I feel like it is safe to say that a lot of us spend a lot of time on our smartphones. Whether it be for work, social media, entertainment, tip-calculator, directions or last (and the probably least utilized feature) communication with others. If you are like me, you'll use it a lot for looking up recipes.
So let's have a heart to heart here. A lot of my recipe finding happens in the "annexed office" (if you know where I mean). A couple weeks ago I went on the hunt for a homemade greek-yogurt ranch dressing recipe. I invested probably twenty minutes on this venture and came back with zip. And as I spent my time trying to find just a simple easy to follow recipe, I had an epiphany. We food bloggers, are kind of @ssholes. (Myself included.) When people Google for a recipe, that's what we want... a H-F recipe! (H-F = Hab-Flammin!) So today's blog will be about the Seven Deadly Sins of Food Blogs.
#1- The Recipe
Where the flank-steak is it? I swear half of the food blogs you read, don't even list the ingredients. OR! You have to scroll about 6/7's of the blog to actually find it. I'm pretty sure I have gotten mild arthritis from this. I myself am guilty of this sin, so from now on I'll be sure to put the ingredients and overview at the top of the blogs. This way you can take a nice little phone screen-shot and work off the picture as opposed to continually pulling up the webpage.
#2 - The Info
Along with missing ingredients, many blogs are missing other necessary info (or it is hidden in some random paragraph). If you ever read a whole food blog and don't know what temperature you were supposed to pre-heat that oven to... well... b@lls.
#3 - The Narratives
Judge: "How do you plead on the charges of excessive narratives, Chubbs?" Me: "Guilty!" Straight up, my most commonly committed food blog sin. And I would be safe to say, this is the same for most food bloggers out there. And this one goes along with #1 & #2. We always feel like we need to "paint the picture" or "start the story" with some long-winded nonsense. Nobody cares about some slide-incident in the second-grade! Just tell us what to do with his half-a-stick of butter and trout! Now, I am all for a good story (as I do believe story-telling is becoming a lost art) but let's make sure we keep it to after we display the information needed to cook the dish we are blogging about.
#4 - The Plugs
Now by plugs, I am talking about two things: product pitches and online ads. I myself always have one of Rubbs in my blogs, but that's going to be kind of a given. What I am talking about is when bloggers are being paid to promote something ridiculous or just way out of line. "I would never even consider making carrot fries without my Kitchen-Art Slice-atar 5000 and at only $600.00 MSRP its a steal and a life saver!" ... wut? Personally I will only promote products that I truly use and believe in. Also, online ads. Hot-lanta! Between the initial pop-up for your email and the littering of banner ads, it's taking even longer to get to the info we want. Look, I get it. You open your site and blogs to online marketers and you get some skrilla, but think about the people actually having to read the blogs. As is, we humans are pounded by the minute by advertisements. Just let us figure out these stupid carrot fries in peace!
#5 - The Photos
Too many photos, too little photos, boring photos, over complicated photos... there is no winning. But here's the thing, we are visual creatures. We need something to look at to help us process steps. Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) does a great job of giving photos for step-by-step processes. No filters, no funky angles. Yup, that is what two eggs with a pinch of salt and some sliced bell peppers should look like! Thanks, Ree! (I'll work on this myself.)
#6 - The Videos
In the same lines as photos, it is easy to do videos wrong. Some bloggers will commit previously listed sins in their videos. A 12 minute video for slow-cooker pork? With no ingredients listed?! Stop semi-flexing those pecs and forearms and just get to the point. Personally, I am a big fan of those overhead angled videos with no talking. One thing though, make sure to leave the steps up long enough to write down, pause the video on or give us a print-out below.
#7 - The Inconsistency
To sum it all up, not all food bloggers are bad. But we are an inconsistent bunch, Maybe we are rushed or not in-it-to-win-it but a lot of food blogs are hit or miss. Some are so on point you wish to "follow them" immediately and others make you want to chuck your phone at the nearest hard surface. I am guilty of this sin, for sure. Sometimes we just need to slow down, double check everything and make sure when we read our own work that we could recreate what we have done.
The Takeaway
What is nice, is that I have used my frustration about what is out there to fix and better what I am doing here. And I am expecting y'all to keep me in check!
Till next time! Remember, don't beat your meat... Rubb that Chubb!
-Chubbs