Tag Archives: blogging tips

To state the obvious, I haven’t been blogging lately. What started out as a few days break while on an overseas trip became a few more days as I struggled with jet lag and then lengthened into weeks as I struggled to find the motivation to blog.

As the days went on and I still had no desire to blog I started wondering why I was feeling so uninspired. Some self-reflection was necessary.

I started my blog in mid 2011 because I wanted to improve my writing and I thought blogging would help me achieve this. In the beginning no one read my posts but I didn’t care – I was just happy to have a new outlet for my writing and to be doing something I found creatively fulfilling. I didn’t blog to get free stuff and I had no desire to be ‘internet famous’: I just wanted to get my writing out there.

Since those early days things have changed a lot, both for me, personally, and in the wider blogging scene. Along the way I’ve met some lovely people, had some great opportunities, been astonished to win some pretty major awards and yes, turned it into a second career of sorts.

Over the last few years the responsibilities, expectations and opportunities have risen for me. My inbox is full of people who want to work with me in some way.

Sure, there are the emails from people with more cheek than a Sumo wrestler e.g. “we’ll send you our $30 product in exchange for a blog review” or “we’d like you to create a recipe on your blog for us featuring our product and if we like your photos we might use them on our product packaging.” But alongside these emails there are also many interesting invitations and genuine offers of paid work including countless (paid) sponsored post requests.

Many bloggers would be thrilled to be in this fortunate position and on one level, I am extremely grateful.

However,  I don’t blog for the invites, the free meals, the gifted products, or the hosted trips.  Sure, it’s nice to be courted in one way — I’m as human as the next person — but every invitation comes with an expectation that I will reciprocate in some way. To put it another way: there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Moreover, I have no desire to turn The Hungry Australian into a blog consisting mostly of paid sponsored posts and reviews of hosted experiences and gifted products. There’s nothing wrong with this approach per se but it’s not the type of blog I want to have.  So I turn down opportunity after opportunity, foregoing a not insignificant income I could be making.

So why do I blog?

I blog because I hope to become a good writer one day and blogging is part of my practise. When I look at my blog, the posts I’m most proud of are the ones that I just had to write. They’re the stories about my life and the people most important to me – my family and my friends. These are the stories that matter the most to me. These are the stories that I should be writing.

These stories usually have nothing to do with products, events, services or experiences – they’re just stories about my life and it so happens that food is often involved: sometime food is front and centre of a story and other times it’s just hovering in the background.

Judging from your comments and emails, these are the stories that a lot of you like the most, too. My story about my brother’s birthday cake made some of you think about your own sibling relationship(s) and a few of you cry.  My stories about my mother prompted some of you to share your own stories with me.

These are the type of stories that I should be writing but my energy and attention keeps getting distracted by my inbox: I’m spending more time managing my blog and thinking about my blog than actually writing.

This is not how I want to live my life.

So going forward, I won’t be running any more advertisements or doing any more paid sponsored posts on The Hungry Australian. And I’ll be even more selective about the invitations and offers I do accept, too.

However, I will continue to host my Amazon store with the books and products I personally use and recommend. If you purchase something from my store I will make a small commission – thanks for supporting The Hungry Australian.  I will also be writing about hosted travel experiences I have already undertaken and exploring new ideas and options for off-blog projects.

By choosing to scale back on the amount of work I do with brands on The Hungry Australian, I’m doing the opposite of what a ‘successful’ blogger would probably do. But the beauty of blogging is that you can set your own rules to suit your own circumstances and I need to get back to basics.

I want to blog like I did at the very beginning, without feeling constrained by expectation or duty. I want to blog because I have an overwhelming desire to, not because I should, or am contractually obliged to. This will mean an irregular publishing schedule so if you want to come along for the ride, I suggest signing up for free blog updates if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading The Hungry Australian.

I get asked questions about blogging, photography and food styling regularly. Eventually I’ll create some sort of FAQ page but in the meantime, I thought I’d cover some of the most frequently asked questions in this post.

It’s longer than I expected so you might want to grab a cup of tea. Here we go!

Blogging

How long have you been blogging?

Just over three years.

Do you have any tips about food blogging?

