Guest Post: Balancing Blogging with a Full Time Job and Other Obligations

It's been awhile since I've been able to post. I do have some event announcements, recaps, and other assorted things that'll go up in the (hopefully) near future, but in the meantime, I've received a few awesome guest posts from other BFBers. (Would you like to write a guest post about anything having to do with being a food blogger? Shoot me an email!) Today's post is by Bianca Garcia, who writes the deliciously sweet blog Confessions of a Chocoholic. You can also find her on Twitter. She writes about a topic near and dear to my heart - balancing blogging with the rest of the stuff you have to do! Without further ado, here's Bianca!

Hi, everyone! I’m Bianca of Confessions of a Chocoholic. My food blog – and my life, in general – is about finding the sweet spot in everyday life. I have an affinity for rich, indulgent foods, but I keep everything in moderation. So I enjoy a balanced life filled with good food, Bikram yoga, running, and chocolate. Always chocolate.

Between blogging, my full time job as a media supervisor for an ad agency, being a grad student, training for half-marathons, hosting events, and maintaining an active social life, I feel like I'm doing a pretty decent job of managing my time. So if, like me, you’re also balancing blogging with a lot of other things, then read on for some of my tips. Here are five simple tips on finding a good blog-life balance:

1. Write posts ahead of time.
This is THE MOST important and useful tip I can give you. Because let’s get something straight. It really all comes down to one thing: time management. I try to schedule my blog posts in advance, and I always carry a notebook with me to jot down ideas on future blog posts. When I have some down time, and I already know what I want to write about, I make drafts and save them, then just polish it before publishing. When I know I’m going to have an extremely busy week ahead, I try to cook a lot during the weekends and document it, writing several blog posts in one sitting, then scheduling them out over the following days/weeks.

There’s an added benefit too to writing a post a few days before publishing it – it gives you the chance to rethink it and look at it with a fresher perspective right before you click “publish”. So if you can, try to plan ahead and schedule your blog posts, then write them ahead of time. For instance, I knew I wanted to write a Father’s Day post so I thought about it in advance and made this dessert a few days beforehand:

Nutella Banana Pudding

2. Schedule your events.
As a food blogger, you probably have a lot of food-related events to attend: new restaurant openings, blogger meet-ups, brunch, etc. Have your calendar with you all the time, so you don’t overbook yourself. At first it seems tempting to attend as many events as possible, but in the long run, it’s better to spread it out so that your life won’t revolve around food events.

I am one of those old school people who carry around a small leather pocket journal/calendar but you can definitely use something else: your phone, Google calendar, even post-its if that works for you. If you know you’re going to attend a scheduled event (like Mystery Meet, for example, which happens every second Tuesday of the month) then mark it in your calendar already. This sounds very simple but you’ll be surprised at how many people forget and end up either overbooking themselves or not attending at all.

Pizza at Posto (Mystery Meet) - Photo by Dave Kaveler

3. Write about things you love.
How does this fall under “tips on how to balance blogging and a full time job?” Well, you know the saying time flies when you’re having fun? When you’re writing about something you’re passionate about, then blogging doesn’t feel like work. My blog is a food blog – food is definitely one of my passions – but every now and then I’ll write about running and bikram yoga. I also weave in a lot of stories about my family and my friends because for me, food and memories are intertwined.

If you don’t like writing restaurant reviews, don’t. Or if you just want to write about one dish, do. When you write about the things that make you happy, it’ll seem as if blogging is actually easier.

I love pasta and Italian food so I write about those often ;)

Spaghetti with Truffle Butter and Mushrooms

4. Make sure you have some “me” time.
You don’t want to be burned out. Sometimes, my "me" time is my Saturday mornings runs. Sometimes, my "me" time is my Monday night yoga classes. And other times, my "me" time is those nights when I catch up with my DVR.

We all have a lot of obligations, but you can avoid having a too-busy, frazzled, and stressful life if you only take a few minutes to calm yourself down and allow yourself to relax. Having some "me" time will re-energize you and give you some zest to tackle the rest of your responsibilities.

