can appear unobtainable, unaccessible, unrealistic, cold.
Think of your blog in terms of taste, it will not suit every single person out there but you will find your corner, niche, like-minded audience. There is no exam to pass, jump in and see where the journey takes you. It will evolve.
The Writing
If I have to re-visit my first posts, and this year there will be some tidying up around there, then I must tell you it’s a cringe-worthy moment for me. I’m not a writer. I’m not bright enough to possess the sharp wit of Oscar Wild nor have a studious background in order to remember clever references showing literary talent.
I find the writing part a challenge. I’m slow at it. I have no problems conveying a story across or seize enthusiasm for what I want to share but writing in a way which is clear, concise, and not repetitive is the test. How many different ways can I say delicious or tasteless? Online thesaurus is a great companion.
I find it difficult to try and be funny while thinking of the best way to get my story across, I don’t really need the added pressure, so I don’t try. In real life I’m a good piss taker of everything but on here as I’ve been accused by my friend A, I’m a little too serious. Maybe he means I’m dull? I’ll have a word with him.
Being One’s Own Editor
The worst problem of writing in one’s own blog is the absence of an editor. Oh boy! How many times one is needed. I’m not talking correcting mistakes, no heck, I have to get over that one and accept those, I mean an editor is desperately needed to cut down ramblings. I’m getting better. I try and keep my ramblings in check, don’t always succeed.
Most bloggers ramble but I think it’s hard not to. The opportunity of having free space unchecked to talk about your idea of a good/bad/indifferent “whatever” has a sizeable element of narcissism about it.
My friend A. was the first one to mention to me the correlation between blogging and narcissism.
Don’t kid yourself, telling me your blog is just for personal use, to keep note of recipes you’ve tried…erhhmmm…sure it is…that’s why you chose to put them on a blog as oppose to keep them on your computer privately…you don’t fool me. Take your blog offline and then I agree it’s for personal use only.
Don’t apologise for it though. You’re saying “hello world..here I am..here’s what I think about the meal I had in the restaurant last night” or “..here’s my favourite way to make mash potato!” And here’s the funny part, you’ll find people who are interested in what you think.
The Reason I Started
The reason I started this blog is not the same reason I now do it. I started because I had a 2 year old, was stuck at home, bored and finding it difficult adjusting to having a child with physical disability. It was not a good time for me or my husband. Two children in the family with disability was a pill hard to swallow.
I was in need of an outlet for expressing something I was passionate about. Something that was about me, not about being a mum, wife, business partner, homemaker. I can draw and paint and I’ve even taken a floristry course some time ago when considering a florist career, but what seemed right to share at the time was my love of food.
I remember being 8 years old and holding on to a pig’s tail while my Gran Azélia was slaughtering it. My aunts couldn’t stomach it and would excuse themselves. You wouldn’t go hungry if you had me on a desert island.
Starting this blog was my “me” time.
Why I Blog Now
When I started I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, shared recipes, rambled…ok…I still ramble.
The first year was about finding my feet. Sharing recipes or skills was easy enough, but...and here comes the but…posting recipe after recipe wasn’t enough for me.
Blogging is a lonely activity, doing the experiments, trying to get a decent photo, sitting in front of laptop, choosing photos, cutting them, putting in order, writing up the post, it all takes time. A long post with lots of photos of mine will consume 3 days on average. Spending every free moment and lots of late nights after a while I needed something in return from it.
Towards its first anniversary I made a decision my blog wasn’t going to be a pretty photos blog. You know what I’m saying, lots of photos of empty bowls, flowers and other pretty artistic photos, lovely to look at but otherwise useless to show you how to cook.
Question to self was; what did I enjoy the most? It was the teaching part, showing others how cook. Why? Because I myself love learning something new. Ok, I love learning.
It was the Bronze Pasta post which changed things for me, getting into the details on durum wheat, it was a challenge, made my head think and the beginning of my enthusiasm for tackling things I didn’t know. The blog is now a place for me to challenge myself, learn something, as well as sharing information.