I do. Check out How to Blog about Food: useful tips for new, emerging and aspiring food bloggers and The Business of Food Styling: a Denise Vivaldo food styling workshop and 12 tips for new, emerging and aspiring food stylists.

How do I build a following?

Create great content, promote your content, engage with readers, get to know other bloggers, be helpful and share information.

How long does it take you to do a blog post?

On average, four to six hours. Longer travel posts can take up to two days. If it’s a recipe post there’s research, concept and development. Then shopping, recipe development and testing. Then cooking and food and prop styling. Then photography and editing. Then writing up the recipe. The story comes first or afterwards and it can take days, months (or years!) to get right. Then final edits, publishing and promotion. A lot of work goes into it.

Can’t anyone start a blog?

Yes. But that’s like saying anyone could write a novel. In theory that’s true but not everyone has the self-initiative, skills and talent to actually start one, much less the commitment and determination to persevere with it.

No, what I mean is, you don’t have to be qualified or anything…

That’s the beauty of blogging. You’re not judged by your qualifications or by who you know; you’re judged on your talent, skills and story-telling ability.

No, I mean, some blogs aren’t very good…

People blog for all kinds of reasons. What you might deem ‘not very good’ might make its creator very proud. It might be his or her way of sharing their stories and memories or meeting like-minded folk. In any case, I’m sure you’re intelligent enough to work out which blogs you like and want to follow for yourself.

How do you make money from blogging?

Some bloggers run advertising on their blogs or affiliate links. Some do sponsored posts or become ambassadors for brands. Some freelance and consult. Some write books or create products or virtual courses.

Most of my income is derived from work that I do off my blog and I’ve deliberately set it up like this. However, it’d be fair to say that new clients often find me via my blog.

Do you accept unsolicited guest posts?

No.

Why don’t you do more restaurant reviews?

First of all, I don’t do reviews. I will blog about my experience in a restaurant if it’s part of a bigger travel post like this, this or this, or if it’s also a personal story like this. But I don’t do restaurant reviews per se because I like blogging recipe and travel stories more.

How did you do it? How did you create a successful blog?

Firstly, everyone has a different idea of what success means. I started my blog because I thought it would help me become a better writer and it has. So from that point of view my blog is a success and everything else has been a bonus.

I think when you do something you love, you pour your heart and soul into it, and you work really hard, it shows. Having said that, while I haven’t been blogging that long I got my first paid writing job more than 17 years ago and this writing experience was definitely helpful. I also have a background in marketing and this was also useful.

Being a slightly obsessive perfectionist is not bad thing when it comes to blogging. There are a lot of stories that I haven’t blogged because I don’t think they’re good enough yet. At the same time I constantly see flaws in my published posts so I’m always driven to improving what I do.

Recipe Development

Are you a trained chef?

No. I’m a home cook.

How do you develop recipes?

I start with an ingredient or flavour combination and then build it from there. A recipe might be inspired by a dish I’ve eaten, something I’ve read in a cookbook or blog, the weather, or most often, some spectacular produce at the market.

I have a great nose and a food memory – I can remember the taste, texture, look and feel of dishes I ate 25 years ago. I also read a lot of cookbooks and blogs and have attended numerous cooking classes and food and wine workshops.

I have always cooked by tasting the dish and adjusting the flavor as required, even when loosely following a recipe.

My recipes are created with the average home cook in mind and most can be prepared without too much fuss and bother after a crappy day at work. If you want fancy, complicated recipes or molecular gastronomy you should go to a nice restaurant to eat because nobody eats like that at home.

Working with PRs and Brands

I want to work more with brands. How do I develop these relationships?

There’s no trick I can tell you. Work hard. Do good work, consistently and steadily. Put it out there. If people/brands like it, they’ll approach you.

Personally, I don’t try to create relationships with brands – I just blog what I want to blog. Keeping my blog a place where I can explore things creatively is incredibly important to me: I care about creating stories that I can be proud of and that readers might respond to. That’s what’s most important to me – not creating PR-friendly stories.

If people/brands like what I do and want to work with me, great. If not, equally fine. I only want to work with brands that ‘get’ what I do and whose work or products I equally admire. Over the years I’ve turned down a lot of paid work because it simply wasn’t a good fit or I felt I would be compromising my ethics and/or credibility.