If your "me" time involves a nice cup of coffee and some pastries at a cozy little café, then by all means, indulge. If your "me" time involves losing yourself in a good book, read away. If your "me" time somehow involves Eric Northman, way to go.

Eric Northman (actor Alexander Skarsgard) on HBO's True Blood - Photo from HBO website

5. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Or: Learn to loosen up!

Don’t get too caught up posting so regularly that you become a robot. Don’t get too caught up on your page views that you’re writing just for the sake of posting something. And please, please don’t ever get too caught up taking pictures of your food that you forget to enjoy the company you’re with, that you don’t get to appreciate the tastes and the textures, that you forget that food is meant to be enjoyed and savored – not necessarily chronicled and dissected.

Sure, I asked you to write your blog posts in advance. But if you miss a few days, no problem, it’s not the end of the world. If you forget to bring your camera with you when you’re at a new restaurant, no biggie, you don’t have to be food paparazzi all the time. If you mess up in the kitchen, relax, maybe you can write a funny kitchen fail post instead. And if you didn’t get an invitation to the latest event, remember that there will always be more.

If there’s one thing you can call completely yours, it is your blog. It’s all you, your efforts, your time. So remember that your blog is yours – not your readers’, not your ad sponsor’s. Don’t be too hard on yourself if things get a little shaky.

Enjoy yourself, and enjoy your blog.

Baby Guinness Shots

Cheers!

--Bianca Garcia, Confessions of a Chocoholic

The Next BFB Homework Assignment: Profiles and Portraits

Are you signed up for the BFB newsletter? If not, you can sign up in that box in the right sidebar, just below the ad --->

In each newsletter, I provide a prompt for a blog post. (I call these "homework assignments," although they're obviously not mandatory and not graded :-P) If you feel like participating, you can put up a post in the designated time frame, send me an email telling me where to find it, and I'll feature the posts in the next newsletter and on the website. Writing to a prompt is often a good way of practicing writing skills and getting out of your comfort zone. If you feel like tweeting about any of these "homework assignments", please use the hashtag #BFBhw.

You can read about the previous assignment here. As you can see, there wasn't much of a response, which is why I'm giving you a lot of time to work on the next one! Also, I'll be traveling at the end of the month, so the next newsletter will be delayed anyways. Let's say this assignment is due May 1. It was announced in the last newsletter with an earlier due date, but you can ignore that.

The assignment: Profiles!

Pick somebody in the food industry - the chef at your favorite restaurant, your neighborhood fishmonger, a maker of artisan cheeses, anyone who does something with food - and interview him or her. In-person interviews are always best, but if you can only catch your person by phone or email, that could work too. You can format your post as a transcript of the interview, but better yet, challenge yourself to work it into an essay-style profile. Bonus points for an intriguing photograph of your subject. If you have time, try to get a quick interview with other people who know your subject. Quotes from other sources will enhance your story.

Check out this profile of Alice Waters for inspiration. Note the successful use of first person - the interviewer puts himself in the story, and it works. In journalism, this doesn't always work, but in blogging, it's generally encouraged. Other details that make this profile engaging: present tense descriptions, often humorous ("And now, here she is, tears welling, voice tremulous, apparently about to start sobbing into her Blue Heron Farm little gem lettuce salad. Which is a shame, because it's rather a nice salad.") Historical context (what has she done?) and present context (what is she doing now?). Plenty of quotes.

Details are important; write down everything you see. Numbers, brand names, colors. Most of it will never be used in the story, but a few well-placed details will really bring it to the next level. (Refer back to the above quote. Doesn't "Blue Heron Farm little gem lettuce salad" make it so much more interesting than if the writer had just said "salad"?)

If you're going to include a portrait of your subject, take a look at this informative tutorial on environmental portraits. ("Environmental" isn't a nature word here; it refers to portraits taken in the subject's living or working environment.)

If you feel so inclined, please include a note at the top or bottom of your post mentioning that this is a BostonFoodBloggers.com "homework assignment."

You have until May 1...start writing! And please leave a comment here if you have any other examples of great profiles written about people in the food industry, good environmental portraits, etc.

