Wednesday, May 13, 2009

What Is Seasonal Food Blogging And Why Does It Matter?


Seasonal food blogging is a blogging strategy in which you create, publish,and promote recipes and posts that are seasonally appropriate. Many of you already do this, but taking a bit of time to come up with a seasonal food blogging strategy can improve your blogging immensely.

I learned this strategy the hard way. Why, oh why, did a publish and promote this Margarita recipe in March, knowing full well that most people think about Margaritas during Cinco de Mayo and Summer? Of course, the post fell flat and I lost a perfect opportunity to drive traffic and connect with my readers.

More on Seasonal Food Blogging in second part of post...

Three Reasons Seasonal Food Blogging Matters

Traffic

Utilizing seasonal food blogging strategies can drive significant traffic to your blog. If I would of waited with my Margarita post, I could have submitted it to Foodgawker and Tastepotting right around Cinco de Mayo and increased the likelihood of driving traffic to the post.

Readers think about food seasonally, so matching your posts to the desires of your readers will increase the chances of them finding your post.

Successful Post

Seasonal food blogging can increase the chances of your post becoming popular and successful. I tend to judge the success of a post based on the number of comments it receives. Margarita post mentioned above? ZERO comments.

Relevance

First time visitors become loyal readers if they feel your blog has relevance to their lives. Does your food blogging fulfill a need?

Imagine this: It's the dead of Winter. A reader is searching for a hearty, warm, Winter soup to warm her tummy. She finds my blog and what does she see? Post after post about outdoor grilling and Summer cocktails!

What does said reader do? She leaves. Immediately. You see, I didn't fulfill her need. My posts were not relevant to her.

Obviously its impossible to predict everyone's needs, but I'm pretty sure I know what recipes people will be searching for come November 23rd! And this gets to the heart of seasonal food blogging. Strategically write, publish, and promote seasonally appropriate recipes to mirror the public's needs and desires and your posts will instantly become relevant to their lives.

I learned my lesson. It's currently strawberry season in California. Tons and tons of beautiful strawberries are all over farmers markets. So what did I post about yesterday? Strawberry pie of course! Just today I checked my stats and I've gotten tons of google hits from readers searching for strawberry pie! A lesson learned indeed.

4 comments:

  1. I post a "seasonal" post every Sunday when I choose something at the Hollywood Farmers Market to cook and write about. I call it Market Matters, but essentially it is a seasonal post. I never looked at that way until I read this...but I suppose it's true. GREG

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  2. This can be difficult in places where the seasons don't 'match' -- I live in Southern California, and it's quite possible to have March hit 90 degrees and perfect margarita weather. I post what I'm cooking and drinking and hope it reflects my location and my life (though I will admit there is a lag time, and I do try to squeeze posts in that are seasonally dated.)

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  3. Hello there,

    I hope you’re well.

    I’m working with a not-for-profit organisation – Do The Green Thing: www.dothegreenthing.com

    They’ve just produced another one of their innovative short videos to inspire people to lead a greener life: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9dYnkjA6tQ

    The video is aimed at raising awareness and encouraging people to eat seasonal produce.

    We’re looking for people to host it and make comments, and Food Bloggers Unite seems like an excellent place for this!

    Please contact me at: nikolai_at_thisismission.com with any questions.

    Have an excellent day!

    Thanks

    Nikolai

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