I’ve published some tips for bloggers who want to work with brands here – Bloggers and Brands: why we’re mostly doing it wrong,

Do you eat out for free all the time?

No. It’s very nice to be invited to events but I have to be selective about those I attend due to work and family commitments. I do eat at my parents’ house a lot though. Does that count?

Do you get sent heaps of free food?

No, but that’s because I only very occasionally accept samples.

How do you respond to people asking you to blog in exchange for tickets, invitations or samples?

I politely explain thatI don’t trade tickets or products for blog exposure as I only blog something if I can find an interesting story to tell. I tell them that I appreciate their understanding on this. Having said that, if they’ve asked me to blog like this then it’s unlikely I’ll work with them because it’s clearly not a good fit.

Update: I refer them to my agent.

What do you say to brands who want to work with you but want to ‘reward’ you with exposure, vouchers or links instead of payment? 

I politely explain that I work with brands for compensation and that if they have a project with a budget I’d be happy to chat. I also direct them to Bloggers and Brands: why we’re mostly doing it wrong.

Update: see previous question.

General

How can you be so small if you eat so much?

I’m not sure. My cunning Asian genes? Running around after my kids? My mother tells me that I exhaust people. So there’s all the energy I expend doing that. I also try to practice hot yoga regularly.

Credits

All photos by me as usual except the photo of me by Kevin Khaw. Makeup by Celeste Wong.

More posts about blogging

• How to blog about food: 8 tips for new, emerging and aspiring food bloggers
• Bloggers and brands: why we’re (mostly) doing it wrong
• The business of food styling, a Denise Vivaldo workshop and 12 tips for aspiring food stylists
• Tips from Eat Drink Blog 2: the Australian Food Bloggers Conference.

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new recipe and travel posts once a week – it’s FREE!!

Got a question?

Did I miss something? Feel free to ask me a question below and I’ll do my best to answer it.

A few months ago I received an email from a blogger who wanted to know how she could improve her writing and photography. As you can imagine, it’s not a question that can be answered simply or quickly so I decided to do a series of posts on it: this post focuses on how to become a better writer. I’ve titled this post writing tips for bloggers but these tips are actually applicable no matter whether you’re writing blog posts, articles, short stories, novels, screenplays, or a memoir – ultimately it’s all about your ability to tell a story.

1) Read a lot

I don’t think you can become a good writer if you don’t like reading. Find authors or bloggers who make your pulse quicken and work your way through their back catalogue or archives. In terms of books I read very widely but I do love short stories and essays by authors like David Sedaris, Jeffrey Steingarten, Cynthia Heimal, W Somerset Maugham, Susan Townsend, BJ Novak, Dorothy Parker, and Truman Capote. I’ve also read hundreds of film and television scripts – reading screenplays will teach you about structure, setting the scene, the importance of visual storytelling and being economical with language.

2) Look for inspiration everywhere

A friend recently asked me what my creative approach to writing stories was. I had to stop and think about this because I don’t have a process, or if I do, it’s a highly disorganised one. Basically, an idea gets in my head and I have to puzzle it out in words. Or something happens and I think it would make a good story or blog post. An idea might be triggered by a conversation, an article, a funny coincidence, an unexpected windfall or a disaster. Look for inspiration and story ideas everywhere. If you can’t do anything with an idea right away note it down in a journal or draft post for those times when inspiration runs dry. According to Susan Townsend, someone once said, “Writing is easy. Just stare down at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds.” Amen!

3) Write about what you are most passionate about

You can always tell if I’m really passionate about something or not. If it’s important to me, you’ll hear the enthusiasm in my writing and it’ll hopefully inspire and enthuse you, too. Conversely, if I’m writing about something I don’t really care about, you’ll finishing reading my story and feel unsatisfied. Because if I don’t care about it, why should you? So write about stuff that really matters to you. Write the stories that scare you because they make you feel uncomfortable or exposed. Push past your comfort zone and write the stories that make you feel a little weepy and sentimental. Write stuff that matters.

4) Celebrate your individualism

Don’t write the stories that anyone could have done; there are enough bland, boring and forgettable stories out there. Write the stories that only you could have written. Did you have a weird upbringing? Use that. Did you have a life-changing holiday experience? Write about it. Do you have an obscure hobby? Explain why you love it so much. It’s our quirks, eccentricities and individual journeys that make us unique: it’s your job as a writer to tease out all the useable material you have in your brain.