Reviewing Restaurants, Part II - Writing Your Review

This is a guest post by Cristin Hoover, Restaurant Reviewer for the Brookline Patch and blogger at thefourseasonings.com. Be sure to check out Cristin's preceding post, Part I - The Restaurant Experience! (If you'd like to write a guest post for BostonFoodBloggers.com, please email Rachel.)

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Photo by Cristin Hoover

People tell us restaurant reviewers that we have the best job in the world. The truth is: it’s not that easy. We’ve all read the reviews breathlessly declaring “OMG! This place is SOOOOO good!” But a thoughtfully-crafted restaurant review is so much more than just grabbing a quick bite and deciding publicly whether you like it or not.

It can be difficult to put a sensory experience like eating into words; it can be even more difficult to convey the emotion behind the words without resorting to emoticons and exclamation points. Here I offer some tips on restaurant reviewing—in the first part, your experience at the restaurant, and secondly, the actual putting of pen to paper—that I hope will open a dialogue on this forum about reviewing, and give you a starting block for fabulous, witty reviews.


Writing the review

The Devil is in the Details. First, give us plenty of details about the atmosphere. What kind of a place is this—jeans and sandals, or coat and tie? Beware of clichés; “charming little bistro” and “hole-in-the-wall” are so tired. Give them a rest and show us instead what made it so charming to you—maybe the little pink menus and the bud vase with a single daisy on each wrought-iron table?

Secondly, give specifics about the main event: the food. If you have culinary knowledge or expertise, embrace this opportunity to show it off! Tell us about taste, texture, balance, presentation, and style. Tell us about the wine list and how it pairs with the food. If you didn’t like something, give us the specifics. Was your sauce too oily? Fish too bland? If something was exceptional, give us the details: what was it specifically about that burger that made it better than other burgers? (And while we’re on the subject, you may want to go ahead and nix the word “better” from your vocabulary entirely. As an adjective, its subjectivity and lack of actual description renders it virtually meaningless. There are, ahem, better words to use.)


That said, be concise. In my opinion, the ideal length for an in-depth review is around 500 words, or one double-spaced page. Any longer and your readers may lose interest; any shorter and the details may not be properly fleshed out. If you find yourself too loquacious, here’s a tip: unless you expected something of a much higher caliber, cut out any “average” parts of your experience. “The service was average” is not a meaningful sentence. We don’t care about average; we want to know what you recommend and what we should avoid.


Tone it Up… or Down. Robert Nadeau’s seething review of Todd English’s Bonfire, printed in the Boston Phoenix in 2002, is a great example of a review with a particular tone. In this case, it’s anger. Note the short, matter-of-fact sentences, so out of character for Mr. Nadeau, and the incredulous questions (“How has he arrived at a situation where he cannot organize a kitchen in downtown Boston to serve a proper $48 steak?”). Anger may not be the best choice for your review; in fact, it probably isn’t. But the point here is to be aware that your word choices and sentence structure will set the tone for the piece. Notice how your words work together and how the piece sounds as a whole. Read the piece out loud to yourself, or ask a friend to read it over.


The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Here’s the truth: a well-written bad review is, and should be, astronomically more difficult to compose than a well-written good review. Sure, it’s easy to harpoon a restaurant when you pay too much for mediocre food. But resist the temptation. The key here is balance—when doling out criticism, we need to strive for fairness and courtesy, and work hard to mention the good bits. If the waiter who brought you your rubbery chicken dish was attentive, be sure to let people know. Even in his review of Bonfire, Robert Nadeau did his best to point out the good parts of the meal.

I quite like this negative review of Delicatessen, written by Leo Carey for the New Yorker in 2009. The review is reader-inclusive; it appeals to all of our senses so vividly (the taste and texture of the food, the visuals of the menu, the description of the music and restaurant’s interior) that we can genuinely imagine sitting there, eating there. I actually screw up my face in disgust when I read his description of the cheeseburger spring rolls. The review is concise, just under 450 words. And notice: although the review is decidedly negative, Carey does find some small redeeming value in the cocktails, which he describes as “excellent.”

