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Be sure to check out my post about 5 things I love about blogging!
Living in a glass house
This summer I was walking through Walnut Creek Cheese in Holmes County, OH, with a huge waffle cone in my hand, avoiding eye contact because I was afraid someone would recognize me and report me to the Healthy Bloggy Police. ((confessional)) I cheat. Not usually when I’m at home, but on some church occasions and at some family get-togethers. And this summer was not stellar. I tell you, Holmes County has some of the best ice cream ever.
Replying to people who would rather ask me a question than take 2 seconds to Google it for themselves
For example – asking me to do conversions for you, like cup to pint conversions
“How is blogging a job?”
Well, I work. I research. I experiment. I write. I edit. I get paid.
Some people seem to think that I know all eventualities about each one of my recipes, including all possible substitutions that can be made and how said substitutions will affect the end product.
I’m sorry, but I can only vouch for what I’ve tried. I’ll try to give you some suggestions, but I’m afraid that I don’t have time to test every recipe using every low carb flour in the world. That’s why I formulated a baking mix.
Techy stuff
Like when comments accidentally get disabled on a post, or a bummy ad shows up in my sidebar, or when the page won’t load…
I’m not a very tech-savvy person, and the nuts-and-bolts side of the blog is probably my least favorite part of my job.
(Bonus) Vulnerability
Almost every single time I hit “publish” there’s a niggling voice in my head that says, “I sure hope people like this recipe. I mean, I like it, but I hope everyone else does too. I sure wouldn’t want them to waste time and money making something they don’t like. I hope anyone with problems will come to me directly and ask for help instead of airing her grievances all over social media. I hope it’s good….” Contrary to what some people seem to think, we food bloggers really want our recipes to turn out for people! We feel really bad when people don’t like the stuff they make from our recipes because we feel responsible for the error. There’s a lot of vulnerability involved in posting a recipe.
No, blogging isn’t a bed of roses, but the good parts outweigh the bad. Be sure to check out this post about 5 things I LOVE about blogging!
Wanna know how you can help a food blogger?
-Cut us some slack. We’re real people too, and we have faulty memories and typos sometimes.
-If you see a typo or have a suggestion for a correction, by all means, let us know in a kind and professional manner!
-If your question can be easily answered by Google, please use Google. Not Briana.
-Don’t assume that blogging is easy, or that we know everything, or that we have control over everything on our websites.
-Please, please, pretty please…EXPERIMENT! And feel free to tweak our recipes according to your own personal tastes, because that’s what the recipes are there for: to help you toward creating something that will fit your needs. Taste buds are sooo subjective. I understand that so much better now that I’m a food blogger.
Christi Magnuson says
Oh man, I get all of these. I stumbled into blogging and it has been such a gift in so many ways! But the vulnerability aspect and the glass house aspect are hard, for sure. I also find it hard to do everything from nitty gritty tasks to higher-level strategy and vision. But, Briana, I admire you so much and have used you as an example for my own blog in so many ways! So thank you! 🙂
Briana Thomas Burkholder says
Thank YOU, Christi! I enjoyed checking out your blog!
Inez says
Candor is a good ingredient! You’re a gem!
Peg in Indy says
Technical difficulties. Hi Briana! Thank you for all that you do to help us THM-er’s have plenty of healthy options when a sweet tooth starts singing. You are an excellent photographer and have an eye to make the dishes look so very appealing. I know it must take quite a bit of your time and effort to share all of what you do with us – just wanted to say great job! And thanks again! Bravo!
Briana Thomas says
Thank you for the encouragement, Peg!
Sharon says
I LOVE your blog! I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit! 😉 I’m 20 and a fellow FOOOOODIE, and I’m ALWAYS experimenting with recipes and creating my own foods! I too LOVE cereal, and I can’t live without cottage cheese! ;-). I’m so thankful to have achieved and even gone beyond my goal weight with Trim Healthy Mana! THM foodie!
That being said. 🙂 as a former blogger myself I can totally see where you’re coming from on some of this though! You mentioned that you dislike the “tech” aspect of blogging. Have you considered having someone come on as a behind-the-scenes Briana Thomas blog assistant? If you’re ever interested in hiring someone, I would love to help! I started blogging almost 10 years ago with Blogger and have built multiple sites and blogs since then using WordPress so I understand! 🙂 just thought I’d throw that out there. 😉 Keep up the great work!!!
Briana Thomas says
Hi Sharon! Great to hear from you! I haven’t seriously considered an assistant yet as I’m still able to handle everything and I really do like being able to do everything myself, even if I don’t always enjoy every aspect. However, if this baby keeps growing and I need help at some point, I know whom to call upon. 🙂 Thanks for the suggestion.
Becky says
Thanks for what you do … it’s made a yummy difference in my THM journey <3