baking blog news

where do I begin? my baking blog. some interesting things have been happening lately.

in December, I created a Facebook page for the blog. I had a pretty good response. apparently, some of my friends had no idea I had a blog. I guess I never made a big deal about it. in fact, for a while I felt pretty embarrassed. but I'm coming to terms with it. there's no reason for me to be shy about something I enjoy doing and happen to be pretty darn good at.

a week or two ago, I decided to list my blog's email address on the actual blog. so people could contact me. about... stuff. I figured it was another way to reach out to my readers.

around the same time, I saw on one of my follower's blogs that she had joined foodgawker. foodgawker is this amazing site that I had no idea even existed. it's basically a visual collection of food blog posts. authors or reader submit photos linking to posts, and a panel of photographers review and decide to accept or decline your submission.

I figured it would be a neat way to get more people to notice my blog and my photography. I joined, entered, and had my first 3 submissions declined. they even give you reasons... "low lighting" "depth of field too shallow" etc etc. but then I had an acceptance. within 24 hours, that single submission generated hundreds of views of my blog. I had no idea that foodgawker was this big of a deal. I was floored. and also thrilled. and so I've started submitting more photos/posts, and in return have received over 1,500 visits (!)

what happened next was likely a combination of listing my email and posting on foodgawker. I received an email, asking if I would sign a photo release so that a recent post of mine could be featured as "image of the day" on their blog. what blog? Gourmet Live. which happens to be the blog for Gourmet Magazine. Conde Nast owned, totally legit, serious publication, Gourmet Magazine. I (of course) agreed. They posted their feature wednesday, and I've been floating around on a little cloud of elation ever since. it hasn't brought me as much in the way of traffic, but it's... awesome.

this is all new to me, but I'm enjoying it so far. to have recognition for your work just feels so good : )