Carey also notes that “for all its faults, Delicatessen has judged its market well.” Meaning: he himself hated the place, but he is not the restaurant’s intended patron. Restaurants, like all businesses, aim to establish an image and then service one or a few market segments. Bennigan’s has its football enthusiasts and families with picky children eaters, just like L’Espalier has its businessmen and romantic couples. Even if you make your negative opinions known, there is value in a review that acknowledges that maybe it just wasn’t your scene—but other diners could enjoy eating there. Try to pinpoint the restaurant’s intended message (Irish gastropub? Upscale comfort food? Classic French?) and judge the restaurant on what it is, not what you think it should be.

For illustration, take this review of a restaurant called Plato Loco, written by Dallas-based author Ralph Robert Moore and posted on his website. Here it is, in its entirety:

“Not a good place to go for Mexican food. Its menu is restricted to very traditional Mexican meals. The atmosphere is rushed, the tables crowded on top of each other, the help rude. The one time Mary and I ate there, our stomachs were upset afterwards.”

Please join me now for a collective “huh?” The lack of detail (and substance, really) coupled with the vague descriptors makes this review dubious at best. How exactly was the service rude? What did the interior look like? And—most importantly—what did the food actually taste like? Now, I’ve never eaten at a Plato Loco, but it seems like a menu offering “very traditional Mexican meals” could have something unique to offer. In his haste to slap the label of “poor” on poor old Plato Loco, Mr. Moore may have entirely missed the point of the restaurant, and judged it on what he wanted it to be (Taco Bell, it sounds like?). Beware of reviews like this, without any descriptors or evidence; your readers will begin to distrust and lose respect for your opinions.


The Pen is Mightier. Your review may have an effect on someone’s livelihood.

Let me say that again: your review may have an effect on someone’s livelihood. In the age of the internet, it is entirely possible that even an amateur review can reach a good deal of people, and have a substantial effect on a new restaurant or a small restaurant. Perhaps this what Noah Ellis had in mind when he ousted the LA Times critic from his establishment, a desperate move to prevent his business from suffering at the pen of a critic before it could get off the ground.

This is not a time for careless words. Write responsibly. If you write a negative review, you need to know exactly what you’re doing.


It takes a careful eye and a prepared mind to write a useful restaurant review. I’d like to hear from all of you who have thoughts on the matter—do you agree with my suggestions? Disagree? Do you do things differently when you write your own reviews, or have your own tips to share? I’m open to dialogue and, as I wrote earlier, I hope this will give you a starting block for fabulous, witty reviews.

Reviewing Restaurants, Part I - The Restaurant Experience

This is a guest post by Cristin Hoover, Restaurant Reviewer for the Brookline Patch and blogger at thefourseasonings.com. Be sure to check out the second part as well! (If you'd like to write a guest post for BostonFoodBloggers.com, please email Rachel.)

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Photo by Cristin Hoover

People tell us restaurant reviewers that we have the best job in the world. The truth is: it’s not that easy. We’ve all read the reviews breathlessly declaring “OMG! This place is SOOOOO good!” But a thoughtfully-crafted restaurant review is so much more than just grabbing a quick bite and deciding publicly whether you like it or not.

It can be difficult to put a sensory experience like eating into words; it can be even more difficult to convey the emotion behind the words without resorting to emoticons and exclamation points. Here I offer some tips on restaurant reviewing—in the first part, your experience at the restaurant, and secondly, the actual putting of pen to paper—that I hope will open a dialogue on this forum about reviewing, and give you a starting block for fabulous, witty reviews.


The Restaurant Experience

Know thyself. First, define your likes and dislikes—do you gravitate towards burgers and fries, or are you a caviar and foie gras type of eater? Are you a vegetarian? Do you put emphasis on any culinary attribute (do you write, for example, a blog focusing on local or sustainable food)? Are there any foods you don’t eat (I’m looking at you, cilantro)? Now, think about your ideal restaurant—is it dim and intimate, or bright and busy, or stylish and modern? When you’re at the restaurant, examine your mood: are you tired or feeling particularly critical? Knowing your own particulars will help you define the boundaries of what you consider “a good dish” or “a good restaurant,” thereby making it easier to remain objective.


