Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Food Blogging

Joan Gussow Inspires a Whole Community of Food Magazines

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Edible Communities founders Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian head a network of 70 magazines across North America, called the Edible Communities.

Ten years ago, partners Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian felt unfulfilled, even though their graphic design and marketing firm won many awards. Writing and designing annual reports, logos and producing other corporate communications wasn’t cutting it.

Outside of work, they gravitated towards organic, seasonal gardening and cooking. The two had a boatload of talent. Ryder has degrees in graphic design, journalism and psychology, and graduated from a professional chef school in Los Angeles. Topalian is an acclaimed photographer.

Their answer was to launch Edible Ojai (near Santa Barbara, CA) magazine in 2002. Today they spearhead a network of more than 70 Edible magazines across North America, dedicated to celebrating local food, farms, and seasonal, sustainable eating.

Last weekend, 60 of the publishers gathered in Santa Barbara for an [Read more…] about Joan Gussow Inspires a Whole Community of Food Magazines

Gluten-Free Girl's Marketing Mastery

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Gluten-Free Girl (Shauna James Ahern, right) and the Chef (Daniel Ahern, left), with 2-year old Lucy. (Photo by A.J. Bates.)

When a blogger launches a book, it’s a chance to capitalize on her community. Shauna James Ahern knew how to run with that opportunity when her second book came out last fall.

Despite her protestations to the contrary, the Pacific Northwest blogger excels as a marketer. She’s also a terrific writer, community builder, and generous supporter of other food bloggers and cookbook authors.

I’ve known about Ahern for years, but got to know her personally when I took a class she taught on voice through Leite’s Culinaria. I quoted her writing tips in the revised edition of Will Write for Food, because I admire how clearly her energetic, honest, and positive voice comes through in her writing.

This post is not about her writing, though. I’d like you to know about Ahern’s marketing skills, and learn from them for when your book comes out. Ahern’s passion for building community seems to come to her naturally, and  blogging has been a perfect [Read more…] about Gluten-Free Girl's Marketing Mastery

Should You Start a Blog or Quit One? Depends Whom You Ask

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Blogging is either a demanding waste of time or the greatest marketing tool ever, according to two articles Faith Kramer sent me.

How can blogging be both? Let’s take a look:

1. Blogging is a Demanding Waste of Time

At Crain’s Chicago Business, a story called Bloggers quitting what they call a demanding task with few rewards profiles those who shut their sites. One launched careers of others on his site, but not his own. Another chronicled a sabbatical but when it was over, had nothing more to say. One became a parent and said his blog became less interesting because writing about his wife and family was off limits. The last person quit because he found it too much of a time sink. Says the article:

“Some have simply switched to another blog-like medium, say, Twitter or Facebook. Others have faced unpleasant facts about blogging. It’s cheap to do but usually doesn’t pay. Having a platform [Read more…] about Should You Start a Blog or Quit One? Depends Whom You Ask

5 Tips on Defining and Building Your Blog's Audience

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When you first start a blog, you just want to get your thoughts out into the world. Eventually you wonder: Who should read this, and why?

It’s time to find out more about your readers and commenters. Or be strategic: Whom do you want as your audience, and can you attract those readers?

Once you know who they are and what they like, targeted readers can be a source of inspiration for future posts, help you shape your posts, and help you build a bigger audience (by RTing your posts on Twitter, for example). Here are five tips on how to assess and build your readership:

1. Analyze your readers by using demographic criteria relevant to your blog posts. The more you know about your audience, the more you can write to them directly. Puzzle out such demographic details as:

3 Comments Guaranteed to Irritate Bloggers

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One of the first posts I wrote, after reading dozens of food blogs, was “What’s the Value of ‘Looks Delicious?'” I was frustrated by seeing dozens of boring comments, and wondered if they were just thinly-veiled attempts to get visitors to the commenters’ blogs.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what else can go wrong in a comment on a food blog. Here are three effective ways to irritate the writer of the blog post, and make yourself look bad in the process:

1. Adding a link to your own post. I’ve done it. And then I’ve regretted it instantly, because it looks like free advertising. I would have been better off with a condensation of my main points.

Some people say, “This is the web, so everyone adds [Read more…] about 3 Comments Guaranteed to Irritate Bloggers

Should Bloggers be Praised for Recipes They Don't Write?

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After years of wondering if she should do so, she wrote her first cookbook, based on family recipes. Included was her grandmother’s spice cake, invented for her mother’s wedding cake, put into print for the world to share. It was the cake the author baked and took with her to book signings, the recipe that always worked.

And now that cake recipe is available online in a blog, published pretty much verbatim, except for the icing.

Close to 100 people have commented. They praise the cake, saying it is a perfect dessert, how one was planning to make a different cake and now would have to [Read more…] about Should Bloggers be Praised for Recipes They Don't Write?

Gratitude

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Thanks to food blogger Lisa Waldschmidt for capturing this shot at the Cleveland Fabulous Food Show bookstore in November. This is the kind of thing that keeps writers humble.

To all of you who read my blog — to the silent ones, the stalkers and the enthusiastic regular responders; to the occasional posters; to the deep thinkers who have helped me work through the thorny issues of blogging and food writing; to the newbies and the superstars who take time to comment; to those who correct my typos — I am deeply in your debt for making Will Write for Food worth reading.

Thanks for a whole year of enthusiastic discussion. I can’t wait to dive into 2011, with your support.

Here are my top six posts of the year:

  1. Is Food Blogging Too Much Work?
  2. Giving Recipes Away a Big Subject at IFBC
  3. Adjusting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours
  4. Outrageous Blogger Request, and the Outcome
  5. 7 Most Common Recipe Writing Errors
  6. Should Food Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts?

My best wishes to you for a successful year ahead in food writing.

Happy New Year,

Dianne

p.s. My quarterly newsletter on food writing just came out. If you’d like to receive it, sign up by clicking on the link above.