Blogging for Food and Reading for Fun

To warm up and familiarize yourself with my style, you can read about Blogging for Fame and Fortune here.

Will write for Food by Dianne Jacob

Get ready for my uncontainable delight. I am so delighted that I’m not sure I have the lung power to properly express it. It’s an amazing boooook!

I’m not going to describe the entire book. All the details that we need are concentrated in the chapter entitled “Get Published with a Food Blog”. Here are a few select quotes, which do not exactly reveal the ultimate mysteries of blogging, but they can definitely be added to your mental piggy bank of useful thoughts.

A little introduction to why a blog can be a useful exercise:

- Writing about your own life is so much easier than writing about anything else, because you are the expert on your own experience.

- Furthermore, you have to sit down and write, regularly, so you're already doing the job. 

And now a few housekeeping tips:

- An about section or page explains why you started your blog, they'll go there to find out about you. Grab their attention by explaining your blog's philosophy in a sound-bite-sized sentence.

- Self-deprecating humor, if you know how to do it, works well.

- Since you write your blog in the first person, try writing your About page in first person too.

- When you are done with the text, add a good quality headshot. It helps people connect with you. 

So, the roller coaster – without any squeaking or abrupt stops – is starting to climb upwards.

How to Make People Care

- Develop your storytelling skills so readers keep coming back. It's about eliciting emotions and reminding readers of events in their own lives.

- The best bloggers know how to make you identify with them.

- Blogging is about reaching out, not just documenting your life. 

Having reached quite an important topic, we find out about the author’s point of view:

How Personal Should you be?

- What all good blogging has in common is the ability to evoke emotion from the reader. To do that you have to be personal.

- Regardless of how much you share with readers, a big part of writing is trusting yourself, believing what you write is worthwhile and valuable. 

Without any breaks (or filler material), we move on to the next subject.

Develop Your Voice

- Related to the topics of evoking emotion and not taking yourself too seriously is your voice.

-You need a conversational voice, less formal than a book and more personal, than a magazine or newspaper article. 

The next step and the next chapter are dedicated to explaining some ideas on how to organize a post, and what to draw the most attention to. I have to confess – there are so many wonderful writers around that I don’t dare continue. Plus, another rule that I try to follow is not to make lengthy posts. I was just wondering if you use any of these tips, and what you think of them.

This weekend, we have visited TYPE books at 883 Queen Street West. The above photo is from that store. Because, in Toronto, our favourite small bookstores tend to disappear in the night, I'm so glad that I accidentally happened upon this store. I have the impression that they specialize in the less mainstream sociological and philosophical books, but they have everything else, from children's books to art books, as well. I will definitely be back.

These photos are meant to show the special design touches that are present in that bookstore. The staff were also very friendly and helpful.