A Merry Companion. Choose your dining companions for your trust in their palate and their culinary opinions. If you’re a vegetarian, think about inviting a carnivore. If you’re going to a place famous for their oysters, but you can’t abide by those particular mollusks, bring an oyster enthusiast. If you’re going to a restaurant that boasts authentic Chinese food, bring a Chinese friend who has eaten “authentic Chinese food” her whole life. You get the idea.

Your dining companion is an important part of the restaurant review equation; he or she can notice things that you fail to notice, or put a different spin on an aspect of the evening. I nearly always bring my husband, whose palate I trust even more than my own.


Choose Your Own Adventure. Put some careful thought into what restaurant you choose to review, and make sure your blog or other medium has a good variety of cuisines and establishment types. (This doesn’t apply, of course, if your blog focuses solely on cheeseburgers or something of that ilk.)

When it comes to reviewing a brand-new restaurant, the Association of Food Journalists’ (AFJ) guidelines for critics suggests that reviewers wait at least a month before visiting. Review a new place the day after it opens and you’re just asking for a hit-or-miss experience; wait until the dust settles for a good idea of the consistent level of service.


To Dine or Not To Dine. A sometimes hotly debated topic that has graced online forums like Chowhound is: how many times should you visit a restaurant before writing a review? Most professional reviewers at the biggest publications eat at a restaurant three times, sometimes twice, before writing it up. That’s all well and good (I’d probably go three times too, if I were earning a professional salary), but often not an option for those of us working at a more amateur level. I agree with Boston Phoenix reviewer Robert Nadeau when he wrote in this post that you visit “until you have a good sample of the menu.” A place with a short menu might require only one or two visits, depending on how many dishes you are able to sample during those visits. I’ve heard others comment that because a restaurant’s food and service should remain consistent every night, you can in good conscience review a place after eating there only once.

I’ll let you decide on this one, but I do have one opinion, which I’ll share: don’t write a strong negative review based on only one visit. It’s not fair to the restaurant or to your readers. (In fact, before writing any negative reviews, read the good, the bad, and the ugly in tomorrow’s post.)


The Order of Things. Keep your audience in mind when ordering your meal. You might be tempted by the fugu tartare with scallop-apricot foam, or the $90 porterhouse, but how many of your readers would actually order those? If you do order an unusual or exorbitantly expensive dish, tell us about some “everyman” dishes as well. I love this question that appeared recently in the New York Times dining section, answered by restaurant reviewer Sam Sifton:

When critics review restaurants, it seems they sample and report on the most exotic items on the menu (tripe, sweetbreads, octopus liver — does an octopus have a liver?) rather than on those that the average diner is most likely to eat. Is that because only adventurous diners become restaurant critics, or because reviewers get bored eating the same, common meals repeatedly, or because those are the specialties of the restaurant being reviewed?

Sam answered:

All of the above. Critics spend a lot of time eating the roast chicken, the mashed potatoes with chives, the steak frites, all the standard meat-and-taties entrees that average diners get all the time. So when a delicate little octopus liver comes along, poached in monkey blood, with a veal-and-cocoa ganache? It’s all they want to try. That’s not to say that we’re not still eating the chicken, only that we’ve fallen for the critic bait the chef put out there for us. Tripe is a terrific example. So is lung. Critics live for lung. And we’re mad for a restaurant’s “specialties,” too. Lamb face? Oh, yes.

The AFJ’s critic guidelines suggest this about ordering: “Reviewers should sample the full range of the menu, from appetizers to desserts… Order dishes that involve different cooking techniques (steamed, deep-fried, sautéed); different ingredients (one orders fish, another asks for beef); different styles (something traditional, something eclectic). Is there something the restaurant is known for doing well? Order it. In general, guests should avoid ordering the same thing.”


