A guest post by Melissa Hartfiel
For the last three years it has been my job to review every blog that applies to join Food Bloggers of Canada.
I make sure they meet our membership criteria, such as being Canadian and being 50% food related. I also find bloggers who can write for us, become a featured member, or a good fit with a brand campaign.
It may sound harsh but, now that I’ve read more than 1600 food blogs, the majority bleed into one generic blog on home cooking and baking, eating out, and healthy-decadent-special diets-grilling-budget friendly family meals. Basically it’s anything food related, and sometimes not!
And so food blogs try to be everything to everyone. Then words blur together and I skip to the next blog because this blog looks just like the last 20 I visited.
I’m wondering why so many blogs don’t stand out. The phrase “find your niche” strikes a note of fear in many bloggers. Will narrowing your focus bore you? Will it mean fewer opportunities to work with big brands? Or a smaller audience with less traffic? Or do you simply dislike limiting what you want to write about?
Perhaps most of us are bad at — and scared of — saying “no” for fear of losing out on opportunities that might promote our blogs or get more views. But saying no sometimes can open doors that otherwise would have stayed closed.
What can you do to avoid the generic blog trap? When I’m looking for food bloggers to work with us or for us, here’s what I’m looking for:
1. A strong voice. Do you make me laugh out loud or make me think? Do you make me angry? Inspire confidence or passion? Do I feel like I’m listening to my best friend? I want a reaction that makes me sit up and take note rather than simply thinking “nothing new here” and moving on.
You can write about anything if you have a strong voice. Don’t worry that you will offend someone or that others won’t find you funny. Battling against your voice won’t make you stand out, but it will make you another generic food blogger.
A strong voice appeals to editors, publishers and, believe it or not, brands. At FBC we’ve noticed many brands are now as interested in a blogger’s voice and focus as they are in their numbers, and sometimes more.
2. A strong focus. As an editor, I look for experts in their field to write or speak for us, or pair up with a particular blogger campaign. I seek bloggers who are knowledgeable in their subject matter and engaged with their reader community. Your blog is your canvas to show that you are the best resource for all things gluten-free, or vegan, or pie.
All blogs need a focus, whether fairly general to hyper specific. When I hit your site, I want to get a clear sense of who you are and what your blog is about in the first few seconds. I check your subject matter, design, logo and bio to see if they all reflect your blog’s focus. Often, I can’t tell.
When I wear my designer hat, it’s painful for me to help bloggers build a visual identity or website when they can’t tell me how they identify themselves. If you can’t tell yourself who you are, how will your audience know? And how will you tell brands, editors, or publishers what you’re all about?
3. A point of view. You don’t need to narrow your blog down writing about, say, carrots. But if you’re going to write about a wide range of topics, a strong point of view can unify them. Your point of view is your opinion, attitude, sentiments and belief system all rolled into one. It’s what makes you you. And it has to shine through to keep your writing from sounding generic.
Some bloggers have such a strong and unique point of view that their blog stands out, no matter what they’re writing about. But those few are the exception.
4. The ability to say no. Looking for more work? I’ve suggested bloggers for brand campaigns only to have brand managers say no because they felt the blogger had too many other brand commitments or conflicting brand commitments.
Saying yes to everything dilutes your focus. If something doesn’t fit your niche or your focus, say no. PR companies won’t blacklist you, and people won’t shun you. In fact, you might be surprised by how many more meaningful offers come your way when you stand out from the crowd.
If you blog with a goal in mind of earning income or growing a loyal following, finding a focus for your food blog is necessary to differentiate yourself from the thousands of food blogs all competing for attention. Defining your voice, shaping an identity, creating a clear focus and saying no to work that doesn’t fit with your focus will get you on track.
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By day, Vancouver based Melissa Hartfiel is co-founder and Managing Director of Editorial for Food Bloggers of Canada, a membership-based community for Canadian food bloggers. FBC showcases Canadian bloggers while facilitating blogger campaigns for Canadian and international brands. Melissa also owns a boutique design firm, Fine Lime Designs, where she specializes in working with bloggers. By night she is a blogger, photographer, and doodler with a serious addiction to British murder mysteries.
Such great advice. With food blogs so very thick on the ground these days, finding your niche and standing out is more important than ever.
This was such a great read! My blog only just hit the six month mark and what I really struggled with lately is how much I toned down myself. I see this mass of food blogs every day and I feel to be succesful I need to be the perfect mommy-homemaker-one-pot-cook who just made an Oreo Peanut Butter Cookie Pie and then write about it in a cutesy way. But no, that’s not me. This post is really encouraging to go look for that niche fitting me and my story and to revert back to my authentic voice. Thanks so much for sharing!