Google Analytics
If you have a blog then you should sign up to google analytics, it’s free, but that’s not the reason, like I’ve said above, blogging is a lonely pass-time and when putting your stuff out there it’s good to know in the beginning, when perhaps you’ll have no comments, there’s people stopping by and actually reading it. Otherwise it can feel as if you’re typing away your work into a black hole.
I don’t analyse it or do anything with it but on the occasions when I check I enjoy seeing people come back, that’s perhaps the best statistic, knowing others are interested enough to return.
Comments On Blogs
Is your blog getting a good amount of comments? Is your blog a busy one, with a good number of hits?
Here’s the thing, don’t assume just because there are no comments the blog isn’t being read. And there will be blogs with comments that aren’t necessarily getting huge hits. I read blogs which appear to be on the surface quiet and so will other people. I’ve had posts with a good amount of interest but only one or no comments, and posts less well read but with a good collection of comments.
You can’t judge a blog by the amount of comments it has and here’s why, the first thing to notice is most comments are made by other bloggers. My husband’s view of food bloggers’ comments are, “it’s a back slapping exercise”. To some extent it is. There are bloggers who will reciprocate when you comment on their blog, and if you stop commenting they’ll stop. Some are like that.
Blogs with lots of comments on a regular basis, such as the oldies I mention above, yes for sure, they must be incredibly busy. However, look closer at the comments of many blogs, and you’ll see the same people commenting every time. In return that blogger will have commented on that person’s blog.
Although a back slapping exercise may go on with some, let me give you a less cynical view which I think exists for a lot of bloggers I know.
There’s something that evolves when you connect with other bloggers, a community. If you follow blogs it becomes easy to keep up with what they’re doing, so you return. Having spent time accompanying their journey you enjoy seeing what they’re up to, there’s familiarity, a relationship is established over time and you’re in a community of bloggers who may over-lap each other. Over a period of time you tend to migrate towards the people behind the blog because you connect with them in some way. This is why I said before, don’t worry too much about having a fantastic looking blog because it’s the personality behind it which will eventually have people stay with you.
I don’t have time to check blogs regularly but I try to dip in and out when I can. I love being part of that community. I have learnt so much from them.
Hits Are a Secret
I find it strange bloggers don’t talk about how many hits they receive, just like people don’t discuss salaries. I can’t see why, it doesn’t mean anything, those hits aren’t pounds you’re receiving.
It’s harder to get hits in the first year than the second because by the second year you’ll have a certain amount of posts out there being flared up by search engines. It helps to name your pages, in wordpress use your boxes for Meta Keywords and Meta descriptions. There’s also an exponential curve after a while, making regular posts pays off, suddenly your hits will shoot up. It took what seemed forever to get to 10,000 hits (per month) but getting to the current 18,000 hits happen in a few short months.
The only other blog I know who displays their hits is Maison Cupcake, going for as long as me and gets 25,000 hits, so my stats going on that basis seems ok, maybe a bit lame.
A big tip from me if you’re only interested in hits for your blog post lots of baking stuff, not bread but cakes, cookies, caramel, chocolate that kind of stuff. My yoghurt cake post for a long time would get the most hits, even now popular posts are around baking of some kind.
If you think about it even the most proficient cook still follows a recipe for a cake or cookie. Cake recipes are more of an exact science than a casserole. I adore dessert, but have to blog about other things too.
For the purpose of this post I re-visited some of the bigger blogs, ones that have been around a while. Interestingly I noticed they’re getting around the same amount of comments now as they did when I use to follow them 2 years ago. It seems people come, follow, comment, many drop out and new ones replace them.
US v. British Food Blogs
If you really want to have a huge successful blog then you’re better across the pond. The Americans apart from being a larger population interact more with blogs, comment frequently and generally have no problems with the commercial aspect of blogging. Or the other option is to be American and live in Paris. Americans seem to love France when it comes to food.
The biggest mama of all bloggers is Ree with The Pioneer Woman blog, quite extraordinary. A while back I saw a kitchenAid give-away of hers, had received over 60,000 comments, never seen anything like it. So now you know, get yourself a cowboy hat, have kids, be thin, love animals, go to church, create lots of short posts with a slight West-style tone and you’ll have yourself a winning formula.