Notes on a Scandal. Record your entire dining experience honestly, from start to finish. Be specific with your notes, too; you don’t need to include all of your notes in your review, but they will help you remember the experience and sensations in detail. I very much like this thorough restaurant reviewer’s checklist from Michael Bauer, the Executive Food and Wine Editor and Restaurant Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, which will give you an outline for your note-taking. One aspect of this checklist that I particularly like is how Bauer compartmentalizes the different aspects of service, atmosphere, and food. “The critic has to be able to separate the elements that go into a dining experience,” he writes, “…and then tie them all back together.”


Don’t Feel Entitled. Keep in mind that not everybody loves a reviewer. In December, a restaurant owner refused to serve the restaurant critic for the LA Times (he also took a photo of her and posted it on the internet to destroy her anonymity, but that’s another issue entirely). The LA Times reported that Noah Ellis, managing partner at the restaurant, decided to turn her away because "Irene is not the person any of us wanted reviewing our restaurant. … This was not a rash decision." It’s true that not all restaurants like being reviewed, and whether you agree with this attitude or not, please don’t go into your meal feeling like anything other than a regular diner on a regular night at a restaurant. That’s the experience that your readers want to know about, anyway.


Signed, Anonymous. I suppose with that last paragraph I’ve opened the door to the subject of anonymity, upon which I don’t have much to say. As restaurant reviewer for the Brookline Patch, I don’t maintain my anonymity because my editor didn’t feel it was necessary. As a blogger, I don’t feel it necessary either. My picture is up in both places, but I’ve never been recognized, not even with my notebook and pen at the table, and I don’t expect to be. It’s a personal choice that you (and your editor, if you have one) will need to make.

(I realize that this runs contrary to the AFJ’s guidelines for critic anonymity, but, as the AFJ states, their guidelines are suggestions, not hard-and-fast ethical rules.)

I do, however think it’s tacky to announce your presence as a reviewer or blogger in exchange for free stuff. Outright asking for free food compromises your integrity. Anyway, you’re there to write about the dining experience of a regular person, not a reviewer for which the server will comp a meal or walk on eggshells, right? If a restaurant approaches you offering payment or a free meal in exchange for a review, make your own decision—just be sure to note the payment in your review. Your readers can then decide how much weight they will give your words.


After all this careful planning and note taking, you’re finally ready to write your review!  Check out Part II, “Writing Your Review.”

From Oldways to the New Ways: How to Promote Your Blog Through Social Media

This is a guest post by Alison, the Social Media Manager for Oldways (blog: The Oldways Table)! You can also find Oldways on Twitter and Facebook. Interested in writing your own guest post for BostonFoodBloggers.com? Email Rachel. Without further ado, here's Alison!

As the first Social Media Manager to ever grace the halls of the Oldways office, I had plenty of work to do when I was hired in February 2009. Instead of “first comes love, then comes marriage,” in this case it was “first comes Facebook, then comes Twitter.” And instead of a baby carriage, then came The Oldways Table blog. We called it The Oldways Table because we envision this as a place for everyone and anyone interested in healthy, delicious food and drink to gather and have a lively discussion about how we can collectively change the way people eat.

Because Oldways is an internationally-respected food non-profit, created to change the way people eat through practical and positive programs, the blog slowly grew into a place for Oldways employees to post personal cooking victories (and mishaps), commentary on major food/health world happenings, Mediterranean Diet and whole grains-related news, and travel photos of culinarias to Normandy and other exotic lands (we’re going to Turkey in March – you should come!).

So with all of this great content, how on Earth were we going to get it out there to our different networks? With the social media landscape changing rapidly every day, there are now literally hundreds of ways for you to get your content to the right people. It’s all about what type of audience you’re looking for. These are my personal favorites for The Oldways Table blog:

1. Facebook – The Oldways Facebook Page was the first social media account I set up after I was hired. Why? Because it has over 500 million active users, making it the most visited website in 2010 (sorry, Google). You make a Facebook Page and you’re now theoretically connected to all of those people playing Farmville at work. We post links to the blog whenever there’s an update, and I love participating in the conversation that ensues right on our Wall. You can even run a contest on your Page, like our contest to give away a free blogger pass to the Whole Grains Conference happening later this month. See you there?

