My Journey as Blogger | Influencer | Food & Lifestyle
This article is very close to my heart as it speaks about my journey and evolution as a Food & Lifestyle Blogger. There are many who aspire to become a blogger but rather don’t take the first step of creating a blog and stop pursuing. I too contemplated starting my blog page before plunging into it. In the initial days/months, I intended to write article on my Travel Journey, Sports, Likes & Disklikes. It was my personal journal that I shared with few friends. As I started writing, I expanded my horizon from Travel to Lifestyle and then to Food.
Food Blogging Journey
This is one of the most surprising and unexpected journey that shocks many people. I come from a pure Technical background, doing my engineering and working as IT Professional. Writing tech articles would have been considered my forte. Then I started writing about my travel experiences that perplexed people but they enjoyed reading my article. But then one day, I decided to write about a meal I had with my office colleague at a rather popular eatery. Many of my friends found the article useful and I started to get noticed by unknown people.
While my initial article covered few aspect about the food & beverage. As I evolved my writing skills, I started to share a lot more info about the underlying flavor in every dish. This was then noticed by Food Experts, Chefs, Restauranteurs, Hoteliers & Blogging Community.
Soon people started calling me as a Food Connoisseur as I started writing article about multiple dishes across restaurant in and around the city. My articles started containing info related to Presentation and also suggestion for the restauranteurs to work on. I also to started to take inspiration from dishes made by Chefs and recreated the same dish or created a new dish.
My work was noticed by people across media to write articles in Print Media, Magazines, Food Channels. Restauranteurs and PRs started to invite me to the launch events, Food Festival and did seek genuine feedback.
Key Aspects Leading to Growth
The journey of Food Journey is not an overnight story but a long and systematic process. But there a few habits that I followed to reach the popularity.
Regularity – We all start with a enthusiasm, schedule ourselves but then in a matter of few weeks or months, its fizzles away. But after starting it, one needs to follow a routine to contribute regularly to your blog.
Keywords – This is tough period when we find multiple bloggers in the market. To stay relevant, one needs to use the right keywords that people use during their search that will enable viewers to visit your blog. This will in turn improve your Blog Ranking.
Pictures with Words – A good picture also enhances the written content as it makes it easier for reader to visualize.
Subscribers & Engagement – It is necessary to constantly work on building your subscriber/follower base. This become possible by sharing the article across your known circle and engaging with your subscribers via comment/email/chat. Also one needs to engage with other bloggers articles and learn.
World of Influencers
Bloggers are respected across the Hospitality Industry for their writing and photography skills. But bloggers are adored by their followers and friends. People seek inputs for Eating Out, Party, Function, Family time, Dinner, Lunch, Break as they trust the unbiased inputs. But not everyone has access to inputs from Blogger.
In the last few years, many new social media platforms have come up that focus on sharing picture along with limited written content. Most of the youngsters are registered into these platforms and constantly share posts with pictures. These are new age bloggers that are called Influencers.
There are multiple eateries that have come over the years and it is not possible to have bloggers do a complete writeup. Instead, restauranteurs rely on quick updates on the social media platform from influencers.
Over the years, Influencers have learned to use the right tags & hashtags to reach people. This has definitely eaten in the Blogging Community and the numbers of bloggers are reducing. Many bloggers like me have adopted to make the best of both worlds.
Tips for being a Food Blogger
I rambled a lot about my journey as a Blogger and impact of Influencer. Its time to get back to the Blogging world and share important tips.
- Always share info about dish in detail and take good pictures.
- Build good relationships with Chef and learn about Cuisine, Cooking techniques.
- Share article written on blog with as many friend as possible in multiple social media platforms.
- Promote you blog post by running selective ads using Google Ads.
- Always look to engage with good brand and do provide back-links that helps user.
- Plan on writing short articles so it can keep the attention span of reader.
- Always look to choose a name for your blog that will make it stand-out compared to people.
The blog should be focused on a single area. If need be, try creative unique blogs for every area that you like to write about ie., Food, Travel, Lifestyle, Technology.
Final Thoughts
My journey and evolution as Blogger has been crazy and at times filled with a lot of emotions. While I start it as a hobby for many years before taking it a lot more seriously. It has now become a important part of life that I truly cherish. It has allowed me to associate with amazing people that includes Celebrities, Sports person, Politicians, Doctors, Spiritualists, Travelers. I have tried to learn from everyone whom I came across. This is one journey that has yielded a lot of respect, money and fame in the society. Hope to continue my journey and also inspire others through my articles.
Such a lovely post to read your journey, thanks for sharing!