Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Food Blogging

Menu for Hope: Please Bid To Eliminate Hunger

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6a00d83451bc0669e20120a6f07819970b-800wiI’m joining Chez Pim’s Menu for Hope this year with 2 hours of my consulting time, plus a copy of Will Write for Food, for a total value of $276.

My bid item joins a growing list baskets of foods, photography workshops, books, tours, and photographs you will be able to bid on when the event starts later today.

For six years, Pim Techamuanvivit has spearheaded an annual fundraising campaign to feed the hungry. The World Food Programme is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so they escape hunger for good.

I hope you’ll bid on my item, because there are many reasons we might work together. Perhaps you’re:

  • polishing a book proposal and want feedback
  • thinking about freelancing and want help brainstorming story ideas
  • planning to start a blog
  • looking for feedback on your blog, or repositioning
  • considering writing a cookbook or food memoir
  • or working on a manuscript and want my feedback. 

Whatever your project is, to bid on my consulting item, use code UW37. If you are the winning bidder, we can talk by phone, email, or Skype and/or  I’ll look over your writing or blog and give you constructive comments designed to boost your confidence and move you forward. You will have three months to redeem this item. If you have any questions about how we might work together, please comment below and I’ll get right back to you. 

To participate in Menu for Hope, here are instructions from Pim:

1. Choose a bid item or bid items of your choice from the Menu for Hope main bid item list. 

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2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation.

3. Please specify which bid item you’d like in the Personal Message section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Write in how many tickets per bid item, using the bid item code. 

Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a bid item of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02 – 2xEU01, 3xEU02. 

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone

Check back on Chez Pim on Monday, January 18  for the results of the raffle.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle. 

 

 

Dorie Greenspan's Online Ephiphany

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book_cover_high_res_2When Dorie Greenspan’s ninth book, Baking from My Home to Yours, came out in the fall of 2006, she witnessed the power of the online community. Egullet started a thread, Chowhound made it a cookbook of the month, and bloggers championed the book.

“It was so exciting to see people baking and posting pictures of what they had made every day. It was thrilling,” she recalled.

Inspired, the Bon Appetit freelancer and Parade Contributing Editor started a blog. “I had never even thought about being online,” Dorie [Read more…] about Dorie Greenspan's Online Ephiphany

Ramp Up your Food Photography

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There’s no way around it. Blog readers are as interested in the visual aspects of the food as the  content. So if you’re writing about food you ate or cooked, you need to be just as good at taking the photos as you are at writing.

How do you get there? Fortunately, there’s tons of good information online about improving your photography skills, much of it provided by friendly bloggers, including those who win awards for their work.

free-stock-images-cake-pictures-01-500x375Here’s a list, by no means comprehensive, of ways and people who will help you improve your food photography:

Generous food bloggers who share their knowledge:

What's the Point of a Blogroll?

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kitty-tiaraAre you as confused as I am about these often-lengthy lists of blog titles that appear on blogs?

When I first started reading food blogs, blogrolls were a great resource. I clicked around dozens of sites with dizzying speed, jumping from one list to another, making delightful discoveries. Now I see these lists as more of a Who’s Who and wonder, like all of you (don’t tell me you haven’t!) why MY blog is not listed. (For those of you who are not bloggers, narcissism is an occupational hazard.)

But I also wonder why we list other blogs at all. Is it to acknowledge friendships, mutual admiration, favors, collegial comeraderie? Guilty. My “Resources” section is more straightforward, as it doesn’t list the blogs of individuals as much as places to get useful information. No [Read more…] about What's the Point of a Blogroll?

Jaden Hair, a Multitasker Success Story

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Jaden Hair gives new meaning to terms like self-starter and multi-tasker. Since 2007, the mother of 279910891_4aa889a41e_mtwo young boys has:

Oh yes, and she’ll be teaching next month (along with me and other bloggers), at Club Med Ixtapa Food Blogger Camp.

 

 

She’s unfazed by the technical requirements of her job. Let’s take her photography skills, as one example. Usually cookbook publishers use a [Read more…] about Jaden Hair, a Multitasker Success Story

Buick Offers Free Car, Room and Tickets

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6Remember an an earlier post about all the loot food bloggers receive, including offers of  a free car? It’s happening again, at the Northwest Food and Wine Festival (note home page promoting Buick rather than food and wine) coming up in Portland, OR.

Two well-known bloggers forwarded this email, which offers them not just a car but lodging for two nights and free tickets to the event: 

“Because we know you love fine wine and good food, we wanted to invite you to be Buick’s guests the weekend of the Northwest Food and Wine Festival, Nov. 13 and 14 in Portland, Ore. Buick is the [Read more…] about Buick Offers Free Car, Room and Tickets

Links are the New Currency

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chain-1There’s a new idea in publishing: link, don’t pay. If a company wants your online content, they just link to it. That way, it’s argued, even though you don’t get a check for supplying editorial, you get a bump in traffic.

And isn’t that what we all want? More traffic?

Well yes. More traffic makes us feel superior when we see rising numbers of unique visitors. It leads to more income from ads, and potentially, more links. But more traffic alone doesn’t pay the mortgage.

One of my students mentioned talking to the Meredith Corporation about providing content to a new site. They want to download the entire content of her blog, and all they’ll give her is a link. She was struggling with whether to agree. Is it worth it? Why would anyone go to her blog if it’s all on Meredith’s site?

The New York Times launched a Bay Area website, and listed several excellent food blogs in its Eating & Drinking blogroll. Everybody wins, it seems, except for the freelancer who could have created original content. The paper lowered its budget, the bloggers are honored and thrilled [Read more…] about Links are the New Currency