Posts Tagged ‘eatdrinkblog’
SEO Presentation Slides
I was honoured to have half an hour of everyone’s time at Australian Food Blogger’s conference on Saturday. My talk was about search engine optimisation and due to a technical glitch the slides weren’t able to be shown at the time. I’m attaching them below. I’ve actually added a slide that I wasn’t going to show on the weekend that I think helps to clarify the discussion of link networks. Bonus!
As I mentioned SEO is one of those things that is easy and hard at the same time. My advice is to focus on the basics that you can control and not worry too much about stuff you can’t control.
I didn’t mention on the day, but it was in the final slide. I’d love it if you are linking to this presentation if you could link to my other website (my winery directory) Terroir.me.
You should follow me on Twitter.Introducing mEatDrinkBlog Melbourne
For the Melbourne food blogging community, it has been a long time between drinks. The last time the community (aside from the odd tweetup here and there) was together was probably EatDrinkBlog, the first food bloggers conference around this time last year. That’s too long ago. Today, I’m announcing the next part in that series.
It is a regular meetup – every month or 2. A time for a group of food bloggers to have a sit down, catch up, learn a little, eat a lot and drink. Here’s the deal. On the 31st of March, at the Rising Sun Hotel in South Melbourne we will have room for 30 keen bloggers to listen to 2×10 minute talks, each with a few minutes for questions and then enjoy a pub meal and a few beverages. It starts at 7, with the talks to start at 7:30 and dinner at 8.
The pub is just a short walk form the 112 tram in South Melbourne and chef’d by the venerable Mr Ron O’Bryan.
There is no cost for the event itself, but the food and drink isn’t included, so you’ll have to sort yourself out. The meals are no more than $30 unless you want a big slab of steak.
Well, you’ll mostly have to sort yourself out. Terroir.me will be putting enough money on the bar so that everyone can grab a tasty glass of Pinot or beer and get that conversation flowing.
Speakers
We are looking for speakers for this night and nights in the future. I’ve asked @tammois to moderate the evening, so if you’d like to speak about anything relevant to food blogging, please contact her at tammois@gmail.com with a brief outline of what you would like to talk about. If you aren’t sure about topics, checkout the program for the conference last year as an example. If you aren’t available on the 31st, but might be for the next event, drop her an email anyway and let her know.
I’ve already put up my hand and I’ll be doing an introduction on Google Analytics. Delving in a little bit deeper than just seeing how many people have visited your site in the last month.
Who’s invited?
If you are a interested in food, wine, coffee or anything mildly related and you either have a blog, or tweet about it a lot. You are! Really, we aren’t fussy and if you are interested in coming along then you are more than welcome. There will be plenty of people to bounce ideas off, encourage you to start a blog or otherwise help out with any of the hairy technical or other problems. Come along! The more the merrier.
Count me in!
If you are going to attend, leave a comment in the comments here with your name and correct email address and we will keep you updated on any changes. Just be sure to let us know if you can’t make it so that we can get the numbers right for the venue.
Many thanks go to Ed and Tammi who’ve helped pull this together.
You should follow me on Twitter.EatDrinkSpew
I’m not afraid to admit it, I woke up and had a bit of a purge. You know when you’ve forced too much water into yourself combined with an Aching Head and a little bit of nausea and you just can’t or won’t hold it down. Well that was me. Water spew. Thankfully I seemed to have digested all of the amazing food so it was hardly a waste.
I suppose over the coming days there will be an amazing amount of people following up from the talks at the conference and I thought I would perhaps get the ball rolling. Perhaps my favourite panel of the day was the first, “How and why we blog.” Prior to the event I thought that it would be a bit wanky and I wasn’t convinced. But man I like surprises like this.
An event like this doesn’t just happen and special thanks must go to the sponsors The Essential Ingredient, Daylesford & Hepburn Mineral Water, St Ali, Der Raum, Prentice Wine, Red Hill Brewery, and SBS Food. Also thanks go to Ed, Mellie, April and Reem. Jess also hung the photo exhibition: much props go to her and whoever created that blogroll sculpture.
It’s a testament to the panelists, Gill, Reem, Zoe and the moderator Tammois that it piqued such conversation in a somewhat unfamiliar group of people. It really set the tone for the day and I kind of wished that we could have had some time to revisit it later.
The question (or title) of the panel “How and why we blog” might seem like an easy thing to answer but the reality is it isn’t. Everyone has their own motivations and desires but they also have their own style and way of going about things. I think it was interesting that Matt’s photography panel addressed his voice and style through his photos which I suppose extended the conversation from earlier.
The term voice was used a lot and it has made me think further about my voice here on My Aching Head and whether or not I’m editing it away and making this blog more impersonal and thus less engaging. This uncertainty isn’t a new idea for me but the conversation has really highlighted it in my mind and I think it is time to address it, or atleast discuss it.
The Melbourne food blogging community that I connect with has a big focus on reviewing restaurants, taking photos and describing the food and the experience. I’ve long thought that the narrative style isn’t my thing and something I’ve worked hard to cut out of my posts. I suppose in doing that I’ve moved my language a little bit away from the 1st person which makes it notably impersonal. It’s a fine line and a work in process but the acknowledgement of it should help force change.
I have also long had the desire to create a bit more of a shorter form of blogging, in part stepping back to the Kottke style of linking and making small and valuable comment. It is something that isn’t really done here in the Australian food blogging community and I think it might be interesting to my readers.
This also gets me thinking that the original purpose of this blog was more about documenting the process of getting and curing hangovers and my posts are often sadly lacking in discussing the drinking aspect of our eating.
I also found Matt’s comments on his photographic style and process really inspirational. It shows that the visual voice is just as important as the textual voice and his shoot from the hip approach seems almost within grasp of reproduction. Though I suppose that’s selling the fact that he’s got a great eye remarkably short. I’ve long been coveting a faster lens to replace my 50mm film lens and this really just rammed it home for me. I got the current lens for next to nothing, but it’s manual focus and the wrong sized sensor (which makes it permanently zoomed in) kind of suck. So as soon as my hip pocket can survive the anguish I think I shall invest.
I would love to hear peoples comments on not only their motivations and voice but also on my style and what they like about it and what they don’t.
You should follow me on Twitter.