Completely agree Nora, such an encouraging article for those who dont fit into what seems to be the cutesy pastel-only food blogging stereotype!
Nora I’m so glad you found this encouraging. Being somebody you’re not is ultimately exhausting and you’ll likely be unhappy in the long run. It’s always so very refreshing for me when I come across a blog where the writer is being themselves and has turned the filter from high to low.
Nora, your personality shines in your posts. They are so personable…. I’ve been seeing a shift in your photography recently. Both styles (bright and airy vs darker and moody with few props) are beautiful, but it’s nice to see this ‘new’ (to me anyway) styling. It’s beautiful!
Really good read – and something that anyone who reads a lot of blogs (I do) can identify with. It can difficult to find that focus from the beginning unless you have an overwhelming passion about a niche topic. The beginning of the year is a time when many people take stock of things and I’m doing that again with my blog. You’ve helped nudge me towards more clarity of thinking especially in my direction for the future.
It all comes down to why you are blogging at the end of the day – if you are happiest when writing about a wide range of topics and aren’t hung up on your readership figures then go ahead. Blogging is about personal expression. If you have bigger goals in sight some refining and narrowing of focus will be necessary.
Sally, i think it’s very possible to write about a wide range of topics and still be unique and stand out if you have a strong voice. But in order to do that you need to find your voice and embrace it and I think a lot of us struggle with that. Sometimes I think we spend practicing our food photography style than we do practicing our writing (and I think we need to work just as hard to find and get comfortable with our voice). Glad you enjoyed the post!
Thank you for this, Melissa! Although I feel as though I’ve found my writers voice, I’m not sure if it’s strong enough to stand out. I’d love a critique. Who does this? I hear from readers, friends and family…. but it’s so hard to tell. And sometimes I get stumped because I want to be personable but not too personal. It’s difficult sometimes to find that balance.
I think finding the line between personal and personable is a difficult one. When you blog it’s usually is from your perspective and “about you” so you do have to find a way to make yourself shine through but let’s face it, we don’t all want to share every private moment of our lives! Like anything else, writing takes practice and it really does take time and patience and practice to find and get comfortable with your own style.
Thank you for this great reminder. I struggle all the time with my voice, sometimes fear to write what my fingers want to. I finally designed a logo that truly reflects my site and it made such a difference with my confidence. I’ve asked for feedback from the bloggers I most admire, and have spend a lot of time studying the blogs I always visit, asking myself “why” and “what do I expect” before I open their page. Volumes could be written on this topic and I’ll be thinking about this all day and how I can improve my focus and strengthen my voice.
Angela, as a blogger, the posts that always seem to resonate the most with my readers are the one where I agonize over pushing the publish button. And I know from talking to other bloggers that they’ve found the same thing. I think you do have to allow yourself to be a little bit vulnerable when you write for your true self to come through.
I think there are plenty of writers who seem to write from an intimate point of view — but think about this. Some of the great memoirists — maybe all of them — have a carefully constructed persona on the page. M.F.K. Fisher is a perfect example, in the food writing world. Vivian Gornick is an essayist-memorist is another. In fact, she writes about this dichotomy in her book, “The Situation and the Story.” Pico Iyer is another.
It is also important to forecast trends and if you want something to BE a trend, then tell people it is going to be, write a post on it, promote on social media and be known for getting in there first.
Keeping a keen eye on the RL world is so important. Don’t become so obsessed that all you read is other peoples blogs. Get out and about, meet food producers, interview them and use it to drive your work.
So many blogs have endless recipes (which can be lovely) but it is much harder to make yourselves stand out if yours is one of them. Why should a reader bake YOUR lemon pound cake?
“Don’t become so obsessed that all you read is other peoples blogs. Get out and about, meet food producers, interview them and use it to drive your work.”
Nicola… I could not agree with you more! This is so important. We need to get out and explore what’s around us and experience things in order to write, photograph, paint… anything creative. And not just food related things – it’s amazing how something seemingly unrelated can spark a wonderful idea that you can use in your food writing. So yes, get out from behind the computer screen and stop worrying about what other bloggers around you are doing. Do YOUR thing… not theirs! You can’t be the next Pioneer Woman… that job is already taken by the best person for the job. But… the flip side is… nobody out there can be Nicola Miller. You’ve already got that job and you are the very best person to fill it.
