Celebrating a Year of Foodie Worthy

This month marks a year since I first posted a recipe to to my blog. To celebrate a year of blogging, I've posted my favorite cupcake recipe, Key Lime Cupcakes. See Post.

I also took some time to reflect on the last year, what I set out to do, and what I learned.

I originally decided to create the blog for 4 main reasons:

1) I wanted to challenge myself to actually start something and continue it.

2) I wanted to tap into my creative side while experiencing what it was like to create and manage a blog.

 3) I wanted to learn first hand about which content and tactics would drive the most interest and traffic.

4) I wanted to capture the recipes that my daughter grew up with so she has them while she is away at college-food is always my way of connecting.

A year into this adventure here is what I have learned:

1) Creating content for a recipe blog is VERY time consuming. I typically cook without a recipe so creating and accurately documenting the recipes takes a lot of time. A LOT of time.

2) I discovered my cooking point of view. As I look back on what I have posted and begin to connect the dots, it is becoming clear that my cooking POV is Southern Cuisine with Traditional French Influence. This makes sense given that I grew up in Atlanta, and while growing up in Atlanta I watched Julia Childs every chance I got. Had anyone asked my my cooking point of view before I began this journey, I honestly would not have been able to describe it. Knowing this makes me happy!

3) Images drive views. Period. Post a Link in Facebook and get nothing, post an image and watch the site traffic rise.

4) The name of the recipe is KEY. No one cares about French Toast, but  post an entry for French Toast with Raspberry Sauce and Maple Syrup Butter and suddenly folks are clicking their way to deliciousness.

5) Fresh content drives traffic to the site. To get any kind of visit volume, I learned I need to post about 2 recipes per month. To drive "real food blogger" type traffic (15,000 visits per month), I would need to post 6-8 times per month.  I was able to achieve this for one month, but I just don't have the time to keep that going. Two posts a month feels good to me :)

6) Gaining followers and garnering comments is super hard for an unknown like me. I actually experimented with a paid media test with a call to action to "follow the Foodie Worthy blog". The media buy garnered a ton of visits but as for additional followers or comments...crickets. My assumption is that followers and comments are for celeb's, established commercial recipe sites and full-time bloggers. I'm cool with that.

7) Creating this blog turned out to be a great hobby for my now empty-nester lifestyle.  I'm happy to report that my daughter actually goes to this site to recreate her favorite dishes.

God willing, I am looking forward to another year of Foodie Worthy.