2. Twitter – Twitter is the second-largest social networking site out there right now, set to reach 200 million users this year. You can tweet 140-character messages out to your followers, which as you may have guessed, is a wonderful way to get your blog posts noticed. What’s even better is when people start to Re-Tweet your links, and you start to see your tiny message spread like wildfire all over Twitter. The magic of social media is letting go and allowing your audience to take your message (in this case, your blog post) and marketing it themselves. That’s when you get the furthest reach. Also, search.twitter.com is basically Google for Twitter, so you can keep track of your keywords and blog links that much more efficiently.

3. Foodbuzz – No matter what your particular niche or industry is, I can guarantee you that there is a community or forum out there just waiting for you to join. Foodbuzz, a food blogger community, has been a great way for us to connect with other food bloggers and online culinary personalities. Here’s how it works: You add other Foodbuzz-goers as “friends” (like Facebook) and then you can share your blog posts with them and they can share their blog posts with you. Foodbuzz is friendly and welcoming, and whenever I post something there, it always seems to appeal to communities that differ from the ones we’ve built on Facebook and Twitter. Foodbuzz holds a food blogger conference annually as well, and it’s always good to walk away from the computer and meet people face-to-face.

4. Guest Posts – We frequently reach out to food experts we admire and ask them to contribute guest posts to our blog. This adds a fresh voice to our blog offering useful information to our readers and also attracts new traffic and new friends and fans. My advice: If you’re a huge fan of a certain food fanatic and you want them to guest post on your blog, just ask. We food types are a generous bunch.

5. Email – There’s email marketing (we use Constant Contact around these parts) and then there’s email. It’s easy sometimes to get wrapped up in all the fancy-schmancy ways you can share your newest post on what to do with avocados after they’ve gone bad, but sometimes the most effective way to get the right attention is to send the link directly to the right person. Luckily, Oldways has a large network of RDs, scientists, journalists, bloggers and foodies who love to hear from us, and if I know that a certain blog post would appeal to a specific person, I send them an email. This also allows you to re-connect with that person and give them a big hello! Sure, it takes more time to write a personal email than it does to hit one of the ShareThis! buttons, but it has a bigger effect. Also, it’s just plain nice.

Now that you've started promoting your blog through social media, how do you know if it's working or not? Obviously, paying attention to the number of followers and fans you have is great, but keeping a detailed eye on your analytics will provide you with tons of information on how many people visit your blog everyday, which posts are the most popular, and how readers are finding your blog in the first place. My two favorite tools are Google Analytics and StatCounter, both free of charge and user-friendly. If you’re the administrator for a Facebook Page, the site will send you a weekly report on statistics, and Wordpress also has a built in stat recorder for non-self hosted sites.

Hope this post helps you get going on your 2011 goals for your blog! And feel free to stop by The Oldways Table blog and say hello!

For more on Oldways, visit www.oldwayspt.org or The Oldways Table Blog at www.oldwaystable.org.

Food Photography Tips 101: Why you don’t need a digital SLR to take good pictures

This is a guest post by Megan from Cooking Whims! (You can also find her on Twitter: @CookingWhims.) Interested in writing your own guest post for BostonFoodBloggers.com? Email Rachel. Without further ado, here's Megan!

“But Moooooooom. If I get a digital SLR for Christmas I might become just as famous as The Pioneer Woman! Or Jenny from Picky Palate! Or ANY other food blogger besides me!!”

Oh yes. I’ve drooled. I’ve whined. I’ve begged. I’ve stared at digital SLR pictures on other food blogs with endless envy. I’ve entered contests to win cameras. I’ve searched Craigslist. I’ve even asked God himself. But I’m afraid I’m stuck with my five-year-old Panasonic Lumix digital camera for now.

And from time to time, not having a fancy pants camera gets me down. I took an in-depth course about photography in college, and I’m even a professionally-trained photographer. I’ve used the best of the best cameras and I know just how perfect and crisp a picture can turn out with a digital SLR. But when it comes to my personal budget, I can’t afford that kind of camera right now in life. However, if I look at the big picture, it’s not all that bad. If you know how to work a camera and take a picture, you don’t need 8 billion different settings and a gorgeously lit million-dollar kitchen to get a good photo.

