Food blogging

Facebook Fan Page is Less Effective if Free

September 17, 2012 by diannejacob 87 Comments

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

August 21, 2012 by diannejacob 66 Comments

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

Congrats on Your Speaking Invitation. Now What?

August 7, 2012 by diannejacob 35 Comments

I coached a new book author recently who was invited to speak at a conference. After I offered congratulations, she said the conference organizers didn’t bring up money and she wasn’t sure how to ask.

I suggested she ask, “What’s your budget?” It’s polite, it puts the onus on the conference organizers, and it gives the impression that you might be flexible about the amount.

If I could only suggest one piece of advice, though, it would be something I have [Read more…] about Congrats on Your Speaking Invitation. Now What?

Are You Making These 3 Mistakes on Your About Page?

July 17, 2012 by diannejacob 206 Comments

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?

Promoting Your Cookbook with a Virtual Potluck

July 2, 2012 by diannejacob 28 Comments

Debbie Koenig hosted a potluck for her book, selling out on Amazon in a day. (Photo by Bennington Photographers)

Your cookbook’s coming out and you’d like lots of bloggers to cover it. How about an event where all their posts appear on the same day and drive sales?

Debbie Koenig coordinated a potluck party for her first book, Parents Need to Eat Too: Nap-Friendly Recipes, One-Handed Meals, and Time-Saving Kitchen Tricks for New Parents (Morrow, 2012). A book marketing executive turned food, diet, and parenting writer, Koenig sold out Amazon in one day, when bloggers reviewed her book and posted recipes.

In this guest post (the first on my three-year-old blog), Koenig explains how a virtual potluck for bloggers works, and why hers succeeded.

By Debbie Koenig

I first heard the term “virtual potluck” three years ago, when Monica Bhide was preparing for the publication of her cookbook Modern Spice. Monica hosted the potluck as a one-night-only, online gathering of food bloggers, all cooking from her book and

3 Workshops Coming Up on the Craft of Food Writing

June 19, 2012 by diannejacob 40 Comments

Students at my May class at the Santa Ana, CA home of blogger Kim Burnell of Rustic Garden Bistro. That’s blogger Sanam Lamborn of My Persian Kitchen, snapping a photo. In the foreground are vibrantly-iced cookies by Lana Watkins of the blog Bibberche (behind Lamborn in red).

This summer and fall I’ll be traveling for three workshops. I love these face-to-face connections with other writers, full of positive energy and excitement. Not to mention how fun it is to answer burning questions about writing, blogging and cookbooks, and learn about food in new destinations. This time my classes are in St. Louis, MO and — drum roll please — in the UK.

Yes, for the first time, I’ll be teaching in Ireland and in London in September! Details are below. The craft of food writing is the focus of all three classes. As you know, I have a thing about overused words in food writing, why to use action verbs and similes, and don’t even get me started on [Read more…] about 3 Workshops Coming Up on the Craft of Food Writing

Q&A: Homesick Texan on Calling Herself a Writer

June 12, 2012 by diannejacob 42 Comments

Lisa Fain in her Manhattan kitchen. (Photo by Jan Cobb.)

People hardly ever recognize Lisa Fain by name. But once she tells them her blog and book name, Homesick Texan, she’s blown her cover, suddenly a superstar.

Fain is a seventh-generation Texan who lives in New York City, hence the motivation for starting her blog. She is also the author of The Homesick Texan Cookbook, published last fall, and her writing has appeared in Saveur, Edible Austin and on SeriousEats.com. Her blog was named one of the top 50 food blogs in the world by the Times of London and the Best Regional Food Blog by Saveur.

During a recent conversation, she said she starts writing every day at 5 a.m. I wanted to know more:

Q. Tell me how your writing career led to the blog.

A. I graduated with a degree in English in 1991, and there were no jobs for anybody. I interned at the Houston Press and worked at Houston Metropolitan magazine as an editorial assistant. Then I worked for a textbook publisher for a while.

I always wanted to live in New York, and I moved here to write [Read more…] about Q&A: Homesick Texan on Calling Herself a Writer