Saturday, April 21, 2012

Any Other Howard County Food Bloggers?

On a comment from today's post, I discovered another food blogger in Howard County -- Elizabeth on Fiercely Fresh.

Then drafting this post, I stumbled on another -- The Soffrito, where Victoria writes about gardening and cooking.  I loved her post about rain barrels and wondered if I could get those installed while Mrs. HowChow is on this business trip.

I try to link to local blogs.  I vividly remember nice people who shared my early posts, and I enjoy connecting readers to local blogs.  We have a nice mix of local food blogs -- some reviewing restaurants, some sharing recipes, some people writing broadly but with "food posts" noted with categories.  I keep a list in the right column.  If you're writing regularly from Howard County, feel free to email me.

My blogging advice:  1) Post regularly.  People return to blogs that update a few times a week.  2) Relax.  Regular posting is harder than you think, so just get back on the horse when you have a slow period.  3) Take photos.  They make the page interesting, and they tell Google that you're a real person.  4) Use categories.  I link to some blogs using the "food" category.  5) Get listed on HoCoBlogs.

Jessie X -- If we get a bunch posting regularly, the "food section" is going to need an extra long area like those "community" blogs.

5 comments:

Adam said...

I write from Howard County and check out some local places from time to time.

jessiex said...

HowChow - Thanks for the shout out and suggestion. Handling the flow of posts in each category is a CHALLENGE. We don't have any way yet, and it's a technical thing (code to be written) to figure out how to limit some people's posts so that they don't dominate a category.

I hear you, though. I hear you.

jessiex said...

Oh, I'd add to the suggestions you list for food bloggers that if they tweet their posts that are about food in Howard County, use the hashtag #hoconoms.

And for all those who blog about food+Howard County but by chance are not in the food category on hocoblogs, when you do blog about local food venues, issues, stuff, add to your post this exact phrase - hocofood@@@. Doing so will push your post into the food category of hocoblogs.

Victoria said...

Thanks for the nod on your blog-roll. I've been in the county for 14 years and just launched The Soffritto last spring. I blog 3-5x/week and tend to focus on organic cooking & gardening. I recommend trying the rain barrels - they went up In a snap. I'm kicking myself for not getting 4....this rain filled the barrels as of last night.

Cheers,
Victoria

Food Nomad said...

I'm from Howard County but haven't lived there in a very long time. Thanks again for linking back to my blog when I wrote about Cafe de Paris.