Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

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Yelp’s New Low in Restaurant Reviewing

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Despite hand-wringing about the decline of print restaurant reviewing, few people seem to care. When I teach food writing, hardly anyone asks about becoming a critic now, and a post I wrote on how the net influences restaurant reviewing elicited no response.

Maybe it’s about the economy. Food bloggers cook, perhaps because it’s less expensive and more hands-on than eating out. Due to lack of funds, restaurant reviewers now fall into two camps:  the few remaining newspaper employees and freelancers reimbursed for meals; and hobbyists, who write on websites like Yelp.

So please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems no one wants to be a restaurant reviewer anymore. And certainly this news about Yelp doesn’t elevate the profession.

What news, you ask? It’s called Yelpmail. On this post from Chez Geek, a [Read more…] about Yelp’s New Low in Restaurant Reviewing

Your Best Food Blog Post: What Worked and Why?

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champion food blog postWhile replying to Cheryl Sternman Rule’s comment about how to attract good food blog comments, I got an idea:

What if we all chimed in about which post garnered the most responses on our blogs, and why we think it worked?

The first part is easy enough. It’s based on the number of responses. I don’t care how many you got, as this is not a competition. Let’s skip giveaways as a category.

Next tell us why it worked. Was it the photograph? A banana bread recipe (I’ve heard that desserts are no-fail)? A personal crisis? Your baby announcement (seriously, Smitten Kitchen readers went berserk )?

I’ll go first. My biggest response was for [Read more…] about Your Best Food Blog Post: What Worked and Why?

Three Tips for Attracting Blog Comments

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attracting good blog commentsI’ve been thinking about how to attract good comments since writing my previous two posts on commenting.

The first was on the value of comments like  “Looks delicious.” It garnered my all-time highest response. I guess that’s not surprising, since that’s the response that often comes to mind when reading food blogs (or it should, if the blogger’s doing it right!). The second was on whether commenting on posts is a worthwhile strategy to build traffic.

I asked a lot of questions in those two posts, because I’m counting on you all to help me figure out the answers. This caused regular commenter Nate to ask me: “How do you structure a post or a question on a food blog post to cultivate signal and reduce noise?” Okay, I’ll give it a shot.

But first, a qualifier. My blog is a place where people discuss topics I’ve brought up, sometimes with each other! Maybe yours is not. [Read more…] about Three Tips for Attracting Blog Comments

Now That's How to Write a Review!

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criticsIt seems that when it comes to reviewing, the food blogging community is more interested in promotion rather than in a balanced critique. I can’t tell you how many bloggers have said, in comments on this blog, they only do positive reviews because “the reader’s time is short” or “I’m only going to write about it if I love it.”

Why? Rave reviews are boring. Totally negative reviews are rare and difficult to do well. How about going for middle ground, where the review is mostly positive, but acknowledges the cons?

Finally, I can point to a few examples from people [Read more…] about Now That's How to Write a Review!

Freebie vs. For Review: What's the Difference?

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kitchenscaleA blogger thought she got a product for free, then was asked to return it. On a listserv, she wrote:

“A PR person contacted me, representing a large cookware store. ‘If they could do anything for me…let them know.’ I told them I was testing bread cookbooks and could use a scale. If they could work somemagic on that end…great!

“The response I got was a link to their entire kitchen scale inventory and was told [Read more…] about Freebie vs. For Review: What's the Difference?

Valentine’s Day Despite It All

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food writing muffinsThe morning started innocently enough. I decided to make Mark Bittman’s muffins as a treat, instead of the usual cereal or toast. After all, Valentine’s Day demands special effort for a special day.

But then I noticed I only had a half a cup of applesauce, and needed a cup, so I had to make more. I made my husband get up from reading the Sunday comics to stir.

And then I remembered I had made roast chicken the other night because Ruhlman said any idiot could do it, so I felt qualified. It turned out fine, but  I also discovered why I stopped making roast chicken at high temperatures: it throws fat everywhere and destroys the oven. Now the oven had to be cleaned, or it would smoke and perfume my special Valentine’s Day muffins with essence of burned poultry fat.

So while I prepped the wet and dry ingredients for my special treat for my husband, he cleaned the oven on his hands and knees. I was so distracted I forgot the sugar.

Finally, at 1 p.m., we sat down to fresh muffins, fruit and yogurt. I asked my honey if he liked the muffins. He said they were “okay.” We’ve been married so long (20.5 years) I knew what that meant.

Crestfallen, I asked if he would have preferred a big ham and cheese omelet instead of this healthy treat, which I realized appealed more to me than him. He said no. “Just next time, add the sugar.” And then he kissed me.

(Photo of sugarless applesauce muffins by Owen Rubin).

Must Bloggers Comment to Get Visibility?

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overloadThanks to all for the stellar conversation about the value of “Looks delicious” as a comment in food blogs. Let’s continue with a related subject that came up in the comments: the idea that it’s necessary, when you’re a blogger, to comment on other people’s food blogs.

According to Blogging 101, we’re all supposed to comment to build traffic on our own blogs. First of all, I’d like to know whether that’s true. Have you found that you have more visibility as a result of leaving comments? Do you stake out certain blogs? Do you set a minimum number of comments per week?

A related issue is how to comment with sincerity. One “A list” food blogger insists he can tell when a blogger [Read more…] about Must Bloggers Comment to Get Visibility?