Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Food Blogging

Food Blogs vs. National Food Magazines: Guess Who's Winning?

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Recently The Daily Meal listed the 25 Top Food Blogs of 2012, based on their own formula.

I started thinking about the relationship between food magazines and food blogs, how food magazines are doing, and where readers are going in this new online world. Let’s take a look:

A. National Food Magazines. Here are the annual paid circulations of US top national food magazines:

  1. 3.20 million Taste of Home
  2. 1.78 million Cooking Light
  3. 1.74 million Every Day with Rachael Ray
  4. 1.52 million Bon Appetit [Read more…] about Food Blogs vs. National Food Magazines: Guess Who's Winning?

Are Food Bloggers Pushovers?

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While preparing for my trip to Australia for Eat.Drink.Blog next month (I know! So lucky.), I came across this article in the daily paper there. It portrays food bloggers as naive amateurs willing to flog products, people, and restaurants.

A PR firm invited a handful of Australian bloggers to a demo of dried soup stock by Chef Marco Pierre White. The author of the article ridiculed food bloggers for writing about the event and endorsing the product, as did several others he quoted. A sample:

“Do you know how many newspapers ran [news] stories on Marco Pierre White during his visit?” asks Ed Charles, a prominent Melbourne blogger and freelance journalist (who did not attend the event). “None. Firstly, because most people under 40 haven’t heard of Marco Pierre White, given he hasn’t cooked in a commercial kitchen since 1999. And secondly, because what PR people have realised is that bloggers are a nicer audience to deal with than journalists. Very few bloggers are critical and if you give them something to write about they will just publish it.”

Ouch.

But then, I say the same thing when I speak at food blogger conferences. I am tired of [Read more…] about Are Food Bloggers Pushovers?

2 Books For Dummies and Idiots

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Yes that’s us, according to Wiley and Alpha book publishers. It’s kind of a questionable strategy to think of your readers this way, don’t you think? Maybe someone could start another line for Morons.

Regardless, some of these guidebooks are quite good. Here are two new ones on food blogging and getting published worth your consideration:

1. Kelly Senyei of Just a Taste food blog, also the Associate Editor of Gourmet Live, recently authored Food Blogging for Dummies. Well written and upbeat, it’s perfect for those who want to start a blog but have no idea how. She walks readers through how to set up a blog, find your voice, design a blog, take great photos, and how to promote and distribute content.

I like Senyei’s writing advice about how to make a good impression. She says to project confidence, rather than writing with insecurity as your guide; avoid mimicking other writers you admire because “it’s way more work to fake authenticity;” and to envision your brand to make your blog a destination, with you as the attraction.

She’s quite practical, suggesting readers establish a posting schedule. This is a [Read more…] about 2 Books For Dummies and Idiots

Facebook Fan Page is Less Effective if Free

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Here’s what Facebook would charge Stephanie Manley to post to fans and friends.

Do you use a Facebook fan page to promote your blog and books? How about Google? Do you depend on Feedburner for free blog feeds?

Free was great, but now it’s over.*

Stephanie Manley of CopyKat Recipes alerted me that Facebook now wants us to pay to promote our posts to viewers. In her case, the cost is $30 per post and $75 per post for fans and their friends. That comes to…let’s see, almost $11,000 annually to send a daily post to her fans! Without payment, only 11.1 percent of her 18,400+ Facebook fans see her Fan page.

That’s not effective at all. But it’s still free.

Facebook says an average of 84 percent of your fans are no longer seeing your posts. They justify it this way. To find out what Facebook is charging you per fan page post, click on the promote button, on the bottom right of your posting window. Surprise!

I emailed another food writer with a huge fan base, David Lebovitz, to get his reaction to this Facebook news. “It leaves a [Read more…] about Facebook Fan Page is Less Effective if Free

Drive Food Blog Traffic with Pinterest

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Stephanie Manly of CopyKat.com saw a big uptick in blog traffic after her involvement in Pinterest.

In the last few months, several food bloggers told me their traffic increased dramatically as a result of Pinterest, the virtual pinboard that’s competing with Twitter and Facebook as a social media engine.

Pinterest works like a large board, where you pin images you hope are repinned by others, thus expanding your reach. The site went online in 2010 and had more than 23 million unique users last month.

I’m just getting started on Pinterest, so I asked Stephanie Manley of CopyKat.com to explain why it’s worth getting involved and best practices:

As a food blogger, I want to drive good quality traffic to my site. The biggest way I have increased traffic in the last year is through my boards on Pinterest.

Since fall 2012, Pinterest began showing up as a traffic source when I reviewed my Google analytics. NowPinterest drives more [Read more…] about Drive Food Blog Traffic with Pinterest

When Food Writers Read Their Work

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One of the few at the conference comfortable with a mic, apparently. (Photo courtesy Jonathan Pollack Photography))

I’m just back from St. Louis, MO, where I taught an all-day food writing workshop for about 70 people.

(The sold-out Food Media Forum came about after Stephanie Pollack of The Cupcake Project invited me to teach. Then it morphed into a 2-day conference. My workshop was the most elaborate I’ve done yet, with coffee to order, wine at lunch and a guy who pedaled in on an ice cream cart during the break.)

I like to start the day with writing prompts, while people are fresh (as opposed to after wine at lunch). I ran around the tables asking for volunteers to read. Some people were so nervous that they shook. Some stammered. Some hesitated. Some even tweeted about being nervous:

Robyn Wright of Robyn’s Online World was the first to read her writing out loud, and the crowd [Read more…] about When Food Writers Read Their Work

Are You Making These 3 Mistakes on Your About Page?

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It happens all the time and it drives me crazy. I discover a new food blog. I go to the About page to find out more about the writer. There is no photo and no identification. Here’s all it says:

  • Welcome to my blog. It’s really original.
  • This is a yummy chronicle of my exploits and experiments.
  • I created this blog because I love kittens, butterflies and strawberry yogurt.

Argh! A blank page would be an improvement over this generic stuff. I go back to the Home page to look for more clues but find none. I’m losing interest…

If your About page is anonymous or generic, you are losing readers. Right now a piece is missing. That piece is you. I won’t become a regular reader until I know you.

It’s easy to come out of the closet. Just fix these three things on your About page:

1. You’re anonymous.

Please. I want to know your full name. Don’t just tell me your first name. Tell me [Read more…] about Are You Making These 3 Mistakes on Your About Page?