Oh…nearly forgot to say the other tip for more hits to your British blog is give cup measurements. I did in beginning but been too busy, I get asked at times I should try and do it at least for the cakes, I like to make things simple for people though it’s time consuming.
Twitter & Facebook
If you have a food blog it seems crazy not to be on twitter and facebook. Twitter is very personal for me and I have personal rules about it. I hardly have any traffic from twitter to the blog in comparison to facebook but I love twitter, I’ve met some great people on there.
It’s a place where I interact with lovely people from all over the globe, some of which I’ve also met in person. A place I use to take a break when I need 5 mins, unfortunately I can still find myself there an hour later, a good place for banter. A place to ask for help and it’s the first place to receive news, if something is happening out there in the world twitter will be the first place I’ll hear from.
An American blogger I follow on twitter, Stella from Brave Tart, recently wrote an excellent post on the Shoulds & Shouldn’ts of Twitter and I recommend reading the post here. I particularly like these points of hers:
Follow people you find fascinating, who share great information. Follow people you admire, who make you laugh.
If you view twitter as a boring place where narcissistic people spout yawn inducing one liners, you’ve followed the wrong people.
I look forward to hearing from them every day. Can you say the same about your feed?
Using twitter only to promote yourself, announce new blog posts, and beg for followers or retweets won’t endear you to anyone.
Facebook for me is completely different, where it gains is allowing photographs to be embedded and not limiting everything to 140 characters.
A Blog Is Not Just For Christmas
It demands constant feeding. Doesn’t matter how many post you’ve done, if visitors arrive at your blog halfway and stick around, very few will look through your very old back catalogue, they’re waiting for the next post, and the next one….
A food blog is what you make it, it can be for personal recipes you want to share and no more.
Mine has put me through Bread University but it also provides a necessary record of recipes I’ve tried, made up, or adjusted. My oldest daughter who hates cooking but loves my food keeps asking for our family recipes to go up on the blog for when she leaves home. I refer back to the blog whenever I want to cook something I have on here, the iphone goes into the kitchen. Requests for a recipe of something I make I can say, check out the blog.
Time Well Spent
Connecting with other food obsessed people is a pleasure. The foodie world is an odd one, we care about the variety of raspberries or differences of black and long pepper or the shortfalls of sous vide, all interesting to us but hardly the work of a surgeon. I think caring about flavours and textures in food is no different to finding visual beauty in a Monet or a Pollock.
When I was at school my art teacher said something which resonated deeply, “When you paint you’ll always have a record of how you spent your time when looking back. It’s never wasted” And I think the same with a blog, time consuming, exhausting, pain in the backside at times, demanding, it’s all of these but I look back and think, “I created that”.
In Part II – I talk about the money side of blogging and the off shoots from it.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Azelia! And I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of why there are a lot of comments on blogs from fellow bloggers. In some cases, it can be a case of what I’d call courtesy rather than back slapping… sometimes I see a comment from a blogger I don’t recognise on one of my posts. I love finding new blogs so I’ll usually follow the link to visit their blog. And then, if I do find a post genuinely of interest, I’ll leave a comment. It seems courteous.
But, more commonly, I leave comments on many hundreds of blogs I follow because I read them regularly and enjoy them, maybe even more so being a fellow blogger and having that extra insight. It is, as you say, a case of building relationships and I leave comments irrespective of whether those bloggers bother to do the same for me. Sometimes I may interact with them on twitter as well.
In many cases, there are bloggers whose blogs I read and I know they don’t bother reading mine, but that’s OK, I read their because I enjoy the content and that’s my reason for doing so.
Also, I think when people tell you they blog for themselves, I don’t think they mean they are doing so with no expectation of having an audience but that the content they write is based on what gives them pleasure. As you say, there must surely be an aknowledfement that part of the pleasure is being able to share with others, otherwise why not save a private diary on your own computer?
I blog for pleasure, mine above anything else. I love being able to record my experiences and opinions and recipes and reviews. But being able to write knowing that I have an audience allows me to write as though I’m talking to a small group of friends, that’s the style I find most natural for me, talking in my own voice. For me, it doesn’t matter whether I have 2 readers or 200 for a post, it’s nice to know that someone is there and I’m not talking into a vacuum.
