There’s a lot of advice out there for new food bloggers, but when the word comes from delicious:days—selected as one of Time magazine’s 50 coolest websites—it’s advice worth listening to.
Nicky and Oliver, the duo behind the Munich-based food blog, know their stuff. Their site looks professional and polished—nothing like a sideline hobby site—and after two years of successful blogging amidst awards and accolades (including three Bloggie nominations), they’re sharing the knowledge in a post titled “Foodblogging—Do’s and Don’ts.”
Delicious:days’ food blogging 101 post isn’t the first of its kind. Adam of the Amateur Gourmet has done two posts on the topic, and there have been others as well. But this post is so comprehensive, so smart, and—as always with delicious:days—so darn pretty, it’s worth taking a look.
Nicky and Oliver are extremely savvy and tell it like it is. “The number of food blogs has grown exponentially,” they tell readers. “The daily photo of your dinner may have been getting applause years ago but it won’t attract many readers today.” Instead, they encourage bloggers to focus on creating value for the reader, consider layout and design, make use of technology, and take action to generate traffic. Oh, and break rules, have fun, and don’t forget about your offline life.
This could be considered food blog advice 2.0, worth reading and following. I mean, come on, don’t you want Time magazine to pick your blog next go-round?
Actually, Time magazine DID mention one of my sites! I post at http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com, which was mentioned in a recent cover story on eating local versus organic.
Thanks for this post, I will read the article!
Well it is probably safe to say that a majority of the food blogs out in the blogosphere are amateur hour, and many probably could take some lessons from the blogs that Time cites. But the fact is, there is also quality material out there by Chowhounds who also are bloggers.
Yes the Delicious Days blog has a very professional, polished look to it, and most likely (I have not read it yet) quality editorial material, but at what cost in terms of human resource time? I believe that of all the quality “local” blogs I visit, most of them are published by people do it when they can, in that it is not how they make a living, they have regular “day” jobs and other obligations. So rather than being concerned about slick presentation, I try to focus in on those blogs in which the articles or commentary are high quality, that is the real “meat and potatoes” of any successful blog.
-AKA Big Fella: http://www.bfd.indefatigable-indolence.org/
Actually, I don’t care if Time magazine finds my food blog cool or not. I guess I am one of those rare birds that is writing out of the love of what I am doing, not because I am hoping for a link from Time or to be given some “Bloggie” award. If I get them, great. But I am doing this out of my love of writing about the restaurants I visit and the experiences I have there.
I think ChinoWayne hits the nail on the head. The content, not the style and presentation, is what is important. The first rule I learned in putting a website together was that all the flashy bells and whistles won’t save your site if you have no content. Didn’t we all learn something from the demonic
I found Delicious Days a while ago on Food411.com
http://www.food411.com when Time named Food411 a top 50 site! Delicious Days is one of the best food blogs out there and the tone is not too serious the way so many of the blogs are.
Now, if only they had “write well” as part of their advice. Of course, the evidence in the blogosphere suggests that this isn’t necessary for success–I sometimes wonder if it’s in fact a detriment–so maybe they were wise to leave it out.