I’ve been blogging here for seven years this month. In some ways I feel like I’ve come a long way, and others not so much. Last year was a pretty slow blogging year for me. I wasn’t feeling inspired and I was doing several freelancing projects, plus my day job. But this year I have decided to really recommit to blogging, and to make this platform really work for me the way that it has for other people. Believe it or not, people are still able to make full-time incomes or more off of blogging. Do I want to be one of those people? Wouldn’t argue with it, let’s just say that!
One of the biggest parts of making your blog work for you is organization and consistency, and I’m not even talking about the writing at this point. A few major things I’ve done recently include re-tagging a lot of posts so that the keywords I used were the same (restaurant vs. restaurants) and that they weren’t stupid. Ain’t no one searching by the tag “blah blah” which I used a lot in the early days. But you might want to click on the “chickpeas” tag and see everything I’ve made with chickpeas, because maybe you just bought a 25 lb. bag of them from Costco.
My recipes page needs to be re-categorized as well because some of them are just weird. Vegetables just as a category? I have no idea what I was thinking.
I’ve also added and deleted main blog categories based on the direction I’m going with this space, and that’s to focus less on things I focused on in the past. For example, I deleted all of the food event roundups I used to do, and some other now-irrelevant content. I will still share local, on-the-ground information on breweries and restaurants but they will be less review-y and more “here’s what to expect at this place and here’s why I went there” because who am I to criticize someone’s business unless it really was that bad?
Expect some travel related posts, more home improvement, exploring the new grocery stores both near me and in my travels (cause I'm that person who likes to go to grocery stores in different parts of the country and world) and partnerships with businesses both large and small, near and far. I have some cool projects in the works! And I always want to hear from people who want to collaborate and work with me.
Other little things I plan to do that are probably not as noticeable to you the reader are updating the title in the title bar, tagging every photo for optimal SEO, and making the page more accessible for people who may read the internet differently than others.
I’m also recommitting to my photography game because it’s such a big part of food blogging. I hate that I let that slide. Old posts with horrible shots of my former yellow Formica countertops are going to be re-shot, using Google analytics to see which ones are the most searched for. And to that point, I’m making those analytics work for me to see where I need to be developing more recipes. One of the top searches for this site is for Trader Joe’s Thai Green Curry Sauce. That leads me to believe a ton of people excitedly grab the jar at TJ’s and get home and think, “Oh… now what do I do with this stupid thing??”
That’s why the last post was a recipe that used TJ’s green curry sauce with chickpeas. Analytics are my new bff! I’ve also got a few recipes coming soon on items from TJ’s and other non-Trader Joe’s ingredients that I’ve recently realized need some attention. Spoiler alert: TJ’s black bean rotini became an amazing pasta bake.
That is the state of the blog, seven years later. Still improving, still flexing with that rapidly changing world of social media, and still working to get better at everything, while tasting iit all along the way. I love discussing how to keep up with the quick-moving world of blogging and writing. Drop me a line on any social media channel of your choice, let's talk!