What is the name of your Blog?Keep It Simple Foods
What is your name?
Jessica
Where are you from? (include country, state and/or city)
Washington, DC
What is your current age or age range?
26
Please describe your blog
We are two young attorneys living in Washington D.C., though our first love is the law, food is a close second. We enjoy preparing and eating simple, natural, delicious foods. Although eating healthy is our goal, we find value in using whole ingredients versus highly processed low-fat foods. Being single professionals, we focus on recipes for smaller groups or couples that do not require hours in the kitchen.
Describe the main purpose of your blogging, what are you trying to accomplish?
We are passionate about eating healthy. This includes using whole ingredients in our recipes. We would like people to try our recipes and see that eating healthy can be incredibly delicious! Lots of our recipes incorporate worldly ingredients, so we also encourage people to try new flavors.
What blogging platform do you do and why?
Keep It Simple Foods uses Wordpress. It is self hosted which allows us greater flexibility. The theme we use is called Thesis by DIY Themes.
What do you blog the most about?
Delicious healthy recipes!
Give five of your best blogging tips.
1. Don't write dry boring copy. Be personal, give your readers a glimpse into your life...to a point.
2. Make friends with other food bloggers. Do guest posts on each others blogs.
3. Participate in social media, for example use Twitter to spread the word about your blog.
4. Use gravatar.com to add a picture of yourself to your site's comments, and other blog's comments.
5. Participate on other food blogs by writing constructive comments on their posts.
What are some things you would NEVER blog about?
Probably politics and religion. Just too touchy of topics.
Did you start blogging for the purpose of making money and if so, are you making enough money?
Keep It Simple Foods was not started for the sole purpose of making money. It was started as a hobby and to share healthy recipes with others.
How long have you been blogging?
Not very long. Keep It Simple Foods was started around Feb 2009.
About how many hours per day do you spend blogging?
Roughly around an hour or so a day. Sometimes it takes less time, sometimes more. It would be nice to devote more time but with a full time day job sometimes it is difficult to really dedicate tons of time to the blog. Regardless we strive to get 1-2 new posts up every day.
Do you track RSS feeds and if so, how many do you usually track daily?
I keep up with a handful of RSS feeds from other food blogs.
Do you use Digg, and why or why not?
I do not use Digg. Just never got into it.
Do you use Stumbleupon, and why or why not?
I have actually just created a Stumbleupon account. It seems like a great way to connect, and share sites, with other foodies.
What promotional techniques work best for you and why?
Guest blogging is definitely a great promotional technique. Social media would probably come next.
What mistakes have you made that you could warn others about?
Don't give up! Starting a new blog in the very competitive food niche is tough. It takes time to become successful and there may be times when you just feel like throwing in the towel. Don't though. Keep on writing your posts and with time things will most likely pick up.
What are your top five blogging site picks and why?
KeepItSimpleFoods.com - shameless self promotion Foodbuzz.com - awesome food site, it's a must join if you run a food blog Carrotsncake.com Hungryyogini.com Bellaeats.com
Have you met anyone offline as a result of your blog?
Not yet, but maybe soon.
What is the url of your blog?
Keep It Simple Foods
