Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

Food blogging

The Perfectly-Prepared Dinner that Failed

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I planned a dinner last week, hoping to achieve these goals. I wanted to cook for my cousin Dana in Los Angeles, who is dying of cancer.

He requested two dishes that did not go together: spaghetti and meatballs, in honor of his mother’s Italian-Catholic side; and Hamoth, a sweet and sour beet stew made by our Iraqi-Jewish grandmother, which is actually an Indian-Jewish dish.

(Confused yet? Now, if you had an Italian-Catholic mother from New York and an Iraqi-Jewish father from Shanghai, what would your identity be? Dana chose to play the bagpipes.)

I cooked the meal at the home of my friend Mary Ann and her husband Daniel, where my [Read more…] about The Perfectly-Prepared Dinner that Failed

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:

Should Food Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts?

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An urgent email from a p.r. person offered me payment of $50 per post if I would write 9 to 15 posts about a bakery chain over the next three months.

Obviously, she had never looked at my blog, because I don’t qualify. And anyway, I wouldn’t do it.

The question remained, however: Should food bloggers write sponsored posts, and under what circumstances?

In the email, the p.r. person took it upon herself to suggest what I might post about:

  1. Sharing recipes from the bakery
  2. Talking about what breaking bread means to you
  3. Sharing your thoughts on going to the bakery
  4. Linking to video assets of cooking /baking lessons.

(And if I wrote the maximum of 5 posts per month, that would be 15 posts @$50 each = $750.)

The p.r. person also wanted me to drive traffic to the bakery’s website on Facebook and participate in a Twitter party. I’d get a few free meals from the bakery. I’d also get a guaranteed minimum payment of [Read more…] about Should Food Bloggers Write Sponsored Posts?

Is Food Blogging Too Much Work?

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Last night I gave a 2-hour talk at 18 Reasons, a hip San Francisco space in the Mission District for D-I-Y types, on how to start a food blog. Some people did not seem to like the answers I gave to the question, “How do I get people to read my blog?”

They included:

Food Writer Settles $4 Million Lawsuit

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It started with a limo ride to an event he was covering...

You have to laugh. The whole idea that any food writer might have $4 million dollars…well, you know.

But the lawsuit wasn’t very funny at all to John Mitzewich, except at first, when he thought it was a joke, like the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and George steal a limo.

Mitzewich writes for About.com as the American Food expert. The New York Times owns About.com, a fact that gives Mitzewich excellent press credentials.

A few years ago, Mitzewich accepted an invite to  attend Toast to the Coast, a food and wine event in Atlantic City. He took a red-eye to Philadelphia, where a limo driver was  supposed to pick him up and drive him to the event. Except when he arrived, he couldn’t find a guy in a uniform holding up a card with his name on it. Instead, Mitzewich found was a guy holding up a card with the name of the managing editor of Wine Enthusiast.

John Mitzewich

Mitzewich knew that he was the only invitee flying into Philadelphia. Everyone else, including the Wine Enthusiast editor, was flying into New York. So he took the limo, and off they went. Mitzewich wrote a nice story about the event, and everyone seemed happy.

Mitzewich, also a video blogger on You Tube and on his own blog, Food Wishes, filmed the limo driver and the limo with a good-natured voiceover, and put the video on his blog. (Don’t look for it because it’s no longer there.)

Soon afterwards, Mitzewich received a letter from the limo company, alleging he stole the limo and asking him to pay $385 for the ride, plus $4 million for defamation of character, interference with the limo contract, and invasion of privacy. He took down the video.

Two years later, after hiring an attorney, Mitzewich settled. He had told the limo company, over and over, that he did nothing wrong, and they weren’t ever going to get a dime. And they didn’t. So here’s what they agreed to: Mitzewich will run an ad for the limo company on his blog for six months. So far, the limo company has not sent the materials.

Cookbook Giveaway: Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook

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Want to discover new food blogs for recipes and stories? Here’s a cookbook that shows you the passion and diversity of food bloggers who love to cook, from Vegan Visitor’s Cedar-Smoked Asparagus Soup in Toronto to The Suitcase Chef’s Orangette Tea Sandwiches in Vermont.

The folks at Foodista held a contest for the best blogger recipes and received 1500 entries in just three months. They counted votes from the Foodista community and announced the winners, compiling the top 100 into this large paperback, the Foodista Best of the Food Blogs Cookbook.

You’ll find a number of unusual recipes, such as Lovage Spritzers, Vegetarian Scotch Eggs, and Chef Wally’s Baked Papayas. While most entries are American, enthusiastic blogger recipes also come from Canada, England, Turkey and Germany. Each recipe includes a bio of the blogger and a link. Some headnotes tell you about the dish. Others tell stories about [Read more…] about Cookbook Giveaway: Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook