Once upon a time there was a girl who did not know much about internet (not that she does now). She was happy in her little world. Knowing the mysteries of this big online world was bottom 5 on her to do list.
Life is not exactly how we imagine it. One day, while enjoying her pregnancy and convinced by one of her best friends that everyone can cook put her apron on. The first thing she made was a zucchini pie. Her family loved it and encouraged her to cook some more. Simple dishes followed, than her first cake, a German chocolate cake, and later the first yeast bread.
Time went by and after cooking for some time she decided to write a blog just to keep track of her progress in the kitchen.
As you can easily guess she was far from being a computer savvy. Her knowledge about setting a blog was somewhere around zero. But she didn't give up. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
She wrote, deleted, wrote again. The only persons reading her blog were her friends. One day everything changed. Someone else was reading and even left a comment. Oh my goodness, someone else knew she existed. She could nor believe her eyes. After that comment another one followed, and then another one and so on. What was she supposed to do? Whom to ask? She thought would be nice to find out who those people that left comments on her blog were. She clicked on their names and visited their blogs. WOW. A new world opened in front of her eyes. She start reading and reading, clicking on different names. Soon she'd spend her evenings reading other people blogs. After a while she start commenting on their blogs too and got to know other bloggers. Her blog started growing, well that's what she thought when she saw 100 hits in one day. Little did she know you can reach 100 hits in one hour.
She started celebrating every milestone. 100 hits in one day, 1000 hits in one week, first recipe featured in Top 9, first photo accepted on food porn sites.
Along the way she learned lots of things :
- Being a food blogger is a full time job. From the moment you decide what are you going to cook for your family, taking step by step photos and later writing about it. - Learn from your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, the important thing is to make sure your don't repeat them. - Learn new skills. There's always room from improvement. - Ask for help. When you want something, do some research and try it for yourself. If you don't succeed ask for help. Be polite and others will give you a hand. - Care for those who help you. Be friendly, honest and trustworthy otherwise you'll lose their support. - Be yourself. Stop comparing with another bloggers. There will always be a better writer/photographer/cook/baker.- Post as ofter as you can. If possible, make a routine. - Share others bloggers work. Use twitter/facebook/stumble not to promote your own posts but to show appreciation for your friends' work. - Make friends. Subscribe to their blogs and read their posts. Leave comments.
and the most important : Have Fun. If having a blog feels more like an obligation, it's time to stop and do something else.
Thank you everyone. Without your support I would not be writing this.
I'll leave you with a photo of the cake I made for my husband's birthday. It's a three chocolate mousse cake, just in case you were wondering :P
later edit : shared the recipe HERE