Tuesday, October 30, 2012

FNCE Reflections -- Amy Bortnick


You know you attended a good presentation when the information excites and makes you feel compelled to act right away!  After attending the 2012 FNCE session: “A Call to all Food Bloggers: Stay in the Game” by Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN & Dana Angelo White, MS, RD, ATC, , social media and nutrition role models with awesome blogs (linked above) my mind was buzzing with inspiration and new inspirational ideas. In fact, after the session, part of me wanted to leave the conference, find a computer, and get to work…but don’t worry I held it together and didn’t act on the urge until now.

 I want to share the cool tips I gleamed from these cutting edge dietitians that will be useful to anyone with a desire to improve or start a blog. I am also going to let you in on the specific bits of advice I personally plan to incorporate into my own blog upearlywithamy.com ASAP!

 Helpful Blogging Tips:

·         Post regularly and be consistent, one of the best ways to keep people coming back to your blog is to give them regular posts to come back to.  

·         Invest time; if you want to have a good blog, like anything else in life, it takes time and hard work. Decide if you’re dedicated to blogging and then make the commitment by setting aside time on your schedule and physically writing it in your planner.

·         Short and Sweet; You don’t have all day to write and people don’t have all day to read, keep it short, sweet, and informative. Aim for fewer than 500 words per blog and one idea per paragraph.

·         Keep an Idea log: Ideas for blogging come about at all different times in the day. Keep a pad or digital lab where you can write down your ideas. Even if you don’t take action right away, keep them on the back burner for later use.

·         Do the research: When you write as a nutrition professional or healthcare provider your reflecting your profession in your work so be creditable.

·         Get the Statistics; Blog hosting sites like wordpress.com and blogger have statistic pages that help you gather detailed information about your posts and readership so you can see what truly draws people to your blog. Google Analytics is a great example.

·         Focus on photography: We are visual learners; by including pictures in your blog it will become more attractive to readers. By taking shots at an angle, using color in the background of your shot, and adding bits of garnish to your food dishes you can really enhance your photos.
 
I personally decided to begin a consistent weekend post, I’ve already downloaded Google analytics, and I created an excel spreadsheet to keep my new ideas and schedule my blog posting.

What will you do to enrich your blog today?

Posted on behalf of Amy Bortnick

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