Thanks for the great guest post and good advice. Tons and tons of food blogs out there and seems like more getting added daily. Sometimes even after we think we’ve found our niche we get tempted to step outside that, so was a good reminder to stay focused and be ourselves and not try to please all.
Glad it helped remind you to stay focused Susan!
Great advice for bloggers at any stage of the game. I have found this to be so true for myself and my work; focusing my niche certainly changed everything for the better both professionally and personally.
Aimee.. I think you and I and Laura-Jane from The Rawtarian had a discussion about this once 😉 I couldn’t have written this post without the great chats the three of us had. Thanks!
Great insights and timeless advice. I always keep asking myself these questions, good to see it’s not just me. Thanks for a good read!
Thanks for this excellent post. I, too, find that I’m weeding out my blog feed to focus on sites where the writing comes alive. Humor, personality, and compelling stories that go along with the shiny photos draw me in and keep me. If it’s just a nice pic, a cutesy “gah!” and another recipe for the crock pot, I’m done. As for my own blog, I’m posting as if I’m talking to a friend, and that works for me.
That’s a great tack to take Sharon. If you can envision the person you’re speaking to when you write, it makes things much much easier! Glad you enjoyed the post.
Great post Melissa! These are all really good points for bloggers to think from time to time and see how they can improve.
I’ve certainly struggled with all of these and although I think I’ve honed in on my point of view (an RD who wants to show how enjoying the pleasure of eating can be part of a healthy diet!), I still have difficulty with projecting a strong voice. It’s something I’m continuing to work on.
This is great advice. I have had my blog for a little over a year, do not have Twitter, Facebook or other social media and really have a meager following. I believe I have a voice but don’t focus on one topic, other than food, my life/dogs and life in general. I spend more time on my writing than on photography but I only seem to get comments from the same handful of food bloggers that I have connected with. It would be great to reach a larger audience but it seems like the more important thing to focus on over good writing to gain readershop is to read and comment on everyone else’s blogs? Or is it being absent from social media that is keeping my audience small?
Great article Melissa! I’ve been thinking a lot about niche since FBC2013 and especially so since the 2014 conference. Since I write about real food, it’s easy to be very broad and lose focus. Lately I’ve been trying out an entertaining angle to try to develop more of a niche. I haven’t made any announcements about that; rather, I just started doing it.
As your article points out, it’s not all about niche, but rather a range of components that make a blog a unique place to visit, time and again. I’m not sure I’ve hit on the ‘magic’ combination of factors yet, but maybe the important thing is to continue to learn, grow and work on perfecting this craft.
I really enjoyed this Melissa. Thank you. I think your words of wisdom can really apply to a blogger in any “niche.” (I am not a food blogger, but write about being married to a chef . . . still food related I guess.)
I really liked what you had to say about having a strong voice. While I write with a specific “person” in mind, I still need to be me, even if I think someone might not agree with me. Thanks for that reminder today!
Ok thank you for writing this Melissa, I know you have ample experience reading food blogs! Sometimes its really easy to get disheartened and try to fit into perfect food blogger box. I don’t know, personally I always come back to what I know I care about and try to emphasize that. It seems sometimes though like the most popular bloggers are the most generic and thats the frustrating part.
You hit the nail on the head with this article Melissa. But with all those points, I also hope people let go of any fear of needing to be that person with the niche, and the strong voice straight away. There’s so much pressure to be that blogger nowadays. Some people just have everything fall into place straight away, but for others like myself, sometimes being that ‘everything’ blog lets you test out the different topics and your writing styles at the beginning. So long as you don’t stay that ‘everything’ blog.
(You’ll know, but I’ll say it for anyone else reading this to give context) I create recipes that have been inspired by novels/children’s books.
It was only after three years of trying everything else-gluten free, dining out, decadent- that I found my niche. It took another three years of writing about it (or creating it is more like it, my ‘strong voice’ is still work in progress), before I was finally comfortable enough to say ‘this is what it is’. I let go of wanting to share everything and started turning down local opening events. I still know that lump in my throat when I said ‘thanks, but no thanks’. But it is worth it (the missing out feeling you get when you see the event on Twitter is short lived). Your effort is put towards creating something you love rather than trying to fit in.
Thanks for the great advice, Melissa. I’ve heard this before but you put more detail into it. So many people will say something like, “You need to focus,” but give you absolutely no clue what that really means. So, thank you.
Rebecca, thanks for the link. The travel conference sounds great. I’ve always wanted to go to Hollyhock.
Thanks for the link!