5) It’s what you leave out that’s as important as what you include

Not everything that happens would make a good story. Moreover, even if something would make a good story not everything that happened along the way is actually interesting. Be ruthless about only including things that serve the story and move it forward. I can’t stand writing that is like a verbal stream of consciousness, i.e. this happened and then this happened and then this happened. It’s lazy and it’s not interesting to read.

6) Edit your writing to the bone

I typically write a blog post and then I review and edit it 6-15 times before publishing it. I’m not kidding. A lot of effort goes into making my blog posts ‘simple and easy to read’, as my mother describes them. Even after I’ve published blog posts if I notice a clumsy phrase or something that could have been expressed better I’ll go back and change it. If you’re writing blog posts and then publishing them straight away you are not producing your best work because all early drafts can be improved. Tighten things up. Make the meaning clearer. Delete entire sections that don’t serve the story. I know you love everything you’ve written but you’ll only become a better writer once you’re prepared to kill your darlings.

7) Don’t use fancy words

Write as simply and succinctly as possible. If you can say what you mean with a one syllable word as opposed to a three syllable one then use the former.  Writing is not about showing the reader how many big words you know or how clever you are – it’s about telling a story and provoking some kind of response from the reader.

8) Read books about writing

These are some of my favourite books about writing.

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Story by Robert McKee
• The 7 Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker
• How I Got Published edited by Ray White and Duane Lindsay
• Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob
• Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
• Which Lie Did I Tell by William Goldman
• The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan

I also really like the post Thoughts on Writing by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Do you have any favourite books or posts about writing? Please share your suggestions below.

Spicy Lamb Wraps

With the colder Autumn weather I seem to have turned into a raging carb monster, my body demanding starchy fuel at increasingly frequent intervals. Enter these Spicy Lamb Wraps, a re-working of two previously blogged recipes, Xinjiang Lamb Skewers and Fiery Smashed Cucumber Salad, into a healthy, filling and lip-tingling wrap.

INGREDIENTS

• 500 grams minced lamb
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 2-3 teaspoons chilli flakes
• 1-1.5 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns, pounded fine in a mortar and pestle
• 1 generous teaspoon salt
• 4 wraps
• 500 grams assorted tomatoes
• 120 grams baby spinach leaves
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon chilli oil
• 3 spring onions, sliced, white part only
• Fresh coriander and/or basil to garnish

METHOD

1. Mix lamb, garlic, cumin, ginger, chilli flakes, Szechuan peppercorns and salt in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.
2. Using clean hands, roll into small balls (about 30) and place on plate. Refrigerate while you get on with making the salad bits.
3. Wash tomatoes and quarter and rinse and spin dry spinach (if necessary).
4. Make up dressing by mixing vinegar, sesame oil and chilli oil in a small bowl.
5. Heat up a large fry pan and add a dash of oil. Fry meat balls in two batches until cooked through (6-8 minutes) stirring frequently to brown evenly.
6. Remove to plate covered with kitchen paper to absorb excess fat.
7. To assemble, place a wrap on a plate and top with spinach leaves, tomatoes, spring onions and meat balls and serve with chilli dressing for people to add themselves.

NOTES

1. Serves 4 for lunch
2. Using the lower amount of chilli/peppercorns will give you medium-hot meat balls while the higher amount will give you hot meat balls.
3. If you are serving these to little ones or people who don’t like chilli you can make up a version with only garlic, cumin and salt to season.
4. You could also make the meatballs by themselves to serve with drinks.

More posts about blogging

• How to blog about food: 8 tips for new, emerging and aspiring food bloggers
• Bloggers and brands: why we’re (mostly) doing it wrong
• The business of food styling, a Denise Vivaldo workshop and 12 tips for aspiring food stylists
• Tips from Eat Drink Blog 2: the Australian Food Bloggers Conference.

Subscribe to The Hungry Australian

Don’t want to miss a post? Sign up to receive new recipe and travel posts twice a week – it’s FREE!!

Now it’s over to you. Do you have any writing tips or book recommendations? Please share your suggestions below.