I dislike all the push for statistics because I blog for pleasure and I don’t want it to become one of those competitive pursuits, like so many things in life already are. People are constantly comparing and ranking and I find that keeping my own stats private and not worrying about anyone else’s is a good way of avoiding falling into that trap. It doesn’t matter how many readers I’m getting as I’m not trying to make a living from my blog, so I choose not to discuss that kind of stuff. For those selling advertising, I guess it makes more sense to share it.
Of course, there are many additional benefits to blogging, for me one of them is the many, many, many friendships I’ve made and the wonderful people I’ve met. And also some really fantastic opportunities and invitations, my favourite ones being invitations to attend courses and classes and private events where I am able to learn from respected food experts, often in situations I wouldn’t be able to buy even if I had the money. That is special to me. Getting sent free food samples and books is nice but if it stopped tomorrow I wouldn’t miss it as much as those chances to meet and interact with people I can learn from and who I respect. So that’s a big perk.
I have heard people suggest flippantly that they want “free stuff” and they’ll start their own blog. It always horrifies me.
As you have said, blogging is a big emotional and time investment and you are putting yourself and your opinions out there for public scrutiny. It’s a lot of hours to do if you’re not really interested, and just want a free book or steak!
Ultimately, I think it’s got to be about personal satisfaction, however you measure it, whatever aspects fo blogging create that for you.
As soon as the pain outweighs the pleasure, it’s time to stop!
That’s a post in itself Kavey!
I totally agree with what you say.
Great post Azélia! You’ve always been incredibly encouraging to me, and I’ve really appreciated that. Food bloggers in particular seem to be so generous with their advice and encouragement.
I’ve particularly enjoyed your experiments this year. You have much more patience that I do to repeat recipes with lots of variations, so we can really see the difference that a different flour or a different temperature could make. I feel like you’re trying all these things so I don’t have to!
My biggest challenge is ‘feeding’ my blog – but I’m giving it another go. I think I figured out last year how to write something everyday, but not how to turn that into posts. Now I’m trying to fix that final hurdle
Keep it up, Azélia!
You write intelligently Louise and I enjoy reading your posts. I’m the worst person to tell you to do short posts but do shorts posts in between long ones in order to retain more energy, and keep a steadier flow of them. Just don’t stop.
I like your blog because each post is well thought out, takes time to do the actual cooking and then write about it afterwards; you’re not just churning out post after post of drivel like some we have previously discussed in private
I think i’ve cooked about 10 -15 recipes from this site (think Salt cod cakes, choux pastry et al) and referred countless other people here so your’re doing a good job!
thanks Luc, as I’ve said to you already I’ve enjoyed following your journey too, watching your supperclub and baking grow, it’s been lovely being part of your blogger/twitter life.
Azelia, loved this post. I am not a great follower or reader of blogs but this post had me hooked from start to finish. Sometimes someone says something that opens your mind to a new way of looking at things and you have done just that with this post when you say: ” I think caring about flavours and textures in food is no different to finding visual beauty in a Monet or a Pollock.” as a foodie person it is a comment I agree with 100%. I am just building a new web site to promote change in my local town (not a foodie web site) and I found your comments about how you have developed your blog and the level of traffic encouraging, thank you. See you on CSH sometime…
thanks Chris for your lovely comment and stopping by, I wish you the best with your project.
Wow, what a jam-packed post full of spot-on advice for food bloggers, including those like me who’ve been at it for years. I confess, I don’t think much about blogging, or the hits I get, or the whys and hows. I just do it when the mood strikes me, which usually happens when I cook something I liked and want to remember the recipe. I can’t say my posts get a huge amount of traffic or comments, but that’s not really why I do it. And I think it’s there where you hit the nail on the head: it’s all about “me time”. What can I say, I’m selfish like that.
Great post… looking forward to Part II.
Thanks Monica, definitely well spent “me” time!
Fab post and well written too. I had to laugh with your thoughts on leaving comments, so true and I also saw the kitchen aid comp with 60,0000 odd comments!!!! Clearly, neither of us won!!!!