So, what should you do to get a good picture for your food blog? Here are a few tips I always keep in mind when photographing my food: (Please note—all photos below are from my blog.)

Try to use natural light. You can’t have a good photo without light. Try to take pictures of your food in natural light. That way you’ll be able to capture the food’s natural colors. But I know from personal experience this isn’t always possible. Let’s face it. A lot of us work full time jobs and cook at night when it’s dark out. (Or if you’re like me, you live in a basement where it’s always dark out!) In that case, make sure you take your pictures in a well-lit area of your kitchen.

Place your food on white dishes. This is more important if you don’t have a well-lit area or a source of natural light for your food. The natural colors in the food will bounce off of the white plate (and into your camera lens!) This will diminish weird yellow, red, or blue hues.

Don’t use the flash. The flash is for parties and for capturing people who are in movement. I’ve been trained never to use the flash, and it’s particularly important with food photos not to use the flash. It will completely distort your colors and often white out most of your subject (the food!) If you don’t have enough light, either don’t take a picture, wait until you can take a photo with enough light, or try to up the exposure on your camera or in an editing program to capture the natural composition of the food.

Use the macro setting on your camera. Most compact cameras come with a macro setting built into them. If you don’t know where it is, check your manual. In most cameras, you can get to the macro setting by switching to the flower icon on your screen or knob.

What’s macro, you say? The macro setting on the camera allows the lens to focus on your subject at a very close range. This allows you to capture tiny details on your food—which is perfect! People want to see that cheese ooze out of that calzone or the specks of sugar on those sugar cookies. So go on, stick your nose in your food. Distant shots are boring and not personal enough for food. If we can’t smell it, we at least want to see it.

Be aware of your composition. This is one of the most important aspects of photography. I know that it’s tempting to take your dinner/baked goods out of the oven and gnaw on them immediately. But resist the temptation to snap a quick and dull photo of your whole plate of food. It’s important to have a foreground and a background in a photo—which is another reason why macro is so great—your macro setting will usually blur out the foreground or the background, and focus on one particular element. That’s what you want to do. Make your photo interesting. Don’t say “oh it’s just food you can’t do anything cool with that.” Shame! Food is SO interesting to photograph—have fun with it—get creative!

Try new angles. Go for a diagonal. Crouch down underneath the table and see what that cupcake looks like from below. Or the side. It will give your food a new and interesting twist.

Play with your food. I can be a naturalist, sure, but you should make your food look pretty. Stack your pile of cookies. Take a picture of your dinner half-eaten. Try new things!

Take lots of pictures. I take at least 20-30 pictures for every single blog post. Yet I usually only post 1-2 pictures that I take. The more pictures you take, the better chance you have of getting one that is truly stellar.

Look at other food photos. You can only learn from the best. See how the best of the best take their food photos and learn from their composition.

There are billions of great food blogs with great food photos out there, but here’s a small selection of the ones I personally love:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Back to the Cutting Board
Food and Whine

Use photo editing programs. If you have Photoshop, use it! It’s a magical program. But if you don’t have it, also not a problem. There are some great free photo editing programs on the Internet. If you take a good picture in the first place, usually the only aspects of a photo you need to change are exposure, contrast, color, and sharpness. These tools can really make your picture pop. It will turn a gray-looking soup back to its original colors. Or your boring-looking stew will come alive with a bit of contrast adjustment. Best thing? These tools usually come built in free photo programs online. One I rely on and love is Picnik—I use it all the time.

Most importantly, have fun! Simply put, you can’t take a good picture unless you like taking pictures. Also, the more confident you are in your picture-taking abilities, the more fun you’ll have. Your boyfriend/husband/family members might think you are a little nuts when you sit down at the dinner table and feverishly take some fabulous photos. But who cares? You’re doing this for you. (And your tummy.)

Good luck! And please let me know if you have any other photo tips you’d like to share. Maybe someday when I have a big, delicious camera, I can come back and give another tutorial about food photos with digital SLRs. Until then, I’ll stay full and satisfied with what I have. :)