Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food
Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers
Somehow I missed the announcement that BlogHer Food ended. It lasted eight years.
I felt a little bummed and flashed on the first BlogHer Food conference in San Francisco, where I spoke on a panel about voice with a shy Ree Drummond of Pioneer Woman. Since then I [Read more…] about Why BlogHer Food Ended, After 8 Years
Ah, the joys of summer. Aside from gorging on peaches and nectarines, you have some beach, lake or cabin time coming up, right? At the very least, there’ll be a plane ride or a few stolen hours in the sun where you can dig into a book.
Yes, you’ll want to take your trashy novel, but how about an anthology ? Anthologies are simply a collection of short stories. There’s no reason to think they’re academic or stuffy.
Plus, you don’t have to read the book from start to finish, because [Read more…] about 4 Books of Food Essays for Happy Summer Reading
Back in April I put my first ad on the site. It’s over on the right, a network of revolving ads from BlogHer. Now that I’ve brought it up, you’re wondering whether I’ve made any money, and whether it was worth it.
To the first question, yes, a check finally arrived recently. But it was only enough to cover a Mexican dinner for two. I was disappointed, but I don’t hold it against BlogHer. The model for online advertising stinks compared to print.
Let me explain. In the past I was the executive editor of an international magazine. I felt proud when I realized recently that its annual readership was once the same as the number of annual unique page views on my site. To buy an ad in the magazine cost hundreds to thousands of dollars for just one issue, however. Here on my website, it costs pennies to reach the same number of eyeballs.
At the magazine, the money from advertising supported a staff of around 20 people. Here, I can get a few enchiladas.
Still, it’s been a good experiment, despite ads for Coffeemate and Crystal Light (not classified as junk food, which I banned.) My relationship with BlogHer has grown. I got paid to syndicate a post on recipe writing on the BlogHer website. Last week BlogHer’s syndication deal with [Read more…] about The Whole Enchilada on Blog Revenue
You’ll notice something new. It’s an ad, on the right, from BlogHer Publishing Network.
I know. I’ve crossed over to the other side, and I’m thrilled. It’s because I have redefined myself. I’m no longer just a blogger whose subject is food writing. I’m the publisher of my blog.
Being in charge overall is new for me. When I was a magazine editor, I [Read more…] about I Have an Ad and I'm Okay With That
BlogHer Food in San Francisco was one long day of group hug. It started at the networking breakfast at 8 a.m. and ended at the after-party thrown by Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen, Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes beginning at 8 p.m.
Here you can see just part of the crowd, everyone talking at once in deafening volume, in the hallway in front of the bookseller.
Read about the party… I mean conference, on these early posts from Carrots ‘N Cake and Kath Eats Real Food. Well, girls just want to have fun. And we did.
Sponsors, who subsidized the cost of the event, prevailed between the sessions. Hunky Chef Rocco DiSpirito hawked Bertolli frozen meals over a grou
p lunch while they actually served us the frozen pasta as entrees. (Hello?!) Celebrity chef and Citizen Cake owner Elizabeth Faulkner demoed with Scharffen-Berger during a break, and booth people plied us with cans of chicken stock and spray Pillsbury frosting for a cupcake challenge. A classy cocktail party on the rooftop sponsored by Campbell’s Soup Co. capped off the official part of the day. I was so excited about seeing bloggers in person after reading their work online and Twittering and Facebooking with them, I almost didn’t mind.
And oh yeah, we went to sessions on such topics as the blogger’s voice (where I was a panelist), best practices, and new opportunities. More on what I learned later. First I need to lie down.
Did you go or write a post about the day? Have a comment? Let me know.
P.S. Updates: More reports on the conference from Simply Recipes.
The Federal Trade Commission has new guidelines that will require bloggers to disclose when they’re being compensated by an advertiser to discuss a product. If you read them, you’ll see that most of the language pertains to advertising, so for now, you’ll have to read between the lines. The guidelines don’t define a “payment,” for example, and don’t specify what incentives other than cash must be disclosed to readers. See this Cnet story for more.
This is old territory for me, a former magazine editor who made and enforced rules about reviewing. Ethics rules have existed for years but are hardly uniform. At my magazines, I thought I knew which reviewers received and returned which products, but I probably never had the whole picture. I hired a full-time editor whose job was to sift through press releases and write up products. He often hid from me the expensive gifts [Read more…] about 7 Guidelines for Food Bloggers on Freebies