I work as a senior copywriter for Hill Holliday and run The Hungry Mouse, my food blog, in my spare time. Recently, I was asked to write about my experiences blogging. I was more than happy to accommodate.
The first of my articles, The Top 10 Things I’ve Learned About Blogging, is meant to be a quick, punchy list of do’s and don’ts. Below is an excerpt from the intro. You can read the full article here.
Article Excerpt
“I started blogging by accident.
I’m that girl that everyone calls for emergency kitchen advice when they’re stuck behind the stove. About a year-and-a-half ago, I started a food blog as a way to share my recipes with friends.
Fast forward to today.
That same blog gets between 60,000 and 70,000 visitors a month—and has a large and loyal following on Twitter and Facebook, an Alexa rank under 100k, and Google page ranks up to 5. I’ve been featured in Bon Appetit and Saveur magazines, and get e-mails every week from foodies around the world asking me for advice in the kitchen.
You probably won’t believe me, but I didn’t do a lot to make that happen.
I’m not a coder, designer, or SEO expert. I’m just a girl with a passion for food—and writing. And I’ll tell you a secret: I do it all mostly myself. The cooking, the writing, the photography, and the site hacks and maintenance.
It’s not as preposterous as it may seem. I know I can cook and write reasonably well. But I didn’t know anything about running a website. In fact, I started out knowing only one thing about code: It’s a language.
Sure, it’s one I didn’t know, but if it’s a language, then it must have its own grammar.
So I started looking for patterns. And after a little hunting, they started to emerge.
I used what I found to hack and hone my site in WordPress, tweaking design and function to fit my—and my growing audience’s—needs.
Here are 10 things I’ve learned along the way.” (Keep reading…)