Keep up the good work mate, xx
Thanks Debs x
Well Azelia YET AGAIN you read my mind – its a freaky thing that keeps me coming back! I have been asked by my friends and family ‘when are you starting your blog” for a while now and this post was shoved in front of my computer programming husband with a threat of death if he didn’t work his magic for me this year – I am busting to join in! You are absolutely spot on with your comments about people connecting with the blogger’s personality – your “jack russell” perseverance with experimentation is something I don’t find often in my Life and apart from finding your posts both fascinating and amazingly helpful I feel less alone in my nutty ‘need to know’ I have been known to drive some more “just follow the recipe” types insane with my “but WHY” approach… So it does become sometimes by necessity a private journey – but a lonely one at times. I refer anyone who is embarking on particularly a “sourdough journey” to your site – without your encouragement and brilliantly practical and helpful posts I would have killed my chickens with heavy, half cooked, angrily thrown out bread!! I just wish I could show you the consistently fabulous results I am whacking out now in a comparatively effortless way on a weekly basis – my foccacia is now being demanded at every family function! I look forward to the ‘next instalment” and sending you the link to my blog! Julia XXX
Well where do I start?
This is a fabulous post! I am sorry i missed chatting with you at Dan’s party .. I spotted you and did look for you but I think you must have gone!
Wonderful post. Love Kavey’s comments. If I am honest my blog started just as a means of impressing a publisher enough to give me a book deal. It has become so much more. I need my blog. It’s therapy and I have connected with so many likeminded people through it. It’s just as Kavey says .. chatting with a circle of friends. i often think of my posts as a letter to a friend rather than a blog .. and as for the editing .. well I keep it short because I have such limited time and it kind of self edits that way.
Your Blog is one I read regularly and love…
x
PS I do also have number of hits on my site at the bottom !
x
Lovely to hear from you Julia – while you’re waiting for hubby and his magic techy wand, why don’t you set up a Flickr account? It will be easy then to load your photos on it and keep a record and share with people by linking the pages. It’s free and would at least give you a photo album, here’s mine http://www.flickr.com/photos/57951131@N07/
Hi Vanessa
It was a short evening for us, had to get back to babysitter! I’m quite sure we’ll bump into each other again! Yes, the community aspect of blogging is a great part of this experience. Have great respect for how you achieved your goal with your book, really well done.
I’ve really enjoyed your two posts on food blogging and so much of it rings true. I started mine because I love writing and wanted an outlet to be creative, showcase my recipes etc. At first I saw hardly any views or comments and didn’t really realise that I wanted them until they arrived, and now I get so much pleasure from knowing that people are reading my blog and making my recipes, or those I have shared. Blogging must primarily be for yourself, but this can’t be the only reason or, as you say, it wouldn’t be an open forum. Recently I’ve become much more interested in food photography and styling which is a completely new area to me – there’s so much to learn! And it’s hard not to be drawn into competition with other blogs when the standard out there is so high. I guess it’s just human nature.
On a slightly separate note, if (or when) you do start up your bakery I’ll be joining the queues – every time I read one of your posts I wish I could reach into the screen and grab some bread
There is a lot of different elements to learn and I think that’s part of the appeal also Littleloaf, you’re right, the learning process as well as the making friends with like-minded people.
I found your blog this morning looking for excellent posts and resources on yeasted bread — and boy. Yours is amazing, so thanks for all your incredible photos and detailed writing. I’m from “across the pond” about as far as you can get in the Southwest corner of the US, and my husband will tell you, if I could live in England, I would. I love it.
I could say so much about this post (and need to read the second part now…) and have been planning on writing something similar in a month when my website turns 5. Although I do know several people who do earn a pretty good living from their food websites/blogs, I know many more who use the income to supplement and do so very well. I, on the other hand, have never quite managed to do that and am always at odds about why I continue to keep it. Yet I do. It’s my nemesis, definitely.
I try my best to comment on any blog I read — even if it’s a small one. In fact, I think I met Kavey that way. Small world! The challenge for me is to spend time visiting others on a regular basis. I actually do read entire posts and am not into the scan to leave a comment habit. Seems silly. Anyway, wonderful post, excellent blog.
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